Cuban Artists, Singers, Poets Celebrate and Surround Guantanamo

The 41 annual “Day of the Political Song” is bringing artists, poets, singers, and intellectuals together to perform art and celebrate in the area surrounding the Guantanamo Bay base, which is occupied by U.S. forces.

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This year the celebrations, which take place every August 4, are dedicated to commemorating the revolutionary life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, as this year marks 50 years since he was captured and killed by the CIA in Bolivia, as well as marking 150 years since the birth of Sindo Garay, the Cuban Trova musician, and 30 years since the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists was launched in the province.

Aleida Guevara March, who is the daughter of Che, will be present at the events, and will give a talk at the Plaza Mariana Grajales where she is expected to draw a significant crowd.

In the Caimanera municipality of Guantanamo, traditional and contemporary Cuban song-writers will bring their art to the surrounding neighborhoods. Poets will give readings, and intellectuals will give talks about their work.

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“This day is a space of political expression that allows us to consolidate feelings, patriotism, and an immortal history to defend day by day,” the organizing committee said.

The creators of the Day of Political Song, which has happened annually for 41 years, have said that the event is a defense of aesthetic ideas from a revolutionary ideological perspective.

It was originally founded as a tribute to the members of the 26 of July movement who were killed in an explosion in Guantanamo City on August 4th: Fabio Rosell, Julio Enrique Rodriguez, Gustavo Fraga, Alberto Cusa and Jose Martin.

Having evolved along the border of the U.S. base, its creators have said that it became “the first trench of the political, cultural, ideological, and military fight of the island, and became a space for music and poetry as an expression of rebellion and song for life.”