Los Viven Bien

One three-page write up under the Issues and Ideas column header and two, maybe three, other pieces published in the Miami Herald today on Los Van Van playing their noise in Miami and that cultural change in the exile community the local fishwrap has been selling us for decades now.

Thousands upon thousands of written words, printed or posted mostly echoing and swooning over how these “cultural exchanges” are key to bringing much needed change in Cuba. Erudite intellectuals regaling us with twenty-five cent words, local music promoters ensuring us that it’s all about “music,” and US administration officials assuring us of the “benefits” of such exchanges – all of them making it sound as if one band of musicians and their two hour long show in Miami is the magic wand of freedom for twelve million island slaves.

Oh, brother. It’s like wading knee-deep in an ocean of complete and utter bullshit.

I wont waste any time trying to convince anyone that Los Van Van shouldnt play in Miami. Let’em play, I say. If people want to waste their hard earned cash listening to a bunch of viven bien “musicians” that play for a band that was the brainchild of the castro regime and which was used as a tool by same, that’s their stupidity and their prerogative. Just please, please, dont feed me the “it isnt at all about politics” shit.

Because it is absolutely and totally ONLY about politics. It is propaganda shoved straight down the enemies throat, plain and simple.

Moreover it’s the perfect chance for the castro regime to kill two proverbial birds with one stone:

Criticize the Cuban exile community for their hard line intransigence and while everyone is poo-pooing about the protests in Miami over a band of by default musicians, use the opportunity to harass, beat, detain and threaten bloggers and dissidents in Cuba.

Quite a coincidence that, no? On the very same weekend that we are being regaled with culturally exchanged music and controversy, bloggers like Yoani Sanchez and Claudia Cadelo and others are picked up in unmarked cars and subjected to physical violence, verbal abuse and intimidation. And about this particular “cultural exchange” between bloggers and Cuban State Security, you find absolutely no mention in the media or – gasp! – that bastion of cultural righteousness and change that is the Miami Herald.

So there you have it folks. The message is pretty darned clear:

All of you anti-castro cronies, you hard line extremist Cuban exiles, you intransigent bunch of yapping chihuahuas: STFU and take your cultural exchange suppository like good little children. Leave the opinionating to we arbiters of “the story”, we messiahs of music and media maelstrom.

10 thoughts on “Los Viven Bien”

  1. Unfortunately, the only people who have a right to protest artists from dictatorships are people from the “left.” When South Africa was under apartheid, American artists led by Bruce Springsteen sang a much praised anthem called “I ain’t Going to Play Sun City”

    See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWENNe29qc

    Below are part of the lyrics of the song. As you can see, the left understands PERFECTLY WELL that “constructive engagement is UTTER BULLSHIT:

    Our government tells us we’re doing all we can
    Constructive engagement is ronald reagan’s plan
    Meanwhile people are dying and giving up hope
    Well this quiet diplomacy ain’t nothing but a joke
    We’re gonna say I / i
    I / i
    I / i
    Ain’t gonna play sun city

    Here’s the entire lyrics:

    http://www.lyricstime.com/artists-united-against-apartheid-sun-city-lyrics.html

  2. If as los van van claims its not about politics then why do they get to live so muach better than the average Cuban? Why do they have freedom of travel when the others do not?
    I wonder how they get to eat abroad without la libreta? This is pure castro propaganda plain and simple and people are too stupid to know it. I wonder where the proceeds go? This is legally a violation of law to give Cubans money if they are not immediate family is it not? Does this not violate the Treasury Dept. outlines?
    But wait its a so-called cultural exchange.

  3. Rayarena,
    Different rules apply to the left. Its okay to protect leftist idols. Great example of the lefy’s hypocrisy though. I would love to hear Springsteens position on this.

  4. Here we go again. Communists can do no wrong, as their worst results were always the result of ‘good intentions’, ha ha ha.

    You holding your breath waiting for Springsteen to weigh in on this? Me neither.

    Paul Vincent Zecchino
    Manasoviet Key, Florida
    31 January, 2010

  5. Pototo,

    The left knows all to well that constructive engagement is utter bullshit as we can see by the lyrics of that song. It’s just that they don’t respect us, Cuban exiles, nor do they care about our plight. To them, the emblem, fidel castro, and what he stands for is far more important. So, they repeat to us the crappy line about constructive engagement over and over again even though they don’t practice it themselves. It’s nauseating, insulting, patronizing and an abomination.

  6. I went to Yoani’s web site….frightening to those of us who have seen it up close and personal, even as an American. I added a comment to her. I hope and pray that the day is soon upon us when the people of Cuba are given the freedoms that are rightfully theirs.

    My comments to Yoani:

    Yoani, I hope God is with you and all those who wish for a free Cuba. We, the free people of the world who care, must assist all those who long and ache for the simple freedoms as put forth by President Roosevelt:

    The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world.

    The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world.

    The third is freedom from want — which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world.

    The fourth is freedom from fear — which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor– anywhere in the world.
    ************************************************************************

    I also offer some other thoughts that I know you and people who think like you practice to the best of your ability:

    Question with Boldness.
    Hold to the Truth.
    Speak without fear.

    These things will make you morally right and mentally strong.

    I look forward to a Free Cuba!!!! Viva en Libertad!!!

  7. The left doesn’t care about Cuban exiles because we are mostly Republican. In fact, they probably wish Castro killed more of us than he did. As a double whammy, many of us in the US are white – thus to them we must deserve our plight.

  8. If the public doesn’t sink its money to see these second-class clowns, they would not show up. The market system would take care of it. But unfortuately there’s too many people in Miami who don’t give a rip about principles. The one time I heard the music of the Van Van I thought they were unimpressive and third-rate, compared even to local bands.

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