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Kaloian Santos

Kaloian Santos

Photo: Kaloian

Faustino Oramas, “El Guayabero”

Last June 4, according to his birth certificate, Faustino Oramas Osorio, "El Guayabero," one of the legends of Cuban music, would have been 107 years old. While I write this I have my doubts because, although it is known that the trova singer died in March 2007 at the age of 96, in his native Holguín many claimed that he lived to be more than a century old. Photo: Kaloian His life and his songs were in themselves a mixture of fables and anecdotes. In fact, his stage name came after he escaped from a town in eastern Cuba called Guayabero (now Mella municipality, in Santiago de Cuba). And all because of his Don Juan airs. He had fallen in love with the wife of the corporal of the rural guard. After the flight he wrote: "Trigueñita del alma no me niegues tu amor, / trigueñita del alma dame tu corazón, / nunca pienses que un día/ pueda yo olvidarte. / ¡En Guayabero, mamá, me quieren dar!/ ¡En Guayabero, mamá, me quieren dar!" Photo: Kaloian His sense of humor led him to use picaresque language in the texts of his songs. So much so that the bard was also baptized...

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