Cell Phones 4 Cuba at Cuba Nostlagia Convention

In a couple of weeks one of the biggest gatherings for all things Cuban will be taking place in Miami. Now in its 10th year Cuba Nostalgia is a place to remember and learn about Cuba. We are so thrilled to have been invited to participate this year. The event will run May 21-23 and will will be there collecting cell phones for youth in Cuba. If you are in town please come by with any and all old cell phones you can gather up and stop by the booth we are sharing with Babalu Blog, who were so gratious to invite us and show support for what we are doing!

Guest Blog - Alex Salamanca

Head of Cuban Catholic Church Speaks Out on Current Issues, Government

According to Jaime Ortega, the head of the Catholic Church in Cuba, the people are demanding economic and political change. The 73-year-old cardinal said the people are talking about deficiencies in Cuba’s socialist system, even comparing it to a Stalinist-style bureaucracy which produces apathetic workers with low productivity.

A former political prisoner himself, Ortega called on Guillermo Fariñas (a dissident who began his hunger strike in February and is currently being fed intravenously at a hospital) to stop his hunger strike while repeating earlier calls by the Cuban Conference of Bishops to the government to respect the lives of prisoners of conscience. He further urged the Cuban government to free all political prisoners.

In response to the harassment of the Ladies in White—wives and relatives of men imprisoned since the 2003 Black Spring crackdown on journalists and government opponents—Ortega responded "There should not be in our history this type of verbal and even physical intolerance". Yesterday was the third Sunday in a row the Ladies were prevented from marching by pro-government and security forces, with the confrontation lasting seven hours.

Now in the worst economic hardship since the collapse of the Soviet Union, due in part to three hurricanes in 2008 and the global economic downturn, Cubans are more anxious than ever for the advent of the Cuban “cambio”. The “very difficult situation” amplifies the national consensus that the government should “make the necessary change quickly” to move towards ending “economic and social difficulties”, Ortega announced. “Its delay produces impatience and unease in the people.”

While his statements are generally cautious, this time he was more direct and blunt. This straightforwardness may reflect increased pressures from the Cuban bishops to speak out on Cuba’s dictatorship, as many other Latin American church leaders have in their respective countries in the past.

Though opinions differ on what changes need to come, the overwhelming demand is that “the necessary changes be made quickly”.

To read more from Cardinal Ortega’s interview with the Catholic monthly newsletter, Palabra Nueva, visit: (http://www.palabranueva.net/contens/pn_notic.htm#1011).

Alex Salamanca is studying Psychology and Political Science with a Sustainability minor at the University of Florida. He is very interested in the post-regime environment and how the country will have to change to meet the demands of the 21st-century.

Cuba's underground rappers test free speech

By Isabel Sanchez (AFP)

HAVANA — Cuba's underground hip hop duo "Los Aldeanos" are boldly grooving where no Cuban has gone in five decades: criticizing the communist government loud and proud for the first time to a sell-out crowd.

"They tell the truth, say the things we feel, the things that a lot of Cubans cannot say. The freedom that we do not have," explained Yoelvis Fonseca, a 27-year-old construction worker, as he sweated and swayed to the beat of the rhyming twosome that recently packed the Acapulco movie theatre with more than 2,000 rabid fans.

True, this event was not advertised in state-controlled media.

And even the sign in lights outside the Acapulco disjointedly read "Today, Sherlock Holmes."

But the word was on the street, and the under-30s were in the house for the first major show by the dissident duo who have been around -- stealthy and not wealthy -- for seven years.

They called the show "Seven years with the village," and maybe because the venue was huge, they held off singing their underground hits most critical of life in Cuba.

Los Aldeanos -- which means villagers, but is a riff on one member's name -- have come a long way, baby.

In the only communist country in the Americas, where confronting the government can be a ticket to prison, they have hit it big taking on the government, corruption and giving voice to Cubans' everyday frustrations.

Their rhymes -- they sing in Spanish -- are direct and pull no punches, with lines like: "I can't stand one more lie," and "All of this/one day will change/for the good of the people."

And it gets hotter in this country with a one-party regime and a leadership dominated by officials well over 70: "I'm from a chilling society/that listens with piety/to the same people who have gagged it/with a bag of fake freedom," one Los Aldeanos line goes.

Another classic for fans: "So many are dead/or in jail/people would rather die for the American dream/than live through this Cuban nightmare."

Tattooed friends Bian Rodriguez (El B) and Aldo Rodriguez (El Aldeano) first got their act together back in 2003, playing mainly in Havana's dingy underground rap halls as well as parks and the odd cultural event.

But the Acapulco theatre gig was a landmark, as the group and its fans pushed the envelope. For now, the government did not push back.

"This concert is breaking the silence," the duo's representative Melisa Riviere told AFP.

For the Aldeanos, however, the crux of the group's political viewpoint is that they need to speak out, to say something, but they are not interested in leaving Cuba.

"Talking about what is happening here is the way that we take part in the Revolution," El B says. "Criticizing in Miami makes no sense; this is where the (expletive) is hitting the fan."

Riviere went out on a limb insisting that "Miami and Washington have tried to manipulate what Los Aldeanos are. We have spent a long time explaining that they are not counter-revolutionaries."

Aldo himself insists in one line, "I am not a communist; nor am I a socialist; nor am I a Leninist; I am a Revolutionary." It is a masterful spin on the everyday wordplay of the government which constantly implores everyone to be just that -- "revolutionary".

The duo are rhyming as if to see if there is any reaction to their not being communists, as long as they are with the Revolution -- the regime that has been in place since 1959 and was led by Fidel Castro for more than 40 years.

And their 18 CDs -- such as "Censored" and "Viva Cuba Libre" -- are sold widely on the black market in Cuba.

Though some clubs refused to let them play, Los Aldeanos also have played with the likes of mainstream artist Pablo Milanes, and won some national prizes.

Occasionally a radio station will play one of their less critical numbers.

"I am a fan because they sing about what the people are going through," said Yamel Gonzalez, who at 26 is getting ready to start at university. "People's words cannot be a crime."

Among the 200 people unable to get into the concert was a young man in a black T-shirt, jeans and earrings who asked not to be named.

"They are really ballsy," he said, referring to the rappers, "because they talk about the way things really are: that there is a dictatorship."

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

Guest Blog - Maritza Aldir's Reflections on the Cornell Cuba Conference

I had an amazing weekend. I also woke up late for work [Monday after the conference] on the worst week to do so, but I never felt so good rushing late, and not really caring! I am on this cloud from Cornell. I'm ignited by the remarkable people, panelists and family we have. I truly needed to spend time with you all. It quenched my thirst, and desire to raise the bar. I want to reignite my world in Raices and soak in all that I can be - both professionally and personally. Los quiero mucho. We are an awesome family, and see y'all at our office!

Maritza Aldir is an alum of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. She works in advertising at SapientNitro.

10 Premier Cuban Bloggers

Last Friday Yoani Sánchez served as the keynote speaker at the 2010 Cornell Cuba Conference hosted by Cornell's CASA and Raíces de Esperanza.

Internationally, she is the best known blogger and has been covered extensively by the international press. As she highlighted at the Conference, she is not the only blogger risking her life on a daily basis to achieve the freedoms of speech and of the press.

So who are these other bloggers? Fresh off the press is a list of the top 10 premier Cuban Bloggers. I encourage you to follow them and disseminate their information so that they too can have a voice. By spreading knowledge about these bloggers we can create a space for their views to be shared with Cubans and the world.

10 more voices; 10 more pockets of light.

Change Has Come to Hollywood....Change in Cuba Can't Be Far Behind

It is no secret that the Cuban regime has found support over the years from many celebrities, but the tides are turning in Hollywood as in the rest of the world. With Cuban citizens reaching out to the world more and more, through blogs and twitter, through cell phones and cameras, no longer can the human rights abuses be ignored.

Here are a few messages of hope and support for the Cuban people from some names you just might recognize....

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

But but of much can you say with lots of pictures, of lots of people, all over the world? This past week members of Raices participated in/helped organize solidarity marches for Las Damas en Blanco, a group of women who for seven years have marched in white and in silence for the freedom of their husbands, brothers, sons who are currently prisoners of conscience in Cuba.  The pictures form these events prove that the world is coming together in support of, not only these brave individuals, not only the Cuban people, but in support of the basic human rights we should ALL HAVE regardless of where we live, what we believe, or what we have to say.

In Miami:

In Boston:

In Madrid: 

In NYC:

In Los Angeles:

























Pictures Courtesy of: Boston - Harvard CASA
                                    Madrid - Ariel Gonzalez
                                    New York - Copyright © Aldo Martinez Jr.
                                    Los Angeles - Perezhilton.com via Daniela Berzuini