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Does everyone remember that bizarre duet that Santana did at the Oscars a few weeks ago? I turned away because I am pretty tired of Santana at this point. My friend and I joke all the time about the overused guitar riff that he uses on every frickin' song for the last fifteen years. Don't get me wrong, I was a Santana fan, but now he has turned a little too commercial for my tastes.
Well, now that he has lost his previously entertaining musical abilities, he has also apparently lost his mind as well. Val Prieto over at Babalu blog has found a letter written by one prominent Cuban-American musician who sent Santana a letter concerning his choice of apparel at the Oscars. Val translates it in to english for us-
I learned through our mutual acquaintance Raúl Artiles that you will soon play a concert in Miami, something I would not recommend, as you showed the stupidity of appearing at the Oscar Awards proudly donning a large crucifix over a tshirt with the stereotypical image of the Butcher of La Cabaña, which is how Che Guevara is known to Cubans who had to lamentably suffer under him at said prison.
One of these Cubans was my brother Bebo, incarcerated there precisely for being a Christian. The same one who always bitterly tells me how he could hear from his cell the firing squads at dawn murdering those who without trials would die screaming "Long Live Jesus Christ."
The guerilla with the starred beret is much more than what's depicted in that ridiculous motorcycle movie, my famous colleague, and combining Che Guevara with Christ would be like entering a synagogue wearing a Swastika necklace. And it is also a slap in the face to those young Cubans who in the '60s had to hide to be able to listen to your records, Imperialist music, as Rock & Roll was defined in the slang of the Argentinian tramp and his partisans.
Please forgive the fact that I write you in Spanish, but I just don't think I have enough words or mastery of the English language to express my indignation at your irresponsible attitude. And believe me, as an artist I wish you good fortune, because you will need it, Carlos...especially in Miami.
I found the whole segment at the Oscars a bit unsettling as it seemed to glorify Che' as some Jack Kerouac style Central American hero, when actually he helped murder many innocent people. But coming from Hollywood, color me unsuprised.
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