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‘If the world explodes, the only survivors will be cockroaches and Cubans!’: the Guantánamo musicians defying the island’s crisis
For over 150 years this rural Cuban area has been home to changüí: hyperlocal music holding out against an embattled economy. We join an all-night festival to find out how
“In changüí, we see death not as sadness, but as joy,” says festival organiser José Cuenca, who tirelessly petitioned the government to get the tradition officially recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Cuban Nation in 2018. Another group, Las Flores del Changüí, make a welcome return after bandleader Floridia Hernández experienced health issues brought about by long Covid. During a Saturday night street performance, Juana Poulot from Las Flores del Changüí shares the microphone with another bandleader, retired sugar cane worker Alejandro “Popó” Moirán Gamboa, and the pair improvise verses for close to seven minutes.
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