Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | 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 92 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