Singer Randy Malcom jokes that he started learning about politics since he was in his mother’s womb.
Malcom, one half of the Grammy-winning reggaetón duo Gente de Zona, grew up in Cuba, where school children are taught the speeches of communist leader Fidel Castro, including a saying that means Cubans should be willing to die for their country: “Patria o muerte,” “Homeland or death.”
Malcom helped write, and sang, a song that became a chant in recent anti-government protests across Cuba, and that reverses one of Castro’s most famous sayings. It’s called “Patria y vida,” or “Homeland and life.” The duo collaborated with Cuban rapper Yotuel, and members of the San Isidro Movement, a group of artists who live in Cuba and have been protesting government censorship since 2018.
Related: Cuba’s promise of a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine
“In Cuba, they indoctrinate you since you’re a kid. They say ‘Homeland, or death, we will win,’” Malcolm said. “But it’s all lies. They teach you to defend a Cuba that’s for dictators, not a Cuba that’s for democracy or freedom of speech.”
For the first time, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has offered some self-criticism, saying that government shortcomings in handling food and medical shortages, and other problems, played a role in recent protests.
In the protests, many Cubans expressed anger over long lines and shortages of food and medicine, as well as repeated electricity outages. Some demanded a faster pace of vaccination against COVID-19. There were also calls for political change in a country governed by the Communist Party for some six decades.
Related: Protests across Cuba over food shortages, high prices
In this interview, Malcom spoke to The World’s Latin America correspondent, Jorge Valencia, from Miami, Florida, where he and his music partner, Alexander Delgado, now live.
Malcom and Delgado performed “Patria y vida” last Wednesday for a crowd waving Cuban flags in Miami.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. AP contributed to this report.
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