Motivated by the idea of contributing massively to awareness of the value of peace, 15 musicians kept their public, dressed mainly in white, dancing for five hours in the emblematic square on Sunday 20th September. Ballads, rock, fusion, pop, merengue and salsa were performed on the esplanade of the Plaza de la Revolution by some of their best known exponents to an enthralled audience of Cubans of several generations. Onstage, Juanes joined the rest of the Cuban and foreign musicians, also dressed in white to symbolize peace.
Apart from the harsh criticism by Cuban exiles in Miami who accused the musicians of lending support to the communist regime presided over by Raúl Castro, the event was a great success. “The second Peace without Frontiers concert made history in Havana”, Prensa Latina claimed.
The Puerto Rican Danny Rivera, the Spaniards Miguel Bosé, Luis Eduardo Aute and Victor Manuel, the Italian Jovanotti and the Ecuadorian Juan Fernando Velasco were amongst the foreign musicians taking part.
The Cuban participants were Amaury Pérez, Los Van Van, Silvio Rodríguez, Orishas, Carlos Varela, X Alfonso and the Cuban-Venezuelan group Cucú Diamante y Yerbabuena.
Juanes, the star of the show, said during his presentation: “I can’t believe my eyes. This is the most beautiful dream I could ever have experienced apart from my children. I am deeply happy to be here with all of you”.
With reference to the criticisms voiced by exiled Cubans, Juanes declared: “what has happened is necessary. It’s all part of the process. In my opinion these things should change in the future and this concert means precisely that, that we are brothers even though we don’t think alike”. The Columbian musician stated to “Juventud Rebelde” that he wanted to put on the same concert in Miami, where he currently lives. The concert took place against the backdrop of the National Library in a square containing the enormous monument to the Cuban national hero José Martí and the famous statue of the revolutionary combatant Ernesto Che Guevara.
(Prensa Latina/DPA)
*(Translation provided by James Williamson)*
