Juan Formell asks to play Calle Ocho fest

Cuban Colada
February 4, 2010
Renato Perez and Frances Robles

Los Van Van leader Juan Formell said he wants to play Miami's biggest Latin music event, Calle Ocho, on his visit to Miami last week. The 67-year old bassist and bandleader made the statement Friday, Jan. 29th during an interview with Al Fuentes, program director of WXDJ-El Zol 95.7FM, one of Miami's top Latin music stations.

"Desde ahora estoy lanzando la idea... se lo estoy mandando a decir a los Kiwanis, que inviten a los Van Van a los carnavales de la calle Ocho," Formell told Fuentes on the air last Friday. "El sueno de cualquier artista es que su musica trascienda mas alla de la politica y de los gobiernos."

The Kiwanis Club of Little Havana puts on Calle Ocho carnaval, in the heart of Little Havana, in March. In the past they've been known for blacklisting artists who performed in Cuba.

Fuentes, a Cuban-American who said he'd just recently discovered Van Van's music, courtesy of recent exiles in Miami, had been playing the group's songs on El Zol for several months before Van Van's Jan. 31st concert at Miami's James L. Knight Center. The station is owned by SBS, which has recently been surprisingly receptive to visiting Cuban artists. In December the Cuban groups Charanga Habanera and Buena Fe, who both appeared in Miami in a number of packed shows, appeared on SBS radio stations in Miami and on SBS owned Mega TV Ch. 22, including Maria Elvira Salazar's talkshow. Formell also appeared on Mega TV's talkshow Esta Noche Tu Night.

The appearances seem to be another indication of a change in attitudes towards cultural exchange with the island, a change that has become more apparent since, and was partly sparked by, the Juanes concert in Havana in September. I'm unclear about whether and how much that change extends to other areas - agricultural sales, dropping bars to travel, or the embargo itself. But cultural exchange is a relatively safe area for opening up.

Interestingly, SBS - the second largest Spanish language radio chain in the U.S. - is owned by Cuban-American businessman Raul Alarcon Jr. whose father, Raul Alarcon Sr., an old school businessman with old school exile views, was adamantly opposed to this kind of presence by musicians from the island on any of his radio stations.

Although conservative exile AM talk radio in Miami still attacks Cuban musicians visiting the U.S., things are different on the FM music side. Many of Fuentes' listeners and Mega TV's viewers are younger, and if they're Cuban, they've likely arrived more recently than AM listeners. Fuentes says he was clued into Van Van by his audience. And numbers talk for radio and advertisers. There were 3500 people at Van Van's concert at the Knight Center, and 350 protesting outside.

Formell reached out in another way, in a kind of overture to Cuban-American musicians during the interview I did with him in Key West on Jan. 28th, where they played before heading up US 1 to Miami. There Formell said he'd push to allow Cuban-American artists like Gloria Estefan and Willy Chirino perform in Havana, IF they'd promise not to make political statements - just like he has to promise when he comes to the U.S.

``We didn't come to the U.S. to do any kind of politics or ideology. If you ask me a political question, I'll answer you -- I'm not mute,'' Formell told me. ``But this is not about sharing an idea or an ideology. You can think one way, I can think another. But we're talking about music.''

``If these musicians, Cuban artists that could work in Havana, assume the same position, I think they can count on the support of Cuban musicians that live in Cuba,'' Formell said. ``I can push a little to start this idea that artists at the level of Gloria Estefan or Willy Chirino or many artists that are in Miami that want to go to Cuba, but they will respect the ideology of Cuba.''

I don't know how Gloria or Willy would feel about not speaking up in Havana, but somehow I don't think they'd agree. And I don't know whether the Kiwanis would welcome Van Van to Calle Ocho, though I also doubt they'd be up for it. But Formell is one of the most significant cultural figures in Cuba - when he talks, people pay attention. Whether he's purely speaking for himself, or on behalf of someone or something, I also can't say. But what he's saying is new.

source: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2010/02/juan-formell-asks-to...

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