IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 4 ENGLISH | Page 92

those who are willing to take the risk to speak the
truth. This is not a romantic view or a marginalization of the revolution. Rather, it’s the highest
respect to those who fight for others freedom, for
those musicians and poets who know it’s a risk to
express what is wrong, knowing they may lose
their position, be jailed, or worse - be killed - for
what they believe in. The government has attempted to control the music of both David &
Raudel through censorship, but it is a risk they are
willing to take.
Seeing and creating connections - Blacks in
USA and Blacks in Cuba
After the assassination of Malcom X and Martin
Luther King, there has been a lack of strong consistent leaders within the American Black Community. There are some Blacks who feel that the
civil rights movement is over and they have successfully assimilated into the American mainstream. This is not true. The poets of the Black
Arts Movement wrote about the struggle and
movement to gain equality. Even though this happened in the 1960s and early 1970s, nothing much
has changed. Sure, we all have higher education,
but what can we do with this education? We are
still blocked from high positions and certain jobs,
and the pay rate for Blacks is lower.
That is why as a writer my themes speak of inequality, mistreatment and the social conditions of
Black Americans. That is why I enjoyed the performance of the Cuban warriors Raudel and David. The unselfishness in their music shows in the
life they live. David opens his home to a diverse
demographic to exchange conversation and to
freely express themselves. He said that he doesn’t
need to lock his door. This is opposite of homes
in America. Personally I have an electronic lock
on my doors and windows, and no matter how hot
it becomes in my house at night, I wouldn’t think
of sleeping with the windows open. I felt as
though he had something much better than I
within his community. In fact, during the panel

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discussions and throughout all the AfricAmericas
II events, one of the things that interested me most
is how the Cuban civil activists handle their own
societal concerns and racism: perhaps we (Black
Americans) could learn from them.
As a woman I have dealt with a layers of racism
and discrimination, from my own people and
from whites. A woman’s place in any universal
movement is challenged. I remember the poet
Carolyn M. Rodgers, who was part of the Black
Arts Movement, was asked by the males in the
movement to change her writing style and become a more reserved/submissive type poet. She
penned her refusal in the poem “the last m.f.”,
which resonates with me as a woman whose
works may not always be reserved or submissive.
So I asked Raudel if there were any female Cuban
rappers. He smiled and said there were, but not
that many; even though he feels the women’s
place in the movement is important, there is also
the culture of ‘machismo.’ He then explained that
machismo is the culture of the man as dominant
and the woman as subservient. The social contract
within their culture is that the man is the man:
he’s makes the money and protects the woman. In
this society in exchange for their submissive
roles, the women are provided for, protected and
respected. They have no power. I had to stifle my
laugh, because the term “machismo” appears in
English but the meaning seems to be lost; even
though it means the woman is subservient and
submissive to the needs of men, it doesn’t seem
to mean the man will provide and protect the
woman. I laughed again because what he described up to a certain point is what most single,
independent, strong Black woman in America
want: a Black man to take care of them, to protect
and provide. We are not all loud, argumentative,
and gold-digging women; we want the same as
any woman everywhere, and that is: to be loved,
protected, provided, encouraged, and supported
and to be actively involved in our lives, our families’ lives and the community. He added that