Cuban brothers travel to US to become musicians

San Juan: Two brothers from Cuba embarked on a trek four years ago that took them to the US to seek political asylum and gave them the chance to become musicians.

Franklin Torres, 29, and his brother Maikel, 27 - members of the band FM5 - said their love for music began when they were small. They taught themselves to play the guitar and began performing in their late teens, calling themselves Generos del milenio. They toured Cuba as members of the Spectrum Band. However, the chance to achieve their professional objective was fulfilled only when they left Cuba to head for the US in 2007. They began a long and risky journey in search of their dreams that took them across Central America and Mexico until they crossed the US border without immigration documents, travelling on trains, buses and taking all kinds of risks. After getting asylum, they settled in Miami, a hub of the Cuban community in the US. One of their goals was getting the opportunity to sing before thousands of people, something they finally were able to do after an audition for the "Yo canto" competition on Telemundo. Telemundo is an American TV network that broadcasts in Spanish. It is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world. Since then, the musical director of "Yo canto", Marcos Sanchez, has devoted himself to directing the brothers` musical career. Recently, they released their first single titled "Sin decir una palabra". The song will be included in the brothers` debut album, which will be released soon and is scheduled to be the first of five albums that the Warner label offered to record for them. IANS