SATURDAY
For several years I had wanted to enjoy a live concert of one of the most important groups in my country. A musical group that I have been following for years and of which I keep all the musical albums they have released. Of them I keep a concert that they offered in the previous municipality where I lived and that was dedicated to the University Student Federation, organization that I directed in Moa, Holguin.
On October 29 my wife and I found out that this group called Good Faith would give a concert on Saturday, November 12, starting at 9 p.m., at the Amphitheater of Old Havana, in Havana, Cuba.
What a joy we felt. The reservation would be made online and we made it immediately.
November 12 arrived and we were already at the concert venue by 7 pm. My wife and I looked like two children anxiously awaiting a promised toy or a well-deserved gift and in truth, for us it was something more than that.
The beginning of the concert.
The clock didn't seem to be ticking and we felt like we had been there since the day before. As the hour approached we became impatient because we did not see the musicians appear. Suddenly we heard an explosion and we were startled, but it was the 9 o'clock cannon shot, a Cuban tradition that has been performed since Colonial Cuba and that is part of the tradition and culture of all Cubans and especially of the people of Havana.
Immediately after the cannon shot, the group began to play. It was as if all our problems disappeared for a moment and we just let our imagination fly and sing along with them many of the lyrics of the songs that constitute excellent musical jewels and others have been like hymns of two generations. When we looked around we realized that we were not the owners of the joy, but that it was shared and that everyone present was dancing, singing, chanting, crying, hugging or expressing their joy in different ways.
For two hours and 17 minutes Good Faith was giving and receiving love from the more than ten thousand people that congregated in the place. 23 songs were performed by these excellent musicians including a medley (21 of the authorship of its director and vocalist Israel Rojas Fiel, one by Joaquin Sabina and the other by Andres Hernandez) making a tour of the 9 musical productions made in these 23 years of music and creation that they have been as a group.
If you read this far and do not know this musical group, I suggest you to look for their work, so you can see the poetic prose of their songs and the lyricism they contain. Here are the numbers performed, in case you are interested and want to listen to them. The order in which they performed the songs was as follows:
- I am asked to mature
2.In leather
3.Praise
4.Don't play with my loneliness - Who Am I?
6.Slow Motion
7.Weddings
8.Potpourri
9.Spyglass - ¶, 3.14
11.Firefighter
12.The Charter
13.My Air
14.The most beautiful song in the world
15.Flying
16.Coffee
17.Give me War
18.Out
19.Patakí of Freedom
20.Algorithm - Beautiful Island
22.Free - Fears.
After dancing, singing, admiring, enjoying, the concert ended and we returned to our home without knowing that the next day a day of family love awaited us.
SUNDAY
I confess that my family is my safe temple, my infinite gain or as I have always said, my greatest treasure. And when I refer to my family I am not only talking about blood ties because there are people who do not have my blood and I consider them as such. Those who visited us yesterday, Sunday November 13, are part of this sacred group that is my family.
It had been three years since I had seen my eldest sister-in-law and her husband. In 2019 we met in Moa and, from that moment on, the world began to get complicated and Cuba did not escape the terrible consequences of Covid-19. I asked a lot for this meeting to take place because these two people are 68 and 77 years old and my sister-in-law's husband who is older than her is not in good health and I was afraid that we would not see each other again. How good that we were able to see each other and share!
Since it was nothing planned we went to our tastes and the things that satisfy us the most. The first thing we did was to embrace each other, then we called other family members to join us and then we caught up on our life projects, our difficulties, our immediate needs and everything that people who love each other do when they meet, especially if the time between the previous time they saw each other and this one is so long ago.
Of course there were parties, photos, dances, meals, hugs and tears. It is impossible not to be like that because family feelings are what feed our souls and drive us to keep on living.
This day went by so fast. I never thought a day could last 11 hours, at least that was the feeling when these people left.
The good thing about this weekend
The love given and returned to me, by the family members who came to see me.
To leave home and enjoy this wonderful thing called music.
Enjoying one of my favorite bands and doing it with my wife.
Change of routine and nourishment of the soul, through music and family.
The bad thing about this weekend.
- The only negative thing was how short the meeting with the family was and how short the concert was.
A FINAL REFLECTION.
It was an excellent weekend, despite the short duration.
Family gatherings both nourish and tear me apart. Every time I have to say goodbye to a family member a part of me breaks off and leaves. Perhaps it is one of the things that cause me the most pleasure and pain because when I give my heart I do it from the heart and saying goodbye to what I love bursts my soul.
Music is one of my favorite hobbies, too bad it is not, but fortunately there are groups that feed my soul and Good Faith is one of them because their songs are poems made songs.
I hope there will be many weekends like this, I do not ask much to be happy because my family gives me what I need to live and being with them is my greatest happiness and if this comes together with good music or other activity that feeds my soul then my happiness is complete.
Thanks to life for this weekend of family, music and GOOD FAITH.
The photos were taken with my samsung j2 cell phone.