For the first time, the voice of one of Cuba’s most important Afro Cuban singer-songwriters is available to an English-speaking public in this deluxe bilingual edition, Universal Songs by Gerardo Alfonso.
Known for his unflinching and objective analysis of contemporary Cuba, Alfonso explores the many challenges and contradictions inherent to life on the island. As Musicologist Robin Moore writes in his introduction, “Alfonso chooses themes that are significant in a social sense, as well as politically charged, but he treats them in a way that avoids dogmatism.” This representative selection of lyrics, translated by Robert Nasatir, has examples of Alfonso’s earliest writings of the 1980s through to the present, compositions that coincide with the most complicated and transformative decades in Cuban history.
I am history, I am culture
I have glory, I have stature
There is no vengeance, no mischief
Patience is my armor
Sometimes I dream of slave ships and the foreman’s whip
I sing with all my strength, don’t forget, my song is universal.
Gerardo Alfonso, “My Song is Universal”
GERARDO ALFONSO (1958-) joined the Movimiento de la Nueva Trova (New Song Movement) in 1980. He is well known throughout Cuba for the songs “Sábanas blancas” (“White Sheets”), a tribute to the city of Havana, and “Son los sueños todavía” (“They’re Still Dreams”), an homage to Ernesto “Che” Guevara. His music combines complex harmonic and rhythmic ideas with a pop sensibility. He is also one of only a few Afro Cuban trovador singer-songwriters, and he often explores issues of race and racism in his compositions. Among his recent recordings are La ruta del esclavo (The Route of the Slave) (2022), La cima (The Peak) (2009), A orillas del mar (On the Seashore) (2005), and Raza (Race) (2004). He has also published an autobiography, Son los sueños todavía (2013).