When we Cubans say La Bayamesa, we immediately associate it with something very beloved, a powerful symbol of national identity. It evokes different works and moments under the same name. It is the music of the first national anthem composed by Perucho Figueredo in 1968. In this case, Cuban patriots were searching for a relationship with the French Revolution and its La\u00a0Marseillaise.<\/p>\n
In the 20th century (in 1918), the great composer Sindo Garay composed those precious notes\u2014in a song that bears the same title, but with the added name of Mujer Bayamesa (\u201cBayamo Woman\u201d)\u2014and at some point we have all hummed \u201clleva en el alma\u2026\u201d (\u201ccarries in her soul\u2026\u201d).<\/p>\n
In this article, I would like to focus on the first song, chronologically speaking, the one from 1851. The authors of this sentimental journey were the important poet Jos\u00e9 Fornaris, the lovesick musician Francisco Castillo, and a young lawyer with advanced ideas who had studied in Europe and went by the name of Carlos Manuel de C\u00e9spedes. He still had not freed his slaves, and nobody referred to him yet as the Father of our homeland.<\/p>\n
Dying of happiness and love
\nThe window of the beautiful Luz V\u00e1zquez , which looked out onto San Salvador street in Bayamo, could be considered as a tableau of infatuation, or the terrain of gallantry; an area closed in with railings that propitiated wooing but made betrothal difficult. The elements of this small space and the masculine face\u2019s fleeting visit remind us of Lorca and Bernarda Alba, who used to call her daughters \u201cwindow-sitters\u201d in an disparaging tone.<\/p>\n
In reviewing the lyrics of this lovely song and taking into account the commentary of its chroniclers, the idea grows stronger that this composition, a conspiracy of the impassioned Castillo and his friends, is about the reconciliation of a couple that has had a temporary falling out. It does not seem to be about a possible fianc\u00e9 reaching out his trembling fingers, pursuing a profile, or wondering about a whisper in the dark, but about a young husband who does not want to lose his beautiful brunette and who serenades her. The formidable line of \u201cdying of happiness and love\u201d is preceded by others that evoke moments of loving fulfillment.<\/p>\n
The tenor Carlos P\u00e9rez sang this melancholy anthem on the night of March 27, 1851, seeking as his reward to replace anger with loving memories, and for Luz to let her face be seen in the Cuban night.<\/p>\n
Fornaris forgets literary glory for a while; C\u00e9spedes recurs to the refinement that he obtained in his university years in Havana and Barcelona and sets out to accomplish something important, a more intimate, but not a lesser task: to bring about the happiness of a couple. While many places in Cuba are named after the great Carlos Manuel for his role in the independence struggle, the street in Bayamo\u2014where Luz V\u00e1zquez seems to always come to her window\u2014is now named C\u00e9spedes in memory of the musical accomplice to the continuation of a passion and the flowering of a family.<\/p>\n
Do you not remember, gentle woman from Bayamo,
\nthat you were my dazzling sun,
\nand smiling upon your languid brow
\na soft kiss I planted with love?<\/p>\n
Do you not remember that happy time
\nwhen your pure beauty enraptured me
\nand on your breast I bowed my head
\ndying with love and happiness?<\/p>\n
Come to your window railing smiling;
\ncome and listen, lovingly, to my song,
\ncome, do not sleep, turn to my tears,
\nalleviate my gloomy pain.<\/p>\n
Remembering past glories,
\nlet us dispel, my darling, our sorrows,
\nand bow both of our heads,
\ndying with love and happiness\u2026<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Luz V\u00e1zquez y Moreno, born in 1831 in the city of Bayamo. Considered one of the city\u2019s most beautiful women, she married Francisco del Castillo y Moreno and they had seven children.<\/p>\n People say that the beautiful serenade that took place under the Luz V\u00e1zquez\u2019s window on March 27, 1851, was a successful attempt by her husband to win back his wife. Luz was about to leave him after finding out he had been unfaithful to her. In desperation, Francisco recurred to the complicity of his cousin Carlos Manuel de C\u00e9spedes and his friend Jos\u00e9 Fornaris, who composed the lyrics, and Francisco and Carlos Manuel put music to what is now known as Cuba\u2019s first romantic song.<\/p>\n It was a serenade of patriots. Carlos Manuel de C\u00e9spedes was the originator of Cuba\u2019s independence struggle. Most of Fornaris\u2019s poetry reflected his passion for Cuba. Francisco, who had pro-independence ideas, died one year before the start of the war, but Luz and their children joined the struggle from the very start. She was one of the first Bayamo women to set her own house on fire when it became clear that the Spanish would retake Bayamo in the year 1869. After that, she took her children and left for the swampland, and she lost them one by one in the struggle.<\/p>\n She returned to her house in ruins fleeing the persecution of the Spanish army and there she lost her two daughters. Embracing one of them, desperate with sadness, Luz V\u00e1zquez died, the great woman who inspired one of Cuba\u2019s most beautiful songs.<\/p>\n On the site where Luz V\u00e1zquez\u2019s home once stood, now there is a commemorative building, at No. 160 Calle Carlos Manuel de C\u00e9spedes, between Perucho Figueredo and Lora streets, in the El Cristo neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we Cubans say La Bayamesa, we immediately associate it with something very beloved, a powerful symbol of national identity. It evokes different works and moments under the same name. It is the music of the first national anthem composed by Perucho Figueredo in 1968. In this case, Cuban patriots were searching for a relationship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2546,"featured_media":20536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13930],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33679],"class_list":["post-20313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technologies-of-communication-and-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n