MIAMI, United States. – Last weekend, Cuban musician Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodríguez, known as Cimafunk, became the first artist born on the Island to participate in the renowned Coachella festival, in California, United States, according to a report from the AFP news agency.
From the festival’s Gobi tent, the musician offered an energetic show, according to the source.
“I am making my dream come true,” Cimafunk told AFP.
The artist has seen his career take impressive flight since the release of his first album, Therapyin 2017. Their second album, The foodreleased in 2021, solidified its success and expanded its fan base globally.
Cimafunk detailed that he will have a year full of new projects, including the release of a new album this summer and an upcoming performance at the famous New Orleans Jazz Festival.
In February of this year, the Cuban appeared at the White House, in Washington DC, during a unique event to pay tribute to the contributions of the Afro-Latin community to the history of the United States, according to a report by the EFE news agency. .
On his Instagram account, Cimafunk thanked the White House for including him “in their celebration of black culture” and said it was “a special moment” to perform his song Faustino Congo.
On the other hand, the musician’s presentation at the White House generated controversy among Cuban Internet users. On Instagram, the journalist and researcher José Raúl Gallego wrote to the singer that on the Island there were “black musicians and artists imprisoned in Cuba for saying what they think. It would be good to remember that and not just the ‘bridges of love,’” Gallego said.
This is not the first time that Cimafunk has received criticism for wasting his presentations to denounce repression on the island. A text by CubaNetpublished after the singer’s nomination for the Grammy Award in 2022, specifies:
In October of that same year, the Cuban Luis David Fuentes, creator of the blog The Kentubanostated on Facebook that, after a concert in Louisville, Kentucky, Cimafunk had refused to take a photo with a flag of the Island that read the phrase “Patria y Vida.”
“No, brother, not with that flag. I feed a lot of people in Cuba. Me and my musicians,” Cimafunk reportedly told Fuentes.
Despite this positioning, in 2020 the popular musician had already published a statement on his Facebook account in which he supported the San Isidro Movement and joined the claim that hundreds of young artists made to the authorities at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture ( MINCULT), on November 27 of that year.
“I would like to share my feelings about what is happening in our land: I am in favor of the right to express oneself and freedom of creation; of dialogue and non-violent actions, of expressing the concerns, desires and needs that our people have,” wrote Cimafunk, who said he was proud of his colleagues.
After his presentation at the White House, Cimafunk thanked Cuban-American businessman Collin Laverty, with whom he has maintained ties throughout his career. Laverty is the founder of Cuban Education Travel, a company that presents itself as “the main People to People tour operator.” In 2020, he also registered with Carlos Lazo and six other people the organization Puentes de Amor.
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2024-04-22 17:55:54
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