The Cuban singer Aymée Nuviola reflected on the resilience of the Cuban people in the face of the crisis the Island is experiencing and expressed her perplexity at the question of whether Cubans are ready to say enough is enough.
In an interview granted to Tania Costa for CiberCuba, in light of the release of her live album recorded at the legendary Ronnie Scott's in London, the artist spoke about her political stance and explained when and why she decided to raise her voice about Cuba.
"I began to express myself after the Cuban people took to the streets in large numbers, and I always said: 'I will speak this way when I see that the Cuban people are truly prepared, that they are doing something for themselves,'" Nuviola stated, referring to the protests of July 11, 2021, the largest popular demonstrations in Cuba in decades.
The artist also clarified that she never denied having traveled to her country or having undertaken projects there, describing these initiatives as a form of vindication: “It was the slap of: 'Look, a Cuban immigrant recording Celia's music here, a Cuban immigrant living in the United States doing this here.'” However, she emphasized that the situation has changed. “Now I can’t go, I can’t set foot there.”
When Costa asked him if the Cuban people are ready to say "enough is enough," Nuviola replied candidly, "Hey, that question is tough."
The singer shared that just before the interview, she spoke with her husband, Paulo Siméon, about what their lives would have been like had they not been able to leave the island. "We didn’t know what would have become of us if we were living in this country now, if God hadn’t opened this door for us, because honestly, I wouldn’t have had the resilience that people have," she admitted.
For Nuviola, the key to that resistance has a grim explanation: "The formula is mental manipulation, I think, the lack of hope, of a horizon, of seeing something different."
"What leaves her speechless the most," she said, "is the everyday image of Cubans facing power outages. 'But I remain stunned: they turn off the electricity, and there’s no fan, yet they cool off with cardboard and bring their beds out to the street and sleep on the wall, on the Malecón. And I think: well, then what? I mean, what more is there?'"
From that reality, the artist concluded that change in Cuba will not happen gradually. "That's why I've always said it will have to be something that goes bam bam bam," she stated, leaving the phrase open-ended.
Nuviola also rejected any opportunistic interpretation of her activism. "One must be consistent, responsible, and not opportunistic. I'm not going to say something now just because it suits me, or act like I'm suddenly on their side... That's not how I feel," she stated. She concluded with a line that encapsulates her stance: "I will never go against my own people, my own community. I will never do that."
This statement adds to a series of political remarks that the artist has consistently made in recent years. In May 2026, she asserted that Raúl Castro "must be removed by force", and in February of that same year, she described Díaz-Canel's speech as "all a lie", denouncing the hunger, lack of medicine, and blackouts faced by the Cuban population.
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