‘Only one Cuban family’

By Manuel Alberto Ramy

The concert Peace Without Borders was a rousing success. How to measure it? By the numbers that packed the venue, which, according to official estimates voiced from the stage by Spanish singer Miguel Bose reached 1.15 million people? That’s one heck of a crowd.

But I will not stay simply with numbers, yes necessary, eloquent, but cold. The success of any spectacle like this one resides in the mystery of the communication established between the artists and their public. The mystique of the music and the palpitation of the crowd, an emotional union, a joining which results in vibratory unity. If the sound of trumpets tore down the walls of Jericho, here they spoke of tenderness, of changing hatred for love, to bring together what is divided — Olga Tañón made public a message from a Miamian to his daughter who was present at the Plaza. Juanes, between the various songs he performed, presented one dedicated to his jailed compatriots in the Colombian jungle and extended it to all who reside in prisons around the globe.

The human sentiment, of peace, of Cubanness, of generosity for the other, those who are different, was in the faces of a multitude of happy young people, who also sang along with X Alfonso when he sang Revolution, or the rhythm of the hip-hop group Orishas, when they sang their vibrant “A lo cubano.” (In Cuban style)

As much as I try, I cannot forget the words of a famous Miami singer who spoke against the concert at the Plaza of the Revolution saying it should not take place because participants would be selected among government stalwarts. My answer to that person would now be that apparently, then, the government must have many loyalists in the country when 1.15 million people packed the Cuban capital. It is more than the number of people who live in the city.

There were no political harangues. In the mouths of almost all the artists was the word love, in the throats of their public, frequent yells of Cuba, Cuba. Hatred had no umbrella at the Plaza on Sunday.

The finale… tremendous. The music of Cuba’s most famous dance group, Van Van, made the crowd even more vibrant, if that is possible, with a burst of energy from those present — as much from the crowd as from the artists. In the end, many hearts were moved by Juanes’ repeated cry of “only one Cuban family.”

To put an end to this, I must say that it was an unforgettable spectacle which filled

Cubans with happiness.

Photos by Ramy/Progreso Weekly-Semanal