
{"id":193535,"date":"2019-02-13T07:44:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T12:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=193535"},"modified":"2019-02-13T18:20:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T23:20:26","slug":"roberto-fonseca-respeto-a-todo-aquel-que-lucha-por-crear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/music-culture\/roberto-fonseca-respeto-a-todo-aquel-que-lucha-por-crear\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto Fonseca: \u201cI respect all those who struggle to create\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Music in Cuba<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cuban musical panorama is very interesting. There are many people, especially young people, who are doing good things and taking risks. The country opened up quite a bit to information. And it has done so from the outside in, but also from Cuba to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are in a time of great need, above all economic need, and some people want to get into the market, make a splash and be an overnight success. That way they\u2019d acquire another means of income. Some of those people don\u2019t care as much about artistic quality as about the numbers\u2014views, likes, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a group out there that\u2019s on top of that type of dynamic, but there is another group interested in using these Internet tools to show the value of our music and culture. If you ask me, Roberto Fonseca, I am convinced that the latter is the way to go.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193536\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193536\" style=\"width: 1692px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193536\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Alejandro Ram\u00edrez Anderson\" width=\"1692\" height=\"2476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2.jpg 1692w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2-768x1124.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2-700x1024.jpg 700w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2-750x1098.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_2-1140x1668.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1692px) 100vw, 1692px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193536\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Alejandro Ram\u00edrez Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The Cuban Clich\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cuban culture is very rich and it\u2019s respected world-wde. Nothing bothers me more when I\u2019m outside of Cuba than people who say to me: &#8220;You\u2019re from Cuba? How great\u2014women, cigars, and rum!&#8221; Well, look, I don\u2019t drink rum. Someone always says jokingly to me, &#8220;ah, then, you\u2019re not Cuban.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some people treat us a certain way because there\u2019s a market interested in showing only positions contrary to what happened in Cuba after 1959. Many times that market does crude things. I&#8217;m not talking about if the music is bad. I&#8217;m talking about responding to a certain interest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By going in another direction, I am very involved in Cuban jazz festivals. I am the musical director of the Jazz Plaza Festival and the president of the Santiago de Cuba Jazz Festival. My hope is not only that the audience listens to the international guest artists but that they listen to the Cubans and hear everything that is produced here in different genres and styles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m not the only one with that goal. Chucho Vald\u00e9s is the best Latin jazz musician. He had all the tools, he put them on the market and he was instrumental in getting Cuba to the place where we\u2019re at today. Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie were the creators of Latin jazz, but Chucho took it to the level of saying, &#8220;I am Cuban and in Cuba all these things happen, we have this jazz, this musical history.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reggaeton, and How to Talk about Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am one of those people who are opposed to criticizing reggaeton. Just like with trap music, this genre has, from the sound point of view, an incredible rhythm, it\u2019s super contagious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem, it\u2019s true, is in its lyrics and its video clips. But it\u2019s important to note that the popularity of this genre is because a certain audience responds to it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not a topic just for criticizing reggaeton. It&#8217;s more about how we &#8220;talk&#8221; about culture. If you live in the house of rock, and I want to talk with you, I can\u2019t tell you &#8220;rock is rubbish, the truth is traditional Cuban music.&#8221; On the contrary, if I want to converse with you, I should say: &#8220;Look, I&#8217;m going to bring you some of the rock you listen to, but from my point of view.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All music is interesting. I have no problem with making trap music, but I don\u2019t want to lose the essence that is central. The point is that we cannot converse with a closed mind. We must converse with an open mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193537\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193537\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193537\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Jorge Luis Ba\u00f1os\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3-750x500.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_3-1140x760.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193537\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Jorge Luis Ba\u00f1os<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Roots and Tradition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are musicians, including myself, who are working on our roots. A song like \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rQIHLeMVz10\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Afro Mambo<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d is one example. If you put on a mambo everybody dances to it, but it\u2019s not played frequently. My goal is not to &#8220;rescue&#8221; that music\u2014because it hasn\u2019t been lost\u2014but to bring it to the present day with my way of seeing Cuban culture, and the world of today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was lucky to enter a real traditional music school. I\u2019m referring to all the musicians that convened around the Buena Vista Social Club project. You\u2019ve reminded me of the controversies over this endeavor and how some authors have argued that perhaps it was part of the exploitation of a certain market nostalgia for pre-1959 Cuba, but I will tell you what I experienced there from the inside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;m being honest. It\u2019s true that to make a product that you want to sell in the market, you have to create a story. You always have to do marketing, and there are markets that exploit the Cuba of yesteryear, as well as others that do the same with post-revolutionary Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trends arrive, and displace others, even though they have had good and lasting moments. However, that story wasn\u2019t made up. They were doing what they liked to do. I never saw them trying to sell a nostalgic Cuba. Nothing like that. At the concerts, politics was never discussed. We went on stage and it was always a party, given what they knew how to do, because in large part it was what they had created.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although I began after the Buena Vista boom, each concert was still an event. The shows were completely sold out more than six months in advance. Ibrahim Ferrer, in particular, didn\u2019t know how to &#8220;dance&#8221; as it is usually understood that one dances here. He had his little movements, his style, but I swear to you: when he sang and acted he was literally Michael Jackson before that audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I fed on that. They were jokers, but they lived for music all the time. That\u2019s where I heard their stories, which allowed me to understand why they thought the way they did and why they did what they did. I\u2019ll go even further: it&#8217;s a whole philosophy. They played like that, because they thought in a certain way.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193538\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193538\" style=\"width: 2433px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193538\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Jorge Luis Ba\u00f1os\" width=\"2433\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4.jpg 2433w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4-768x473.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4-1024x631.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4-750x462.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_4-1140x703.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2433px) 100vw, 2433px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193538\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Jorge Luis Ba\u00f1os<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Popular culture and academic culture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Popular music is a label. When we mention it, we run the risk that Chaplin summed up like this: &#8220;where there\u2019s a jury there\u2019s an injustice.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Classical music can also be popular. It is not easy to define something as popular music. Right now reggaeton and trap are very popular. Now, if you&#8217;re talking about traditional music\u2014Mar\u00eda Teresa Vera, Miguel Matamoros or Arsenio Rodr\u00edguez\u2014it&#8217;s very complex music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its complexity lies in the transparency with which it is interpreted. It sounds easy, but it is not. I made that interpretive mistake. When I was in school, I liked it, but I said &#8220;that&#8217;s easy.&#8221; It seemed like just a couple of tumba\u00edto rhythms, and I was looking for other depths.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the way, let me tell a story. When I was getting into Buena Vista, we were going to record an album by El Guajiro Mirabal. When we came to the song &#8220;No me llores m\u00e1s,&#8221; by Arsenio Rodr\u00edguez, they said: &#8220;let&#8217;s listen to the song first.&#8221; At that moment, that\u2019s when they gave me the sheet music. I looked at it and thought, &#8220;well, this is easy.&#8221; Suddenly, in the original recording, someone said &#8220;Arriba Lil\u00ed.&#8221; And then came Lil\u00ed Mart\u00ednez&#8217;s solo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the most amazing solo that you can hear in the history of traditional Cuban music. I simply prayed that they wouldn\u2019t make me do it. Call it whatever you want to, but there is a something out there that listens to you. It heard me. I was convinced that it would be the biggest humiliation of my life if I had to play that solo. But, look, the thing is that I had graduated from classical music school, I was a professional, I had gone head to head with many greats in Cuba and in the world, playing jazz. And I listened to that song, which had two chords, played by an amazing pianist, and there I was, praying not to have to play it at that moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Popular music is responsible for a very important problem that always has philosophy in the background. It means understanding this: I have this thing inside me, it\u2019s beautiful, I\u2019m going to share it with you and it will go straight to your heart. It is much easier said than done.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Cuban Music and the Afro-Cuban Heritage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For me, Cuban music is everything. The jazz we play is Cuban jazz. But to be Cuban music it must have the clave and tumbao. The clich\u00e9 with Cuban music is that it has to be dance music or son montuno.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many ways to make something sound Cuban. For me everything that comes from Cuba, is made in Cuba or is made by Cubans, is Cuban music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For me, recognizing myself as black is everything. Thank God I&#8217;m black. That awareness gives you many things. Many mistakes have been made about people who have this skin color. We also have to recognize that we have made mistakes. We have not only been victims. For example, there is a racism exerted by blacks themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I am not one of those people who say, &#8220;if you aren\u2019t black you can\u2019t understand this.&#8221; We are all the same, we\u2019re all human beings, whether we think differently or not, but I don\u2019t make my skin color a flag. For me it is an awareness, a matter of rights, and a culture. It is not a flag with which to crush someone and say, &#8220;you can\u2019t understand rumba because you are not black, because you don\u2019t have it in you.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same, on the contrary, can be said about the kind of sayings like the one I heard in school about myself. They told me that I was black on the outside but white on the inside. Actually, I feel super proud of being black and I try to make sure that all that culture, all the Afro that is in me, is in my music. The word Afro-Cuban explains what I am. I do not consider its use as a copy from the United States or any other place. My music is Afro-Cuban music.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193539\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193539\" style=\"width: 2392px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193539\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Alejandro Ram\u00edrez Anderson\" width=\"2392\" height=\"1405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5.jpg 2392w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5-768x451.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5-1024x601.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5-750x441.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_5-1140x670.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2392px) 100vw, 2392px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193539\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Alejandro Ram\u00edrez Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Creation and Innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you create something you can go through everything. You can spend years playing in some &#8220;lost&#8221; place somewhere, which happened to Bebo Vald\u00e9s, but you always sound like the first time. That&#8217;s why traditional music, as Bebo played it, always sounds pure. It was something he created. There is no copy in it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bebo has his stamp. So do Chucho, Lil\u00ed Mart\u00ednez, Rub\u00e9n Gonz\u00e1lez, Peruch\u00edn, Emiliano Salvador. They created a style. In jazz, you can find this with Miles Davis. He can go from one style to another, but you always know it\u2019s him. In Cuba, this also happens with Manuel Galv\u00e1n.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s very difficult to innovate. Music has a long history and it has patterns. It is not about composing something and saying &#8220;I am the creator of this thing.&#8221; To do so, you need a lot of preparation and knowledge. You have to master what you are doing and know a lot about what you think you are going to innovate on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, there are those who are born with a gift, who without having all the training, all the knowledge, are capable of creating. They have the talent to do something different. In any case, daring is essential, the risk of breaking with patterns. It is not enough to just have preparation, knowledge, talent. One must also have the courage to face all the risks involved in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Astor Piazzolla started doing his thing they said he was destroying music. The same happened with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Now Monk is considered a very revolutionary pianist. Same thing with Arturo Sandoval. It&#8217;s just that they were moving with codes that people were not used to listening to. Human beings, when faced with something unknown to them, tend to feel fear. And the normal response is criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The market generates many problems with quality and with tradition. Unfortunately, it is what has made people play in a certain way. People want to eat and they don\u2019t want to struggle every day by trying to do something new.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_193540\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-193540\" style=\"width: 1757px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193540\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: Alejandro Ram\u00edrez Anderson\" width=\"1757\" height=\"2546\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6.jpg 1757w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6-207x300.jpg 207w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6-768x1113.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6-707x1024.jpg 707w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6-750x1087.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/RobertoFonseca_6-1140x1652.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1757px) 100vw, 1757px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-193540\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Alejandro Ram\u00edrez Anderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The Things I Believe In<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t like injustices. I don\u2019t like that human beings try to destroy other human beings. It&#8217;s something I despise. I don\u2019t like to impose things either. As long as something doesn\u2019t affect you, don\u2019t disrespect, don\u2019t attack, everyone should let everyone else do their thing. I respect everyone who struggles to create something they believe in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I feel a deep pride in the culture of this country. I believe that the musician-producing factory is one of the ones that is still working well in Cuba. I&#8217;m not talking about logistics, infrastructure; I mean the artistic creation itself. Cultural creation must be free, but I also believe that we must be careful not to hurt sensitivities. It\u2019s a subject that depends on the interests, spirituality, information, culture, of those who must make judgements about that creation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being a musician makes me a privileged person. The world we live in grew out of vibrations. What I do produces vibrations on several planes. A very important one is moods: music makes you suffer, cry, it makes you happy, it produces sensations. However, not everything is joy. The musician who decides not to be behind a lectern, but rather tries to be at the vanguard, will almost always have a tough time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s not about you becoming a slave to the market. If you believe in what you do, and what you do is pure, you will always make it. I am talking about the &#8220;purity&#8221; of the place where what you do is born, the quality of your emotions and your commitment. It&#8217;s like life, with its ups and downs. You have to be smart: when you&#8217;re on the downhill, you have to learn from the fall, from the things that push you down, and then load yourself up with information and emotions, and then, when the time comes for the climb, walk with that experience and that baggage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it is important to always remember this: he who decides to have a voice of his own will almost always have a hard time. It is your decision and the consequences are yours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>SOLO DISCOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tiene que ver (1999); Temperamento: En el comienzo (1999); Roberto Fonseca: No Limit (2001); Roberto Fonseca: Elengo (2001); Roberto Fonseca: Zamazu (2007); Roberto Fonseca: Akokan (2009); Enja Records Roberto Fonseca: Live in Marciac (2010); Roberto Fonseca: Yo (2012) Nominated to a Grammy in 2014 in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album; Roberto Fonseca: Abuc (2016).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>COLLABORATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Black P. Marabal Bandasonora (2000); Cuando yo sea grande \u2013Augusto Enr\u00edquez\u2013 1998 (Egrem); Cacha\u00edto \u2013Orlando Cacha\u00edto L\u00f3pez\u2013 2001 (World Circuit Records); Felicidad \u2013Asa Feeston\u2013 2002 (Inter Records Co Ltd); Buenos hermanos \u2013Ibrahim Ferrer\u2013 2003 (World Circuit Records); Guajiro Mirabal \u2013Guajiro Mirabal\u2013 2004 (World Circuit Records); Flor de amor \u2013Omara Portuondo\u2013 2004 (World Circuit Records); Ang\u00e1 Echumingua \u2013Ang\u00e1 D\u00edaz\u2013 2005 (World Circuit Records); Javier Zalba \u2013Javier Zalba\u2013 2006 (Colibr\u00ed); Timbalada \u2013Carlinhos Brown\u2013 2006 (Candyall Music); Mi sue\u00f1o \u2013Ibrahim Ferrer\u2013 2007 (World Circuit Records); Absolument Latino song Zamazamazu 2007; Gracias \u2013Omara Portuondo\u2013 2008 (Montuno \/ Harmonia Mundi), Latin Grammy Award; Omara &amp; Maria Beth\u00e2nia\u2013 2008 (Biscoito Fino); Etxea \u2013Kepa Junkera\u2013 2008 (Warner Music Spain); Gilles Peterson presents Havana Cultura New Cuban Sound\u2013 2009 (Brownswood Recordings); Gilles Peterson presents Havana Cultura Remixed\u2013 2010 (Brownswood Recordings).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This interview is included in the 51st Edition of <em>OnCubaTravel Magazine<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/portada-oncuba-51-300x420-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-193541 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/portada-oncuba-51-300x420-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/portada-oncuba-51-300x420-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/portada-oncuba-51-300x420-1-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music in Cuba The Cuban musical panorama is very interesting. There are many people, especially young people, who are doing good things and taking risks. The country opened up quite a bit to information. And it has done so from the outside in, but also from Cuba to the world. We are in a time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":193542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13923],"tags":[18103,14858,19171],"ppma_author":[33569,17952],"class_list":["post-193535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-culture","tag-afrocuban-music","tag-cuban-musicians","tag-roberto-fonseca"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Roberto Fonseca: \u201cI respect all those who struggle to create\u201d | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Interview with cuban musician Roberto Fonseca\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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