Stones to the rhythm of the winds of change – El Universal

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Havana.- William Tell did not contemplate moving from being an iconic character (perhaps fictitious ) of the struggle for independence of Switzerland in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to become a controversial political figure in Cuba … because of a song. A rockers hairy Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones and John Lennon and The Beatles were something similar happened half a century ago on this island of communist rule.

The legendary Swiss hero cursed his eldest son, because he never understood his son grew, he got bored being with the apple on his head and ran. The son just wanted to try marksmanship with the bow of his father, but with fruit placed on the head of his father.

Translated into Cuban slang, the story told symbolically Cubans, as the son of the hero they were tired of being since 1959 with apple on his head and waiting for Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba’s communist revolution, gun control and keep it off with the only option to use. Swiss narrated “did not like the idea and refused to put the apple on the head” for fear that his son failed.

For this and other songs he produced in the 1980s, its author, the Cuban singer Carlos Varela, suffered siege of the regime, their creations were banned in Cuban radio stations and, despite being left out of contracts never migrated abroad. Varela dared to narrate, with deep skill and tied to a double language without saying names of anyone on the island, the similarity between the glut of Cubans and always obliged to obey William Tell child.

the case is one of many that illustrate the cultural censorship imposed on Cuba by the communist system on that smacked of capitalism or claim and expressed dissatisfaction with the revolution. In 1963, Castro said in a speech: “Many of these pepillos, children of bourgeois, walk around with a little guitar in ‘elvispreslianas’ attitudes and have taken their debauchery to extreme of wanting to go to some places of public gathering to organize their shows feminoid for free. “

With this ideological verticalism Cubans were forbidden to listen to the Beatles, the Stones and others for being listed as examples of decadent and dark capitalism.

the 1960s, a man with long hair or people with positions close to the current world junior hippies were targets of police raids of repression and arrest. So young Cubans of those years resorted to illegal channels to hide discs Beatles, Stones and other groups.

“Yes I was the music of Elvis, Lennon, all of them,” he said Cuban Osvaldo Luis Duquesne, 68 and now responsible for guarding an image suddenly opened in 2000 in a Havana park, with Lennon sitting on a bench, with his round glasses, long hair and attitude of peace. “I did my trap to listen,” narrated Duquesne THE UNIVERSAL.

By agreeing to this mythical figure at the site known as Lennon Park, the Cuban regime denied that censured Beatles and other groups.

the concert that the Stones will today in Havana is linked with winds of changes, such as the visit of US President Barack Obama, held from 20 to 22 this month this capital Washington’s rapprochement with Cuba.

Although Varela still singing, Castro retired due to illness in 2006 and, like Guillermo Tell, never put the apple on the head.