{"id":303376,"date":"2024-06-05T14:03:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T18:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=303376"},"modified":"2024-06-05T14:03:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T18:03:36","slug":"silvio-rodriguez-in-difficult-times-i-think-art-is-even-more-necessary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/music-culture\/silvio-rodriguez-in-difficult-times-i-think-art-is-even-more-necessary\/","title":{"rendered":"Silvio Rodr\u00edguez: \u201cIn difficult times I think art is even more necessary\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Juan Palop<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn difficult times I believe that art is even more necessary, essential,\u201d says Cuban singer-songwriter <\/span>Silvio Rodr\u00edguez<\/b><\/a> in an interview with EFE. Next Friday he is releasing his new work, the 20nd of his career, <\/span>Quer\u00eda saber<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This icon of the new song movement and one of its few active members, responds in writing that this new album is a mix of themes, moments and genres, defends \u201cnuances\u201d and tolerance, and appeals to hope in times of crisis like the current ones on the island.<\/span><\/p>\n

The album, the first in three years, is a collection of eleven songs composed between 2015 and 2019 where intimist and social lyrics are combined, richly instrumented songs and others reduced to their minimal essence, all with Silvio\u2019s unmistakable stamp of voice and poetics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Quer\u00eda saber<\/span><\/i>\u00a0is the continuity I have; the songs that I preferred to put together on this occasion,\u201d summarizes this 78-year-old singer-songwriter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among them, \u201c<\/span>Para no botar el sof\u00e1<\/b><\/a>\u201d stands out, a song with the subtitle of \u201ceditorial song,\u201d published in text in 2016 and subsequently performed live, and which has now been collected in a studio work.<\/span><\/p>\n

He draws attention for denouncing \u201cmass\u201d migration, \u201cthe bonfires of homophobia,\u201d \u201cvices and dogmas,\u201d and the censorship of media and artists, all \u201cat the birth of an era that was dragging out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am referring to things that hinder us, that slow us down, that instead of freeing us, they tie us down, they complicate us. Some were inherited cultures, such as machismo and homophobia. Others have been absurd sacrileges of a system of thought started by a German whose motto, according to himself, was to doubt everything,\u201d he explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo provided by Silvio Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s office that shows the singer-songwriter with his group. Photo: EFE\/Daniel Mordzinsk\/Silvio Rodr\u00edguez Office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rodr\u00edguez closes this song, like the one titled \u201cLa cuota,\u201d with a pinch of hope and optimism, advocating \u201ccounting on the other\u201d and growing in the face of challenges: \u201cThe bar, increasingly higher, invites us to fly and to continue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the author of hymns like \u201cOjal\u00e1\u201d prefers not to define himself as an optimist (or as anything permanent), since perspectives change over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne day we understand one thing, we see and feel in a way and we express it that way. The next day nuances, if not contradictions, appear. That\u2019s why one day you can write \u2018El necio\u2019 and a few days before (or after) \u2018En busca de un sue\u00f1o\u2019 or \u2018Reino de todav\u00eda\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n