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

Man, I was crying, man.

Really?

Yeah, I was crying, man.

Yeah.

First of all, you know, I've been here in the United States for 20 years.

And I never think that I was going to see this day, you know?

Really?

Because it has been 50 years, 53 years, since the United States, you know, broke the diplomatic relationship with Cuba, and nothing happened in Cuba, you know?

Everything is the same.

Now, everything is going to change.

Today, a collaboration with a fantastic program, Radio Ambulante.

Luis Treas comes to us from them.

This is a story that predates the stuff you've been hearing in the news.

In many ways, it's maybe a tiny, dark preamble to all of that stuff.

It's a story about Cuba, the power of music, and a group of Cuban kids who decide to opt out.

In this crazy way that when Luis Treas told us about it, we almost couldn't believe.

So the reason we called up Vladi is that we wanted to hear the backstory of all of this.

Well, I was born in Pinal del Rio in 1964.

Tell me about what it was like for you to be a kid.

I was happy because in Cuba we didn't have any information.