Son Corazon is based on interviews with Cubans living
in the United States,
Hispanic poetry and Cuban historical information
Artistic Director:
Ana Ines King
Music Performed by
Jose Angel Lorenzo & Orquesta
Timbason
Flamenco Guitars by David and Kathy
Robinson
Bass Recorder ands Bass Ocarina by
Marc Langelier
Drums and percussion by Kevin Davis,
Ram and Drums No Guns
ACT I
Nada Puede Dormir (Nothing can
sleep) 1492-1510
Like sending a ray of darkness
and dead over a lighted bullring
Defining what Goya and all Spain
had to represent…
a enormous bullring broken with
violence in two colors:
White and Black. White of sun and
luxuriance
Black, deep of shadows and black
blood clot
What horror, what horror far
away…
The blood takes the dreams away
Nothing can sleep… Nobody can
sleep
R. Alberti
Entre el Clavel y la Espada (Between the Carnation and the
Sword)
In 1492 the Catholic Monarchs of Spain
decreed that all Gypsies be expelled from the Kingdom or face execution.
Gypsies were given sixty days to leave. Some of them traveled to
the New World, Cuba in particular, where they were captivated by the
African-Cuban rhythms. They mixed the passionate fury of Flamenco and
the rich mysticism of Middle Eastern
dance with the powerful heat of Cuban expression.
A large-scale Spanish and
French migration to Cuba and the Caribbean coast of Colombia at the end of
the 18th century added more to the mixture of
sound that came from Cuba and certain
elements of music began taking shape.
Gitanos / Colombianas
Son y Guaracha (1950)
The Caribbean region, and Cuba in
particular, continued to be a cultural crossroads through migration. Following the
mass extermination of the Native peoples, the Spanish turned to the
Slave Trade for labor and brought captives from various parts of the
African continent to the island. In addition to this, because Cuba’s
geographical position made it a natural port of call, travelers from many different European countries settled on the island,
helping to form an population full of distinctive features. Despite the
differences between all of these cultures a common
characteristics united them all - the need to communicate.
El Carretero / Dos Gardenias /
Besame Mama / Como Fue
Ritmos del Alma (Rhythms of the
Soul)
If you are losing control because
of the rhythm in your soul, if you should be in bed, but you are dancing
on the street instead, that is the spirit of Rumba.
Rumba is fiesta, it is the music, and
singing and dancing that make up a party. Rumba was brought together by
people of African and Spanish descent who often found themselves at the bottom of the social
ladder and often shared in their struggles against oppression.
ACT II
Amor, Corazón y Lucha
There are men who struggle for a day
and they are good
There are others who struggle for a
year and they are better
There are those who struggle for
many years and they are very good
But there are those who struggle
over a lifetime
Those are the indispensable ones
Bertolt Brecht
Ojala / La Maza /El Unicornio
Azul / Gaviota, Music
by Silvio Rodriguez
Libertad!
There were three days…Three days
of hunger and misery in my life
Do you know what it means to want
to fly but not have any wings?
There were chains and lassos that
my soul wanted to heave off
With tears in my eyes I only
looked back
Chained were parents, family, my
people
Without waiting for an answer, I
embraced the ocean
And the waves called to me: What
happened, are you insane?
And my body was so tired, so
tired of struggling,
The minutes were hours and the
hours dragged on,
While weariness overwhelmed my
soul.
Do you know weariness that I have
to defeat you?
Do you know weariness that you
are stronger than any pain and fear?
Do you know weariness that I have
to defeat you?
My God, I have been swimming
endlessly…so many hours I know have passed
I feel myself in the same place,
I feel myself unable to advance,
I feel myself starting to die…
And the ocean tells me that there
somebody crying for my pain,
My mother, dear mother, I know I
am in your heart.
I see a light in the distance and
I can no longer feel my legs
Please understand me Mother, I
did it to avoid suffering, I did it for my motherland!
You are always in my heart, my
mother and motherland
And one day peace will bloom from
the seed everywhere
And then my beautiful Cuba, you
will no longer be in torment…
Las Manos de mi Tia (My Aunt's
Hands)
Desperate parents feared for their children’s future under Communist
rule. Between 1959 and 1962 more than 14,000 children were sent by their
parents out of Cuba to America unaccompanied, hoping to meet them later
My Aunt’s Hands
What I remember of 1967
is sleepy waiting
for the Abuelos and tias
to come from Cuba at last
So we could ditch my red-haired babysitter with the loud voice
and be watched by someone who was blood.
And then there was the night when they appeared
Their bodies like a pile of rubble in the door
Bumping into each other a bit
As they stepped through the marble halls of
Our dark American building.
Whom to go with?
My aunt, round faced, bending down -
Cooing ven, ven, hija
Stretching out hands
etched in a map of black hairline cuts -
the stamp of a forced year in the cane fields,
hacking her way out with a machete.
And how willingly I took in her rough hands.
Meg Medina
Revelion y la Salsa!
Són Corazón
