Tag Archives: oppressed artists

This new, trending Cuban song calls for artists to speak out against the island’s regime

Screenshot of the ‘Cuba Primero’ music video, with its singers Linier Mesa and Dianelys Alfonso (‘La Diosa’)

This article was written by an anonymous Cuban author under the pseudonym of Luis Rodriguez and translated by Laura Dunne. The article is republished here in accordance with the media partnership between Global Voices and Shouts.

Try as we might to be optimistic in describing Cuba’s current social landscape, it really is bleak. The inhabitants of the island are emotionally and psychologically drained. With unprecedented inflation, the dollarization of the economy, supply and medicine shortages, endless blackouts, increased insecurity and social inequalities, or worse still, the regime’s systematic repression of those who speak out, analysts agree that this is the greatest crisis Cuban society has faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR).

However, thanks to the activism of artists in Cuba and their diaspora within the U.S. in recent years, beacons of light now instill a greater sense of hope in this bleak landscape. These artists speak out on behalf of the millions of Cubans denied their basic right to free speech by the country’s regime.

Several talented artists have released various mobilizing songs throughout the years. Let’s not forget Nuestro Tiempo (Ya Viene Llegando) (Our Time Will Come) in 1991 by Willy Chirino, a track to which millions of Cubans danced during Cuba’s difficult period in the 1990s. Chirino’s lyrics soon became an anthem for the balseros (rafters), who risked their lives trying to reach Florida’s shores. Nowadays, many Cubans become emotional just hearing it. Next up in 2021 came Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), a song by artists and members of the San Isidro Movement (MSI), for example Luis Manuel Otero, who remains in prison today. This became a symbol of the anti-government social unrest on July 11, 2021, and sent shockwaves throughout the country. Today in Cuba, shouting out, “Patria y vida” is enough to land you in jail.

Read also: Freemuse x Shouts Artists’ Voice: Cuban Visual Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara

Just when it seemed as though Cuban artists’ voices had been silenced, two singers in exile in the U.S., Linier Mesa, and Dianelys Alfonso, known as “La Diosa” (“The Goddess”), released their song Cuba Primero (Cuba First), in Miami on April 16, 2023. Each scene of its music video, which truly hit home in Cuba, deals with the symbolic connotations of the country’s historic exodus events, like Operation Peter Pan in 1959 and the 1994 Cuban Rafter Crisis, thus highlighting their underlying emotional toll.

Just like Patria y Vida in 2021, which encouraged Cubans to protest, another Cuban song has now taken on the socio-political activism mantle. However, as protests in 2021 had led to over 1,000 political prisoners, Cuba Primero instead calls upon artists in Cuba and their diaspora to speak out on behalf of the many Cubans suffering in silence. This is a time of great polarization among Cuban artists. While some have chosen to be in compliance with the regime, others criticize this island’s current system. It is, therefore, extremely difficult for any Cuban artist to take a neutral stance.

As such, Cuba Primero is not only a protest song. It also urges us as humans, artists, and intellectuals to step outside our comfort zone, thus ending our passivity and speaking out about the daily ordeal that Cuban lives have become on this vast prison-like island. From this perspective, silence is also a form of complicity.

Activism and its mobilizing power could be a spark within this powder keg that Cuban society has become, especially among young people who regularly access audio-visual content on social media and YouTube. This is a major concern for regime ideologues and their spokespersons, like Michel Torres Corona, who hosts the Con Filo television program. For some Cuban activists, like playwright Yunior García, Con Filo is the “most despicable” program, owing to its continued attacks on activists and critics. In one of his most recent shows, Torres Corona slammed the Cuba Primero music video, by questioning its use of certain symbology, such as a shark to represent Fidel Castro.

Read also: Latin Protest Anthem Nominated For A Grammy While Cuba Cracks Down On Dissidents

While Cuba Primero may able to mobilize civil society, today’s circumstances are different from those of the 2021 protests. However, one thing the activists and the Cuban government do have in common is the battle of symbols raging between the regime’s narrative and the diaspora’s cultural output.

These tracks, from the classic Ya Viene Llegando to the more recent Patria y Vida and Cuba Primero, indicate the cultural ties between the island and its compatriots abroad becoming increasingly connected by a shared vision: the total and unconditional liberation of Cuban people from totalitarianism.

During these bleak periods, Cubans, therefore, don’t just suffer in silence; they also sing and dance to lyrics calling upon them to pursue their much sought-after freedom.

If you would like to listen to more Cuban protest songs, check out this Global Voices playlist on Spotify:

Iran Arrests Singer Whose Song Became Anthem Of Ongoing Protests

Shervin Hajipour is among the dozens of artists, activists, and journalists who have been arrested since anti-government protests erupted in Iran.

This article was written by Golnaz Esfandiari and Fereshteh Ghazi and originally published on rferl.org.

Iranian singer Shervin Hajipour risked arrest when he recently posted a song on Instagram about the anti-government protests raging across the country.

Those fears were realized on September 29, when the young artist was arrested by police officers in Tehran, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda has learned. His current whereabouts remain unknown. It is also unclear what, if any, charges were brought against him.

Before it was removed from the social media platform on the same day, Hajipour’s song had garnered more than 40 million views.

His moving song is based on the outpouring of public anger following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16. Her death has triggered more than two weeks of daily protests in the country.

The protests have provoked a deadly state crackdown, with law enforcement and security forces killing scores of demonstrators and detaining hundreds of others, according to human rights groups.

Amini was detained by Iran’s morality police on September 13 for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law. Three days later, she was declared dead in a hospital. Activists and relatives say she was killed as a result of blows to the head sustained in detention. The authorities claim she died of a heart attack.

Since her death, Amini’s name has become a rallying cry against decades of state discrimination and violence.

Hajipour’s song is composed of tweets by Iranians following Amini’s death. Many of the tweets blame the country’s social, economic, and political ills on the country’s clerical regime.

“For the shame of having no money,” reads one of the tweets in Hajipour’s song.

“For the fear of kissing a lover on the street,” says another tweet.

“For the political prisoners,” adds a tweet.

Washington-based political activist Ali Afshari said Hajipour had become “the voice of the protesters.”

“His song describes the various problems of the people and the course of events leading to the [current] nationwide protests. Young people like him bring hope for the future,” Afshari said on Twitter on September 29.

Many Iranian social media users have criticized Hajipour’s arrest on unknown charges.

Hajipour is among the dozens of artists, activists, and journalists who have been arrested since the protests erupted.

On September 29, police also arrested poet Mona Borzouei, who had published a poem in support of the protests.

“We will take back this homeland from your clutches,” said Borzouei, reciting her poem in a video posted on social media on September 22.

The authorities also arrested female artist Donya Rad, who attracted online praise after she posted a photo of herself eating out in Tehran without a head scarf in an image that went viral on social media. Rad’s sister said she was taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

Authorities have also stepped up their warnings against public figures and celebrities who have backed the protests and criticized the state crackdown.

“We will take action against the celebrities who have fanned the flames of the riots,” Tehran provincial Governor Mohsen Mansouri was quoted as saying on September 39 by the semiofficial ISNA news agency.

Copyright (c)2022 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.