Songs Improve the World, Silvio Rodriguez States

Tuesday, January 11 2005 @ 10:55 AM EST

(Prensa Latina) Havana, Cuba - "Songs do not change the world, but could make it better," Cuban folk singer Silvio Rodriguez, one of the top exponents of Cuban music, stated.

The author of "El Necio" and Ojalá" replied some questions by some of the five Cubans imprisoned in the US for espionage and their families, and his comments were published in the local newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

Rodriguez said he was "surprised" by Antonio Guerrero –one of the five prisoners - question: "what did you feel when you learned your songs were also tools for the struggle and resistance in the prisons of the empire?"

"The motivation for the songs usually are away from such transcendental scenes, such important and hair-raising situations for everyone, as that reality our five comrades, brothers, are living," the author of "Amada" stated.

"Actually, most times one makes them like daydreaming; and suddenly, one sees them as children. Sometimes they even take backpacks, grab rifles and go who knows where, to fight extraordinarily."

"These things other people pass through, which come to you through them, teach you that, indeed, songs can not change the workd, but contribute to make it better," he concluded.

World Music Central
http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/2005010608550968