Pablo Milanés
Pablo Milanés has said of himself that he is «an ardent lover of the popular».
In the movie «La primera carga al machete», Pablo plays a bard, a central figure of Cuban culture. In «A Bride for David», that other popular cult classic, Elena Burke sings Pablo. «Love me as I am» has an interpretation there that completes the meaning of the unforgettable.
In that search, Pablo was doing feeling, guajira, son, jazz, to make a trova that is many things at the same time. He sang with his teacher, Miguelito Cuní, who considered him «an advanced sonero».
Long before the Buenavista Social Club, it was Pablo who «rescued» the old masters of Cuban popular music in the album Años. There is no nation, nor national culture, that survives without bridges. Pablo is a bridge between generations and genres.
Omara Portuondo introduced Pablo and Silvio knowing that they had to meet, and she would sing songs by both. Later, Pablo was a crucial figure in the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora (one of the great monuments of Cuban music of all times) and was the founder of the Nueva Trova Movement, which connected popular song to social and political themes and thus made a place for itself in the world.
Along the way, he sang to the peoples of Latin America, to Salvador Allende, to Nicaragua, to Puerto Rico, to Viet Nam, to Mandela. About the United States he once said, «The United States is the absolute owner of the world, it is the first terrorist organized through the State.» «I will tread the streets again» is a popular democratic hymn in the continent.
Mulato, he was always racially conscious. He used that beautiful espendrú, in times when there was no public debate about racism in Cuba, and sang Angela Davis. Later, he continued to denounce, until today, racism in Cuba. His support to Gerardo Alfonso, Alberto Tosca, Xiomara Laugart, Marta Campos, Raúl Torres has not been casual. He did it conscientiously, but without «racial» exclusivism when it came to collaborate and create.
Haydee Santamaría, whose name he gave to one of his daughters, asked him to musicalize Martí’s verses. He did it in a very short time. Pablo connected with Martí’s poetry like no other. It is his favorite album, he has said. One night in Quito, with friends from all over Latin America, a friend sang «Amor de ciudad grande», with his music. Everyone knew her. With similar beauty, she interpreted Vallejo, or Guillén.
For right-wing fundamentalism, Pablo has often been a man of the «Cuban regime». He himself would explain it this way: «Yes, because I am a standard bearer of the revolution, not of the government. If the revolution gets stuck, it becomes orthodox, reactionary, contrary to the ideas that originated it; one has to fight».
For leftist fundamentalism -a young Spanish woman, better known in Cuba than in her own country, has written the most recent chapter of that saga- Pablo should be judged only by his attitude towards the Cuban government. Certainly, Pablo is not the young man he was in the 1960s. Neither is he what they call today, without any critical care, the «Cuban Revolution».
In any case, it is a fact that the «gigantic shadow» of Cuba over Latin America after 1959, until today, owes a great deal to Pablo (and Silvio).
Outside those smokes, there are more than 40 solo albums, crossed by the themes of love, old age, homeland, struggle, despair, happiness, and the many forms of agony typical of a Unamuno. There is a social background to it all.
Pablo also challenged the Cuban «manhood», that pathetic thing to which the Cuban State itself ascribes, with songs that assure «I prefer it shared», or «we are not God, let’s not make a mistake again», in respect to the option for the same sex.
It was made by someone who was in the UMAP, escaped from it, spent two months detained in La Cabaña, was sent to a punishment camp, and always expected public apologies for that national scorn.
At the age of 22, he wrote «And as for the beloved death, I will tell you if one day I find it, goodbye that I have no interest in knowing anything about you.» He can repeat it to himself today, who struggles between life and death.
«Pobre del cantor» has been more than a motto for Pablo. He is a poet of the popular Spanish language. In Cuba he sits at the table with Sindo Garay, Manuel Corona, Teresita Fernandez and Ñico Saquito.
To the people, what belongs to the people, dear Pablo.
Traslated by walter Lippmanm
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