“El Tarzán de las quelas”, a musical theme performed by Alejandro García “Virulo” and Kelvis Ochoa to ridicule the so-called “coleros” and the people who gather all over Cuba in the few markets where commodities are sold, provoked the outraged reaction of hundreds of social media users.
The song and the accompanying video, produced by the Ministry of Culture (MINCULT) and the state label EGREM, were published on November 26, 2020 and barely received broadcast, but after his recent exhibition on national television, people found out about his existence.
“Virulo”, who is also the author of the song “Don’t get involved with Cuba”, MINCULT’s response to the San Isidro Movement and the 27N collective, jokes in the lyrics of “El Tarzán de las colas” from the anecdote that he circulated last summer about individuals who, as early as the morning, they climbed trees near the shops to queue without being detected by the Police, which banned the crowds from those places.
This solution, among others used by people to shop in the middle of the serious deficiency that the Island suffers from before the Covid-19 pandemic, is commented by the letter that ensures that “there are people who take advantage / of so much need / if they are angry / it is bad to sprinkle / it is bad to allow / and it hurts us all ”.
The number, which since its premiere on YouTube until the end of this note has added just over 3,500 views, 200 “dislikes” and less than 100 “likes” reactions, has provoked harsh criticism on social media. .
“This product is added to the list of clunkers with which the Cuban power distracts attention from the problems it has, has created them and stubbornly refuses to solve them.”, noted artist Julio Llópiz-Casal on his Facebook wall.
“It is extremely useful to insist that cholera is to blame for so many Cubans today having nothing to bring to their meals to eat (…) In the same way, they insist that Covid cases are on the rise because people I do not know if the current Cuban economy is collapsing (as Abel Prieto said on December 5 in front of a group of young artists) because of the embargo and not because of the megalithic inability of the central government to release the productive forces, energize the system and energize yourself in passing, “he said.
Also, the artist Janet Batet commented in the publication itself: “The naturalization of the tail is already a rude and cynical aberration. To blame the cholera, more than the same: that of” give it to the one who did not give it to you “. “People are trying to channel their genuine frustration against another victim generated by the same system. What sinister characters are these who lend themselves to such a bad game. Shame on others. I wonder how I can sleep.”
“The worst thing is that these people have lived under capitalism for many years and I doubt that they have queued in Cuba … they are dirty.”Sahily Borrero pointed out, referring to the years in which Ochoa and “Virulo” lived in Spain and Mexico, respectively.
Also, the artist Camila Lobón, a 27N activist, emphasized on her own wall: “It is terrible to trivialize the tragedy in the service of the power that provokes it and at the height of their ages, it should not allow such clumsiness, if not hypocrisy. Because I doubt you’re letting these musicians line up. If they do, unless they are enlightened or masochistic, they would know that there is no humor in hours, days, months, years, of life and work wasted in poor nutrition and bad life. “
In turn, journalist José Raúl Gallego recalled: “When you go to call those who put their art or work“ paid ”in order to criticize what is not in Cuba, remember that this“ anthem against anger ”and other similar topics are sponsored (paid for) by Ministry of Culture, Institute of Music and EGREEM (public money, from all of us) “.
The video of the song went viral as the official media, MINCULT, UNEAC and Miguel Díaz-Canel himself, among other officials, attacked the issue of “Homeland and Life”, which former Minister of Culture Abel Prieto described as “a music booklet “and” a strategy associated with changing the mandate in the United States and the fear of the most extreme groups in Florida of a transformation of bilateral policy. “