Referring to the world of his time, José Martí said that it was a like "a broken wing." The calamities that provoked the battles for power in this century have once again given us that same sad image. That is why we should value the work of those that try to keep our flight unaltered.

Now that ambiguous and contradictory speeches seem to have profaned the senses- or like Silvio would say: "What is truth missing/ that they want to disguise it?"- the poet restores the value of great words; and at the same time, he gives testimony of mankind’s sufferings, of its anguish towards death, of its precarious but always renovated hopes. Like Camus said: "the world I live in disgusts me, but I feel solidarity for the people that suffer in it." And one of Silvio Rodríguez’s attributes is, precisely, his solidarity in the battle and beauty of life. That is why the slight rip in his voice seems to be born from the very same heart-rending stories he sings. Because Silvio’s songs, which have been cheered on great stages, also belong to the plazas in small towns, to the universities, to the factories, and to the prisons.

We live in the middle of a great confusion, in a time of lamentable grouping, in which economics try to set a price on human qualities. That is why Silvio asks himself: "What does a human being needs/ to keep in touch with himself? /And you, while trying to excel, /leave behind the human magic/ and go interpret another role."

I found something in a previous song that identifies us: that desire to "keep playing as an underdog,"(from "El necio") to restore the values that the stoical Guevara, coming back on his Rocinante, defended with his life; fighting for those words that are capitalized: Homeland, Freedom, Justice; for that Communion he always wanted, for those close ties of free men.

Now that the historic gesture has matured, Silvio proposes once again that we go "in search of a beautiful/ and revel dream," "riding in a horse, erasing ignominies, miseries, and hunger." Because the poet can, and should, talk to us again about the utopia; because he is capable of seeing beyond the apparent fatality of history.

Because of his human quality, Silvio Rodríguez is one of those men that, in the words of Camus, "overcome obstacles thanks to the power of their word and rebellion." And his poetry has the high value acquired only when the ink is faithful to the blood.

Ernesto Sábato

Santo Lugares, March 10, 1998