“Now, [as for] young people, at one point during the interview we have said that they have few values, but when it comes to liberty and speaking about [the fact] that I like what it means to me, people just….. accept that. But older people, let’s say those who are about 40 or 50 years old, the other generation, they will always tell you: ‘No, you know what? Be careful to whom you are talking to, be careful’. And I simply answer them: ‘I am singing about things that affect you and you do not have what it takes, I am singing because you do not have what it takes, to see if it is possible that someone comes on a bike from El Caribe and I could pay him 20 or 30 pesos, and he drops me at the door of my house because I have got what it takes. This is what I am trying to solve as a musician.’ And they tell me: ‘Oh motherfucker, that would be good’. Motherfucker, it would be good, but then you are telling me that I should be careful. What is your point? Should I solve the problem, or should I shut up?”
“You have some principles, you have some values which you defend and in a certain way, no one can force you to leave that path. If you decide, that I want to sing something which represents me, you have the power to want to do what you want to do. You want to listen to it, then you are listening to it, and if you don’t want to, then you are not listening to it. It is simple as that. But when you want to censure it because it is not pleasing to your ears, it is another thing, since it goes from not wanting to listen to the music to censorship. And in a certain way, for many people like me, it is something like: you know, my content is coming, because if it bothers you, it is because I am telling the truth.”
“As I have told you before, there is a thing called rendering of accounts. There were several persons, more precisely leaders, who were going and saying: ‘Yes, you know, we gave 20 million, 20 millions were invested, for what there is, to make what is on the street’. And I remember that they came like two times with the same proposal, with same news. ‘Yes, it is 20 million’. One year passed, then two years. ‘Now yes, we are giving 20 million’. And I am saying: well, and where are the first twenty million which they brought? Because it has already been two years and we are not seeing any results of these 20 million in our community. Are you deceiving me or are you telling me this to keep me quiet? … As a result of this, we took a theme called ‘20 million’ and we started to inquire in these zones, which are the most unprotected ones from the places where I live.”
“San Justo is a neighborhood where people have opinions, but do not act, so it is like to be the one who gives voice to those who do not speak. It is to say that you are affected by a problem, but you are not brave enough to express yourself about something that really affects you. Because if you are affected by a problem with your child, you will pull yourself up and you will defend the security of your child. This is not happening there on a community level. It happened at one point, but it was in a place distant from San Justo. I want to say, it belongs to San Justo, but it is a distant from San Justo. What happened was that people protested and there was a result at that moment. I am referring to the result, which was the response to the town’s problems by the state. But that was something minuscule, to be exact. But it opened the way so that San Justo could be seen as a resident neighborhood, I do not know, [maybe] dissident, it can be something like that. Because of this small group of people who decided to get united in order to achieve a better quality of life.”
Lorenzo Saborí Martínez, born in 1989 in Guantánamo, belongs to the group of young Cuban artists, who are using their talent and their success in the fight against the communist government of Cuba. Lorenzo comes from the eastern part of the country, from a marginal neighborhood of San Justo, located in the province of Guantánamo. In his songs, he identifies social problems and proposes solutions for them, while aiming for liberty and democracy of the country – something which does not please the communist regime. In the beginning, Lorenzo Saborí prioritized the style of reggaetón, but in the course of time he turned into a rap singer, since for him, rap is a music of his heart.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!