[NYTr] Cuban Musicians Share Their Story with Young Canadians

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Cuban Musicians Share Their Story with Young Canadians

Bayamo, Dec 17 (acn)--A group of Canadians on a cultural exchange trip
to Cuba, talked Sunday evening with the band Quinteto Rebelde, which in
1958 was part of Fidel Castro's guerrilla fighters in the Sierra
Maestra.

The encounter took place at the popular camping site La Sierrita de
Nagua, where the group has been staying since their arrival on December
10. La Sierrita de Nagua is located in the Sierra Maestra mountain
range in the eastern province of Granma.

The visitors, most of them young people, were fascinated by the story of
the band that was formed to boost moral amongst the rebels and to play
on the Radio Rebelde station, founded in February, 1958, by Commander
Ernesto Che Guevara.

Amidst combats between the guerilla fighters and pro-American troops,
the quintet would play songs on loudspeakers to dishearten the enemy
troops, they explained. The musicians said they began as illiterate
coffee farmers who used to play music as a pastime. Since 1957, the 
group has been based in La Plata, the site where Fidel Castro set up
its headquarters in May, 1958.

There are four founding members still with the band: the quintet's
director, Eugenio Medina Munoz, his brother Alejando (guitar), Alcides
and Ruben La O Zamora(tres guitar and vocals).

The Canadian group arrived December 10 in Cuba on its fourth cultural
exchange trip organized by the Solidarity with Cuba Committee of the
city of Trois Rivieres, Quebec. The visit was coordinated with the
traveling community-based project known as Guerrilla de Teatreros, who 
have been performing in the Sierra Maestra since 1992.