Albita Rodríguez: Her band was the first to completely escape from the Cuban dictatorship.

The Cuban singer Albita Rodríguez, who led an unprecedented escape from the Cuban dictatorship with her entire band in 1993, revealed that she was close to giving up on art, but managed to succeed in the United States.

After living in Colombia for three years and eight months, where she reached stardom, the singer was forced to return to Cuba, as revealed in an interview on the program "Se dice de mí" from Noticias Caracol, published this Saturday on YouTube.

However, the disappointment of facing the regime was so overwhelming that he chose to emigrate to the United States with his entire band.

Rodríguez challenged the Cuban government and emigrated from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas, United States.

"Everyone wanted to leave. With the money we had saved, we were able to get to Mexico. We were there for a day, but were warned that they were sending people back," confessed the artist, who also pointed out that being Cuban and Colombian, they had a double risk of being prevented from passing."

When crossing the border, Rodríguez was sure she would never sing again.

"My obsession, what I wanted, was to take my family out of Cuba, especially the girl, whom I wanted to have another possibility of life, and to move my family forward, I said 'I have to work in whatever shows up that gives me money to be able to do it'," shared the singer, whose dream reflected the longing shared by many Cuban emigrants: to facilitate the exit of their loved ones from the island prison.

However, their family also gathered courage and managed to escape from the government. After a long and distressing journey by boat, and being lost at sea, they finally managed to reunite.

Now with her loved ones in the United States, the Cuban artist only had left the challenge of succeeding on American stages, as her stardom in Colombia did not guarantee her success.

Rodríguez admitted that thanks to Emilio Estefan, he was able to sign a contract with Sony. Additionally, he managed to have his own program, which went on to win the prestigious Emmy award.

Despite having lived decades in the Cuban exile, the singer has expressed multiple times her love for her home country and its music. However, she has also stated that she has no plans to return, as she believes it would be a betrayal to herself, considering the political reality has not undergone significant changes.

Her position was made very clear when she demanded the release of the independent artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who was arbitrarily imprisoned by the regime of the Island a few years ago.