Pedrito Calvo, one of the most iconic singers of Cuban popular music, reaffirmed his decision to stay on the island in a video posted on Facebook where he claims to be happy despite the hardships the country is facing.
"I am here with all my difficulties, I live my life. I work for it, I fight for it, because nothing falls from the sky for me. But I am happy because I like this courtyard," declared the legendary vocalist, who turned 84 years old on April 17.
The singer also outright denied having stayed abroad during any of his trips overseas: "I don’t stay anywhere. And if I had wanted to stay, I would have stayed a while ago in the United States."
His words come amid one of the worst economic, energy, and social crises that Cuba has experienced, marked by prolonged blackouts, food shortages, and a massive exodus that has emptied entire families.
Calvo himself acknowledges this phenomenon with a nostalgic yet unbitterness: “Young people are just filled with the excitement of boarding the plane and that.”
His family is a direct reflection of that diaspora. The singer revealed that he has 19 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, scattered among Mexico, the United States, Spain, Italy, and France.
"Once I managed to gather 10. Well, quite a bit. Because they were little too, they were in Cuba. But once they got bigger... They did this," he joked about the impossibility of bringing them all together.
In the same interview, Calvo spoke candidly about his tumultuous love life.
He admitted to having relationships lasting between 15 and 17 years, during which he had between three and four additional children.
According to biographical data, the singer has been married five times and has a total of 21 children.
Regarding his success with women, the artist attributes it to his approach: "I win her over because of the way I treat her, the way I speak to her gently and beautifully. Always loving her, always seducing her."
The statements are not the first to spark debate surrounding his figure.
In February 2023, his presence at a private party in Miami sparked significant controversy within the Cuban exile community when the presenter Alexander Otaola left the event upon seeing him, and actress Susana Pérez supported that stance by arguing that "there is a lot of pain in this exile."
Calvo's recent statements reaffirming his ties to Cuba are likely to reignite the debate between those who see him as a cultural icon and those who perceive him as a figure connected to the regime.
Born in Guanabacoa in 1942, Calvo was the vocalist of Los Van Van for nearly three decades, a group with which he won a Latin Grammy in 2000, before founding his own project, La Nueva Justicia.
Filed under: