El Presidente Posted June 7, 2023 Posted June 7, 2023 When the US hired a musician to overthrow the Cuban government Tom Taylor WED 7TH JUN 2023 14.00 BST https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-the-us-hired-a-musician-to-overthrow-the-cuban-government/ The subversive force of music has never been lost on the US. After all, they witnessed its power in a maelstrom unfurling amid one of the most turbulent chapters in the country’s history. As Paul McCartney writes: “President Kennedy had been murdered only a little over two months before our arrival in the United States, and his assassination had ricocheted throughout the world, so we figured the atmosphere might still be subdued. But the minute we landed in New York, we knew instantly that we were not in store for any kind of funereal time”. He adds: “We were in the vanguard of something more momentous, a revolution in the culture”. McCartney further muses in his new photobook 1964: Eyes of the Storm: “Although we had no perspective at the time, we were, like the world, experiencing a sexual awakening. Our parents had fears of sexual diseases and all sorts of things like that, but by the middle of the ’60s, we’d realised that we had a freedom that had never been available to their generation”. At the height of their wrestle against Raul Castro’s grip, America was dearly hoping to foist a similar revolution of freedoms among the Cuban public. If The Beatles had embodied it in the US, then why couldn’t another group do just the same in Cuba? So, who did they enlist? Well, firstly, they had to vet someone that they knew might be sympathetic to their cause. However, they also needed that same ‘kids on the street’ appeal that made The Beatles so beloved. With that in mind, they set about securing a middleman. That was set to be the experienced Rajko Bozic. They sent this renowned Serbian music promoter to Cuba with pocketfuls of funding to reach out to the hottest young rappers around. It was 2009, and nobody fit the bill better than Aldo Rodriguez. With lyrics that protested Castro’s interference with everyday life, the underground star was just what the Americans were looking for. So, Bozic approached him, keeping his intentions and backers to himself. But now Aldo’s group, Los Aldeanos, were fated to be the central of a political battle that would amass a mountain of secret documents. The aim of the USAID mission was simply to amplify the force of Los Aldeanos’ political undertones and ensure that they were backed enough to be successful. Documents unearthed by AP placed Bozic’s mandate in print: “To help Cuban youth break the information blockade” and build “youth networks for social change”. Bozic had previous experience of this. USAID’s plan was inspired by protest concerts orchestrated by the student movement that helped to dethrone Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his regime in 2000. Bozic wanted to build a similarly strong network that proved resilient to censorship and threats. However, the US were a little late in moving towards the rap community in Cuba, and censors had been wary of the power of this underground community for a while. Kids among the scene were already angry that they had seen visas to perform overseas turned down, and lyrics like “This country is a prison” voiced their discontent. In order to legitimise the movement and hopefully fortify its defence, the USAID program enlisted established Latin artists touring in Cuba to get photos with Los Aldeanos or maybe even share a bill with them. Naturally, this fame strengthened the cultural appeal of the rappers. However, they had to somehow network that too. In order to do so, their gigs were now filmed, and concert footage was passed among the crowds trying to create a similar hive that suddenly turned Serbia’s student movement from a mildly subversive cultural offshoot to a full-blown political force. However, the police had already arrested Aldo once for public disorder after one of his filmed underground concerts, and they did so a second time for illegally possessing a PC. It seems that the police were already on to USAID. Aldo may have been promptly released, but Bozic soon had to cut his direct involvement in the mission short after he was found trying to bring a cargo of music and video equipment into Cuba. The mission’s remaining ‘man in Havana’ was able to link together 200 politically conscious young creatives, but headlines about another USAID contractor being arrested and sentenced to 15 years in jail spooked him, and the operation slowed. Perhaps this is what was needed in some ways because, with distance and respite, the operative was able to redouble the efforts. Without ever knowing the aim or true source of their backers, Los Aldeanos were sent on a few European courses that taught guerilla marketing, graffiti campaigns and networking. This helped to make them a more public-facing force, and soon they were booked for Cuba’s biggest independent music festival where one member boldly yelled: “The police instead of making me hate them, inspire pity, because they are such sh— eaters they don’t even realise they are victims of the system. Viva Cuba libre.” That was to be the pinnacle of their triumph before the inevitable sorry downfall. The issue was that the underground rap movement had already made its wave, and the Cuban government were sensitively purveying it from afar long before US amplification. This organic uprising – no matter how muted it may have been at the time – was causing the Cuban government a problem. When a revolution becomes cool and youth-driven, it is very hard to suppress, as was the case in Serbia. However, when USAID bundled in, they lit the fuse too soon and haphazardly splashed around fuel, and all under the watchful eyes of the authorities. The Cuban government was able to swiftly make arrests on just causes and curtail the movement by spreading a sense of fear before it got too big to overpower that perturbing notion. And now, the covert program had also sullied the scene, it was suddenly doused in the miasma of conspiracy and several names in the Latin music world who had backed it previously pulled away. Its premier group, Los Aldeanos, were similarly tainted. Now, they were constantly censored and surrounded by an aura of having ‘cheated’ in some way despite never being privy to the plan they found themselves amongst. The game was over in more ways than one. Now, Aldo lives in Tampa, Florida, and while the operation he inadvertently became embroiled in might have been botched, the power of the music he produced during that period remains a lesson in its subversive potential. That truly was organic; it came from a sincere place, caused an authentic buzz, and posed an organic problem to the powers that be. As he said on reflection: “This was us. The war was ours”. 3
NSXCIGAR Posted June 7, 2023 Posted June 7, 2023 This had about as much of a chance to work as the exploding Cohiba. 3
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