14ymedio, Havana, 15 November 2021 — “It is a beautiful thing that we coincide in showing our claim for absolute freedoms through flowers”, wrote singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés in a message in support of the protests called for this Monday throughout Cuba. Like the author of Yolanda and Yo no te Pido, dozens of Cuban and foreign artists have expressed their support for the Civic March for Change on November 15th.
“My contempt for those mobs that they use to ‘represent the best of the people’ “Milanés said when expressing his support for Yunior García Aguilera and all the Cubans he represents and who fight inside and outside of Cuba”.
The troubadour also shared the lyrics of his song Flowers of the Future, along with a video performing the song at a concert in Alicante (Spain), on November 11th. Among the song’s verses is: “Not everything is dead / there is someone awake / who will be thinking / for you and for him”.
“All eyes are on our Cuban brothers, Ojos Sobre Cuba” From Miami, Rosa María Payá asked, after the Cuban Government denied landing authorization for a flight to Cuba on Monday morning in which, in addition to the activist, MEP Hermann Tertsch and influencer Alexander Otaola would travel to support the demonstrations. “Today, the regime could prevent it, but the reunification of our nation is unstoppable, because the people, both inside and outside Cuba are determined to recover the Homeland and Life”, Payá wrote on her social networks.
I am ashamed that people of my race lend themselves to be like the ancient hunters of savages in their own torture and pain. They are using them
Yotuel Romero, one of the interpreters of the theme Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), wrote: “On November 15th, history will definitely change for our suffering people”. Alexander Delgado, from the duo Gente de Zona and also a participant in the song Patria y Vida that has become the anthem of the protests in Cuba, condemned the acts of repudiation against opponents who have made public their intention to participate in the civic protest. “The reality is that the demonstration is a worldwide right,” he said.
“Today is another day that this dictatorship is more despised,” Yomil Hidalgo wrote on his social networks this Sunday, a message that he accompanied with a photo of a silhouette of the Island of Cuba made with white roses. “It is very difficult to live being kidnapped and repudiated for thinking differently, enough injustices already, Cuba belongs to no one or a few, it belongs to all Cubans”, added the reggaeton artist who lives in Havana and asked for freedom “for our people”.
Another musician of the urban genre who presented himself was the Puerto Rican Don Omar: “I go to my Cuban brothers, I bet on the freedom and justice they need so much. They have innocently died in search of respect for the rights of others, which has always been peace”. In other messages supporting the protests, he has used the tags 15N #, #somosmasynotenemosmiedo (there are more of us and we are not afraid) and #patriayvida.
In addition, the clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Paquito D’Rivera directed a “salute of solidarity” to all Cubans who are going to participate in the 15N march “for Cuba’s final freedom”, which has been “prey to totalitarianism for over 60 years”.
On the other hand, clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Paquito D’Rivera directed a “salute of solidarity” to all Cubans who are going to participate in the 15N march “for Cuba’s final freedom”
In a transmission on social networks during a demonstration in support of 15N in Miami this Sunday, trumpeter and pianist Arturo Sandoval, together with Cuban-born actor Andy García, vowed “to support the cause of Cuba’s freedom”.
“Very soon it will be 63 years of that shameful dictatorship of Cuba. It is too much. I believe that these people need freedom, they need to breathe, they need to know what freedom is,” Sandoval said. On November 15th, he affirmed that it was a day that all Cubans looked forward to with “great anxiety”.
“This is the time to tell the Cuban people that we are with them,” García said, emphasizing: “That repressive dictatorship that exists in Cuba can no longer be allowed”.
“Cuba’s youth, in which I believe a lot, will be able to show the world what it is to live in freedom and democracy and they will be able to teach the triumph of what a new Cuba is”, musician Emilio Estefan said for his part. His wife, singer Gloria Estefan, also expressed her support for 15N, noting that Cubans “will raise their voices peacefully as they did on July 11th to express their dissatisfaction with that regime that has oppressed them for over 62 years”.
Actor William Levy asked that all eyes in the world be on Cuba. “Let the whole world see what happens. We need all your support to end this dictatorship,” he wrote on Instagram. “One day I left Cuba, but Cuba never left me,” he said in another message.
“Very soon it will be 63 years of that shameful dictatorship of Cuba. It is too much. I believe that these people need freedom, they need to breathe, they need to know what freedom is”
Panamanian singer-songwriter Rubén Blades expressed his full support for the Cuban people and their right to self-determination in a video posted this Sunday on his Facebook page. “I believe in the exchange of ideas on its own, I believe in the possibility that a society can determine its path and its destiny, so, based on that, I am with the people of Cuba, as I have always been”, said the musician.
“In the case of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, we support, as always, those who demand freedom to express their thoughts, the right to vote, and we condemn the government’s repression of their dictatorships,” he added.
On November 10th, a group of former leftist presidents, artists and writers who support Cuba’s regime, signed a letter published by the official Cubadebate media in which they blamed the United States for any demonstration against the Government of Cuba. They also asked that the United States “stop its attempts to destabilize a nation that at no time has taken action against US security”. Among the signatories are journalist Ignacio Ramonet, writers Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Martín Almada, and musician Chico Buarque.
Translated by Norma Whiting
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