Unedited Thoughts/Notes about Cuban Hip Hop Music Part 1

The birth of hip hop in Cuba is very interesting, from Miami radio shows, Cubans picked up the radio waves that extended into their homes. This introduced them to the urban genre of music of hip hop in the mid nineties. What I feel is dangerous with the adoption of hip hop into Cuba is the ideas that are U.S. based, which infiltrate the reality of the Cuban youth, and make it their own. Their context of racism/prejudice is much more different than its development in the U.S. Instead of adopting the genre to portray a unique reality, they are recalling foreign themes & experiences and applying it to their lives. It's like they are trying to live a 60s civil rights movement of their own. Furthermore, if you notice a lot of Cuban rappers like to dress with jerseys and shit, like we do here. That's why I respect Seku (the taller one in the video) because if you notice his dressing style is much more relevant to his "identity" as a Black man in Cuba. Possibly the best hip hop duo in Cuba, Anonimo Consejo, have been together since the 90s. Notice how they biggin' up Pablo Herrera, the only first Cuban hip hop producer, he was Amenaza's producer, before they became Orishas and left Cuba. When you talk to a Cuban MC in Cuba, they'll tell you "we make music for Cubans, because this is where we live."I just finished watching an interview another great, but newer hip hop group, called "Los Aldeanos" and they were saying, that they are not concerned with making music about the U.S., or about Puerto Rico (not saying that politically, culturally they might feel an alliance b/t both countries), but more so that the focus on their music comes out from the Cuban reality and it will be nothing, but that, through their personal experiences that will be documented. The mistakes then that some groups make is talk about the Cuban experience, but through sociological, historical frameworks that are U.S. based. How can you apply the particularities of the issue of police brutality in the U.S. to however policing is manifested in Cuba. They'll make references to how the police looks at them a certain way, but describe exactly how policing occurs under the revolution and how people interact with that? It seems to me that sometimes they take cliches from English hip hop and incorporate it to their own, depending on the group of course.

Refer to video:

This is a great video by "Los Aldeanos" a group that started in Feb 2003, so very new, but very lyrical. This son entitled, "Miseria Humana, " or Human Misery, conveys the economic harsh realities of the Cuban people as well the social issues that have risen as the revolution, through Education, etc, has tried to rid of the mentality of Cubans. It's interesting how the themes portrayed are also universal themes because they occur is most poor original countries around the world. It is such a complex idea, the revolution has struggled economically, therefore we start seeing some of the issues, that as Fidel has eloquently stated in his newest autobiography, are associated with the lower classes. I hope they know this, but this music also applies to all over Latin America, Asia, and Africa. He said about the woman gone wrong, 'Sista, why the corner call you..you go from bed to bed with kid in belly and twenty fathers with none of them ever running to claim your blood…you’re not the inspiration for a relationship and I’ll tell you why you I’ll explain your situation. You open up your legs and close your heart’ That’s not even the best verse either. Sunez says that it doesn't matter language his style comes straight out of the Rakim school. This is the perfect song in the sense that it describes a universal theme, the way in which it happens in Cuba specifically. So he's talking about the concept of Human Misery and how it plays out in Cuba, but it is indeed a condition that occurs daily in others as well.

Refer to video:

Real 70 productions, right now is the largest producing group. Papa Humbertico, one of my personal favorite Cuban MCs, has put it together and all groups from all over the island go there to get their music recorded. People come from as far as Santiago de Cuba on the Eastern side of the island and the Isla de Juventud. This song is more an international message to all the different situations that go on around the different countries. My favorite quote is "Si mi comandante en Jefe por siempre pudiera existir." Also, I've noticed that content varies a bit depending on their skin manifestation of blackness. The yellow seeds tend to see things more political and social, while the darker seeds rhyme more about ethnicity/race. This has to do with the way in which the grafted man has manifested division amongst the Cuban people through its centuries of history. At the same time I think these perspectives blend in well together like pieces to a puzzle. We can't get the full picture if they are all rhyming about the same thing. It is the boxes in which all our different shades of black peoples have been put into that will bring about a part of the full perspective of the Asiatic black family of the world. In this case, let's just apply that idea to the reality of Cuban hip hop.

Refer to video:

In this next song, Papa Humbertico narrates creatively his experience growing up, but through every single political event that occurs. So he talks about the golden years in Cuba when people actually made money through their careers, his father being an Engineer. Everything then changes when on the TV they announce the fall of socialist camp in Europe, this leads to terrible economic conditions. It is then when he says his father has to go into another career, but regardless to this, the father doesn't leave Cuba like many do because he is faithful to the revolution because they are "pioneros con el comunismo, seremos como el Che." In Cuba when one talks about the ideal construction of man, a man who leads revolution with the purest and unbreakable ethical and moral standards, that is Che. He has been the model for the youth and continue to be. I have this amazing book called "Che Habla A La Juventud" and it is precisely his thoughts about man, morality, etc that he transcends to the new generations of revolutionary Cubans. I really like the portrayal of Cuba and the lives of the Cuban people of this song. It puts into context the many perspectives, through his own as well, of what happened. It is perhaps why like the title of his song, that kid that he was, could never dream in colors. This is also metaphorical in saying, that his generation was not able to see the prosperous years of the revolution. It is very realistic, and not accusatory. He's almost conveying that he understands why shit is the way it is now in Cuba.

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Peace, Earth Izayaa Allat.

Amor Sazón

This latest set of proses are dedicated to my mother, my teacher for many years, and although I was dormant to that reality, I now realize the many things she taught me...Peace to the Old Earth.



Muchos me preguntan como es que puedo cocinar
Una muchacha moderna, estudiada, no debería ser tan hábil en este aspecto cotidial
Ven mis fotos y me escriben que le manden la receta
Me alagan, me honoran, y me describen como sabia en el tema

Lo que muchos no saben es de donde viene mi inspiración
Fue en aquella cocina pequeña donde aprendí apreciar tu don
De mezclar las hierbas y pimientas para hacer un rico sazón
Que al aprobar la comida, se sentía en mi lengua
Y llegaba a tocar mi espíritu, como si voz estuviere en mi corazón

Muchas horas haciendo mi tarea, te miraba, y contemplaba
Haciendo la comida del día,
Que tú usualmente describías como la bandera Dominicana
Allí veía, porque me decías que solo se aprendía mirando, tu versión de “Como Agua Para Chocolate”
Cada bocado que aprobaba, provocaba una nueva sensación humana

Madre mía, gracias por heredarme el don
De poder compartir el más sagrado talento
Que herede de tu amor sazón…


Te quiero mucho mami, gracias por darme la vida, y aprender que si puedo compartir mis más profundos sentimientos a través de la escritura, unos de mis más desarrollados talentos. Unos de mis propósitos de vivir será nunca dejar de compartir la sabiduría, amor, y entendimiento de mi ser.”

Teaching Philosophy Part 4

Promoting Consciousness/Change

"El pueblo en su sentido real, es decir, esa mayoría del pueblo que ha tenido que vivir en la explotación y en el olvido más cruel...Nuestra preocupación fundamental siempre serán las grandes mayorías del pueblo, es decir, las clases oprimidas y explotadas del pueblo...si no se piensa así...no se tiene una actitud revolucionaria...creo que esto está bien claro. Cuáles son los derechos de los escritores y de los artistas? Dentro de la Revolución todo; contra la Revolución ningún derecho." -Fidel Castro

In our current world order, it seems impossible to separate entirely from the existing educational framework. However, when one attains knowledge of self we learn how to navigate successfully through a civilization that has been co-opted by the grafted man. It would be very hard to go back to our previous civilizations that have been virtually destroyed and try to live the way we once did. It is what can be built with what's already in place that is of major importance. The essence of what education was & is can be adopted to change the condition of our original people. Of notable example, is the success of the Cuban revolution.

Cuba had an economical, social, and political revolution in 1959. This revolution sought the education of its people as the first remedy towards social justice and freedom. This anti-Yankee imperialism movement promoted the literacy of thousands of Cubans. Many younger literate students taught guajiros, people from the countryside. Many changes also occurred in other parts of society. Schools took different structures and many more teachers than ever had been produced. Not only did Cuba adopt physical changes, but it also adopted changes within the psyche of its people. This psyche is characterized as a White Supremacist Capitalist mentality, which is the same type of mentality that governs the United States. Which is what governs the schools, teachers (who the majority are white) and other sectors of society. A new form of ideology developed and Cubans began to adapt distinct ethical values that would lead their lives and decisions made. They started thinking in terms of a community, rather than as individuals. Schools, hospitals, companies, industries were all nationalized. From pre-school on, students were instructed under the ideology of the revolution and socialism. Students were taught about issues of racism, sexism, and classism, as well as history from other parts of the world, particularly the Soviet-Union, China, and Africa. This formented a pride in oneself for knowing true herstory and being able to make sense of the world. It is truly partial liberation of the mind.

Adapting this modern-model, students attaining knowledge of self will learn at their level of understanding. Some might first learn to read and write, while others might learn higher concepts of the origin of man and woman. In all, this educational space will be filled with an ever changing pedagogy. It is very much as Fidel, a true five percenter, has stated about everything that’s shared and presented should be for the ideals that can be proven to be most right and exact.

Peace!