{"id":37238,"date":"2014-11-03T10:19:51","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T15:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oncubamagazine.com\/?p=37238"},"modified":"2018-10-02T17:39:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T21:39:50","slug":"the-rolling-stones-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rolling Stones of America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>I don\u2019t remember the date very well; it must have been wintertime in the late 1970s or early 80s. We were in high school, dressed in blue, and everybody\u2014except me, because I didn\u2019t know how\u2014was dancing to a big hit by Juan Formell and Los Van Van.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>I preferred the music that we got from the outside: the Bee Gees, Eagles, Aretha Franklin, Chicago, Marvin Gaye\u2026. I didn\u2019t like Los Van Van, and I would turn up the volume on the radio only to hear their song \u201cElisa,\u201d a ballad featuring the voice of my Uncle L\u00e1zaro Mor\u00faa, who sang with them at the time. Actually, I listened to the song mostly because the fact my uncle was singing with Juan Formell and Los Van Van made me popular with other students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>Then I emigrated, and I left \u201cElisa\u201d and Formell with his Van Van, ensconced within the borders of an island that was known not only for inspiring revolutionary movements all over America, but also for its own cultural explosion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>One day on an elevator in Philadelphia, an American guy asked me where I was from. \u201cI\u2019m Cuban, from Cuba,\u201d I said. \u201cCuba! Where is Cuba?\u201d he asked, amazed and maybe startled (it must be terrible not to know where a country is). \u201cCuba, an island in the Caribbean\u2026Fidel Castro,\u201d I answered in English. \u201cOh! Castro\u2026Fidel Castro,\u201d he almost shouted, even more alarmed. \u201cYes, Fidel,\u201d I said. And all of a sudden, to my surprise he said, \u201cLos Van Van, John Formell, the Rolling Stones of America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>That stuck with me: a gringo in Philadelphia who didn\u2019t know know where Cuba was, but who did know about Formell and Los Van Van.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>Today, like millions of Cubans and lovers of good music, I am a fan of Los Van Van. I had the good fortune to meet and work with Juan, and spend time with his family and his lovely wife. I produced his last tour of the United States. I also had the misfortune of being one of the first to learn of his death, to arrive at his home, at the hospital, and to witness the grief of his family and his inseparable fellow musicians from Los Van Van, to see the departure of one of Cuba\u2019s prodigious sons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"articulosICUERPODETEXTO\" style=\"text-indent: 0in\"><span>Juan is no longer with us; now he plays his bass, composes, arranges and defends his cuban\u00eda\u2014his Cuban essence\u2014on more distant stages. But what does distance matter? If you are a real Cuban, if you ever dance to Los Van Van, listen to me; when you finish reading this article, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and I bet you\u2019ll hear his bass: \u201cCucun cun cun, cocun cun cun&#8230;\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t remember the date very well; it must have been wintertime in the late 1970s or early 80s. We were in high school, dressed in blue, and everybody\u2014except me, because I didn\u2019t know how\u2014was dancing to a big hit by Juan Formell and Los Van Van. I preferred the music that we got from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":37250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33566,7417],"class_list":["post-37238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-propositions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Rolling Stones of America | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Rolling Stones of America | OnCubaNews English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don\u2019t remember the date very well; it must have been wintertime in the late 1970s or early 80s. We were in high school, dressed in blue, and everybody\u2014except me, because I didn\u2019t know how\u2014was dancing to a big hit by Juan Formell and Los Van Van. I preferred the music that we got from [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OnCubaNews English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-03T15:19:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-02T21:39:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/van-van-op-755x4902.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"755\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"490\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hugo Cancio, hugo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hugo Cancio\" \/>\n\t<meta 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I preferred the music that we got from [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/","og_site_name":"OnCubaNews English","article_published_time":"2014-11-03T15:19:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-10-02T21:39:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":755,"height":490,"url":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/van-van-op-755x4902.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hugo Cancio, hugo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hugo Cancio","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/"},"author":{"name":"Hugo Cancio","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1a61a5e62233dad4bf2e5fa6969fdc43"},"headline":"The Rolling Stones of America","datePublished":"2014-11-03T15:19:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-02T21:39:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/"},"wordCount":471,"commentCount":3,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/van-van-op-755x4902.jpg","articleSection":["Propositions"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2014","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/","url":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/","name":"The Rolling Stones of America | OnCubaNews English","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/van-van-op-755x4902.jpg","datePublished":"2014-11-03T15:19:51+00:00","dateModified":"2018-10-02T21:39:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1a61a5e62233dad4bf2e5fa6969fdc43"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/van-van-op-755x4902.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/van-van-op-755x4902.jpg","width":755,"height":490,"caption":"Los Van Van \/ Photo: Rolando Pujol"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/propositions\/the-rolling-stones-of-america\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Portada","item":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Rolling Stones of America"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/","name":"OnCubaNews English","description":"Revista sobre Cuba","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1a61a5e62233dad4bf2e5fa6969fdc43","name":"Hugo Cancio","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/hugo-cancio.jpg27adab0d1aba4cda1eda67b76a01948f","url":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/hugo-cancio.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/hugo-cancio.jpg","caption":"Hugo Cancio"},"description":"Empresario cubanoamericano, presidente de Fuego Enterprises, Inc., Fuego Media Group. 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