Another Song for the Cuban Five

_ By Yamylé Fernández Rodríguez

Since she was a girl, Camaguey-born Marlene Jacob discovered her liking for writing poems and songs that she eventually read or sang in political rallies organized during the early years of the Cuban Revolution.

In spite of not being a professional song-writer, the passion of writing has been part of her during her lifetime as the best of her pastimes, even when she takes up another trade.

In her house –located on Cielo Street in the city of Camagüey- , Marlene conceived a piece of music that she specially dedicates to the five Cuban antiterrorists that have been unjustly imprisoned in the United States since 1998.

“I found inspiration in their cause because I think that it is an injustice the fact that five compatriots are serving long sentences in U.S. jails, for defending and protecting all of us from terrorism”,  says Marlene, who is a security guard in a company of the State-run managerial group AZCUBA, which recently replaced the Ministry of Sugar (MINAZ).

“One of the members of Giron band set music to the lyrics of this song, and luckily I could sing it on September 28 in a rally held in my neighbourhood to mark the 51st anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)”.

When this poetry and singing buff was asked to hum, at least, a fragment of her song, she didn’t hesitate in belting out some of its verses, as bursts against injustice.

“A ellos que dieron todo
A ellos que esperando están
Hoy le brindaremos nuestro apoyo y amor.

A ellos les dedicaremos
En la lucha nuestra fuerza y verdad
Por ser tan valientes
Y confiar en la Revolución.

Vivan los Cinco Héroes,
Que vivan en amor y paz
Ustedes se lo merecen
Por su firmeza y lealtad.

Vivan  los Cinco Héroes
Y que pronto les den libertad
Ustedes se lo merecen
Pues son héroes de verdad”.

Marlene Jacob’s verses are simple, but in each line we can see the feeling of myriads that make art an effective vehicle to express the wish of the whole people of Cuba who are demanding their immediate return.

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