FRAGMENTOS DE UNA ENTREVISTA A FRANK DELGADO. SAQUE USTED SU PROPIA CONCLUSION.

Another recurring theme. For many Che Guevara is a symbol of hope and commitment. In the United States Che's image is commercialized, on everything from t-shirts to Taco Bell commercials. Has anything similar transpired here? Why do you sing about Che?

Frank Delgado - If Che were alive and knew the extent to which he was used as a cult figure and an object by capitalism he would probably die all over again. But in the case of Cuba there hasn't been this kind of sudden "Chemanía," because a form of it has always existed. Here there has always been a very

pecial treatment given to the figure of Che. In elementary school the slogan of the Pioneers is "¡Pioneros por el comunismo - Seremos como el Che!" (To build Communism - We will be like Che!). At times they say it like automatons. Some are able to internalize better what Che was all about. For me, Che was a very special person. You'll never hear me beating him down. He did what very few people do: put his life on the line for an idea in which he strongly believed. Maybe I'm not the kind of guy to give so much of myself. I would not be the one to go to Bolivia to make a revolution. I wouldn't be the one to go to Africa to make a revolution. I probably wouldn't have even left Argentina. I would have stayed there in Rosario and wouldn't have done anything but just be a normal guy. But in any event, to us normal folks Che is an example, is he not? He is loved in Cuba by people on the left, people who consider themselves to be progressive. He is hated and vilified by people who don't share the ideas of the left. Then there are some who say he was a murderer, others who say he was a robber. Some say he was the last romantic of this century, others a very utopian type. Perhaps in my case what he leaves behind are certain romantic things, utopias, dreams. The idea that maybe we have some options, and that these ideas are not quite yet dead. In this pragmatic and commercialized world symbolized by money, a big dose of utopian ideas can serve as a kind of venom for people to provide a little bit of balance and equilibrium to their lives.

		Do you consider yourself a revolutionary? Frank Delgado - Sure. I always learned that a revolutionary is someone who is dynamic, who is immersed in a process. I believe that I am a revolutionary in various aspects. Not in my music, because I have never invented anything. But as a person, I feel bothered by injustice. I’m always wanting to turn the screws a little bit more. In my treatment of my work I have a sense of solidarity with people, but not out of feelings of charity. I believe in social justice, and part of my artistic life speaks to issues of injustice.