Two countries, two cultures.
"Tu eres Cubano?" (“are you Cuban?”) - why this title?
The origin of this question in my life comes from a very angry and disappointed choir director in South Florida. I had volunteered to play my instrument with a very well know Cuban choir during a music festival in Miami. Unfortunately for me, I was not a professional musician and was not aware of a particular Afro-Cuban rhythm the director wanted for the song. By the day of the first rehearsal I had not been able to practice at all, due to a very sick hospitalized grandmother. All in all, my heart just wasn't in it, but I went anyway. During the rehearsal I could not play that beat if my life depended on it.
So the director angrily inquired “y este niño es Cubano?” (“Is this kid Cuban?”). Boy she got to me with that question. This was the first time in my life that anyone had questioned my "Cuban-ness", something I had always been very proud of. To have the question come as the result of my inability to play an Afro-Cuban beat; well that was just salt on the wound.
My musician friends who like typical Cubans have a knack for getting under anyone’s skin, have not let me forget it (but that’s another story). I've developed a fondness for the question and proudly say "Yes I was born on the island”. The question in many ways is emblematic of the identity my generation often has to explain.
We get asked this question often; common in a community where there is a very large population of Cuban-Americans; but the other side of that coin is that we are Americans too. We were raised in the U.S., speak the language fluently, have sworn allegiance to The Constitution, and this is home for us. Yet we are immersed in two cultures simultaneously. Sometimes it is difficult to explain to those who have not lived the experience. On just about every subject matter we have an extra point of view or perspective, and that’s OK. We argue when we disagree, and also argue when we do agree; difficult to understand but fun to watch.
I love my people, I cherish the freedom I enjoy and I love these United States of America!
The origin of this question in my life comes from a very angry and disappointed choir director in South Florida. I had volunteered to play my instrument with a very well know Cuban choir during a music festival in Miami. Unfortunately for me, I was not a professional musician and was not aware of a particular Afro-Cuban rhythm the director wanted for the song. By the day of the first rehearsal I had not been able to practice at all, due to a very sick hospitalized grandmother. All in all, my heart just wasn't in it, but I went anyway. During the rehearsal I could not play that beat if my life depended on it.
So the director angrily inquired “y este niño es Cubano?” (“Is this kid Cuban?”). Boy she got to me with that question. This was the first time in my life that anyone had questioned my "Cuban-ness", something I had always been very proud of. To have the question come as the result of my inability to play an Afro-Cuban beat; well that was just salt on the wound.
My musician friends who like typical Cubans have a knack for getting under anyone’s skin, have not let me forget it (but that’s another story). I've developed a fondness for the question and proudly say "Yes I was born on the island”. The question in many ways is emblematic of the identity my generation often has to explain.
We get asked this question often; common in a community where there is a very large population of Cuban-Americans; but the other side of that coin is that we are Americans too. We were raised in the U.S., speak the language fluently, have sworn allegiance to The Constitution, and this is home for us. Yet we are immersed in two cultures simultaneously. Sometimes it is difficult to explain to those who have not lived the experience. On just about every subject matter we have an extra point of view or perspective, and that’s OK. We argue when we disagree, and also argue when we do agree; difficult to understand but fun to watch.
I love my people, I cherish the freedom I enjoy and I love these United States of America!