OJALÁ or disappointment in love and dictatorship

The enigmatic song “Ojalá” , by Silvio Rodriguez, known both for his marvelous songs and strong support to Castro regime, comes to my mind these days of crisis in Venezuela and Cuban opening up.

Combining despair caused by love disappointment and revolutionary rhetoric, that piece of lyrics (“your old Government of corpses and flowers”), worthy of a García Márquez, gets nowadays ironically accurate to describe desperate Caribbean political situation. Talented artists (like Sartre, Picasso or Neruda), might be politically disputable on their blind support to non-democratic regimes, but still can, unintentionally hit the target with “snow shots”.

SE FUERZA LA MÁQUINA, Pushing to the limits

Prince, Papa Wemba…"and the singer with his musicians risk their lives". One can not avoid to remind local classic song of great Gato Pérez, wonder of Catalan Rumba, “this divine genre, this excellent music, popular music to make people dance”.

Some memorable pieces of this sadly premonitory lyrics result moving paradoxically self-referential "when the musician is sincere and touches fragments of his life".

Those that know nothing of the biography and sad end of this modest Argentinian genius, Barcelona Rumba ideologue, caustic and hedonistic latin rock philosopher, could still check some late 70s and 80s recordings, by their arrangements unworthy of an unrivaled repertoire. It remains also a modest interview biopic, and a wonderful hagiographic book by theatre critic , friend and fan, Marcos Ordoñez, to approach to a “music and words combined for an unprecedented and deep dialogue”.