When Fabio Diaz settled in with 15 members of his extended Cuban family to watch Colombian singer Juanes' historic concert in Havana on television Sunday, he -- and the rest of his clan -- had mixed feelings. Diaz, who is 35 and came to Miami at 19, thought the event should have been staged in an intermediary location between the island and Miami, as a bridge between the two sides. And he wanted Juanes to speak out directly about freedom in Cuba.

But as he and his family watched the show, which aired live from Havana on three Miami Spanish-language television stations -- itself an unprecedented event -- Diaz said his feelings overpowered his doubts. ``What I loved was seeing so much of the Cuban people -- and I feel completely Cuban -- all together for a celebration and not for something political,'' Diaz says.

Much of Cuban and Latino Miami witnessed that celebration via their television and computer screens. Univision's Channel 23 in Miami drew 220,000 viewers for their five-hour long broadcast, and 140,000 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico watched on the network's website. Telemundo's afternoon-long coverage on its Channel 51 in Miami drew triple their normal viewership, and more than 600,000 visits to their website which streamed the show -- more than four times the usual web traffic for that time period.

Emotions in Miami were mixed about the show, which drew hundreds of thousands of people to pack Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion on Sunday for performances by 15 artists from six countries. (Spanish singer Miguel Bosé announced from the stage that the audience was 1.15 million).

A protest by exile group which brought a small steamroller to Calle Ocho to run over Juanes' CD's, sparked a counter demonstration that led to physical clashes between the two sides.

Some callers to radio talk shows were happy that, as one woman put it, ``young Cubans had the chance to feel happy for one day'' while others felt that the joyful image on television was far from Cuban reality. And some exiles remained disenchanted and angry that the show did not directly address problems and repression in Cuba.

``It's not about foreign musicians singing in Cuba,'' said Esperanza Brigante. ``A real concert for peace should start by denouncing the human rights violations that plague the island... because we all know this is a political show.''

But there was a strong, often emotional response at seeing the sea of young Cuban faces, and a sense that the concert signaled a turning point in exile attitudes towards Cuba. ``I was very moved,'' said Ana Maria Perez Castro, 38, who came from the island in 1979. She watched the entire concert at home with her 16-year-old son.

Castro said she cried during the performance of Cucu Diamantes, a Cuban-American singer with the U.S.-based group Yerbabuena. ``She's also Cuban and she left, and to see her going back and performing for her people in her country was very emotional,'' Castro said. ``I could totally connect to the message to break that barrier, that fear which is what keeps all this old mentality intact.''

Juanes, who was traveling Monday and could not be reached, was optimistic that the show had achieved his goal of helping to bring people together.

``Today the hearts of everyone here have changed. Cuba cannot be the same after this event,'' the multi-Grammy winning rock star told The Herald from Havana Sunday evening. ``This event reaffirmed the necessity for all of us to unite... The government of the U.S. has to change and Cuba has to change too. But this show of love and peace and affection is so important for both sides.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@