Miami | 10.12.09
As they entered Miami’s sparking new performing arts center, they concert-goers braved no gauntlet of angry protesters. They heard no shouts of denunciation, outrage or insult.
Instead, a soft murmur rose from the crowd that night, an anticipatory and nervous rumble of patrons anxious to see a show by some of Cuba’s finest musicians, the first band of Cubans to tour the United States in years.
As Juan de Marcos Gonzalez and the Afro Cuban All Stars took the stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center six months ago, there was simply applause. Then, a great show only briefly interrupted by a mild disagreement between Gonzalez and some in his audience &mdash a familial spat that caused nary a stir.
Anyone in the audience who also ventured to near downtown Miami nearly a decade ago would have been struck by the contrast how Miami received the Afro Cuban All Stars and how the city treated Cuban musical powerhouse Los Van Van in October 1999.
It was a heady time, a period when music promoters sought to break boundaries by booking Cuban bands in Miami Beach clubs &mdash among them NG La Banda and crooner Issac Delgado, who then lived on the island &mdash without incident.
When Debbie Ohanian announced that she would bring Cuban musical powerhouse Los Van Van to Miami, that was too much for city leaders and then generals of the microphone on Spanish-language AM radio, who rallied against the concert.
After high security costs forced a change of venue to the Miami Arena, the stage was set for conflict, and drama, as some 70 police officers ringed the arena, many of them in riot gear. Protestors taunted concert-goers yelling “Communists!” “Traitors!” “Prostitutes!” -- and some threw eggs and soft drink cans as people went inside.
But it didn’t matter.
Los Van Van gave a dazzling show. And even though the protests scared away many who would have gone to the show, Ohanian would later win her federal lawsuit against the city of Miami, which a judge ordered to pay more than $36,000 in security costs.
At the Afro Cuban All Starts concert in April, Gonzalez urged Cubans in Miami to put down half a century of anger and bitterness over what has happened in their homeland, leading his band on a tune called Reconciliation.
Some in the audience booed or yelled, but a defiant Gonzalez wasn’t deterred. Ten years after Los Van Van slipped in and out of a hostile Miami, he had his say.
After the show, Gonzalez casually smoked outside the concert hall &mdash just a short jaunt away from the site of the now-demolished arena. It was a quiet night.
And Ohanian smiled. |♫|
It was a pairing of two extraordinary performers. Buika, born to parents from Equatorial Guinea, grew up on the Spanish island of Mallorca and is well-versed in flamenco, African music, jazz and soul. Lewis, who now lives in Spain, embodies Cuba’s musical tradition of agility and superb foundation. Their one-hour set largely featured selections from the singer’s most recent albums, Mi Niña Lola, recorded in 2007, and Niña de Fuego, released last year.
