Revolutionary Music: CUBA 💃

Name: Revolutionary Music: CUBA 💃
Start: 2026-06-11T18:00:00
Location: Laurelhurst Park

Thursday, June 11 Meets 6:00 PM, rolls 6:30

Laurelhurst Park Chavez and Ankeny · Laurelhurst

Revolutionary Bicycle Club leads

9 past rides on our calendar since June

Who said they’d go

I went

Distance: 8–15 mi

About the ride

From the Shift calendar: hasta siempre, comandante che guevara

BIKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! Join us for our summer ride series where we roll around playing music from revolutionary movements that you should know about. The theme this month is CUBA! This will be a casual-paced 10 mile ride around SE, starting at Laurelhurst Park. We'll play songs associated with the Cuban Revolution as we ride and we'll make occasional stops to chat about history, including a stop at Ice Queen to eat cold treats while discussing the cold war.🍦🚀 Musically, you can expect a mix of electrifying jazz from 1970s Havana, Buena Vista Social Club, Nueva Trova, traditional folk songs, and more recent pop/rock hits inspired by Che Guevara and the Cuban cause. --------------WHY CUBA?--------------- In 1958, the iconic revolutionary Che Guevara teamed up with future Cuban leader Fidel Castro and used guerilla tactics to topple Fulgencio Batista, a dictator known for severe corruption and murders of thousands of dissidents. For many westerners, the details of this revolution (and post-revolution life in Cuba) have been obscured by a haze of anti-communist propaganda that's been floating around since the cold war. Chances are good that you didn't learn much about Cuba in high school history class, and if you DID learn about it, your education may have started and ended with a screening of "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" and a lecture on how communism is the reason we can't have nice things. This month, with Trump having suddenly declared Cuba a "national security threat" and with Rubio frothing at the mouth to bomb more civilians, it's a great time to look past the propaganda and understand the real history of Cuba and how deeply its people have been harmed by the United States throughout the past century. ---------------------------- An important note: we don't fuck with Spotify and don't use it for our ride playlists. It has deep investor ties to the US/Israel war machine, treats its artists poorly, and is actively making music stupider with its AI algorithm. If you wanna sync up with our playlists, let us know in advance so we can find the best way to share. Show more