A Love Letter to Our Roots: Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway

By Luis Miguel Messianu

There are rare, sacred moments in life when art leaps beyond the stage and cradles your soul. Last night, Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway gifted me one of those moments—a celebration of Cuban culture so tender, so profound, that it moved me to tears and filled my heart with an indescribable pride.

Photograph by Luis Miguel Messianu

Though I was born in Mexico, my life’s journey led me to embrace Cuban culture in the most intimate of ways—through love. My wife, a luminous soul who fled Cuba at the age of seven, brought with her the memories, the dreams, and the spirit of a homeland left behind. Through her, and through my beloved in-laws, I have come to know Cuba not as a distant land, but as a beating heart within my own chest. And along the way, through countless friendships and brotherhoods, I have been welcomed into a community stitched together by resilience, rhythm, and an unbreakable love for life.

From the very first note, I was transported.

The music, the colors, the poetry of the stories—they carried me through the streets of La Habana, into the arms of a history that lives and breathes in every note of the rumba, every beat of the drum, every cry of the trumpet.

This was not just a performance; it was memory made flesh.

• A love song written in clave.
• rebirth of Guaguancó, vibrant and defiant.
• An ode to joy, to pain, to the enduring power of identity.
• The cast didn’t just perform; they bared their souls.
• Each paso, each canción, radiated with an authenticity that could only be born from lived experience, from cariño, from a sacred duty to honor those who came before. It felt as though the spirits of Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Omara Portuondo were there among us—whispering, smiling, reminding us that nuestro espíritu no se olvida—our spirit is eternal.

I left the theater with my heart brimming.

• Brimming with pride for a culture I have grown to call my own.
• Brimming with awe for the artists who brought this tapestry to life on Broadway’s most revered stage.
• And brimming with hope—hope that this is just the beginning of a greater, richer celebration of the stories, the rhythms, and the soul of Latin America.

Buena Vista Social Club is not simply a show; it is a prayer, a celebration, a homecoming.

And as a Mexican, as an honorary Cuban, as a proud Latino, and as a creative who has spent a lifetime championing our voices, I am humbled, inspired, and eternally grateful.