Pablo Milanés

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Pablo Milanés Arias (born in Bayamo, Cuba on February 24, 1943) is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana.

He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola. A pianist and guitarist whose Brazilian like melodies set him apart from the raw style of Silvio Rodriguez.

A number of artists have performed with him. Among them Silvio Rodríguez, Joaquín Sabina, Ana Belén, Lilia Vera, Joan Manuel Serrat and Víctor Manuel stand out.

Among his songs, "Yolanda", "Yo me quedo", "Amo a esta isla", "Yo pisaré las calles nuevamente", "Para Vivir", and "El breve espacio en que no estás" are especially well-known.

[edit] Political activism

On January 26, 2006, Pablo Milanés joined other internationally renowned figures and Latin American authors such as Nobel-laureate Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Benedetti, Ernesto Sábato, Thiago de Mello, Eduardo Galeano, Pablo Armando Fernández, Carlos Monsiváis, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Luis Rafael Sánchez, Mayra Montero, Frei Betto and Ana Lydia Vega, in demanding sovereignty for Puerto Rico and adding their name and signature to the Latin American and Caribbean Congress's Proclamation for the Independence of Puerto Rico, which approved a resolution favoring the island-nation's right to assert its independence, as ratified unanimously by political parties hailing from twenty two Latin American countries in November of 2006. ^[1] Pablo Milanés' public demand for the recognition of Puerto Rico's independence — in unison with other Latin American writers and figures in the cultural world— was obtained at the behest of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP).^[2]