{"id":8808,"date":"2021-10-01T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/?p=8808"},"modified":"2021-10-01T09:58:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:58:10","slug":"gens-una-familia-rockera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazineampm.com\/en\/gens-una-familia-rockera\/","title":{"rendered":"Gens: a rock family"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the corridors of the "Victoria de Gir\u00f3n" School of Medicine, the students talk about the rock band that would be performing in a few hours. Over time, they gather in front of the theater door. Inside, Carlos Rodriguez <\/span>\u2014<\/span>drummer and current leader of Gens<\/span>\u2014<\/span> and the rest of the musicians prepare the instruments; they try to overcome logistical ups and downs so that the music is heard as well as possible. The quality of the sound and the instruments are not in their favor, but when have they believed in obstacles?<\/span><\/p>\n

It was January 4, 1980, the date that marked the birth of Gens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe theater was full, we even took a long time to open the doors and they nearly knocked them down. They wanted to take seats closer to the stage. When we opened it was an avalanche of boys\u201d, says Carlos. Gens's idea began to take shape in his mind since high school. However, it was not until he started working in the Teaching Department of La Gir\u00f3n that the opportunity to create the band arose. He remembers that he offered to give that concert and got the green light.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The repertoire of that first show included, above all, <\/span>covers<\/span><\/i> of the Beatles. \u201cOne of the characteristics that united us is that all the musicians were Beatlemaniacs\u201d<\/span>. <\/span><\/i>A devotion that lasts until today because, despite the fact that the<\/span> line up<\/span><\/i> of the band has undergone some changes, that seems to be one of the bridges that unites its members, generation after generation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Precisely that generational notion comes with the origin of the name of the band. If you ask Carlos, he will say that the "gens" in Ancient Rome was a society made up of several families who had ancestors, customs and territories in common. The people who made it up had to help each other and, when they died, they kept the same grave. "That was the idea, that this spirit reigned in the band," he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first Gens family, then, was made up of Roy Rodr\u00edguez (bass), Ismael Mart\u00ednez (keyboards), Rub\u00e9n Mart\u00ednez and Dagoberto Pedraja (guitars), Alexis Morej\u00f3n and Gustavo Fern\u00e1ndez (vocals) and Carlos Rodr\u00edguez (drums).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gens,

Genes, first generation. Photo: Courtesy of the band.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the Beatles to Silvio\u2026 to Gens<\/b><\/p>\n

In the 80's they didn't stop. They played up to four times a week. The Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational School, a nursing home, the Plaza House of Culture were some of the settings. The latter was his headquarters; there, on the third floor, they had a rehearsal room. It was a time when their live shows also reached other provinces, especially Matanzas and Pinar del R\u00edo.<\/span><\/p>\n

For five years they won the first prize in the modern music category of the National Amateur Festival. Still, they failed to be recognized as professionals and had to keep their other jobs. Ismael was a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Cybernetics; Roy, economist and worked at the Pan y Dulce company; Alexis, ICRT stagehand; Dagoberto, professor of Literature; and Carlos worked at the Gir\u00f3n at the same time that he studied lyrical music at the Ignacio Cervantes Conservatory and did his degree in Physics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all workers, all of us. It really was a sacrifice, you cannot imagine that double life\u201d. However, they were happy. In the words of Carlos, \u201cvery happy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, they were eager to play their own numbers, but how to get them to reach an audience that consumed, above all, Anglo-Saxon and British rock? They found the way. Like a tunnel that would unite <\/span>Yesterday<\/span><\/i> with <\/span>I was born guilty<\/span><\/i>, the new trova and Silvio Rodr\u00edguez appeared. Gens came to make rock and roll arrangements for more than thirty of his songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day Carlos took a cassette with versions to the theater on 23 and 12, where Silvio was rehearsing with AfroCuba. It was the first time they discussed the matter and when they premiered the arrangements at the Medicine school, Silvio attended. Later, he gave them an unpublished song, only performed until then among friends so that they could premiere it: <\/span>olivia<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBetween col and col we played our songs and many people thought they were Silvio's. In other words, we were healthy a bit opportunistic\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

They even performed a concert called <\/span>From the Beatles to Silvio<\/span><\/i>, where they played thirty-odd songs, including their own. Carlos says that this was not common at the time, while most only reached 12 numbers, they played for three and a half hours straight. \u201cAnd the public realized that, people are not stupid. I remember that the gardens of the Teatro Mella were filled with Chileans who lived in Alamar <\/span>\u2014<\/span>when that was the dictatorship in Chile<\/span>\u2014<\/span>, and, girl, when we played <\/span>Santiago de Chile<\/span><\/i> what was formed was tremendous\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

blessed radio<\/b><\/p>\n

The recordings that still exist from those times are kept by Carlos in his house. Among them, two Beatles numbers, <\/span>something<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>I\u00b4ll be back<\/span><\/i>, played live at the Teatro Am\u00e9rica and recorded by the sound engineers themselves. Others were made with a double cassette recorder in the rehearsal room of the Casa de la Cultura. Gens' songs were first heard in Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, through the CMHW and Radio Ciudad del Mar. Later, Radio Progreso, Radio Rebelde and Radio Ciudad de La Habana \u2014 where Dagoberto worked, who He sent copies of those tapes to his fellow radio fans. Throughout the country they were heard in the <\/span>hit parade<\/span><\/i> of the time <\/span>I was born guilty<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>toast to the few<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>little prince<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>What do you understand by love?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Thus his popularity grew among rock enthusiasts. It was the time when they were constantly invited to the <\/span>Ramon Program<\/span><\/i>, created by the poet Ram\u00f3n Fern\u00e1ndez Larrea, to whom the <\/span>jingles<\/span><\/i>. When it celebrated the anniversary of its creation, the celebration culminated with a Gens concert at the Pabell\u00f3n Cuba, so crowded that they had to close 23rd Street because the public occupied even the opposite sidewalk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, Gens toured twice with the Moncada group, province by province, from Havana to Santa Clara. There were also other groups such as Monte de Espuma and Manguar\u00e9, everything that was most heard in Cuba at that time. Dagoberto says that Jorge G\u00f3mez, director of Moncada, had them open the concert in Santa Clara. There were almost 50 thousand people. The musicians did not expect such a good reception.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0"We didn't know we were stuck there with <\/span>I was born guilty<\/span><\/i>\u201d, says the guitarist, \u201cthat they put it on the radio every five minutes. When we started to sing, people took out posters with the chorus, the public sang along with the song. Later, Jorge G\u00f3mez, laughing, told us that he had not told us anything to surprise us. In my artistic career I have not felt anything like this yet, to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not all experiences were, however, so rewarding. Dagoberto himself remembers a "very unfortunate" concert at Cerro Pelado, once they played for the athletes who traveled to the Pan American Games. "There they practically gave us a repudiation rally, because we played rock."<\/span><\/p>\n

On another occasion, in 1988 or 1989, while they were covering Anabell L\u00f3pez at Pico Blanco, a Mexican businessman saw them and liked them so much that he wanted to take Gens on a tour of Mexico. \u201cHe did the paperwork, we all got passports, and the Cuban side said no. We would have done our first international tour in the '80s."<\/span><\/p>\n

rock against time<\/b><\/p>\n

And the 90s arrived, years in which Gens began to dismember: Ismael decided to stay in Spain, Rub\u00e9n left rock, Alexis went to Moncada; Dagoberto, after the first tribute concert to the Beatles where they performed <\/span>William Tell<\/span><\/i> with Carlos Varela, he became part of the troubadour's band.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seemed the end of the gens, the family had dispersed and, between so much geographical distance and interests, the ties ended up breaking. However, Carlos and Roy, the only survivors of the first generation, founded the second.<\/span><\/p>\n

During those years, a pirated disc circulated in the United States with the songs of Gens. La Egrem, knowing the good reception of this album, wanted to re-record and release a compilation of songs. \u201cSo it's me and Roy on our own, working with other bands from time to time. I knew certain musicians that I liked. I remember saying 'when I rebuild Gens, I'm going to summon<\/span>'"<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n