Havana Protests Attempt to ‘Usurp’ Name of Historic Cuban Band

HAVANA TIMES — Cuban authorities have protested a move out of Miami to create a band with the identical name of the historic Cuban band “Riverside,” founded in 1938 and still active on the island today, EFE reported.

The Cuban Institute of Music called this a “reprehensible” act and an attempt to “confuse” the public and “adulterate” the historical and cultural heritage of the island. Legal measures to challenge that action have not been ruled out if that effort proceeds.

For his part, the director of the original Riverside, Raul Nacianceno, feels the situation shouldn’t reach a legal stage since it would be “impossible” to separate that band from Cuba, where it accumulated a repertoire of more than 600 songs, including such tunes as the symbolic “Vereda Tropical.”

Artists such as Cachaito Lopez, Adolfo Guzman, Manuel “El Guajiro” Mirabal, Tito Gomez and Rodolfo “Peruchin” Argudin, were members of that historic group at various times.