Cuban officials say this shift is a perfectly natural development, born of the dire circumstances that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's primary economic patron, and the resulting inability of Cuba's government to be the all-powerful patron of the arts it had been since the revolution. After four decades of pushing young talent through formal schooling for music, dance, film and other art forms, Cuba found itself with a surfeit of artists and a shortage of creative outlets to provide them. We had a world where we had trade with the socialist countries, and that world disappeared. It was necessary to transform ourselves. Once there was only the state.
Cuban artists act like artists all over the world now.
At the height of the group's success, the state held all the strings, setting up tours outside of Cuba and pocketing the proceeds and the royalties from records cut at the state-owned recording studio. Cancio's father was paid a monthly salary in Cuban pesos. But some bureaucratic control rods still prevent American Cubamania from going thermonuclear. Since its Miami appearance, the group has split up, the bulk of the members forming a new band, La Charanga Forever. Even more troublesome for Cuban musicians and artists are restrictions on the American side of the equation.