Daniel Echevarria
11/23/15
MUSC0065
Nueva Trova is a Cuban music genre fostered out of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Its
significance rests within its origin as an intentionally politicized style. The lyrics are
characterized as an evasion from the mundane, a sonic space to think critically. The musical
movement dissipated along with the increasing harshness of unilateral rule in Cuba, and its tailend was rife with trite notions of love and solitude. I will be looking into examples chiefly in
Cuba but also the use of Nueva Trova to protest USA’s occupation of the Puerto Rican island of
Vieques.
With regards to critical analysis, I aim to analyze a rare instance of a musical form that thrives
off contestation as opposed to the views of individual artists. By explicitly stating a commitment
to politicized content the participatory nature of a movement becomes more real, and it also abets
the longevity of political consciousness. Nueva could potentially serve as the ideal form of
protest music, so I want to provide an in-depth contextualization of what worked and what failed,
and how traits of this genre can be applied to contemporary musical movements with a history of
contestation.
Sources
Robin Moore- Transformations in Cuban Nueva trova, 1965-95
Stephen Foehr- Waking Up in Cuba
Robin Moore, Music and Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba
Peter Manuel Popular Music of the Non-Western World
Jedrek Mularski. Music, Politics and Nationalism in Latin America