The so-called marginal neighbourhoods or ghettos here in the east share a common historical background and that is that they have not been able to overcome the social brake that was imposed on them. Most people living in those neighbourhoods are black, have low-income and mostly live in unfavourable conditions. These places are barely attended to by the government and you can see many broken and dirty streets here. Add this to the reality of today's Cuba which does not allow people to get out of those conditions easily and it’s clear that a new colonising era is being repeated. We continue to be made invisible by those who are supposed to answer to us and as a consequence these neighbourhoods are live with a constant tension. However, some people are using art and traditions to save people from the same fate and it’s here where the elements of culture and music are born and play an important role. In almost all houses you’ll find gigantic audio equipment (often people may not have anything else) and because they play the music loud it offers a temporary escape from societal conditions. It is normal see constant parties and happiness alongside a deep down full on sadness in neighbourhoods in the east.

 

The "Pumpunes" were street parties where most of the genres and rhythms that entered the country became widespread. These frowned upon festivals were the centre and synthesis of culture. Normally it consisted of a person (at that time they were not considered DJs, but rather musicologists or audio operators) who put their equipment (generally made by themselves from parts of turntables and installed baffles made with boxes) on a street corner - the same corner where people sold drinks, food and drugs - and played music which encouraged people to come out and dance.

 

Many breakers and rappers from the east came out of the Pumpunes, but I want to talk about a street that accompanied my childhood in the ghettos of Santiago de Cuba, which, far from being marginal, was full of traces of culture and was popularly known as "the block of Pirolo”.

 

Alfredo is a retiree from the Cabildo Teatral Santiago who has previously spoken about the importance of the Cabildo’s for the culture that we witness today. He was a musician for a long time, a first level percussionist and actor, then deputy director and finally an administrator due to the structural changes that allowed musicians and others to reach management positions. He tells me about the Rumba.

 

In the colony enslaved black people had the possibility of having their parties and downloads on Sundays - within the limits that were allowed. In the barracks and rustic houses built for the slaves there existed "the touches" drum, which gave way to the creation of the Rumba as we know it. Rumba was born in the ports - especially the ports of Havana, Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba - where the workers and enslaved black people invented activities and made improvised and rudimentary instruments from boxes and drawers. The cod box, that container for the fish that was brought into the ports, became a drum and from there the Rumba began to migrate towards the towns and communities and began to develop variations particular to each area including Yambú, Columbia and Guaguancó.

 

At present, the rumba has more openness and amplitude because it is monitored by promoters who took it on as part of their work in the so-called "marginal neighbourhoods". Rumba has had a greater development because the same promoters have given themselves the task of cleaning up the image of the rumba and many rumba cultists have had the opportunity to join different folkloric groups in the city. On November 30th 2016 rumba achieved an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" designation by UNESCO in part thanks to those cultural promoters who are people born in a particular neighbourhood, who like rumba and feel the need to support it.

 

Alfredo's rumba began in 1969 after he left the military school commonly known as "Camilitos". He joined a rumba group in the "Los muchachos de ahora" neighbourhood who did spontaneous activities in the community. They took rumba to sugarcane camps and had the possibility of going to festivals which helped its proliferation and growth ensuring it would not be repressed like other manifestations of culture. Coming to compare "the block of Pirolo" with Miami 8th Street, Alfredo's rumba was already known in France, the US and other countries around the world. From 1995 it began to grow even more and when he founded a rumba club "La Rumba de Alfredo" that neighbourhood also began to get famous and the community found a space where on Sundays they could come together and do this social activity. Other groups (including "Rumberos de Cuba" and "Afrocuba") from different towns and provinces came to his club to meet and share as well as "Los muñequitos de Matanzas" an emblematic group who preferred to perform on the street rather than in a location determined by the Government.

 

The phenomenon of the rumba created by Alfredo came from his fascination for this rhythm. Since he was a child he attended a rumba called "Punta de Plancha" every Sunday which was led by the famous Miguel Vitue – a director of the famous conga from Santiago de San Agustín. Miguel (already convalescing due to an illness he caught on a tour of Spain and prostrate in his chair) asked Alfredo not to let the rumba fall in "Mexiquito", a poor neighbourhood where the event happens and thus the legacy continues.

This activity drew the interest of the Institutions of Culture (political organisms under the Ministry of Culture that were created in 1976 which respond to the Communist Political Party of Cuba who regulate cultural policies and control everything that moves in terms of art) to the space. Being the centre for state promoters (who programmed rumbas every Sunday) this place suddenly became a tourist product and tour operators began to sell the place as a destination. In Elier Álvarez's essay he explains this phenomenon and describes how state institutions want to control everything that moves - especially in culture - and take over everything that could represent problems or gains. The state wasted no time in selling this tradition which of course lead to the stoppage of the rumba. Alfredo received little support from the same institutions who now demanded a mandatory program to sell rumba to the tourists.

Many sociocultural studies by Jordan Hechavarría Stable, Felix Kindelán Delis and Alfredo Ruíz Duboy have come out of "Pirolo's block" and it became a cultural desire to not let this tradition die. Every Sunday a demonstration was shown and many dancers of current folklore who are part of famous groups now started from there including: Septeto Santiaguero, Folklórico de Oriente, Folklórico Cutumba and Folklórico Cocoyé. Together they have managed to change this marginality into a social change mentality where music and dance are the main protagonists. It was a way to “rescue” the youth from their so-called "marginality" and integrate them into cultural spaces with social approaches. The Rumba Abierta club - a project that began 12 years ago - was handed over to younger promoters seven years ago by Alfredo so that they could continue the activity. It doesn’t have the same boom as before, but it continues to this day.

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The name of the rumba in that ghetto was "Cuadra de Pirolo". Pirolo, who was a very charismatic merchant, lived in that neighbourhood and when the rumba was set up, he sold drinks, snacks and supplied artists with the same products. This created a micro-community and everyone who found the rumba felt the synergy and charisma of this man (who had no association with the cultural movement that had been created) who has somehow managed to insert his name into history.

 

The rumba has been a fuel for the inclusion of other cultures in Cuba and in the east. The Mustelier brothers - responsible for many of the cultural changes in the east - are pioneers of Rasta culture in Cuba as well as being promoters of Hip Hop in this part of the island. The Mustelier brothers are a family that come directly from rumba. Ibrahim Mustelier, known as "Chichi", became involved in the previously mentioned Cultural Institutions as a promoter from very early on. He was a rumba player and percussionist and over time he created similar groups throughout the island with one of them (Abureye Folk Ensemble) winning prestigious prizes at the Wemilere Festival - a festival that is still celebrated today and one of the most important in Cuban folklore.

 

José Mustelier, brother of "Chichi", was a fan of Jamaican music (the Mustelier family are Jamaican descendants) and Caribbean rhythms and almost all of their family come from near the naval base in Guantanamo. It was here, through a radio (in those times having a radio was a luxury and privilege) that they listened to Jamaican stations and José had his first clash with foreign cultures. Then through Channel 8 and Soul Train he had his first encounter with breakdance and became a B-boy around 1979/80. From 1981 he was one of the pioneers of breaking in Santiago - something that was easy for him to assimilate because of the music from Jamaica. Its rhythms soon became familiar to him and with this new dance fever that was emerging in Cuba he created one of the well-known groups of the time along with other pioneers “Jicoteo”, “El habanero” and “Black el americano”. They were famous in Santiago and competed with rivals from Havana and Guantanamo, but this would soon change since the province was seeing the beginnings of Rasta culture which swept away many of the breakers, including José Mustelier.

 

The Rasta movement in Cuba began in late 1978/79 in Santiago de Cuba as a result of an agreement between the Government of Fidel Castro with the Government of Jamaica. When a group of exchange students began to build the University of Medical Sciences they had Jamaican workers and students working on the project and this was the first direct contact between people of both cultures. It was where Manolo Bayeta, one of the first Rastas from Santiago, began to learn about the culture and music because the Jamaican workers were Rastafarians. This prompted many Cubans to enter the culture and with the same students translating the lyrics of the songs, they explained the origins of the movement in Jamaica and what it was about. They gave Manolo music, a bibliography and he joined José and the Rastafarian movement which was led by the late Maravilla, Juan Elías, Iván and his brother "Chichi" (who was in Havana at that time). José began to create dance groups with Jamaican rhythms that were mixed with breaking and this gained an important place in the province, obtaining awards in the festivals and activities of the Casa del Caribe (from which the Festival of the Caribbean was born). Together with his brother, they mixed all that with Cuban folklore and it was from this which Abureye was born.

José Mustelier went to live in Germany, leaving the movement in the hands of Ibrahim. At the request of his brother he studied the movement in depth and managed to present it legally, becoming a religious/cultural leader and eventually president of the Rastafari movement in Santiago de Cuba. He created an association that enabled sculptors, painters, artisans and artists thanks to the help of Eliades Acosta (a renowned Cuban philosopher and writer). Acosta was one of the leaders of culture in the municipality and had studied the Rasta movement so he was able to grant permission to Mustelier and demonstrate that it was not a political movement which went against the dictatorial Cuban state. The support of this political figure was essential for the movement since it offered the movement a place to develop.

 

However, the Rasta movement was heavily besieged by the police with its members sleeping in police stations up to three or four times a week. Since black people with dreadlocks were grouped together - in a society that abhorred inclusion and wore historical racism on its sleeve - it was considered a danger. In addition to being practically unknown in Cuba, Jamaican music and music from other cultures - for the reasons that are exposed here and more clearly in Elier's essay - demonstrate our country's politics and racism.

When the Rasta movement began, the first thing that the government of Fidel Castro did was associate it with an opposition movement. Since those foreign cultures represented ideological diversionism - a crime in Cuba - that's when the reprisals began including imprisoning people just for walking in the streets or for wearing dreadlocks and being black. This absurdity comes from history and we can see it with the Party of Coloured Independents in 1912 (see Los Independientes de Color by Serafín Portuondo Linares for further details). But thanks to the closeness of "Chichi" with official state agencies, Rasta was gradually accepted, was less repressed and reached a certain authority, which later helped to bring the necessary equipment to Cuba which would turn into the Hip Hop movement in Santiago de Cuba.

 

José Mustelier came back to Cuba from Germany at the end of the 80s and brought with him the first Sound System on the island which would accompany the new project "One Love". This came with all the international influence achieved by being a Cuban DJ in Europe, as well as bringing the best beats from the rest of the world (that were unknown in Cuba at the time) and helping disseminate the music, not only in Santiago, but people came from Havana to hear these new beats too. This exchange mostly came through a Rasta party that was held in a neighbourhood called "el callejón de los perros" (the alley of dogs) - another neighbourhood that thanks to music has managed to get out of the marginality with which it was treated. One Love is where many dancers who began breaking came to dance alongside other young people who started to create a flourishing rap movement in the province. In the early 90s - and with help from the Mustelier brothers - Elides Costa created the first Hip Hop festival in Santiago at the Ateneo Cultural. It offered a space to a movement that already existed in other countries, but which had only just began to be recognised here with MCs and dancers. These activities enabled a collective conscience and enabled similar events to arise simultaneously across the country. At one point José was known as the Kool Herc of Cuba.