Silvio Rodriguez on ‘The World’

Originally aired on PRI’s “The World”

Today we hear about Cuban musician Silvio Rodriguez. It was about 30 years ago that reporter Betto Arcos first heard Silvio’s music in his hometown of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. The Cuban legend will be playing dates in the United States. The first time in over 30 years. Betto listened again to some of Silvio’s classic albums and sent us this audio essay.

Transcript:

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman, and this is “The World.” You’re listening to Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez. He’s a giant figure in music. Rodriguez does not play mambo; he’s associated with a lyrical style called nueva trova, Cuba’s politicized version of singer-songwriter folk music.

Silvio Rodriguez’s words have made him the troubadour for progressives and revolutionaries and not just in Cuba, but across Latin America and the world. Tonight at Carnegie Hall Silvio Rodriguez will be making the first of several U.S. appearances, the first time for him in this country in 30 years. It’s an event, both musically and in terms of U.S.-Cuban relations. In a moment we’ll hear from a long time Silvio fan, but first from New York, here’s “The World”’s Alex Gallafent.

ALEX GALLAFENT: Earlier this week, Silvio Rodriguez sat down in front of a battery of microphones and answered some questions. After a 30 year absence, he said it was good to be back. I’m very happy to have been able to return to the U.S. he began, describing the country as one that he admires in many ways. Rodriguez said the relationship between the United States and Cuba has, in his mind, returned to where it was before the administration of George W. Bush.

NED SUBLETTE: We were getting used to having Cuban musicians play regularly in the United States until the Bush administration unilaterally put the hammer down.

GALLAFENT: That’s Ned Sublette, a composer and scholar of Cuban music. He says the hammer fell in late 2003, largely preventing Cuban musicians from performing in the United States. Rodriguez says he couldn’t get a visa even before then, hence the 30-year absence. In any case, the rules changed last year.

SUBLETTE: Since then, we’ve had a deluge, especially this summer. Every week it seems there’s another great Cuban artist coming to town. Silvio Rodriguez is the biggest name, commercially, to come so far.

GALLAFENT: Indeed, Rodriguez can draw crowds. He can also draw criticism. Silvio Rodriguez is explicitly identified with the Cuban revolution.

SUBLETTE: And this means that there are many people who are passionately in his favor and many people. He has a song called “El Necio,” about how they say when the revolution falls, a list of the things that they’ll do to him. He’ll be torn to bits.

GALLAFENT: At his press conference in New York, Silvio Rodriguez said “I continue to believe in the revolution.” Looking ahead to his forthcoming concert in Florida, home to many anti-Castro Cuban exiles, Rodriguez said he expects protests. It’s OK, he said; it’s their right. But the music of Silvio Rodriguez is not purely about politics. Ned Sublette says the Cuban is first and foremost a poet and a songwriter. Much of Rodriguez’s achievement has been, as Sublette phrases it, “to infuse the revolutionary sentiment with the idea of love.” So some songs might be polemical, for sure, but others are more open to interpretation.

SUBLETTE: The Cuban songwriters, in general, are not pamphleteers. Even the most committed to the revolution, or the most skeptical, in general, they do not tell you what to think. They suggest metaphors, ways you could think, ask questions. I think that’s better art.

BETTO ARCOS: I remember the first time I heard Silvio Rodriguez.

WERMAN: Betto Arcos is a writer in Los Angeles who grew up Mexico. He first heard Silvio’s music 30 years ago.

ARCOS: I was 19 years old, in my first year of college in Xalapa, Veracruz. It was song called “Pequena Serenata Diurna,” “Little Morning Serenade” from Silvio’s first album. The lyrics were unlike anything I’d ever heard before. The lyrics spoke directly to me. I live in a free country, as it can only be free in this land, in this instant, and I’m happy because I’m a giant.

Silvio’s songs became anthems to my generation, especially during the early 1980s when the wars in Central America were tearing El Salvador and Nicaragua apart. One of his most popular albums during that time was Unicornio. The song “Concion Urgente para Nicaragua,” “Urgent Song for Nicaragua,” was a call to young Latin Americans like me to join in support of the struggling nation. But what attracted me to Silvio’s music, more than anything else, were the songs he created with the most perfect melodies, such as this one, “Nuestro Tema.”

Silvio has always had an amazing ability to create powerful musical statement with just guitar and voice. But his lyrics are also full of allegories and metaphors, comparable to some of the finest poetry in the Spanish language.

In the last few years his introspective songs help me cope with the loss of my family. When my older sister passed away in 2008 I found solace in his songs. This one is called “Vida y otras Cuestiones,” “Life and Other Questions.” I have all of Silvio’s records, many of them in the original vinyl from the late ’70s. I still listen to them.

It’s been a dream of mine to see him in concert. I just never imagined I’d get a chance to see him in Los Angeles. And so I plan to take my 11-year-old son and tell him what Silvio has meant to me for the last 30 years. For “The World,” this is Betto Arcos in Los Angeles.

WERMAN: Writer Betto Arcos reflecting on the music of Silvio Rodriguez. Before that, we heard from “The World”’s Alex Gallafent in New York. Thanks to Ed Morales for help on Alex’s story today. Silvio Rodriguez starts his U.S. tour tonight in New York. We have links at the world dot org. The World’s theme music was composed by Eric Goldberg. From the Nan and Bill Harris studios at WGBH in Boston, I’m Marco Werman. Have a great weekend.