Gente de Zona on Cuba: “It is the people who are marching”

The slogan “¡Patria y vida!”

MEXICO CITY -- The slogan “¡Patria y vida!” — “Homeland and life!” — is heard loudly during the demonstrations in Cuba. It is a verse of a song that has become the anthem of these protests and that emerged from artists who for the first time dared to express their disagreement with the government. “Patria y vida” is performed by Yotuel Romero, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo and El Funky, who change the Cuban revolutionary slogan “homeland or death” created by Fidel Castro to: “No more lies, my people ask for freedom, no more doctrines / Let us no longer shout‘ Homeland or death’ but ‘Homeland and life’”. “This is historic, this had never happened and people shout ‘homeland and life!’ in every street. We are very proud,” said Randy Malcom, from the duo Gente de Zona, in a phone interview from Miami. “We knew that ‘Patria y vida’ was going to be a song that was going to greatly influence the thinking of Cubans,” he added. “But we didn't know it would get so far and we are very proud, honestly, for being the driving force behind the Cuban people to take to the streets to denounce everything that this dictatorship does.”