Cuban Rappers Risk It All to Defy the Status Quo
EspañolWe’re here to risk the little we have for freedom. That’s how Cuban hip-hop artist David Escalona defined his visit to Panama, along with a group of six rappers from the island, ahead of the seventh Summit of the Americas.
Back in Cuba, they scrape a living, holding secret shows in friends’ houses and almost hidden corners of the country. The venues may be small, but the message is big: through their music, they speak out against what they describe as a repressive government. All of them have faced censorship and government persecution.
“When you do hip-hop in Cuba, you already know you won’t be able make a living from it. If someone does hip-hop in Cuba, it’s because that person has something to say,” Escalona explains.
Escalona is also known as David D’Omni, a name that comes from his cultural group, Omnizonafranca. He’s the unofficial head of a collective of “artivists” — activists who use art to express Cuba’s yearning for the most basic but forbidden human values: freedom of thought and expression.
The eight musicians participated in multiple forums on Thursday and Friday parallel to the Summit of the Heads of State, where they told press and activists how they’ve managed to keep composing and distributing their work, evading the watchful eyes and ears of government censors.
The group explained how for many Cubans, hip-hop has filled the space left vacant by the traditional folkloric music that became corrupted by the Castro regime and turned into nueva trova — a process they describe as akin to the “cultural hijacking of the state.”
Escalona, Soandry del Río, and Silvito El Libre (son of famed Nueva trova artist Silvio Rodríguez) were joined by Venezuela’s Macabro XII in conversation with the PanAm Post, shortly before they gave a concert to Panama’s City of Knowledge, an academic and technology hub, on Thursday, April 9.
Across town at the University of Panama, Silvito’s troubadour father was pleasing crowds at the parallel Summit of the Peoples with his fusion of folk music and revolutionary politics.
What does freedom of artistic expression mean for you, and how does it become effective?
Silvito El Libre: For me, to be free is to have no owner, not only regarding the government, but in everything. To be able to do what I, or other people, consider as art.
It’s about respecting each others’ poetry, and making things the way the artist believes they should be.
So you consider yourselves free just because you think freely? Or do you need permission and spaces to do so?
Soandry: I think I’m free as far as I want to be. There are other things that generate freedom, like money, that sometimes we shy away from mentioning. Money’s useful when it comes to helping others to do things, and to have power.
As for me, I feel I’m not 100 percent free because liberation is a lifelong struggle. There’s always something to free yourself from in a mental sense.
D’Omni: I believe that freedom should be part of your being: one must be free first, and everything else comes after that. Being free has consequences. To feel free has consequences. But that’s like a river, you might come across a rock, but you carry on past it.
What we come across are natural obstacles, that we ought to view these, to a point, in a relaxed way. Given that we live in a society, sometimes these natural obstacles can be censorship. Especially when we have a totalitarian government that controls the radio, the television, the economy. In that case, what’s left for the river is to evaporate and rain elsewhere. That’s what we’ve done.
Macabre XII: I think that in terms of freedom, the human is a synonym for prisoner, and the world is a synonym of prison. In that’s the case, we have to look for what we’re slaves to, and I’m only a slave of my heart.
What do you make of the urban group Calle 13, who also touch on social issues, but are sympathetic to the governments of Cuba and Venezuela?
Soandry: Well, Calle 13 have been ground breaking within the huge Puerto Rican market that’s reggaeton. It seems to me that they’ve been useful in going against the flow, and even challenging certain features of the music that practically everyone in their country loves. In musical terms, they’ve known how to do it successfully.
Now, on the personal front, I don’t know what each one of them thinks. They did a concert at [Havana’s] anti-imperialist platform. But many people have come to Cuba with the wrong idea of the country.
They’ve got involved with groups that have their own interests, and they’ve worked for the Cuban government when they wanted to support the Cuban people. But because I haven’t yet had a direct conversation with any of them, I can’t assume that they have a fixed position, because many people have fallen [for it], and the Cuban system has been very effective at skewing artists’ perspectives, in moving them with the Cuba that they want them to see.
D’Omni: Honestly, as I don’t know them personally, I’m sure they’re great people, but I don’t think they know Cuba.
How do you think hip-hop can help bring about the changes you want to see in Cuba?
First by freeing the hearts of young people, of those who listen to hip-hop. Putting values, families, unity, bravery, and maintaining a conscious message, in our lyrics. There’s a moment for everything in life. There’s a moment to dance, to smile, to celebrate.
But there’s a certain imbalance to do with the music that’s distributed in our societies [Venezuela and Cuba], and I think that we’re striking a balance in what it is to bring a conscious message, without self-censorship.
Translated by Rebeca Morla. Edited by Laurie Blair.
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Public Outcry Has Costa Rica’s Gag Law on the Ropes
EspañolSince Costa Rica's government unveiled a draft bill for a new General Law of Radio Broadcasting on Tuesday, April 7, public opinion has railed against the proposal. Civil society groups have branded it a "gag law" for creating sanctions against media outlets that broadcast "vulgar language" or "false news." In the face of mounting criticism, Telecommunications Vice Minister Allan Ruiz has backtracked, eliminating the provisions for sanctions against media companies. "We're not seeking to restrict freedom of expression in any way, still less promote a gag law. In the draft being taken to the Presidential House there will be no element that controls any kind of content in any way," Ruiz stipulated in an article published Wednesday 8. Nevertheless, in a previous interview with local daily La Nación on April 7, the minister argued that the text would "of course … place freedom of expression and the press under discussion." "The objective of this law isn't to promote anything in this sense [of controlling content], but to ensure that media outlets don't make an inefficient use of the radio spectrum," he added. Minister Gsela Kopper meanwhile called for Ruiz's resignation on the afternoon of Thursday 9, after the vice minister confessed to not having read the text of the bill. "The three of us [Kopper, Ruiz, and Minister of the Presidency Melvin Jiménez] met and we agreed on the letter asking for the resignation. Ruiz said that he was going to write it but now he's changed his mind, as his declarations to the press have made clear," Kopper said. The draft bill outlines the possibility of fines of up to US$226,700 and the cancellation of licences for those media outlets found to have disseminated information that goes against "good manners" or "threatens the honor or integrity" of those mentioned. https://twitter.com/armandomayorga/status/585433036411379713 "Costa Rican government promotes radio and TV gag law. Executive will be able to close media outlets." Article 68 of the proposed bill further states that those media firms in Costa Rica that transmit "false or alarming news without foundation" will be punished. The telecommunications minister is tasked with establishing what information is false and what falls outside the parameters of good taste. "Everything that has to do with content won't be in the final version," Ruiz has nevertheless stated. The vice minister also said that the draft will be submitted to several further weeks of preparation, and will be presented to the executive in June for revision prior to presentation before Costa Rica's congress. Costa Rica's Cut-and-Paste The text, prepared by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Telecommunications (Micitt) contains several articles which are exact copies of laws currently in force in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela. A recent forum organized by the National Chamber of Radio and Television of Costa Rica (Canartel) compared examples of norms in force in those countries to the Costa Rican government's latest proposals. "We can't accept the government bill, not even as a document to provide a basis for discussion, because the textual copy of laws from other countries is evident, and it doesn't reflect the reality of the country," Canartel lawyer Vanessa Castro stated. For example, experts at the forum explained, proposals that demand that 30 percent of radio frequencies are handed over to local radio stations are an exact copy of Article 22 of a recent media law in Peru. "The law doesn't explain these magic percentages. It also reveals the asymmetry of the proposals: the state assumes all the tasks of regulator," argued Juan Manuel Campos, another legal expert. Former judge Ewal Acuña Blanco similarly argued that the prospective sanctions are only one of multiple worrying provisions contained within the draft bill. "There's a clear ideological content and I'd like to know who will be the wise individual of the state who defines what is appropriate information, what's in the public interest, and what the country's values are," she told the forum. Claudio Paolillo, president of the Comittee on Freedom of the Press for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), meanwhile spoke of his concerns over the document. "Who has the formula for measuring the values and the kind of information the general population ought to receive? They're seeking to measure and quantify the freedom of the press. The government's intention is to be the arbiter of content, and this is very dangerous for the historic defense of freedom of expression that has characterized Costa Rica," Paolillo argued. Clinging On to Office Cosa Rica's President Luis Guillermo Solís has insisted on the need to modernize the country's extant media regulations, which have been in place for over 50 years. However, he argued that the draft bill was only "a document" for discussion, and admitted that it would be "a fatal error" to attack freedom of the press. In a press release on Friday morning, Solís called for the resignation of Kopper and Ruiz for "failing at the hour of supervising the elaboration and content" of the bill. Kopper has since agreed to step down, claiming that she has long since "lost confidence" in her junior colleague. Ruiz has nevertheless refused to resign voluntarily, telling reporters "I have absolutely nothing to declare." Translated by Laurie Blair.
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