Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 90

The term warrior has two definitions: 1. the literal
refers to "a person engaged or experienced in warfare”; 2. the figurative refers to "a person who
shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics." In today’s universal climate of the oppressor’s foot
pressing down harder on the necks of the oppressed, we have discovered an emergence of
community warriors: the ones who have taken the
risks to allow their art to be the advocate for a
people, culture/community and country. Some of
the world’s most feared warriors were not the Persians, Zulus, Spartans or even the Apache; they
were poets and musicians.
I sat down to interview both warriors, David “D.
Omni” Escalona and Raudel “Escadron Patriota”
Collazo, during an afternoon cook-out held at the
home of their gracious host Kenya C. Dworkin
(who was also our English-Spanish interpreter for
the interview). Both artists share a common intense love of people and country, which is illuminated in their individual musical form. One comes
from a compelling spiritual place as scared as
reading a Rumi poem and the other with all the
power of [American rappers] Public Enemy or
NWA. Yet both artists are rooted in a deep committed of unification of the country and people of
Cuba.
David “D. Omni” Escalona
He introduces himself as a musician, as an artist:
his name is David Escalona, and he goes by his
artist name, David “D. Omni.” I asked him about
the voice of spirituality in his music and how it
seemingly reaches in your soul, calms and calls
one to action at the same time. “Just as there is a
market demand, there is a spiritual demand and as
a human being I have certain demands on myself,” David said. He first felt there was something more to life at a young age - something he
did not find in school. Dropping out of school at
16, he began to study the great religions in search
of peace. David said, “I felt this desire to abandon

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things. I wanted to be in a place where there was
no politics or social rhetoric.” His path to discover this peace took him through the exploratory
study of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hare
Krishna, Judaism and even the Masons.
“I began to meet other people who were concerned about their spiritual condition. We would
get together and dialogue.” David shared. These
people were poets and musicians. They created
videos and diverse arts. As a young emerging artist, David wanted to create a space for himself
within this new community. He is now 30 years
old and admits he has not found peace, but he has
matured through understanding. ‘Understanding’, he explains, is not just of the written word.
“It’s not the same to talk of love, than to feel love.
It’s not the same to talk about peace, than to be at
peace.” David is trying to find a state of being - a
state far beyond song lyrics, something he can
feel in his heart.
During his performance at the City of Asylum,
the audience was caught up by the horizontal and
vertical movements of voice and body - movements which reminded me of the Sufi Dervishes
(of the Mevlevi order) who use whirling as an active meditation aimed to reach perfection; as David said, he is striving to find the perfect peace.
(Sufi searches for peace through the abandonment
of personal desires and by listening to music, focusing on God, and spinning the body, which is a
symbolic movement of the solar system orbiting
the sun.) I did not understand all David’s lyrics,
but I understood the music and the movement. It
was contagious, and I wanted to jump from my
seat to spin and spin until I found my own peace.
David said that he is not a politician but an artist.
He is not directing any kind of political movement. The message in his songs may have some
kind of political focus, but he’s an artist. His rhetoric is the same as everyone else. What is found
in his songs just relays what goes on in his life on
a daily basis. “I myself have the same problem as
everyone else. The fact that I am permitted to