Jad Abumrad / Chad (Radiolab host; primarily Jad Abumrad)

Hey, I'm Jad Abumrad.

This is Radiolab.

Yes, 1-2-1-2, mic check.

That's Luis Trejas of Radio Ambalante.

Let's go back to his story about Cuba and music in the late 80s and 90s.

And so far, a dude has made a crazy decision, a dude named Papo, to inject himself with HIV.

Would you call it a protest?

I think Papo would have called it a protest, but not the guys that came after him.

This is at a moment when there was a cultural war happening between the Castro government and anyone it deemed antisocial, which included kids with long hair who listened to rock.

And it was also a moment where if you were found to be HIV positive in Cuba, you were forcibly quarantined.

So Papo injects himself and he gets sent to the sanitarium.

And can you describe that place?

Like, what did he find?

Well, he found a beautiful place in the middle of the Pinar del Rio countryside.

It's full of palm trees, very green, very lush, farm animals roaming in.

And you went there?

Yes, yes, I was there.

I was there, and there are still farm animals over there.

Actually, they would roam in as a couple of cows and chickens.

It's like kind of an idyllic place.