Monday, September 21, 2009

Meanwhile in Miami...

No, that's not Val Prieto from the Babalu blog in the photo. Instead, Prieto thanked Juanes [screenshot] for organizing the Peace without Borders concert and this morning wrote:

"Gracias Juanes! You fucking communist son of a bitch."

Oh, those boys at Babalu!

I mean Prieto got all excited this morning that he forgot to copy the last paragraph of Yoani Sanchez' latest blog post. In that last paragraph she writes:

"If we see the performance of this September 20th as the dress rehearsal for a concert we’ll have one day, then we must congratulate those who participated. Even if there isn’t another, and the Plaza again takes on its solemnity and grayness, at least this Sunday afternoon we live something different. In a place where the division between us has been systematically sown, Juanes—to the setting of the sun—has shouted, 'For one Cuban family!'"

I'm sure he'll correct the error.

Well, if you want to see what the Cuban people thought about the concert, here are two good videos [1 and 2] I found on YouTube. Or, you can go to Babalu blog and view Humberto Fontova's latest post comparing the concert audience to a herd of animals.

You might have also read some reports about a protest in Little Havana yesterday. Yup, Vigilia Mambisa was at it again. But, this time they might have met their match. Carlos Miller has the scoop.

But, if you want to see some video, click here and here. Basically, what happened yesterday was that Vigilia Mambisa and its supporters died out (not literally) once their demonstration permit expired into the evening. Many anti-Juanes protesters soon left, leaving many pro-Juanes demonstrators at the Versailles Restaurant (which grew after the end of the television broadcast of the Peace concert). The crowd numbers were quite large, according to Miller and this local reporter for CBS4 news.

[Photo by Reuters]

4 comments:

lagringa said...

Please tell me you saw the confrontation on Maria Elvira tonight. Saavedra was on and looked like the idiot he is. He actually called her a communist and told her that because they see her program in Cuba that it's not good for her. She also asked him that if he is so against the "fascistas" of the Cuban government, then why does he model his organization after it. I mean, that's mine and mi esposo cubanazo's best guess. It was quite the pelea...anyway, I hope you saw it...

Mambi_Watch said...

I just saw it on youtube. I'll be posting about that discussion next, along with Maria Elvira's very emotional presentation of Olga Tanon on her program the other night.

While, in general, Maria Elvira's programming on South American politics is incredibly biased towards the right, in the case of the Peace concert, she has been very optimistic about its message of peace and possible reconciliation.

lagringa said...

Love the recent post. My husband and I had all but completely written her off as just another one of "those" (we only recently started watching her program again because of the concert). I have to say it is really nice to see that Juanes goal is maybe starting to work...getting hard liners on both sides (especially the right) to stop buying into (and feeding) the propaganda and start thinking for themselves. I also have to say that whenever my husband sees Saavedra talking, he shakes his head and says "you can tell he's an uneducated Cuban. He's so stupid that he contradicts himself and doesn't even realize it!"
did you see her program tonight? Apparently she's received death threats to her and her young daughters...that's just despicable.

Mambi_Watch said...

I just read about the death threats against Maria Elvira in El Nuevo Herald. It's unfortunate, but typical behavior in Miami when it comes to talking about Cuba.

This morning on Radio Mambi, the threats were briefly mentioned by a caller, and Ninoska Perez Castellon denounced them.

Change is difficult for some people. But, change will happen (slowly or quickly).

The question is: for those who proudly call themselves "intransigents," how will they face the undeniable change in their community?

We may be witnessing those reactions now.