Maria Teresa Vera, relic to venerate you
Not a day goes by without one of her songs running through my head, either in an unloading with friends or in the insufferable loneliness. An anecdote, a verse, any musical or even political fact suddenly forces me to think of her and in one way or another I realize that we do not know her well enough, nor have her contributions to music sung in Spanish been rigorously studied, and that everything has remained there: in the mechanical repetition of false information, in anecdotes and evaluations that flow, generally, from machismo; in the yellowish interest in her sex life or simply in the anniversary that every year the calendar reminds us of.
Over the disinterest and rejection that turned her house into a grotesque cafeteria in the town of Guanajay where neither mural nor fence reminds the visitor that the eternal troubadour was born there on August 5, 1895; her work is still alive and more and more people are seduced by her style, by the story of a life full of mysteries and questions, by the stoicism with which she faced the criticism and indifferent looks of her time.
To demonstrate how advanced it was and still is, I propose here two examples and two assessments.
Rosa, how beautiful you are
The way of music has its mysteries and for Beethoven it was "a revelation greater than all wisdom and philosophy". Hence no one will be surprised if tomorrow some musician blows up Spotify with a cover by Enrizo's choricera or Fao Wenceslasboth by Manuel Corona recorded at the beginning of the 20th century. The recent success Alibi by the Iranian Sevdaliza and the singer-songwriter and drag queen from Brazil, Pabllo Vittar is a clear example of research and updating.
The chorus of the song takes us to Havana in 1918, shortly before the son fever broke out, when the relevant troubadour, tres player and composer Carlos Godínez summoned María Teresa (Teté) Vera to the second floor of the Inglaterra Hotel to make, together with Alfredo Boloña, Manuel Corona and Sinsonte, the first recordings of sones with the RCA Victor record company.
Among the six numbers recorded that February 8, 1918 by the Sexteto Habanero Godinez are the following Rosa, how beautiful you are (Matrix G-2609 / Stamp and number: Vi-72644 cd HQ-67) probably composed by Godínez himself, although the sources consulted do not indicate the name of the author.
Perhaps out of ignorance, today most of the media ignore the above data and prefer to give as the only reference the composition of the same name by the Colombian Luis Magín Díaz García, born in 1922, when radio broadcasting was inaugurated in Cuba, María Teresa and Rafael Zequeira traveled to New York and most of these songs were beginning to be known outside the island.
Another "viral" case related to Teté occurred in July 2019 from the French town of Quimber, when children of Korean descent Issac and Nora Restoin, along with their father Nicolas, reached millions of reproductions with the impromptu recording of the classic Veinte añoswhose music was written by the Cuban, based on a text by Guillermina Aramburu.
A songbook for María Teresa
Another example of the interest and passion that María Teresa Vera's figure awakens in young artists took place in April of this year when the Cuban artist Miri Páez Bolet published the work An illustrated songbook for María Teresa Vera? Yes, for the Jirallamas as a tribute to the queen of the old guard. The book is an experience that transcends the sheet music and lyrics of 117 songs, with more than 200 original illustrations of the Jirallamas, created by Páez Bolet, and is aimed especially at music lovers, lovers of Cuban culture and those seeking a deeper connection with timeless melodies.
The research started in 2009 was completed in February 2022 and although the original idea was to make a film, the current songbook is also a satisfaction for its author for having rescued much of the musical repertoire of Maria Teresa.
The book, currently available on Amazon, includes sheet music so that it can be performed.
"A phenomenon that should always be thought of outside the box."
For the poet, storyteller and essayist Mabel Cuesta, María Teresa's influence has been essential and a good part of her life has the Guanajayense's music as a soundtrack. Veinte años and On a tomb a rumbaare two themes that he considers indispensable to understand not only Cuban music in general, but Cuba and Cubans in particular.
"We can cry for a lost love and even for a dead person; but at the end comes the rumba. Even if that end is the definitive one: rumba!", he says.
When asked if he considers Maria Teresa an anti-diva in every way, he considers:
"More than an anti-diva, I would say she was a woman who enrolled herself outside the male mandate. She knew she had a gift (that of music) and she also knew she didn't feel like trading the greatness of that gift to turn it into 'product.' You could or could not consume her music, the image was 'collateral damage'. We must also think that of his 70 years of life, only 15 of them were on television and that he was not appearing in every musical program produced in Cuba.
"Her world was that of live performances, radio, recordings. And of course image always mattered; but in her case, she managed to make her talent matter more. I guess her male friends read her as 'an equal' in artistic terms and that stopped any comments or suggestions about her image.
"In any case, María Teresa is in itself a phenomenon that must always be thought out of the box. Nothing in her 'fits' (never better said) with what is expected for a little guajirita from Guanajay who ends up doing duets with musicians who at her side achieved relevance, and composing essential themes for the Cuban traditional repertoire. Without asking for excuses. And without ceasing to present herself as what she was: music. And nothing more."
When we talk about Maria Teresa's possible "antidivism" with composer, guitarist and singer Heidi Igualada, the first thing that comes to mind is a photograph of Vera standing with guitar in front of a CMBZ microphone.
"I was at the home of a colleague, Lázara Ribadavia, and we concluded that none of us would have dared to do so much, let alone let it be published as an album cover, because of how outrageous we found the photo at that time. It was the '90s, and prejudices -much more crude than now, which still exist- tarnished certain freedoms that went against the canons established by society, tradition and patriarchy. If that's what we who were in our 30's thought, what would not be that approach in the 20's! On the other hand, the word diva encompasses, in addition to fame, certain postures and patterns of behavior that I don't think Maria Teresa fully complied with," he says.
The author of Serenade assures that the trova and its followers have always been casual people with a little spangle, somewhat far from the bombastic spectacle and the pose.
"Even those who have enjoyed great fame have, for the most part, become a bit 'allergic' to grandiloquent things. If we look at it that way, then María Teresa would be an anti-diva, just as Juana Bacallao was the antivedette par excellence. But I personally do not like to put labels, because people are the way they are and everyone has their own recipe for walking through life.
"To say categorically that María Teresa was an anti-diva or not, is something that I cannot attribute to myself, at least with the distant elements that I handle. I prefer to say and categorize her as a singer of the people, a great troubadour who has transcended in time with her work and her charisma (troubadours and troubadours of those times were always very picturesque); a woman who did not wear shaving, nor wielded stereotypes, nor learned an impostured voice to communicate: a real woman ahead of her time, very Cuban, who managed to break down the barriers of the common, an artist in the full extent of the word. And when you say 'artist' any other qualifier is superfluous", says the founder of the "She and I" Singers Meeting to be held from September 4 to 8 in Havana.
Queen and pure
In one of the verses of the acrostic Holy cherubwritten by Manuel Corona in November 1941, its author describes María Teresa as a "relic" worthy of veneration. Thirty years had passed since her debut at the Politeama Chico theater and María Teresa began a new musical journey alongside Lorenzo Hierrezuelo "determined" to sing the best of Cuban trova until death.
Next year will mark the 130th anniversary of her birth and the 60th anniversary of her death. Both dates will serve as a pretext to talk again about the work and legacy of the Mother of Trova and Son with the suspicion that tomorrow, surely, something related to her will appear that will surprise us.
