"Patria y Vida" song video reaches over 2 million views

February 25, 2021

The song "Patria y Vida" composed and performed by Cuban rappers, has gone viral on social media, and has generated an angry official response in Havana and has also intensified the cultural battle over the situation in Cuba.

The song "Patria y Vida", which surpasses two million views on Youtube in a week, has been described by the official press as "crude political interference". The song also divides users on social media, where many go viral with the motto "Patria y Vida" while others maintain the historic slogan of "Patria o Muerte".

In the video, which was recorded in Havana and Miami, the duo Gente de Zona participates from Florida, along with singer-songwriters Descemer Bueno and Yotuel Romero -from the group Orishas-, and in Cuba the rappers Maykel Osorbo and El Funky.

With sayings critical of the government, the catchy song proclaims that "the people are tired of continuing to endure". And that it hopes for "a new dawn". The video alludes to José Martí and the San Isidro Movement, uses images from the demonstration of independent artists on November 27th in Havana in front of the Ministry of Culture.

In response to the video, dozens of Cuban artists gathered on Wednesday, February 24th in front of the Ministry of Culture and with music and paintings celebrated the national hero José Martí, on a national holiday.

In Havana there was a call for people to go out to their balconies at 9 at night to sing the national anthem. Applause and shouts of "Patria o Muerte, venceremos" were heard as part of the celebrations.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel reacted for the fourth time on Monday on Twitter appealing to other Cuban artists. "Your provocative song neither scares me, nor warns me; I know that as long as the strong sun of dignity shines, no one surrenders here, Socialism, Patria o Muerte", says a verse from the décima by Tomasita Quiala, a popular improviser praised by the president.

Days earlier the president invoked Silvio Rodríguez. "That's how you sing to the Homeland", the president declared. "I live in a free country, which can only be free... The song erupts in Cuba at a time when demands from civil society have increased due in part to the recent arrival of the internet to the island, barely popularized in 2018.

"It's over", the rappers sing. "After 60 years the dominoes have jammed", they conclude, using the symbol of the table game so popular among Cubans. They criticize the dollarization of the economy in the midst of crisis.

In Miami the video was received with enthusiasm, but on the island it also awakens reproach toward artists who became famous in their native country before beginning to criticize it from the other shore. They recall the concert that Gente de Zona, very popular in Cuba, offered in 2018 at a packed Ciudad Deportiva in Havana, where the musicians publicly greeted the presence of Díaz-Canel. When they visited Miami after that, they were criticized and there were even calls for expulsion and cancellation of concerts, which motivated them to settle in Florida.

"In summary, the controversy over the Patria y Vida video reveals that the wounds between Cubans residing on the island and abroad remain open", says Jorge Duany, director of the Institute of Cuban Research at Florida International University.