{"id":263447,"date":"2023-01-11T20:07:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T01:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=263447"},"modified":"2023-01-11T20:07:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T01:07:49","slug":"habana-blues-the-pain-that-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/music-culture\/habana-blues-the-pain-that-persists\/","title":{"rendered":"Habana Blues: the pain that persists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Criticism has among its traditions to remember musical works when closed anniversaries of their publication come around or some specific date related to their coming to light.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are works, however, that due to their relevance, due to their daily permanence on the city\u2019s streets, are simply impressive and valid on a daily basis. I don\u2019t remember a movie in recent years that has better defined a generation in Cuba than <\/span>Habana Blues<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film by Benito Zambrano, released in 2005, directly captured the persistent cries of life on the island; the underground scene, its musicians, its public, the separations and that enormous festering wound on the skin of the country: emigration.<\/span><\/p>\n

X Alfonso wonders \u201chow long can a heart last without the beating of believing\u201d in a section of the film\u2019s soundtrack. The theme is \u201cArenas de soledad\u201d and it is one of the most overwhelming songs in the film.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The question is repeated and sets the stage for other questions that go through the plot. It is followed by a catalog of songs that assume and put the country in front of its own mirror. Cuba facing Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it was released, the film exposed us. It revealed many of our pains and anxieties as a generation. No half measures. \u201cThis is also your reality, your possible future and you can do whatever you want with them,\u201d Benito Zambrano seems to tell us in overwhelming silence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Varela, Santiago, Polito had done it before, with songs that revealed the scars that existed, which were emerging until they finally became an erupting volcano in a large part of the families, in a large part of Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n