One of the first names that comes to light when asked about women with feminist positions in the Cuban music scene is that of Rochy Ameneiro. The artist has been at the forefront of a struggle to offer women the space they deserve in society for around ten years. She is the founder of the project Todos Contracorriente \u2014whose musical theme is written by the Pinar del Rio singer-songwriter Yamira D\u00edaz\u2014 and, as such, has organized several events in which various creators from the Island come together to share their art.<\/p>\n
According to Rochy, there are several Cuban singers who address feminist themes in their texts, and among the examples she points to Telmary and La Reina and La Real. They are artists, he says, who from their proposals criticize \"the position of the man as a provider and the woman as a domestic figure, fulfilling the tasks of the house (habitual situation of machismo) and put as a solution the liberation of women from those roles\".<\/p>\n
For Rochy, any non-sexist text that promotes equal rights between women and men, and respect for individual freedom, can be a feminist discourse. In her case, she thinks of herself as \u201can interpreter of songs that respect the public, free from sexism and aggressive language, that make women visible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a feminist because I defend equal rights between men and women. I use my spaces as an artist to promote the culture of peace and I try to consult with specialists on the subject to send messages that educate on the way to a better society \u201d, he defends.<\/p>\n
The singer-songwriter incorporated feminism into her repertoire, her audiovisuals, her projection as an artist and her way of life. The Countercurrent theme and its self-titled video that celebrated, in 2012, the centenary of this movement in Cuba - we must remember that in 1912 several Cuban women came out to fight for their rights; in November of that year, for example, the Popular Feminist Party was founded in Havana, it is one of her works, where she joined Omara Portuondo and other art professionals.<\/p>\n
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Illustration: Camilo Nieto.<\/p><\/div>\n
Feminist struggle: awakening <\/strong><\/p>\n The work on social networks and in various physical spaces in which she supports the claims of the LGTBIQ + community, make Hayd\u00e9e Milan\u00e9s one of the most vocal Cuban singers in the fight for equity. However, Hayd\u00e9e herself considers that her lyrics do not have a feminist discourse specifically, although her songs and the ones she performs do not degrade women or men. \"I believe in mutual respect. I believe in human beings \u201d, he says.<\/p>\n For her, the feminist discourse must begin with the recognition of all the injustices that have been committed against women throughout history. \"You must defend equity between both genders and respect for us. I educate my daughter thinking about equity, because I believe that education for women from a very young age is vital. Many of the misconceptions we have come from childhood, with small macho 'teachings' that they give us. Of course, mothers don't do it on purpose, but are things that they unconsciously repeat because they received them that way. \u201d<\/p>\n The realities that concern her have marked her behavior and activism. Hayd\u00e9e thinks that her current training was influenced by the great disparities that she has seen in society in relation to the rights of women and men. \u201cIt is not about written laws, but about human behavior, about the education that is given to men and women. From a very young age they teach them to have many girlfriends, that women are the ones who cook, wash and scrub. That if they have had many partners they are whores. They also teach us that we should not be alone on the streets. I have always been envious of men who can sit alone in a park and listen to music. I have never been able to do that without being besieged by some guy who asks me what I do so alone, or who starts to masturbate, looking at me. It is something that has to change.<\/p>\n \"We must respect the space of women and the right to be free, not only to walk the streets without being disturbed, but also to express their criteria, and be taken into account without being ridiculed or teased for their gender.<\/p>\n On the other hand, we must continue fighting to occupy more spaces of power, where we make important decisions for the country. I think that in Cuba there is a very masculine energy in most of the provisions at the government level. I am sure that things are going to be better, they will be much more balanced, if we have our feminine energy, \u201dsays the artist.<\/p>\n Hayd\u00e9e also thinks that the worst thing, when we look at the whole picture, is violence against women, who beat them, rape them and kill them. \u201cThat is why we are fighting for a Comprehensive Law against mistreatment of women and girls, which not only condemns the guilty, but also protects those who are threatened, so that they do not come to attack, rape or kill them. This is something that is happening, it is not normal and we must wake up. We need that when a woman goes to report this type of aggression, it is taken into account, and she can have a space where she has all the necessary protection, \u201dshe summarizes.<\/p>\n Illustration: Camilo Nieto.<\/p><\/div>\n Sauce for men?<\/strong><\/p>\n Cuban popular dance music is a territory undermined by machismo and discrimination towards those women who seek to make a difference. Haila Mar\u00eda Mompi\u00e9 has earned her place in a "world of men." And he has also had clashes fighting for his rights in this scene.<\/p>\n \u201cFor no one it is a secret and I have always said it: I have suffered it firsthand throughout my career for the simple fact of being a woman and a singer of timba, a very macho musical genre. Little by little, with a lot of work, I have made my way and I have shown them that being a woman is not an impediment at all, \u201dsays the artist, who also considers that people with the possibility of communicating with thousands of spectators face duty and the responsibility to support and contribute positively with this convening tool.<\/p>\n \u201cI am one of the artists who likes to sing songs with common sense, with a message, a teaching. Add to this that I am a hundred percent feminist. When I touch on the subject of women, I try to open their eyes and give them the strength that many need. I aim to motivate, support and make them feel protected and valued. \"<\/p>\n For Haila, her songs have a feminist message because many women see themselves reflected in those experiences that they have once experienced firsthand. \u201cI am a woman \u2014like them\u2014 brave, fighter, enterprising and independent. That security is what I try to convey so that you feel it in my songs. In my compositions, the reality of many of us also travels and I highlight our values. I draw themes like equal rights, female empowerment and the role we play in society,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Haila - who also collaborates with various campaigns and organizations in defense of women's rights such as I say no, from Unesco, and Join, from the UN - believes that if feminist discourse comes from another woman, it is more credible. And that this must be direct, sincere and transparent. As the artist sees it, this intention is evident throughout her discography.<\/p>\n Illustration: Camilo Nieto.<\/p><\/div>\n The rice burned, so what?<\/strong><\/p>\n Two women, black, rappers, began their musical career in 2012, with the purpose of giving greater visibility to women in the world of hip hop in Cuba. La Reyna and La Real have already let the rice burn (with that song in which the woman leaves home for a day so that the man can take care of the housework) and a few months ago they starred in one of the themes of the National Campaign Evolves due to Non Violence against Women.<\/p>\n According to Yadira Pintado (La Real), the message that her music transmits is one of feminine empowerment and equality, and not of a struggle of women over men. \"We advocate for the awakening of the talent that many women have hidden and that do not bring to light due to the fears and prejudices of which society itself has made them part.\"<\/p>\n Among those artists who also accompany them, she points to Telmary because \u201cfrom her position as a rapper, she has managed with talent and effort to position herself in a place where many did not expect. That is the biggest message (with actions), that a woman can be whatever she wants to be." They also describe that the Krudxs Cubensi are one of the few that opened the doors to other rappers in the genre. Although La Reyna and La Real say that one cannot fail to mention popular music orchestras such as Las Canelas, Anacaona, among others.<\/p>\n For La Real, her music has a feminist character because women are the center of the discourse. \"But not from a victim's gaze in which we remember all the time what men do not allow us to do, but from the position in which we show that we can, even without the support of the male sex,\" she explains.<\/p>\n \"We call ourselves feminists because we think that, like women, men have been victims of a consecutive message that confirms them as the boss, the male, the one who doesn't cry.\"<\/p>\n Reyna Hern\u00e1ndez (La Reyna), for her part, adds that feminist discourse must be distinguished by the empowerment of women and by speaking from the difference in all psychological, social, spiritual and political aspects.<\/p>\n \"We launched messages with that intention due to the need to raise the voice of women based on our experiences and others that touch us very closely,\" he says.<\/p>\n Illustration: Camilo Nieto.<\/p><\/div>\n Free is the word<\/strong><\/p>\n A few years ago we heard him recommend to women not to get carried away by the flawed guidelines of the music market. And her career is the result of the constant challenge to the expected sounds and poses. Her lyrics convince and emancipate. For Eme Alfonso, being different and challenging has been a life choice.<\/p>\n She says that she tries to support women by denouncing the violence, mistreatment, inequality and social stigma that we have always suffered. That fight takes her through the videos, the interviews and the lyrics of her songs, because she thinks about the feminist discourse of her music before doing each song.<\/p>\n \u201cI put lyrics and sound to a fixed idea that I want to express about these problems. My music is the way to carry the message \u201d, she says while pointing as her recipe to the idea of fearlessly addressing the issues that concern her when composing.<\/p>\n The author of Libre y Voy, among other songs with a strong feminist discourse, defends her intention to write these topics because she is concerned that today's girls live tomorrow in the same circumstances. She also considers it an obligation because our mothers fought great battles and it is a duty to do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cI am inspired by my life and my experiences to write; they are my source of information. Each experience is a possible story. If I have had to exist at a time when machismo is still rooted and I see it and suffer it day by day, then I have to talk about it, \u201dhe argues.<\/p>\n For Eme, among the representatives of feminism in Cuban music - in addition to many of the artists already mentioned in this text - we must also include the instrumentalists who defend their art despite the fact that they face a terrain dominated mostly by men.<\/p>\n That is one of Eme's big concerns: professional discrimination. \u201cWomen in my profession have fewer opportunities: at night shows, at festivals, at record labels. We are assigned more stereotypes than men, not to mention wage inequality. And I say all this from my own experience \u201d.<\/p>\n Illustration: Camilo Nieto.<\/p><\/div>\n To the krudo and without a glove<\/strong><\/p>\n Krudxs Cubensi are a benchmark for feminist struggles within music in Cuba. Nobody who thinks about this demonstration fails to point out this group born in 1999 in Havana and whose members are considered pioneers of feminist hip hop queer<\/em> in your country, Latin America and the world.<\/p>\n From the first moment they think of their art as a weapon to fight for rights, against the oppression of the heteropatriarchal colonialist system, for social justice, for communities, for the planet. And so they are recognized in more than 100 cities around the world.<\/p>\n Her staging and the lyrics of her songs can be considered a complete rebellion against the rules. The trance into which their actions enter defends a radical position of feminism, always bearing in mind that, for them, a feminist discourse must be marked by intersectionality.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, if it is racist, it is not feminist; if it is pigment-democratic, it is not feminist; if it is homophobic, it is not feminist; if it is transphobic, it is not feminist; if she is a capacitist, she is not a feminist; if she is bourgeois, she is not a feminist \u201d. It's that simple and radical.<\/p>\n That's why they couldn't reach another path than this one. No other art could emerge from their lives. \u201cIt is testimonial, visceral, autobiographical, it is from within us. How not to be feminists being the people we are? How not to be feminists living in the world we live in? How not to be feminists in the Cuba in which we were born and grew up? Feminism is our existence. That's why all our songs have the speech in that tune\u201d. There are no doubts.<\/p>\n Krudxs Cubensi holds that \u201cthe message of his music regarding women, femininity, and trans people is about empowerment, self-esteem, awakening, denouncing machista injustices, protesting against heteropatriarchal colonial hegemony , of self-care, of liberation and of necessary prominence after so many centuries of oppression.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso respect for diversity, because not all women are oppressed equally. Black, indigenous, trans, impoverished, fat, non-binary women with diverse capacities are our priority and should be the priority of the world \u201d, they comment.<\/p>\n \"Krudxs feminism is obviously queer, black, vegan, Cuban, trans, intersectional, emigrant, worker, popular, empirical, testimonial, autobiographical, diverse, not in accordance with cisgender binarism, feminism, because we are all of that, because we live it in our own embodiment, is in each of our experiences, lyrics, presences, our voices and musical concepts. Krudxs we are \u201d.<\/p>\n "The feminism of Krudxs is obviously queer<\/em>, black, vegan, cuban, trans, intersectional, migrant, worker, popular, empirical, testimonial, autobiographical, diverse, non-compliant with cisgender binarism, feminism, because we are all of that, because we live it in our own corporeality, it is in each one of us of our experiences, lyrics, presences, our voices and musical concepts. Krudxs we are\u201d.<\/p>\n They, like the rest of the interviewees, agree that all the women who make music on the Island could think of themselves as feminists, even if there are variants of thought. But the bottom line is that \"being a woman is itself a perpetual act of feminism.\"<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some of the artists who make music on the Island feel committed to the causes of feminism and the battle against violence against women and girls, and have joined the institutional campaigns that take place in the country.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1467,"featured_media":6496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1765],"tags":[586,7579,70,7580,7158,7578,7581,7582],"coauthors":[6726],"class_list":["post-6053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportajes","tag-eme-alfonso","tag-haila-maria-mompie","tag-haydee-milanes","tag-krudxs-cubensi","tag-la-reyna-y-la-real","tag-mujer-en-la-musica-cubana","tag-rochy-ameneiro","tag-todas-contracorriente"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magazineampm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/reportaje-mujer_camilo-nieto.jpg?fit=1520%2C772&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6053"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ilustraci\u00f3n:](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/magazineampm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ilustraci%C3%B3n_4-baja.jpg?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1\")
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