Word: cuba
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...those sly gibes that made Cuban salsa the most heroic art form on the island through the 1990s. To pan the camera toward the Florida Straits is to raise a question that can't be asked out loud: Is this the year for change? Quizás, they say in Cuba: maybe. Quizás the new U.S. President will end the blockade. Quizás Raúl Castro, who just celebrated his first Independence Day as President, will be a big reformer. He's showing small signs that he might: some workers now get paid based on performance, those who can afford cell...
...video could tease at all that, but of course, there is no video. This is Cuba, 2008. For most people, there's still not much besides sugar, pork and 1956 Chevrolets. This band practicing in the cramped living room--Los Reyes '73 (the Kings of '73)--was famous decades ago but traveled so much abroad that it fell out of the limelight. Now the band has new members, neither well-off nor famous: just another group of ridiculously skilled Cubans trying to hit a seam in a tightening music market...
This outlet, though, may be in danger. Cuba is restless; increasingly, just a flick of the hips and a ready melody aren't enough. And under the surface, Cuba is already changing--it's closer than ever to the U.S. but also closer than ever to losing its cultural patrimony. President-elect Barack Obama is hoping that small moves will help open up Cuba from the inside. During the campaign, he stopped short of calling for an end to the embargo but pledged to make it easier for Cuban Americans to travel and send money to Cuba...
...friends told me in a typical refrain. "It's just not Cuban. And it's not music." Those are strong words, and Cuban hip-hop artists would argue that their music is edgier and more political. But for indigenous, righteous, complex and complete music, there is nothing like Cuba's timba. It has been a vital outlet for taking on taboos, like Los Van Van's early critique of rampant prostitution in a 1996 song about papayas: go ahead, they sang, touch it; it's a national product. During the economic crisis following the Soviet collapse, music...
...embargo, like all grand schemes that seek to upend geography and history, is a porous affair. Rural U.S. lawmakers looking for new agricultural markets have made America the No. 1 exporter of food to Cuba. Grey's Anatomy and House were among the most popular shows in Havana this summer. Those who have money (often from family in the States) are scrambling to get converters to prepare for next February's conversion to all-digital TV signals...