More than six decades ago, communists took over Cuba while shouting “Homeland or Death!” All these years later, a new call has risen from the squalor of the oppressed Cuban people. Their new call is “Patria y Vida,” which translates to “Homeland and Life.” Yet, this mantra of freedom fighters does not come from a political organizer, but from a group of hip hop artists who call Cuba their home.
Their hit song “Patria y Vida” has largely been credited with launching the protests Americans saw in horror from their television screens. The song’s refrain declares “You, five nine. Me, double two,” which refers to the year 1959 and 2020. Communist dictator Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959, with encouragement by Leftists (he was even welcomed to speak at Harvard), and the song refers to that takeover as the “evil revolution.”
Yet to the vaccine police, the outpouring of anti-communist protests in Cuba is supposedly about access to vaccination, rather than pent-up opposition to decades of dictatorship. The popular song which inspired these protests says nothing about vaccines, and everything about freedom.
The singers plead for their government to “Stop the blood from running for daring to think differently.” Obviously, any claims tying the Cuban uprising to vaccines is ridiculous. Just like any other people group yearning for freedom, they just want the right to be able to think, speak, and act independent from the iron rule of their communist leaders. Later in the song, the singers declare, “The people are tired of putting up with it. We are all waiting for a new dawn.” As these words are belted out on the music video, images of brave Cubans resisting their oppressors fills the screen. Something tells me the “new dawn” they are waiting for won’t come in the name of COVID vaccines.
The duty of every free American is to stand in support of other peoples who yearn for their freedom. The Fake News media who distort and dilute the meaning of the Cuban uprising are doing the work of the communist dictatorship. They are not allies of freedom. The Cuban people know what they want. Patria y Vida!
