After silencing him for his criticism of the Cuban regime for the last few decades during his lifetime, and trying to cover up this attitude through improvised tributes following his death last November, On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the ruling party once again certifies that Pablo Milanés belongs to itwhich took place on February 24th.
“Pablo, our legacy,” headlined the official Granma newspaper in an article signed by the official musicologist Guillermo Vilar, who assures that the singer-songwriter, who preferred his remains to rest in Spain, is “deeply rooted in popular sensibilities”.
Vilar avoided mentioning that the annual concerts that Milanés gave in Havana received no official publicity., although the Carlos Marx Theater or other place where it was performed was always full. Also that the official press hardly mentioned his performances and tours around the world.
According to Vilar, “Those who were able to record a song or an entire album with him feel truly honored by such a privilege and have been immortalized alongside someone of such artistic empowerment.”
We remember the poet of the song, Pablo Milanés, who spoke to us about love with beautiful verses and unforgettable melodies that have accompanied music-loving generations. pic.twitter.com/W6VHPNQBSj
— Nicolas Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) February 24, 2023
“Definitely, the transcendence of Pablo Milanés’ work is the custodian of the inherited splendor that is one of the essential characteristics of our nation’s culture,” Granma affirms.
This posthumous affection was even present with Nicolás Maduro on Fridaywho tweeted: “We remember the poet of the song, Pablo Milanés, who spoke to us about love with beautiful verses and unforgettable melodies that have accompanied music-loving generations.”
DIARIO DE CUBA found no prior mention of the Venezuelan ruler to the author of “Yolanda”. This is despite the fact that, when he did not yet hold positions in Chavismo, he was escorted for the Cuban singer-songwriter on one of his visits to that country.
Upon learning of his death in November 2022, Maduro affirmed on Twitter that “the world of Latin American and Caribbean music and culture has lost a great trova, teacher and singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés. Its beautiful lyrics and singing, you will pass into immortality. My condolences to their families and to the entire Cuban people.” This was the politician’s first known public mention of the artist.
On Friday, numerous media, personalities and institutions around the world, especially in Latin America, commemorated Milanés.
Also Cuban pro-government organizations such as the Hermanos Saíz Association, celebrated his legacy on Twitter. But the most surprising of the tributes came from La Jiribilla, a digital medium run by the Cuban Ministry of Culture (MINCULT).
“Today we pay tribute to one of the most recognized voices in Spanish-language song, the Cuban singer-songwriter who was one of the founders of the Nueva Trova movement: Pablo Milanés,” Indian publication on their social networks.
It is striking that just in La Jiribilla a columnist 2014 Under the pseudonym Cristian Alejandro, he interviewed Milanés because he had been critical of the Cuban regime.
In a text entitled “The upset of Pablo Milanés”, The author asks himself: “Why this political disparity with such a musically inclined being? So much so that it is at times atonal, demonstrating a poverty of ideas bordering on the most irrational ignorance.
After the Cuban critic Gustavo Arcos denounced this author under a pseudonym, his texts, which criticized artists and cultural phenomena and were unpleasant to the island regime, were no longer published and later removed from La Jiribilla. According to several, Cristian Alejandro was Fernando Rojas, the MINCULT vice minister, who on Twitter invites his critics to join in beatings in a park.
Despite all this, the PM Records studios, where the performer recorded most of his albums, opened an exhibition of 11 canvases and two boxes and an iron sculpture by the artist Kamyl Bullaudy, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Milanés at its Havana headquarters. inspired by Pablo.
Hours after the death of Milanés, Abel Prietoformer Minister of Culture and current President of the official Casa de las Américas, hastened to claim the figure and work of the composer for the revolutionlaying the foundation for the current official position.
As he said at the time: “Despite the fact that there has been an absurd controversy surrounding his political views in recent days, Pablo and his work are definitely ours.”
Prieto asserted that Milanés and his songs “could never be digested by Trump and Trump supporters, nor by Miami’s fascist core, nor by annexationists like those who went to the neo-Nazi summit in Mexico to call for another Yankee intervention in Cuba and then organize a show in front of our embassy in that partner country”.
Curiously, one of the people related to Castroism, Spanish communist journalist Ana Hurtadowho met with Miguel Díaz-Canel and Lis Cuesta during his visits to the island, Pablo Milanés called “worm” and “ruin” two days before the singer-songwriter’s death. the last while he was in the hospital.
On none of those occasions Neither Prieto nor any other official of the regime, let alone the official publications, came forward in defense of “his” singer-songwriter.