The Cuban singer Daymé Arocena She recalled a discussion she had years ago with Abel Prieto, when he was culture minister and she was starting her professional career.
Daymé said that the saddest moment of her life was when she confronted the leader – now at the head of the Casa de las Américas – and asked him why art companies existed.
Prieto's response was that the young woman's ideas were “pro-capitalist,” which greatly disappointed her and made her realize that her future lay outside of Cuba.
“I was still young at the time and very disappointed. “It was probably the biggest professional disappointment I’ve experienced in my life,” she remembers.
“That day I realized that I was talking about music and he was talking about politics. That day I realized that music was politicized in Cuba and that day I realized I had to leave,” he added.
The interpreter, who currently lives in Puerto Rico, is one of the voices that the Castro regime in Cuba silenced for her Strong accusations against the dictatorship.
That wasn't the only conflict the artist faced Abel Prieto, who attacked her in 2021 and against the singer and troubadour Pavel Urquiza Topic Everything for you.
The leader described the song as “political propaganda” and “insignificant as a work of art” and questioned that “starting from scratch” means “knocking down the work of the Cuban revolution, erasing it, suppressing it and going back to 1958.”
In response, Urquiza dedicated an open letter to him on social networks, accusing him of being among the “privileged in power” who live “with their backs to the people and their true needs.”
For her part, Daymé preferred not to specifically mention Abel Prieto, only sharing an emotional text message her father sent her after “the hysterical attack by some pro-government Cuban media.”
Arocena's musical talent has been highlighted by international media. At the end of 2015, his debut album Nueva Era was named one of the 50 best albums of the year by United States National Public Radio (NPR).