As a sea of revelers jammed Havana's Plaza de la Revolución, Puerto Rico's Olga Tañon opened the controversial Peace without Borders concert Sunday with a sentiment that, despite all the debate on both sides of the Florida Straits, simply could not be disputed:

``Together, we are going to make history!'' she yelled. And the multitude, wearing white and hoisting colorful umbrellas that did little to alleviate the punishing heat, cheered. Then Tañon kicked off her performance with a merengue that, at least in Miami, seemed to carry a double meaning.

``Es mentiroso ese hombre,'' she sang. That man is a liar.

But whether she chose the lyrics as a dig to either or both of the Castro brothers seemed less relevant than the overall, palpable joy in the plaza.

Then, at the very end of the show, a major surprise from Colombian pop star Juanes, who was criticized by a segment of the exile community for organizing the concert because they believed it would lend support to the Castro regime. Juanes, who had insisted the concert had nothing to do with politics, made it political after all, to much approval from Miami's naysayers.

He moved away from the day's ambiguities and shouted a straightforward ``Cuba libre! Cuba libre!'' (Free Cuba!) And then he chanted, ``One Cuban family! One Cuban family!''

Reached by phone in Havana shortly after the concert ended, Juanes said the day was indeed about much more than music.

``There aren't words to talk about something so huge, something that's so beyond music,'' he said. ``This is the power of art, the power of music. We're so happy because the people are happy, and that's what matters to us.''

The crowd, which Juanes said from the stage was estimated at 1.1 million, was mostly young people; many had arrived as early as 7 a.m. to stake out spots near the stage. Although several trucks around the perimeter dispensed cold water, many people in the middle of the crowd could not reach them. Dozens of concertgoers who had been in the sun for hours passed out.

Yonder, 25, and his girlfriend Yaima, 19, retreated from the front of the stage after Yaima fainted. She lost a shoe in the crowd. ``She bent down to try to find it but wound up grabbing somebody else's shoes that were lost,'' Yonder said. ``There is a lot of pushing and shoving. There are shoes and sunglasses all over the ground.''

(The couple did not want their last names printed.)

The likeness of communist hero Che Guevara towered over the plaza that has been the site of endless political harangues by Fidel Castro over 50 years of dictatorship. But judging from the dancing, singing and arm-waving, what mattered most in Havana, at least for a few hours, was the partying inspired by this unprecedented mega-concert.

MIXED REACTION

Toward the end of the show, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami) said in an interview with WLTV-Univisión 23 that the event had been a triumph for the Castro regime, because there was no mention from the stage about Cuba's human-rights violations or about the many political prisoners who were behind bars for opposing the government. But many others in Miami called it a good start in trying to bridge the divide between the island and the exile community.

Whatever the show's lasting effects, it was still historic. All of Havana seemed mesmerized; as one walked the city's streets every TV set seemed to be blasting the concert. Never had the plaza, where Pope John Paul II addressed the Cuban people in 1998, been used for a such a lighthearted purpose. Never had the Cuban people been treated to such a musical blowout by major foreign acts -- something for which the island is always thirsty.