“Everyone thought we were crazy, but by the end of the year, everyone thought we were brilliant.”
After watching their native Cuba undergo serious political shifts toward legal reform and social justice for LGBTs, Fermin Rojas and his husband sought to cast the country’s first-ever gay chorus back in 2014.
To their utmost surprise, they were met with an overwhelming amount of applicants during an open call in Havana, especially considering the country’s lack of social media. The five men who were ultimately chosen, all professional musicians, would together make Mano a Mano, an all-male group that is now touring the United States to promote LGBT rights worldwide, for the next six weeks.
“It’s the people who suffer when governments disagree,” Ernesto Lima Parets, the group’s musical director, told The Washington Post. “To be here is a big step. We can show that there are no problems between the people of our countries.”
To learn more about Mano a Mano’s ongoing tour, and to read The Washington Post‘s profile on the artists, click here.
