IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 3 ENGLISH | Page 81

holistic view of their work, how to run a campaign if they want to reach people with their message of emancipation, social criticism, or their noisy racket. Before we definitely leave, would like to go out and expand our project, publicize it abroad, and come with resources. We aspire to not lose contact with key people, because you know that people leave and things begin to fall apart. What we want is difficult, yes, but it is also hard here, anyway. Mirita: We are also leaving to keep doing this, but I, personally, am leaving because my work and my message no longer have a place in this country. I am tired of running to that mental block there is in spaces everywhere here. The United States is not the ideal country, nor does it have the ideal society; it is just a place with more opportunities. Resources are not going to rain on us, but they are accessible. I am tired of working so hard and there being moments in which we don’t even have anything to eat. People misinterpret these kinds of projects; they have no idea about all the sacrifice they involve. Fito: Look, right now we’re working on our own; we don’t know if we can get the next issue of the magazine out, if we’ll be able to have the concert next week. Everything we support is for the short term and very uncertain. If we had economic stability, we would not do just one concert tomor- row, but a whole festival that would include everything: rappers, plastic artists, etc. I see that the country is moving, that there are people leaving, but people fill their spaces, people who are ready to work, who don’t need to learn anything. These are people with the same energy and drive we used to have. And the fact we are leaving doesn’t mean that we’re just going to live the American dream. I, myself, aspire to find a lifestyle that is not determined by the obstacles the world puts in your way, because the way we live our lives at this very moment, there is never enough for anything. At least, that’s the case for what I think you come into this world for: preparing the landscape for those who are here now, and improve it for those who are coming after. Notes: 1-An independent producer that created the Rotilla Alternative Music Festival. In 2010, it was censored and copied by the Ministry of Culture. Currenlty, Matraka holds the competitive rap “Puños Arriba” [Raised Fists] festival, where the best underground recordings are adknowledged with awards. 2-A network of alternative projects that began in 2007 and aspired to create strategies for dialoguing with Cuban institutions. 81