El Callejero (The Gadder)
By Zenia Regalado
http://www.guerrillero.co.cu/opinion/2004/marzo/elcallejero_inglesh.htm

I don't want his money / I don't want him to take me to foreign areas / I don't want to go in his car to Varadero / please do not confuse / that I am not a gadder. That is expressed by the song El Callejero (The Gadder) interpreted by Wassiry Lugo and his group Moneda Dura, which has been accepted by young people greatly.

It is well known that music, as a manifestation of art and culture multiplies messages and supports values, mainly because young people are who follow it the most and they are always on the look out of its changes.

With pleasure we have seen in these days how boys and girls of all ages repeat the lyric that is an open rejection to that denigrating behavior of selling body and soul before the presence of a handful of dollars.

Yes, because among the negative behaviors that have appeared in our days -although they are not a chaos like in other nations - are the prostituted people, devoted to "sexual favors."

And although in our city the phenomenon is not very common, we have seen some of them in the " Tours" (taxis) accompanied by foreigners. A bad example for those who begin to open their eyes in a very different world to that of decades ago.

For that reason we are glad to see a young Cuban interpreter to take to his artistic chore a song that is a chronicle of the reality in which lives, but from a reflexive and critical point of view, instead of using a tone of complicity and praise as we have heard in other songs that far from enriching, they impoverish the spirit.

El Boni, a song of La Charanga Habanera, is another of those topics -that although with a popular language- approaches facets of these days, as that of the young boy who is a millionaire not because he has a lot of money, but for being solidary and friendly.

There are lyrics that become true hymns due to their hit and are usually a boomerang if they incite violence and disorder, supporting anti values and marginal behaviors.

Also in Rap are written more elaborated texts today, as it was seen in the Cantata for Peace presented some months ago in this province and in which appeared in this artistic manifestation José Martí and Guillén's poems.

That is the sense of responsibility that should have every artist as a compromise with his reality.

Years ago there were groups that their presentations only attracted certain marginal sectors of the society that found there the enthronement of songs exalting bravery and vulgar expressions.

And in the current context in which so many actions elevate culture and contribute to the improvement of coexistence, it is necessary also to look at the artistic creation and in it to the musical one.

No creator should be unaware to these matters and to the moment that he lives. His benefactor breath can contribute to change darkness for light.

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Guerrillero Newspaper Electronic Edition Organ of the Provincial Commettee of the Cuban Communist Party in Pinar del Río. Director: Ernesto Osorio Roque. Assistant Director: Ileana Ramos Duarte. Head of writing: Marlon Rodríguez Estupiñán. Head of Information: María Isabel Perdigón. Design and Realization: Rolando Hernández Páez. Translator: José Luis Valdés Medina.