Some of the initial comments have a smell of the ‘facist neo-nazi mentality’ of the Left.
Who the He** cares what those fools think?
Does anyone actually think they would either understand or sympathize?
Most of them are brain dead anyway.
Why is Batista’s name even mention? Will he ever comeback to power? Saldra de la tumba…
Note… Escuche esto una vez…
” El problema de Cuba se resolvera por completo cuando la Generacion de La Sierra y los Batistianos esten 12 pies bajo tierra”
Abajo Fidel,
The Cuban problem is ENTIRELY the fault of fidel and his followers.
Batista was no longer an issue after he left the island. It is castro and communism that have ruined Cuba…to say anything else after nearly 50 years is to delude yourself.
Gloria Estefan is a total waste. Here she is given a platform to talk and all that she says is that she is “not political” and her father said that ” Fidel is a genius!” God Forbid that her CD sales go down if she says something slightly controversial and a few hardened pro-Castroites decide not to buy her CD. I mean, hell bells, she’s only worth several hundred million dollars! Can’t afford to lose sales with her measely finances!
Ray,
I’m not any more excited than the next guy about Santana’s beingh on the CD and the way that the Estefans have approached that. It sucks…
But you’re really reaching here attacking her for recalling an anecdote about her father (who was in prison) calling Fidel a “genius at PR”.
Fidel has been in power for half a century, has the international community eating out of his hand, and has used his control of information about Cuba all over the world to be the bane of our existence since the day he took power.
Hijueputa? Yes.
Asshole? Absoutely.
Satan disguised in olve green fatugues? Who knows?
But a comemierda he is not. You don’t just LUCK OUT and hold power over an entire island you can’t even provide for while the rest of the world kisses your feet. He knows what he is doing and it has ALL BEEN THROUGH PR.
It’s bad enough that they have dealt with Santana and that whole issue like they have, but I don’t see too much objectionable in that interview
As for the comments under the interview… same old shit. Never ends. It’s disgusting and I really couldn’t bear to read more than 3 or 4 of them.
Ray,
My apologies, but I’m missing your point. The full quote was “My father rarely spoke of life before. About prison, he just said, “That man is a genius at PR.” Castro would come to the jail in the middle of the night and ask the prisoners, “What are you doing here? Don’t you see we’re trying to do the right thing?””. I see cynicism in the use of the word “genius” as applied to Castro when I read that statement. Seems to me that it was actually an outright condemnation of El Guasano Presidente.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to attack you, Ray. It just seems to me that your statement is saying Estefan avoided condemning Castro, and I’m getting the exact opposite sense.
what a disappointment, Gloria!
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but this was said in the article, “They assembled the greatest supporting cast imaginable” and “Then they gathered the best of the new breed”. I don’t want to keep beating a dead horse, but again their is proof that the decision to incorporate santana in their album was theirs (the Estefans).
It’s interesting that this “La India” person was included but famous Cuban bolero singer Olga Guillot was not. There’s no law that says she had to be, but it looks odd.
Anyhow, this is basically business, mutual admiration society, status-symbol flashing, and so forth. The fact is that, for some people, Santana is a big deal, a “legend,” yadda, yadda. The Estefans had the option to bring him on board, and they couldn’t pass it up. Shit happens.
bombillo,
I know that Gloria Estefan’s statement vis-a-vis Castro’s genius is not meant in a positive way. Yes, she is calling him a propaganda genius which implies that he is sinister. Point understood. My point of contention with the interview [and perhaps it wasn’t that clear in my remark] is that he Gloria has a platform to reach millions and she limits her comments to in one breath say: a} that she is not political and b} that Castro is a propaganda genius. Which is true, but that is the most benign thing that she could have said of ALL that she could have said. I guess that if I were in her shoes, I would have said that he is a murderer, that he has destroyed Cuba, that he is a tyrant, and I would have cited some statistics.
I believe that Gloria probably didn’t want to get into it [to avoid offending potent buyers] which is why she said OFF THE BAT, “I’M NOT POLITICAL” and then limited her remark to he’s a “propaganda genius.” Very soggy, luckwarm statement if you ask me.
Ray, I’m not defending the Estefans, but like I said, they’re music BUSINESS people, and this is basically business at work. The fact is that there IS a price to pay for being too outspoken or “political” about Cuba, at least if your politics are not the fashionable kind.
Everybody knows this, especially people in the media and entertainment arena. It’s also true in the literary arena, as Dr. Carlos Eire can attest to, which is why he can get his excellent book picked up in Turkey but not in Spain or Latrine America.
It may well be that the Estefans were at least partly motivated to use Santana by the desire to show that they’re NOT “intransigent” or too “right-wing.” Again, I’m not excusing them, but reality is reality.
Asombra,
Don’t worry. I know that you are not defending the Estefan’s. I understand 100% what you are saying and I agree with you TOTALLY. What I am saying is that just because the Estefan’s are business, music industry people doesn’t mean that they have to put their “principles” ahead of their wallets. Willie Chirino and Lissette are also business, music industry people and they don’t vacilate when it comes to Cuba, neither does Paquito d’Rivera. I heard Paquito in a live radio interview say that if someone doesn’t want to buy his CD’s, because he’s an outspoken anti-Castro critic, then he or she doesn’t have to buy his CDs, and if I remember correctly, he want as far as to say that he didn’t want commies to buy his CDs. Contrast that with Gloria who went on the offensive back in the 90’s when MIDEM that international organization of music industry people decided to skip a conference in Miami when Cuban Americans said that they did not want MIDEM to invite official Castro musicians to Miami. Gloria started badmouthing Cubans Americans in the Miami Herald, etc.. calling us intolerant, and other pejorative terms, etc…
When a trifle as minor as Cuba got in the way of the ching, ching of the cash register, she put her foot down and made it abundantly clear where her loyalties stood.
Obviously, Willie, Lissette and Paquito have principles. Unfortunately, Gloria that monster of greed and avarice does not.
Repeat after me:
“Gloria Estefan is to Cuban music what Chef Boyardee is to Italian food”
Maybe she was trying to avoid becoming the next Dixie Chicks in reverse. To that extent, the Chicks showed more balls than Gloria. Look, who cares what the liberal or conservative blogs are saying about Cuba, none of them give a damn about Cuba. Who cares what some musician thinks about Cuba? The only people that really care about Cuba are Cubans (with a few individual exceptions like Vaclav Havel), the rest see it as their “socialist paradise” or their business opportunity. We should start uniting all parts of the exile and the dissidents back home to achieve democracy and freedom. Afterwards we can go back to fighting over political and economic philosophy and musical taste.
Some of the initial comments have a smell of the ‘facist neo-nazi mentality’ of the Left.
Who the He** cares what those fools think?
Does anyone actually think they would either understand or sympathize?
Most of them are brain dead anyway.
Why is Batista’s name even mention? Will he ever comeback to power? Saldra de la tumba…
Note… Escuche esto una vez…
” El problema de Cuba se resolvera por completo cuando la Generacion de La Sierra y los Batistianos esten 12 pies bajo tierra”
Abajo Fidel,
The Cuban problem is ENTIRELY the fault of fidel and his followers.
Batista was no longer an issue after he left the island. It is castro and communism that have ruined Cuba…to say anything else after nearly 50 years is to delude yourself.
Gloria Estefan is a total waste. Here she is given a platform to talk and all that she says is that she is “not political” and her father said that ” Fidel is a genius!” God Forbid that her CD sales go down if she says something slightly controversial and a few hardened pro-Castroites decide not to buy her CD. I mean, hell bells, she’s only worth several hundred million dollars! Can’t afford to lose sales with her measely finances!
Ray,
I’m not any more excited than the next guy about Santana’s beingh on the CD and the way that the Estefans have approached that. It sucks…
But you’re really reaching here attacking her for recalling an anecdote about her father (who was in prison) calling Fidel a “genius at PR”.
Fidel has been in power for half a century, has the international community eating out of his hand, and has used his control of information about Cuba all over the world to be the bane of our existence since the day he took power.
Hijueputa? Yes.
Asshole? Absoutely.
Satan disguised in olve green fatugues? Who knows?
But a comemierda he is not. You don’t just LUCK OUT and hold power over an entire island you can’t even provide for while the rest of the world kisses your feet. He knows what he is doing and it has ALL BEEN THROUGH PR.
It’s bad enough that they have dealt with Santana and that whole issue like they have, but I don’t see too much objectionable in that interview
As for the comments under the interview… same old shit. Never ends. It’s disgusting and I really couldn’t bear to read more than 3 or 4 of them.
Ray,
My apologies, but I’m missing your point. The full quote was “My father rarely spoke of life before. About prison, he just said, “That man is a genius at PR.” Castro would come to the jail in the middle of the night and ask the prisoners, “What are you doing here? Don’t you see we’re trying to do the right thing?””. I see cynicism in the use of the word “genius” as applied to Castro when I read that statement. Seems to me that it was actually an outright condemnation of El Guasano Presidente.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to attack you, Ray. It just seems to me that your statement is saying Estefan avoided condemning Castro, and I’m getting the exact opposite sense.
what a disappointment, Gloria!
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but this was said in the article, “They assembled the greatest supporting cast imaginable” and “Then they gathered the best of the new breed”. I don’t want to keep beating a dead horse, but again their is proof that the decision to incorporate santana in their album was theirs (the Estefans).
It’s interesting that this “La India” person was included but famous Cuban bolero singer Olga Guillot was not. There’s no law that says she had to be, but it looks odd.
Anyhow, this is basically business, mutual admiration society, status-symbol flashing, and so forth. The fact is that, for some people, Santana is a big deal, a “legend,” yadda, yadda. The Estefans had the option to bring him on board, and they couldn’t pass it up. Shit happens.
bombillo,
I know that Gloria Estefan’s statement vis-a-vis Castro’s genius is not meant in a positive way. Yes, she is calling him a propaganda genius which implies that he is sinister. Point understood. My point of contention with the interview [and perhaps it wasn’t that clear in my remark] is that he Gloria has a platform to reach millions and she limits her comments to in one breath say: a} that she is not political and b} that Castro is a propaganda genius. Which is true, but that is the most benign thing that she could have said of ALL that she could have said. I guess that if I were in her shoes, I would have said that he is a murderer, that he has destroyed Cuba, that he is a tyrant, and I would have cited some statistics.
I believe that Gloria probably didn’t want to get into it [to avoid offending potent buyers] which is why she said OFF THE BAT, “I’M NOT POLITICAL” and then limited her remark to he’s a “propaganda genius.” Very soggy, luckwarm statement if you ask me.
Ray, I’m not defending the Estefans, but like I said, they’re music BUSINESS people, and this is basically business at work. The fact is that there IS a price to pay for being too outspoken or “political” about Cuba, at least if your politics are not the fashionable kind.
Everybody knows this, especially people in the media and entertainment arena. It’s also true in the literary arena, as Dr. Carlos Eire can attest to, which is why he can get his excellent book picked up in Turkey but not in Spain or Latrine America.
It may well be that the Estefans were at least partly motivated to use Santana by the desire to show that they’re NOT “intransigent” or too “right-wing.” Again, I’m not excusing them, but reality is reality.
Asombra,
Don’t worry. I know that you are not defending the Estefan’s. I understand 100% what you are saying and I agree with you TOTALLY. What I am saying is that just because the Estefan’s are business, music industry people doesn’t mean that they have to put their “principles” ahead of their wallets. Willie Chirino and Lissette are also business, music industry people and they don’t vacilate when it comes to Cuba, neither does Paquito d’Rivera. I heard Paquito in a live radio interview say that if someone doesn’t want to buy his CD’s, because he’s an outspoken anti-Castro critic, then he or she doesn’t have to buy his CDs, and if I remember correctly, he want as far as to say that he didn’t want commies to buy his CDs. Contrast that with Gloria who went on the offensive back in the 90’s when MIDEM that international organization of music industry people decided to skip a conference in Miami when Cuban Americans said that they did not want MIDEM to invite official Castro musicians to Miami. Gloria started badmouthing Cubans Americans in the Miami Herald, etc.. calling us intolerant, and other pejorative terms, etc…
When a trifle as minor as Cuba got in the way of the ching, ching of the cash register, she put her foot down and made it abundantly clear where her loyalties stood.
Obviously, Willie, Lissette and Paquito have principles. Unfortunately, Gloria that monster of greed and avarice does not.
Repeat after me:
“Gloria Estefan is to Cuban music what Chef Boyardee is to Italian food”
Maybe she was trying to avoid becoming the next Dixie Chicks in reverse. To that extent, the Chicks showed more balls than Gloria. Look, who cares what the liberal or conservative blogs are saying about Cuba, none of them give a damn about Cuba. Who cares what some musician thinks about Cuba? The only people that really care about Cuba are Cubans (with a few individual exceptions like Vaclav Havel), the rest see it as their “socialist paradise” or their business opportunity. We should start uniting all parts of the exile and the dissidents back home to achieve democracy and freedom. Afterwards we can go back to fighting over political and economic philosophy and musical taste.