
Revolution Square, Havana, on the eve of Juanes' "peace without borders concert (AP photo)
I had never heard of Juanes before he scheduled his "peace without borders" concert for Sunday in Revolution Square in Havana, so I guess the Colombian pop star has already used the event to his advantage. Not that I am about to go out and buy one of his records.
Havana is not a traditional venue for a pop music show — after all, how many Cubans can afford the cost of a typical pop music concert ticket — but more power to Juanes, even if somehow the dictatorship turns the spectacle of a "free" music festival under the visage of Ché Guevara into a propaganda victory for itself. After all, who can be against "peace?"
Well, the Castro dictatorship for one, as more than 50 years of history show.
Let Juanes play his concert. Even let him be used as a tool by a regime whose very essence is contrary to everything music and peace are suppose to be about. If you advocate for free expression, as I do in my professional life and on this blog, you take the stupid with the good.
It should not affect how those of us who would never be caught within earshot of Revolution Square, react to what will happen on Sunday.
I will not castigate Juanes, nor curse him, nor call for crowds to burn his records. That's a bunch of wasted energy, on which the Castro brothers will feed.
Instead, I will take the opportunity he has presented those of us committed to a free Cuba, the attention he has generated for himself and for Cuba, to educate, to advocate on behalf of those Cubans who recognize that the only "border" blocking peace on the island is that placed by a murdering regime against the Cuban people.
As Juanes and the other singers perform, I will be remembering the political prisoners and other Cubans who have dedicated their lives to bringing a true peace to Cuba — a peace with respect for respect for human rights, a peace with justice, a peace with freedom.
That will be much more than Juanes is likely to do for them.
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