K-pop seduces youth in communist Cuba, birthplace of salsa
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
HAVANA - In Cuba, the home of salsa, young people are being seduced by a music phenomenon from a place that could hardly be more geographically – or ideologically – remote.
K-pop, the South Korean sensation that has already swept over much of the rest of the world, has made it to the shores of a communist isle that once banned the music of the Beatles.
“I am myself (with) K-pop. I can free myself,” said aficionado Mikel Caballero, a 17-year-old who, like many of his peers, spends hours each week perfecting the choreographed paces of South Korean sensations like BTS and Blackpink.
Since Cubans gained access to the mobile Internet just five years ago, much has changed in a nation where the one-party state nevertheless retains a firm grip on many aspects of life.
There are ride and food delivery apps, social media, and access to some entertainment sites such as YouTube.
Some Cubans now celebrate Halloween, one of the most quintessential festivals of the United States – which has held sanctions against the Caribbean nation for more than six decades.
‘I like everything’
Mikel’s friend Samyla Trujillo has been a K-pop devotee for the last four of her 14 years on earth.
“When I saw BTS... I told myself: ‘I want to dance like them,’” Samyla told AFP, her hair dyed bright red in homage to the fashion of her idols.
“And then, when they showed me Blackpink, I thought: ‘Ooh, they’re girls, I want to be like them!’”
She has posters and T-shirts plastered with K-pop artists’ faces, and watches K-dramas with subtitles.
In the house she shares with her grandmother in the capital Havana, Samyla regularly transforms the lounge into a dance floor for her and Mikel to practice the steps for their K-pop routines.
It is serious business: one day, Samyla – who was in a traditional Caribbean dance troupe as a child – hopes to become Cuba’s first home-grown K-pop idol.
Samyla Trujillo and Mikel Caballero watching a Korean drama in Havana on Oct 24.
PHOTO: AFP
For both Samyla and Mikel, the dream is to go to Seoul one day. “I like everything from there,” Mikel told AFP with bright eyes.
Cuba has diplomatic ties with fellow-communist nation North Korea, but not with its democratic neighbour to the south.
‘Completely new’
Young Cuban K-pop fans gathering in Havana’s San Fan Con square on Oct 21. South Korean music, which has already swept much of the world, has now made it to the shores of a communist isle that once banned the music of the Beatles.
PHOTO: AFP
Mr Alejandro Achin, 21, said K-pop “is a completely new experience” for Cubans, who are “used to always the same rhythm, the same routine” of salsa and reggaeton.
In 2019, Mr Achin realised a dream of performing in Seoul after winning an amateur K-pop competition with his group in Havana.
For Ms Hohyun Joung, who teaches at a South Korean cultural and language centre that opened its doors in the Cuban capital in 2022, K-pop has a universal appeal that transcends politics.
“In Korean songs... most of them express the concerns of young people, what they think, their concern about the future,” the South Korean national told AFP.
Director of the Korean Cultural Centre and Language School Hohyun Joung at a class with young Cubans in Havana on Oct 30.
PHOTO: AFP
The centre where she teaches with four Cubans has 150 students and not enough space to admit more, as the appetite for everything South Korean just keeps growing.
Student Ia Gonzalez, 20, has been learning Korean at the centre for several months and gets excited every time she recognises a word in some of her favourite K-pop songs.
“Korean is not difficult. There are difficult parts, but when you really love what you’re doing, you invest impetus and passion, and you can learn,” she said. AFP
