Personal tribute to Ireno García

"If your thirst, breaking the distances,
is confused, walking, with my thirst,
and your breath rises, until it touches the sun,
in search of a new flower;
and if your breast watches over my rest,
and my walk unleashes your song,
and your struggle is sheltered in my heart
in one voice.

We will have dreams to weave for the sea,
the meek star of freedom
and that flower
to be found, beyond,
where the verse will be the peace that grows.

If your hands fly with my hands,
like a thousand seagulls in flight,
wind, sun, love and bread,
we will be a thousand more seagulls
that fly over the sea."

I have reproduced the text of In search of a new flowercomposed by Mike Porcel and Ireno García, which was the theme song of the Eleventh World Festival of Youth and Students, back in 1978. Forty-five years have passed and nevertheless, in my mind I keep note by note the beautiful interpretation of the composition by Argelia Fragoso, backed by an impeccable saxophone in the orchestration bridge by Fernando Acosta. There are other versions, such as the one made by Síntesis in the voice of my good friend Mike, Nacha Guevara's or Agua de Coral's, but I confess that the one that always moves me is Argelia's.

It was around 1978 that my friendship with Ireno began. From that moment on I became a total fan of his music and I think I attended most of his concerts.

Since I knew Ireno's special sensitivity when composing, I was not surprised when at the beginning of the 80's, in one of the broadcasts of the Adolfo Guzmán contest, his song was awarded the prize. Song to remember Maryperformed by Silvio Rodriguez and arranged by Frank Fernandez. That piece, dedicated to his companion of those days, the architect of what later became the famous "Patio de María", for my taste is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written among us. Very recently, a young troubadour with whom I have partnered to make music, Mario Sergio Mora, suddenly in a rehearsal at home began to sing those memorable verses: "As I would have wanted, my woman / that you were with me this morning / I am looking at the clean and calm sea / from a warm and dirty window".

As I knew about Ireno's illness, I was not surprised by the news of his death this Sunday, August 27. When I read the information from the Cuban Institute of Music, I only thought of the many times we shared and the whole of his songwriting. I remembered his albums such as Ireno García sings to Eliseo Diego, Drawing songs (from a concert in the space "A guitarra limpia", with the backing of Rey Guerra and which is perhaps my favorite in Ireno's discography), Coraleando, I do not ask for more and Winter songsthe last phonogram he released, which saw the light of day in 2017.

Although we have met from time to time in recent years, we last met during the 2019 edition of the Longina Festival. On that occasion, in addition to presenting his music in what I believe to be the most important trova festival in Cuba today, García inaugurated in Santa Clara the personal exhibition Dreams no moreof drawings made by him. I remember that in those days of January 2019, every now and then Ireno, the guitarist Carlos Miguel Ledea, who at that time worked with Garcia, and I would go to have a delicious coffee at CUC that was sold in a facility next to Vidal Park, where we were joined by a couple of villaclareños, who were great friends of Garcia.

Although Ireno was never a popular artist, he was not interested in that. Those of us who love the best of Cuban songwriting will always remember him for songs such as Dream no more (there is a beautiful version sung by him with Polito Ibáñez), a good bolero (originally known for Xiomara Laugart's performance), Andar La Habanapopularized through the television program founded by Eusebio Leal, and I fear to walk and not to walkanother of my favorites from his repertoire.

But there was a song of his with which I especially always identified myself and of which we both interpreted a piece every time we met. Now that I know that we will never again give each other the strong embrace with which we used to greet and say goodbye, as a tribute to my friend Ireno Garcia I reproduce here some fragments of the text of his song Tribute to Risa and could be called today Tribute to Ireno:

"Risa goes out before the day that hails him / on an old paper bicycle / and spills smile on the windows / looking for a bottle to drink. 

"Astronaut, cantina legend / slave of love and good song / was lost one December morning / behind a rum centrifuge.

"Fly, Risa, in your mockingbird song / and burst stridencies for fucking / that to your chariot there will be many to ride / waiting for a good day to be born."