I was lucky to catch Eric Mendez – a 47 year old singer songwriter of 25 years, and with a long back catalogue of published recordings – playing in Iris, in my opinion the best restaurant in Old Havana, on Pena Pobre, right on the mouth of the bay.
Eric is from Cerro – a municipality to the southwest of town that was home to some of the richest families in colonial Cuban, but has fallen on hard times these days. Unfortunately, when he described the lifestyle of a present day singer songwriter, there were echoes of this decline. Since the pandemic, he has spent half his week playing classic Trova to tourists, financing his ability to spend the remainder staying more true to his artistic ideals of lyrical and musical expression, with more freedom to innovate and publish.
Nevertheless he remains focussed on building on the foundation of traditional, folkloric Cuban music, its fusions with jazz, blues and rock and roll roots. He bemoans the mechanic of the international music industry, driving the audience away from this to cheaper thrills – citing trap, reggaeton and Cuban urban music. The Cuban record industry runs counter to this, but its voice internationally is drowned out. He highlighted how many people are tired of listening to and reflecting on the Cuban situation, so they rather than listening to traditional music, they are likely to connect with urban music. This provides a route to international success, at the cost of authenticity. He holds tight to a way of life of receiving from, and giving back to, his musical heritage and says he would never swap this for fame and money.
I said that in the UK we think of a lot of music as being about teenage rebellion and that I came to Cuba looking for that, but not really finding it. Is it there? Eric says so, but the system prevents it from becoming too established. He reminisced about his youth following Cuban punk bands Rotura, Garaje H and VIH (whose name appears to be a nod to the hardcore punk Friki movement who infected themselves with HIV in order to escape to the relative comfort of a sanatorium).
Back in the present day world he played Silvio Rodríguez’ Te Doy Una Cancíon beautifully to an audience of loudly talking tourists.
El Grito 