From Rafaeil Alcide to Pablo Milanés / Regina Coyula

Dear Pablo you are in my heart even if I never see you:

They tell me (I do not read the press) that you made some statements days ago, where you admitted the need to straighten out some things in  Cuban socialism, you ended up urging Fidel and Raul, almost forbidding them, they  said, to commit the imprudence of dying without leaving a  successor.

Caramba, Pablo, you don’t say, if in that respect these people have left us, not just one successor, they have left us a ton, six at least. Count them and  write a song.

When Fidel and Raul die, then we have Machado  Ventura, and when Machado Ventura dies the following week, we will have Ramiro, and when Ramiro dies the following week, we will have the Army  Corps General and Hero of the Republic Julio Casas  Regueiro, and when Casas Requeiro dies the following week, we will have Lazo, and when Lazo dies the following week, we will have the successors  to the Honorable Lazo who, perpetuating the tradition established by the  historic leadership, would have named a series of successors to the task following the number and formalities of the original scheme, and so, dear Pablo,  while the Cuban Communist Party has elders, there will be no lack of successors in  the Cuba of your dreams.

Or what is the basis of those statements you made  without it seems, for us to decipher it, dear Pablo Milanés, that you are not satisfied with the successors in view today, those appointed by Fidel  and Raul? If so, I will still not agree with you. But do not lose  sleep, poet, put aside those little things, and continue to make songs that the  world will remember, songs that honor your Bayamo, songs that bring with them all the honors which for once and for all accompanied Perucho Figueredo. The successor is not a package that is left at the doorstep, Pablo, the successor is someone who  gives himself supremely to the people.

Bayamesamente,

Rafael Alcides

Translated by: Julio de la Yncera

September 27, 2010