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Carlos Manuel Puebla (Spanish pronunciation:
[ˈkaɾlos ˈpweβla]; 11 September 1917, Manzanillo – 12 July 1989, Havana) was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.Born into a modest family, he did several types of manual jobs during his youth (carpenter, mechanic, sugarcane worker, shoemaker), but quickly became interested in music, and especially in the
guitar. He learned how to play the instrument by himself, but he did study harmony and theory of music.
[1]
He began composing during the 1930s, and met with a certain amount of popularity in his native city. He recorded with his group
Los Tradicionales, formed in 1953. From 1962 he was a regular performer in
La Bodeguita del medio, a bar-restaurant in Old Havana which was a favourite haunt of Cuban and foreign intellectuals.
[2]
Politically he stood beside
Fidel Castro before the
1959 Revolution. In 1961, he went on tour in several countries with his musicians. His music, as well as his political activity, turned his concerts into a success. He was thenceforth called
El Cantor de la Revolución (the singer of the revolution) and other world tours followed. More than an ambassador for Cuban music, he was an ambassador for Cuba. In 1965, the night after
Fidel Castro's speech announcing
Che Guevara's departure from the government, Puebla, seized by passion, composed what would become his most celebrated work,
Hasta Siempre, Comandante, a true declaration of love for and hope in
Che.
On 12 July 1989, he died in
Havana after a long illness. His ashes were transferred to the cemetery of his native city five years later. A plaque there reads:
yo soy ésto que soy, un simple trovador que canta ("I am what I am, a simple troubadour who sings").
WorksPuebla began by writing love songs, such as
Quiero hablar contigo (I'd like to talk with you),
Este amor de nosotros (~This love of ours),
Serenata cubana,
Canción definitiva,
Qué sé yo and
Te vieron con él, which later became successes, and also
Cuenta conmigo,
Quién se lo iba a imaginar and
Hay que decir adiós, popularised by the duo Clara and Mario.
From the beginning of the 1950s, he sang of the difficult living conditions of his people and challenged
Batista's dictatorship with such songs as
Plan de machete,
Este es mi pueblo and
Pobre de mi Cuba. His lyrics were serious and direct. The 1959 Revolution inspired him to write new songs, such as
Y en eso llegó Fidel (~And into that arrived Fidel),
Fidel y La OEA (Fidel and the
Organization of American States)
Procura venir el paz (~Try to get peace),
Yankees go home!,
La Reforma Agraria (Agricultural reform),
Duro con él,
Ya ganamos la pelea (We already won the fight.) and
Son de la alfabetización.
His most famous song,
Hasta Siempre, Comandante, has been
covered by dozens of artists from all over the world, notably in
France, by
Nathalie Cardone and
Los Calchakis, although this last one is wrongly attributed to
Buena Vista Social Club.