Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and leader of the nueva trova movement.
Background
Rodriguez was born on November 26, 1946, in the city of San Antonio de los Baños in central Cuba. His parents, Dagoberto Rodriguez and Argelia Domínguez, were tobacco workers. He inherited love of music and his musical abilities from his mother, who had been a singer in her youth and would have continued had it not been considered an unbecoming activity for a woman.
Education
Rodriguez is mostly a self-taught musician, as he received only limited musical training in piano during his youth. Nonetheless, he started to show his general artistic inclinations by the age of seven when he started to write poetry and to draw. As a schoolboy, he was often distracted in his classes and filled his notebook with cartoons. In fact, one of his first jobs was as a cartoonist. His family and relatives have characterized him as a child with deep sensitivities and imagination, and he has been labeled an idealist with a deep love for nature and for the humanities.
Career
One of the defining events in Rodriguez's life was tire Cuban Revolution of 1959. As someone who grew up in a working class family, he witnessed the hardships faced by poor Cubans before Fidel Castro's rise to power. He saw the revolution as a catalyst for change and as a way to improve the lives of people in his country. By the age of 15, he was working as a youth volunteer in literacy and education projects sponsored by the government. He eventually joined the Cuban Armed Forces. In 1964 when he was in the Cuban army, he started to play the guitar and to write songs. On leaving the military, Rodriguez started a friendship with a group of young writers publishing their work in a newspaper known as El Caiman Barbudo (Tire Bearded Alligator). A group of idealists filled with talent, they all shared similar views and concerns for Cuba during the turbulent 1960s.
Rodriguez debuted professionally in 1967 at the First Encounter of the Protest Song held in the Palace of Fine Arts in Cuba. This event is of major significance in modern Latin American music history, as it opened the door for the emergence of the Nueva Trova music movement in Cuba and eventually throughout Latin America. The singers and songwriters affiliated with this movement explored the traditional musical forms of their lands but built a message of social conscience into the lyrics of their songs. Their music acts as social and political commentary, and quite often as poignant criticism too. To a large extent, this genre has many similarities with the "protest songs" music being sung by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary in the United States. However, it has many more poetic and metaphorical qualities.
Rodriguez received artistic mentorship and support from La Casa de las Americas an organization that promoted Cuban culture and arts. It was at La Casa that on February 19,1968, Rodriguez, along with Noel Nicola and Pablo Milanes, gave a concert that established him as the leader of La Nueva Trova. During this period, he worked on the Cuban television program Música y Estrellas (Music and Stars) and received mentoring from many Cuban literary and artistic figures. With his friend and colleague Pablo Milánes, he became one of the members of the Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC (Group of Sound Experimentation at the Havana Film Institute) in 1972. His first solo album, titled Días y Flores, was released in 1975. By that time, he was already touring the world with his music.
In many interviews, Rodriguez has acknowledged the influences of other Cuban and Latin American musicians such as Lucho Gatica, Barbarito Diez, Sindo Garay, Benny Moré, María Teresa Vera, Vicentico Valdes, and Violeta Parra. He also acknowledges his early admiration of Tchaikosky, who had a great influence on him. He even credits American musicians such Paul Anka, Harry Belafonte, and Johnny Mathis with shaping his music (Correa 1997). He has also been heavily influenced by many of Cuba's native rhythms such as the son.
His music can best be understood by looking at it as poetry accompanied by music, beautifully crafted into songs. His lyrics reveal his poetic and idealist soul. These lyrics are highly symbolic and perhaps can be better understood as a chain of metaphors. Songs such as "Como esperando a abril" (Like Waiting for April) reveal his technique of linking a series of symbols into a unified poetic narrative. He is a master at creating surrealist metaphors that link such dissimilar elements as the morning clouds, a flower born from a train, and an old man's cape to create the thrilling feeling of new love. None of the many symbols that he uses makes much sense when looked at in isolation. However, when they are seen in totality, one marvels at his ability to select isolated images and blend them into a unified messages that are not only capable of delivering a powerful message, but more importantly, are extremely effective in eliciting an emotional response.
Rodriguez writes relevant and practical songs that reflect a sense of urgency and immediacy. One critic has said that he uses "pop songs as revolutionary anthems and catalysts for personal exploration". They are often framed within a poetic surrealism that appeals to the listeners' sense of social and political responsibility and, at the same time, to their common sense. His song "Unicornio" (Unicorn), for example, was written in 1982 for the people of San Salvador during the Salvadorian civil war. He uses the myth of the unicorn as a metaphor for pain and loss. The song tells the story of how his blue unicorn has been lost and how he is longing for the friendship, trust, and love they shared. After its release, the song became a huge success in Latin America. Other songs, such as "Canción Urgente para Nicaragua" (Urgent Song for Nicaragua; 1982) and "Maza" (1982), are more heavily laden with political messages and social commentaries. Rodriguez's instrumentation, accompanied by his high tenor voice, is lively and vibrant.
Rodriguez has written more than 500 songs and has recorded more than 100 of them. He says that he can write anywhere hotel rooms, ships, in the middle of wars, and in his bathroom. In fact, one of his most famous songs, titled "Playa Girón," was written on a fishing boat during a creative trip he took during the 1970s. He has recorded more than 13 albums throughout his career. Among them are Días y Flores (Days and Flowers; 1975), Mujeres (Women; 1978), Unicornio (Unicorn; 1982), Tríptico (Triptic; dedicated in 1984 to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cuban revolution), and Descartes (1998).
In 1998, he built Abdala, a state-of-the-art music studio in the Miramar sector of Havana, as an outlet for his artistic production and the production of scores of other young Cuban musicians. Although many members of the Cuban exile community see him as an ardent communist and protest his music wherever he goes, he tours regularly throughout the world and has even been to the United States. Although he has criticized certain events during the Castro regime, he is a fervent supporter of the Cuban revolution. He has said: "If the revolution falls, I will fall too. He currently sits as a representative in the National Assembly of Cuba.
Personality
Rodríguez, musically and politically, is a symbol of the Latin American Left. His lyrics are notably introspective, while his songs combine romanticism, eroticism, existentialism, revolutionary politics and idealism. A humanist, his songs often address a secular worldview, where humanity must make the best of this world. He has been referred to as "Cuba's John Lennon.