Heavy Burden on Cuban Rockers

Heavy Burden on Cuban Rockers
Rock bands say they struggle to survive without official recognition.
By Nico Cervantes - Latin America
18 Sep 13

Cuban rock musicians say a spate of recent defections by artists
performing abroad has increased government suspicion of the heavy metal
scene.

This summer saw four of the country's leading heavy metal bands take
advantage of American visas, which are issued for promotional tours and
music festivals, to stay on in the United States.

They included the head of the government-funded Cuban Rock Agency, Yury
Ávila, who chose to leave her job and stay on in the States.

The defections seem to be motivated more by the career opportunities
available abroad than by dissident views.

"Like everywhere else in the world, it's important to keep up to date
and have access to technology, and this is something that we don't have
there [in Cuba]," Fanny Tachín, lead singer and bassist for rock group
Hipnosis told the US-based El Nuevo Herald, after she and the other five
band members defected in July en route to California. "We felt we didn't
have enough space and there were too many limitations to working in
Cuba." she added.

Fans fear the regime will use these defections as a pretext to crack
down on Cuba's heavy metal subculture. Music blogger Alejandro González
warned of the danger of a government "crusade".

The Cuban authorities have always had an uneasy relationship with rock
musicians. However, after a long period during the 1960s and 1970s when
the genre was seen as an imperialist import, attitudes have softened in
recent decades.

These days, the government tries to co-opt musicians and control them
through official agencies. For rock acts to be able to play
professionally, they need recognition from the Cuban Rock Agency (ACR),
founded in 2007 as a branch of the culture ministry.

Similarly, to get a record deal, Cuban musicians need to avoid or soften
any political content in their lyrics and performances. (For more on the
politics of artiistic subcultures, see Balancing Act for Cuban Hip Hop)

Heavy metal is a minority interest in Cuba, and some say government
tolerance is just a tactic to keep bands on the margins.

Describing the situation on Cubanet – a news portal based Miami and
blocked in Cuba – journalist Camilo Ernesto Olivera said, "Rockers in
Cuba have lived in exile for decades. The existence of the ACR does not
guarantee anything more than dark control, by the government, of the
capacity of the genre to grow."

Members of the ACR generally get a percentage of the profits from ticket
sales, but this kind of music remains a precarious way of making a living.

Rock concerts are cheaper than more popular forms of music like
reggaeton and salsa, with tickets selling at the equivalent of one to
three US dollars. However, this is still a considerable amount in a
country where the average monthly salary is 19 dollars.

"The takings are going down significantly, because the fans prefer to
buy drinks and spend the night chatting in the park on G [Street]]," the
vocalist of one metal band in Havana said, referring to a location in
the Vedado neighbourhood which has become a cult hang-out for heavy
metal fans.

While bands that keep their politics ambiguous and conform to other
cultural norms can enjoy some success with their public profiles and
recording careers, more outspoken performers face reprisals from the
authorities.

Punk outfit Porno para Ricardo has found it near-impossible to perform
or record music, and lead singer Gorki Aguila has been given numerous
prison sentences.

Despite being formed in 1998, the band only managed to release its first
recording in May, Año Sí Se Cae, in which it invites protest against the
"dictatorship".

The city of Santa Clara in central Cuba hosts an annual festival called
Ciudad Metal, but rock blogger González bemoans what he sees as corrupt
official control over the event.

"The festival used to be the best in the country, but it's become a
theatrical circus," he said.

Critics of the rock scene say bands should take matters into their own
hands rather than expecting others to help them.

Independent recording studios specialising in rock music have started to
appear in Cuba, including Brutal Beatdown, which runs its own ten-day
metal festival, and La Paja Records, which is linked to Porno para Ricardo.

Michel Sánchez, co-editor of the rock fanzine Scriptorium, says both
fans and musicians have got to "stop dreaming of the day Cuban communism
cares about rock, and mobilise their own efforts".

Nico Cervantes is a Cuban journalist and photographer.

Source: "Heavy Burden on Cuban Rockers - Institute for War and Peace
Reporting - P57606" -
http://iwpr.net/report-news/heavy-burden-cuban-rockers