CARTAGENA, Colombia — “Patria y Vida.” Homeland and Life. The words are the brainchild of the San Isidro Movement, a small group of grass-roots artists that formed in 2018 to push back against censorship by Cuba’s communist government. And they are an inversion of the phrase “Patria o muerte” — “homeland or death” — which has been embedded in Cuban culture for decades. “Patria o muerte” was repeated often by Fidel Castro, is graffitied on walls in Havana, and emblazoned on money. “It is a propaganda that continues to be used by the government.”Members of the dissident movement played off those words in a rap song, “Patria y Vida,” earlier this year.

Source: International New York Times July 13, 2021 19:07 UTC