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Silvio is not a consumer item
THE lauded singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez
has rejected certain media interpretations of
his reiterated promise to give a free concert in
Talca, southern Chile, where during his tour of
a few months back he suspended one concert in
solidarity with protests at the extremely high
ticket prices ($80-110).
Despite the fact that the money was refunded in
full, he has been taken to court by lawyers in
the city. The Cuban artist states textually:
TO THE PEOPLE OF TALCO, CHILE:
“The defense plea of Dr. Eduardo Contreras has
made it clear that I have not committed any
infraction whatsoever and at no point did I
attempt to offend the people of Talca. However,
some of the media have rushed to say I should
criticize myself. They are trying to distort my
manifest desire to sing to the peoples, as if
the petition, made to the Chilean presidency
before the concert was suspended and based on a
consistent practice, could be dressed up to make
it seem like repentance. They are trying to have
people believe that my insistence on singing
free of charge, affirmed at the trial by my
representative, is a rectification for having
suspended the concert. “What am going to repent?
Of having refused to give a concert with
prohibitive entry prices, knowing that it would
be in one of the poorest areas of Chile, in a
theater holding 1,000 people? Repent being a
worker in culture and not a consumer item?
“I clarify that in my case there is no remedy. I
do not have nor do I want the babblings of those
who suddenly want to be someone else. Moreover,
I am in agreement with my significance, however
adverse that might turn out to be. I feel that I
sing with Víctor Jara, that I love Violeta Parra,
that I admire Manuel Rodríguez, the guerrilla
fighter killed in Tiltil. They head my Chilean
family and symbolize my ark of alliances. I
understand that in order not to betray Cuba or
Chile some people here or there wish me ill and
are doing things that they hope will hurt me.
But colossal forces have not been able to strip
me of Cuba and nobody will uproot me from Chile.
“I will return to Talca when I have the
logistic resources to give the concert merited
by those who wanted to hear me but were unable
to pay the onerous ticket prices. I will sing
for those who, after buying their tickets, were
left without a concert… and prefer not to accuse
me. But none of that will I do out of penitence,
but because my songs came from a people like you
and seeing their family completes them.
“Thank you and until then.”
Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez,
Havana, May 15, 2007.
(Granma) 17-05-2007
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