For Art Basel 2008 coverage, visit Buildings and Food.

 

Friday August 3, 2007

“Miami has a big stigma attached to it among cultural circles in Cuba. Mainly because of the lack of cultural options compared with any of those cities plus it’s seen as a place where the worst of Cuban idiosyncrasies reign -the loudness, the tackiness, the flashiness, the braggadocio, the gold-chains-and-undershirt set and also the intolerant politics.” — Alex.

Tags: · Comment feed: RSS, atom

  1. maria    Fri Aug 3, 02:40 PM #  

    SO TRUE! I want that entire quote on a tshirt.



  2. Eddie Suarez    Fri Aug 3, 02:54 PM #  

    I refer to the gold-chain and undershirt set as the “Oye Bros”



  3. Manuel A. Tellechea    Fri Aug 3, 03:32 PM #  

    The reason that many Cuban artists and entertainers defect to Spain is because that is the option immediately available to them. Eventually, most will find their way to the U.S. because they are the ones who wants the gold chains and other trinkets.

    As for recording artists specifically, it is the U.S. record companies, dominated by Cuban exiles at the highest spheres, which will decide whether they succeed in the U.S., or in Spain, for that matter. In the Latin music business, it is Miami which is mecca. Spain in that regard is a province of Miami and a backwater province at that.



  4. Alex    Fri Aug 3, 04:52 PM #  

    Actually no, many go to Mexico and Venezuela as well -and not just musicians, cinematographers, actors and writers as well. For a while Mexico was known as the “velvet exile”, because they are able to travel back and forth to Cuba, something they’d lose in the US.

    The only musicicans that have attained a (limited) success with US record labels are salsa musicians such as Albita and Rey Ruiz. Others don’t (Manolín, Isaac Delgado) because simply, their version of music is too complex for the more commercialized, packaged salsa of which Miami may be the mecca, but for them it has proven unconquerable. “Timba” only plays well inside Cuba. Even jazz players (Sandoval, Chucho Valdez, Rubalcava) neither record nor perform often in Miami, although Sandoval valiantly tries to move forward with his club.

    Fusion and more experimental bands like Havana Abierta and Orishas have been much more successful in Europe, and so they relocate there.

    When it comes to writers, it’s no contest. Their market is in Spain and Latin America, not here.



  5. eric    Fri Aug 3, 08:15 PM #  

    lol @ the “Oye Bros”

    I want a t-shirt, too



  6. World wide tacky    Mon Aug 6, 08:26 PM #  

    The Russians and Chinese know bling much better now, moreover they have more money to undertake it right!