{"id":249384,"date":"2022-02-17T14:28:56","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T19:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=249384"},"modified":"2022-09-26T13:39:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T17:39:13","slug":"an-unpublished-letter-from-celia-cruz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/music-culture\/an-unpublished-letter-from-celia-cruz\/","title":{"rendered":"An unpublished letter from Celia Cruz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contrary to what one might think, Celia Cruz never broke human ties with the people she loved \u2014 her family, friends and colleagues \u2014 who had remained in Cuba. Circumstances imposed her iron rules and forced her to adopt dissimilar ways to assert her affective presence. The much later moments in which she did not publicly empathize with some Cuban musicians who had emerged after her departure from Cuba are better known, but everything seems to indicate that Celia was faithful to her affections, no matter where they were.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among them, in a special way, were some women composers who created many of her songs. Among her first recordings, there are already two of them: the Cuban Carmelina Kessell (\u201cOcanasordi\u201d) and the Puerto Rican Myrta Silva (\u201cPara que sufran los pollos\u201d), authors of the only two songs that Celia recorded with the Gloria Matancera ensemble. Later, with La Sonora Matancera, and with the consent of its director Rogelio Mart\u00ednez, Celia included numerous guarachas, afros, boleros and sones montunos created by female composers, favoring their works over the overwhelming majority of male composers, and making several of them known. they.<\/span><\/p>\n

With \u201cMelao de ca\u00f1a,\u201d the famous guajira-mambo by Mercedes Pedroso, the chapter of female authors was inaugurated in the repertoire of <\/span>La Guarachera de Cuba<\/span><\/i>, followed by the creations of Elsa Angulo Mac\u00edas (\u201cSilencio\u201d), Grecia Domech (\u201cMi negro est\u00e1 cansao\u201d), Isabel Vald\u00e9s (\u201cMi soncito\u201d), Irma Murillo (\u201cPalmeras tropicales\u201d), Enriqueta Silva (\u201cLa cumbanchera de Bel\u00e9n\u201d), \u00darsula Gonz\u00e1lez (\u201cQu\u00e9 voy a hacer\u201d), the Venezuelan Tet\u00e9 Cabrera (\u201cContestaci\u00f3n a El Marinero\u201d), Oneida Andrade (\u201cAs\u00ed quiero morir\u201d and \u201cNo hay nada mejor,\u201d the latter co-authored with Jos\u00e9 Claro Fumero), Julia Ana \u201cJuly\u201d Mendoza (\u201cSaludo a Eleggu\u00e1\u201d and \u201cPara tu altar\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

But among them, the one she sang and recorded the most was Eridania Mancebo (Matanzas, January 18, 1911-Havana, November 27, 1993), the upper-middle-class lady who succumbed to her passion for Cuban popular music. Educated at the exclusive Las Ursulinas school, Eridania Claribel Mancebo y Vald\u00e9s had her first approach to music in her own family: her first piano teacher was her grandmother and then, as was appropriate, she continued in the best conservatories in her hometown of Matanzas. Little by little, her passion for guarachas, boleros, afros, was discarding her obligatory exercises with pieces by the great composers of world classicism. Not even her marriage to Francisco Sabas Alom\u00e1, a successful merchant, made her give up. \u201cShe was the most independent, rebellious and creative of the three sisters, and was able to carry forward her love of writing songs, in parallel to her status as a small businesswoman, since she opened and ran a small photography establishment,\u201d said her niece and executor, Maggie Eirea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eridania Mancebo\u2019s card for the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers, Paris.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eridania Mancebo\u2019s authorial catalog covers the decades of the 1950s and 60s and tells us that, as a composer, she was creative and groundbreaking, addressing genres that range from tango to rock-pop, including those she is most passionate about: guarachas and afros. Her songs were interpreted from Barbarito Diez, Miguelito Cun\u00ed, Lestapier, the Flores Vald\u00e9s ensemble, Bertha Pernas to Ra\u00fal G\u00f3mez, Leonor Zamora and Magaly Tars, among others. The legendary Arag\u00f3n orchestra made her samba-cha \u201cQue tenga sabor\u201d a great success.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the greatest triumphs were savored by Eridania listening to her compositions in the voice of Celia Cruz. The creative relationship between Celia and Eridania began with the guaracha \u201cUn paso pa\u2019lante, un paso pa\u2019tras.\u201d Although this guaracha does not appear among the studio recordings made by Celia, there is a record of a program on Radio Progreso from 1953 and it was collected on the CD <\/span>Celia Cruz en vivo, Radio Progreso 1953-54<\/span><\/i> (B\u00e1rbaro Records, B-226 ), where, with a longer duration than the usual record recordings, the improvisational qualities of La Guarachera de Cuba are clearly shown. The same thing happened with \u201cEl Negro Tom\u00e1s,\u201d another of Eridania\u2019s guarachas, whose radio record in the voice of Celia was recorded in the same series by B\u00e1rbaro Records. Celia premiered other songs of her, although she never recorded them: on the CMQ program Cascabeles Candado, she sang for the first time \u201cBajate de las nubes,\u201d \u201cOtro amor vendr\u00e1\u201d and \u201cMe ense\u00f1aste a querer.\u201d In a duet with Celio Gonz\u00e1lez and always with La Sonora Matancera, she premiered the guaracha \u201cNo le tires.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLa merenguita,\u201d also a guaracha, was the first song by Eridania Mancebo recorded in the studio by Celia, on January 30, 1956, arranged by Severino Ramos. In 1959 \u201cSue\u00f1os de luna,\u201d a lamento-afro with characteristics very different from the imaginative guarachas of Eridania, became another new success in the voice of Celia. Recorded in July and included on her LP <\/span>Su favorita Celia Cruz<\/span><\/i>, \u201cSue\u00f1os de luna\u201d became one of the songs that the U.S. press (<\/span>Daily Mirror<\/span><\/i>, 11-25-1959. \u201cCelia Sings Loud and Clear\u201d) highlighted when reviewing Celia\u2019s performances in her debut at the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles in November of that year, when she was still living in Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eridania Mancebo became a friends with Celia and the musicians of La Sonora Matancera through her songs, which they made lasting. In 1960, they left Cuba and Eridania remained on the island, where her songs continued to be heard in other voices, but not in Celia\u2019s. Twenty years later, \u201cSue\u00f1os de luna\u201d is re-recorded, now in the voice of Caridad Cuervo, another worthy guarachera, who as a child was compared to the great singer and encouraged by her, and now was retaking \u2014 although without mentioning her \u2014 some songs from the original repertoire of she who had been her mentor and inspiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

In October 1990, Celia was already back from the monumental successes achieved through her link with the New York salsa movement and her recordings with Fania Records. Her career continued to unstoppably expand. There were 11 days left until her 65th birthday and on a flight to San Antonio, Texas, to fulfill one of her many professional commitments, she wrote to Eridania Mancebo. Her former manager Omer Pardillo remembers that planes were places where she used to put in order her pending correspondence. This was not the case, but probably, the proximity of a propitious date for the recount and the recent death \u2014 on September 28, 1990, only 12 days before \u2014 of Carlos Manuel D\u00edaz \u201cCa\u00edto,\u201d the legendary singer and maraca player of La Sonora Matancera, and her great friend, motivated her. She never stamped her real name on a letter, nor a cable to her family and friends in Cuba. Here, for her friend Eridania, she was \u201cBarbarito\u2019s sister\u201d; before, it could have been \u201cThe cross-eyed,\u201d \u201cNenita\u2019s cousin\u201d or any other nickname that came to her. She never stopped writing to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The letter<\/b><\/p>\n

October 10, 1990<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

On a plane to San Antonio<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

My dear friend Eridania:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I know that this letter will surprise you and although I hope you have never thought that I forgot you, because I always ask my brother about you, I know that it must miss surprise you. I was always tempted to write to you, but with the fact that the letters were delayed or did not arrive, I was disappointed. Today, thank God, they continue to be delayed, but they arrive. A few days ago, I spoke with B\u00e1rbaro [her brother] and told him: give me Eridania\u2019s address again, now I am going to write to her, and here I am doing it. I am very well, the same for Pedro [Knight, her husband], Gladys my sister and her children and husband. I imagine that B\u00e1rbaro will keep you informed of how many beautiful things have happened in my life. These days somewhat sad because our brothers continue to abandon us. First Lino [Fr\u00edas, pianist of La Sonora Matancera], then Yiyo [\u00c1ngel Alfonso Furias, conga drum player of LSM] and now Ca\u00edto. It is known that we all go down that path, but we do not get used to thinking that it has to be that way. About Oneida [presumably, Oneida Andrade, the composer], I haven\u2019t heard from her in a long time. We used to talk from time to time and send each other Christmas cards, but not even that anymore. I haven\u2019t heard from her for many years.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Well, Eridania, receive that affection that I never stopped having for you and I found out how well you behaved with my Mother. A very strong hug and see you again. Your friend.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Barbarito\u2019s sister.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n