Explaining The Song That’s Defined The Uprising In Cuba

Plus, a Tiny Desk (home) concert from Vince Staples.

View this email online by Marissa Lorusso and Lyndsey McKenna Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images One phrase has come to represent the recent protests in Cuba more than any other: “patria y vida,” meaning homeland and life. These words are also the title of a song of the same name released earlier this year, but the significance and context are deeper and more complicated than a simple slogan. So we asked our colleague Ana Sayre of the Alt.Latino podcast to share some of the story around “Patria y Vida”: As a person who thinks, writes, talks and breathes music, you spend a lot of time trying to convince everyone around you that striking bars and seamless melody can be as significant to the universe as they are to your daily life. Enter “Patria y Vida,” the bold piece of resistance hip-hop that is taking Cuba by storm and standing as a shining example of music meeting a moment and catapulting it forward. Written by a group of Cuban artists – some in exile, some still in Havana – it has served as unofficial anthem for some of the largest anti-Cuban government uprisings to emerge both on the island and across the world in recent history. When the Alt.Latino team first heard about the song, which itself is a cleverly-named play on the longstanding mantra of the Cuban government, “patria o muerte” (“homeland or death”), we knew it demanded unpacking. What we ended up with was a week-long excavation of history and cultural references – not only those alluded to within the lyrics, but also living outside them. On this week’s episode – available now in the Alt.Latino podcast feed or wherever else you find podcasts – we talk to protestors and journalists on the ground in Cuba, historians overseas and one of the song’s writers; we unpack the island’s long history of music as protest, how oppression informs culture and even address the question of whether the CIA may be involved. As we journeyed to Havana and back in our reporting, one thing became clear: Music es el corazón de nuestra cultura. “Todo ha cambiado ya no es lo mismo,” Ana Sayre Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music There’s a new Kanye West record, but you can’t hear it yet – well, at least not at the time that this email is being written. On this week’s All Songs Considered New Music Friday show, you’ll hear about DONDA from someone who attended the album’s listening party in Atlanta, plus new music from Leon Bridges, a solo project from Chicano Batman’s Bardo Martinez and a Nina Simone tribute from the singer Ledisi and more.  Christone “Kingfish” Ingram hails from Clarksdale, Miss., the birthplace of the blues, and in recent years, he’s become one of the genre’s newest luminaries. His second album, 662, is an exploration of his home and an excavation of the blues. 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Tiny Desk NPR When Vince Staples released his recent self-titled record, he told NPR Music contributor Jenny Gathright that it was the album he’d always wanted to make. In his long-awaited Tiny Desk (home) concert, he recreates the sound of the record with the players who helped make it, peppering the set with his signature sense of humor between songs.  Also this week, we shared two sets that combine soothing sounds and heavy topics: from The Weather Station, who performed tracks inspired by the climate crisis in the woods of Mulmur in Ontario, Canada, and from Maple Glider, who performed songs about religion, identity and relationships in front of comforting landscape paintings. One More Thing  ⚾ Play ball! Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. 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