“Patria y Vida” or, Homeland and Life, is an intentional flip of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s mantra “Patria o Muerte," Homeland or Death.
The music video “Patria y Vida”, performed by several Cuban recording artists, has had more than 2 million views on Youtube since its release last week.
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It’s quickly become an anthem denouncing Cuba’s totalitarian communist government and crises like food shortages.
“The video in itself is a result of the continuing frustration amongst young Cubans, of the San Isidro movement that we saw two months ago, of artists and intellectuals demanding more freedom,” said Andy Gomez, former interim director of the Cuban Institute of Cuban and Cuban- American Studies at the University of Miami.
The global impact of "Patria y Vida" has prompted a loud and defensive response unusual even for the Cuban regime.
In a series of tweets, President Miguel Díaz-Canel denounced the videos message insisting the song will never "erase our slogan."
#PatriaOMuerte! gritamos miles anoche, con los aplausos de las 9 y el himno de Perucho Figueredo. Quisieron borrar nuestra consigna y #Cuba la viralizó en las redes. #CubaViva #SomosCuba #SomosContinuidad pic.twitter.com/xPMK0wLbWl
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) February 19, 2021
Yotuel Romero, Cuban rapper and lead singer on "Patria y Vida," spoke with El Nuevo Herald last week to explain the song and his frustrations with the Cuban government.
For Romero, to live in 2020 and still hear the slogan "Homeland and Death" is "difficult." In the song, Romero criticizes the government for advertising the island as a tourist paradise while "mothers are crying for their children who've fled the island."
