JOHN SUAREZ John Suarez manages the website of the Free Cuba Foundation. The Foundation was founded by FIU students in 1993, and has held conferences, demonstrations, and campaigned on the behalf of Cuban prisoners of conscience. The Free Cuba Foundation is based out of Florida International University(FIU). John is studying Biological Sciences at FIU. He was raised in Miami.

Rational Anthem

Throughout the past four decades nostalgia has competed with waves of musical styles battering at the edges. Rock in the sixties and Disco in the seventies washed and mixed with salsa and son and produced Gloria and Emilio Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine which dominated the musical scene of Miami as seen from the outside. They took the music that existed in Cuba prior to the revolution, best exemplified by Beny Morè, mixed it with pop sensibilities from the seventies and created a Miami Sound with the likes of Jon Secada. Essentially apolitical their "let's party" atmosphere offered a contrast that could not be allowed to be listened to in Cuba. The success of Gloria Estefan and Jon Secada would not be announced over government monopoly owned Cuban radio to the Cuban people .

Forty years of Communist Revolution on the island and of Exile in the United States have had a profound impact on youth cultures in the divided Cuban nation. Ironically, the spirit of rebellion found in rock n roll has met with rejection both in Havana and in Miami among the older generation. However, in Cuba rejection means the possibility of losing one's job, forced hair cuts, beatings, and even prison. Rock n Roll was off limits in the sixties and seventies. The Beatles were banned.

Groups like Los Van Van had to borrow from different styles that were politically acceptable. In Miami, Rock n Roll was and is declared distasteful and faces criticism on radio talkshows, but had a profound affect on musical styles. Youth do not want to live under the old political labels, prefer to be apolitical, and are not energized by "charismatic" political leaders but are weary of them and sceptical. They seem to be more concerned about living their lives and are concerned about their future.

Normal: Fulano De Tal Buy it here.

Inside of Cuba the desire of musicians to be apolitical is impossible on a national scale because of the state monopoly over radio and television. Artists like Carlos Varela and to a greater degree Silvio Rodriguez are required to embrace the "Revolution" in exchange for being able to travel in and out of the island. At the beginning of their musical careers they were characterized as rock-folk singers who questioned authority and harshly criticized the system until they "sold out." Varela though has played with exile rock groups such as Fulano de Tal in recent years which have had political messages in their songs hostile to the Castro regime. Could this be the beginning of an opening on the cultural front? Only time will tell.

The rock music movement in Cuba also consists of a strong punk element which his harshly anti- government and a sub-culture among the youth with a strong nihilistic spirit of despair. Escoria, a term used by Castro to attack Cubans who "abandoned" his revolution, is the name of a punk trio from Villa Clara formed in 1994 by William Fabian (vocals, guitar), Ernesto Rodriguez (Bass) and Javier Leiva (drums). Another band is called "Zona Oscura" an Alternative band from Holguin formed in 1995. Not to mention the popularity of death thrash with bands such as Tendencia and S.O.S. and Necrofago. Necrofago formed in 1992 by Jesus M. (Drum) Justo (guitar), Alfredo (Bass) and Vladimir (Vocal) they've got a demo tape with cupid carrying a thompson machine gun over one shoulder with his other hand hanging down carrying his bow over a pile of skulls with the music title "I Love the WAR."

Buy it here.

In Miami you have a new generation coming to the music scene in the nineties. Nil Lara originally from New Jersey but transplanted to Venezuela, and later to Miami discovered a host of folk musical traditions and the music of old Cuba and fused it with modern rock sensibilities. He challenged the establishment by refusing to be under Emilio Estefan's creative control, and went his own way with his own distinct sound.

Another transplant this time from Cincinnati, Ohio is Arranca. Arranca is a punk-rock Cuban-American band which has taken Marti's belief that "Poetry is suffering," and poured their pain out in their first release Exile on Pain Street (Exilio Doloroso). Their album has already been banned in Cuba and heavily criticized in Miami. Their 10th track: Rational Anthem (Himno Racional) is an all out assault on Cuban sacred cows. It's a powerful song of protest which has been adapted from the Cuban national anthem. It is the equivalent of turning a flag upside down: a symbol of distress and national disaster. Exhorting Cuban youth in the island to "renounce the dictatorship, the hardships and the restrictions on liberty which they currently suffer."

Visit their site here.