“A bullet can turn off a heart, a song can turn on thousands,” said Cuban singer-songwriter Willy Chirino. And that is what happened with ‘Patria y Vida’, the song that became in 2021 the anthem of the most important protests that have taken place in Cuba in recent decades, in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets to ask for freedom and social improvements. Three and a half years after the video clip was published, viewed by tens of millions of people around the world and awarded with two Latin Grammysthe documentary ‘Homeland and Life: the power of music’ arrives this Friday on the screens of Spanish cinemas, which tells in what context and how the process of creating a theme that is already part of the History of Cuba was.
The film is directed by the actress, singer and composer Beatriz Luengo, partner of Yotuel. The Cuban rapper, exiled in Miami and one of the founders of the group Orishas, participated in the creation of the song and now also in the documentary that shows the germ that gave rise to this anthem, the San Isidro Movement (MSI). , to which they pay tribute from the same letter. Formed by a group of artists, the MSI rebelled against decree 349, imposed by the Cuban regime in order to curtail freedom of expression and creation. Since the confinement of the MSI – in autumn 2020, after the arrest of the rapper Denis Solis– a succession of events take place –assault on group headquartersa demonstration by the artists before the Ministry of Culture, which gave rise to the 27-N Movement, repression, police surveillance… -, which led to the birth of ‘Patria y Vida’.
In it video cliplaunched on February 16, 2021, several members of the MSI participated, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Maykel Castillo ‘El Osorbo’ (both currently imprisoned in Cuba), the latter was already collaborating with the hip hop artist, Eliecer Márquez Duany, better known as El Funky. The song was created between two worlds – that of the Cubans oppressed by the dictatorship on the island, and those who lived in exile, in Miami – but who long for the same thing, the arrival of democracy in Cuba. Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona also joined the project.
Five months later, on July 11, 2021, dozens of demonstrations would take place spontaneously throughout the island, shouting ‘Homeland and Life’, bringing thousands of people onto the streets. The regime responded with a battle cry and repression, detaining activists, families, minors and journalists (among them ABC correspondent, Camila Acosta).
«We wanted to tell this story to continue what we started with the song. What we have experienced is not normal. The other day at the ‘premier’ of the documentary, people were crying and asking us what they could do,” Beatriz Ahora explains to ABC, pointing out how for many it is “surreal that some boys are in prison for a song that has won two Grammys, and that has nothing criminal. “That is very serious,” says the singer and actress, who makes her debut as a director with this “self-financed” film, for whose production the greatest difficulty has been, however, “overcoming fear,” since both she and the rest of the members they have been for years receiving threatsand some of them were even warned by the FBI of a possible kidnapping.
Document just causes
«The just causes must be documented. I think it is a duty, when there is an injustice, to use the resources we have to leave it visually captured. Above all to demystify the lie that they have sold us, that of a paradise that does not exist,” says Yotuel, who left Cuba decades ago – his father did so before him, he was one of the ‘marielitos’ of 1980 – and to whom can’t come back. «They inflict more and more fear, they restrict freedoms, they publicly humiliate you… Today, when there are so many platforms, people must be encouraged to denounce injustices. That is important, it is our contribution to freedom and justice,” he says vehemently.
Beatriz Luengo and Yotuel, this Thursday during the interview
Repression, discredit, persecution, arrests and sentences… Those who created ‘Patria y Vida’ were victims of all of this, some more than others; also all those who sang – or shouted – what had become a hymn of freedom, or painted it on the walls of the streets of the island, or got a tattoo, or played it on the radio stations, or They captured it on a t-shirt… The song became an incitement to violence, according to the Cuban regime, which did not hesitate to shut down the Internet – a fundamental tool in social mobilization – so that it would not spread… But it was too late. The anthem caught on and made millions of Cubans, inside and outside the island, dream that change was possible.
Among the causes that made the song go viral, Yotuel believes that it was the confrontation of the historic motto of the Castro revolution – ‘Homeland or death’ – against that of ‘Homeland and Life’: «That gave hope to Cubans, that It is really the slogan they want for Cuba, to have a homeland and life. It was changing that or, egocentric, which means you or me, my ideology or yours, your sex or mine; for one and: you and me, your difference and mine, your sex and mine, your way of seeing life and mine…”, he points out. «It was necessary to put the ‘also’ in perspective: you yes, and me too. I think that was what gave faith to those people, to have an inclusive Cuba. “That’s what pushed Cubans to take to the streets, to say ‘this is over.'”
The documentary delves into the intra-history of this anthem, with fragments of the artists’ recordings, before, during and after the creation of the song. It also shows who Otero Alcántara or Maykel Osorbo is, of whom some recordings are collected from the ‘Kilo 5 and a half’ prison. “Little by little little they are killing me“The only weapons I have are my words,” denounces the protesting rapper, sentenced to 9 years in prison for inciting violence.
The role of women
In addition to the artists who participated in the creation of the song, historical Cubans who live in exile parade through it, from Arturo Sandoval to the singer Gloria Stefan, who hopes to one day be able to sing in her land. In the film, “which arose from art,” Yotuel emphasizes, “we wanted to have those people who in one way or another have collaborated in putting their art in function of just causes, especially Cuba, such as Gloria, Emilio, Cecila (Cruz), who is not there…. It was important that art be part of this documentary, because it is what has moved the entire ‘Patria y Vida’ movement, from the MSI, from Maykel, Otero Alcántara…”
Luengo also wants to highlight the great role that women have played in this protest movement, and quotes the plastic artist Tania Bruguerawho was invited to participate in the documentary, but ultimately could not because she was in Germany. «She is a fundamental woman, from whom I have learned a lot and with whom I talk constantly. For me it was important that there were women’s voices in the documentary, that’s why we had Claudia Genlui. “The song is sung by men, but women have been very important in Cuba’s struggle.”
More recent exiles also participate in it – dissidents only have two options on the island: exile or prison – such as the activist Anamely Ramosa great friend of Osorbo, who was banned by the regime from entering Cuba. And some of the relatives of the protagonists, such as Yotuel’s mother, who still lives in Cuba, and Osorbo’s daughter, who is growing up without seeing her father.
When the song went viral in 2021 and protests broke out in July, Yotuel declared that it was the beginning of the end of the dictatorship in Cuba, three and a half years later, despite the thousands of detainees, the dozens of convictions, the worsening of the economic crisis, of the exodus of Cubans (more than a million)the rapper continues to believe that the regime is coming to an end. «I continue betting on the same thing: it is the beginning of the end. In fact, we are already at the end, the scarcity of all resources is such that the people are more desperate than ever, we are about to reach the end. You can no longer fall into further decadence. We are not yet free because they have resorted to the fear caused by repression, but it shows their weakness, and that indoctrination they had, making their 3 or 4 hour demonstrations before a submissive and bowed people no longer exists. Yes, we are winning,” he says.
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