CAMAGÜEY.- Why isn't there a day to celebrate son? Thus began the outstanding son musician Adalberto Álvarez to sow the idea among cultists, musicians, specialists, music lovers and dancers in general. In just months, May 8 had already been proclaimed as Cuban Son Day.

The chosen date allows paying tribute precisely to the birth of two symbols: Miguel Matamoros (1894) in Santiago de Cuba, and Miguelito Cuní (1917) in Pinar del Río. Both extreme provinces are representative of the practice and presence of son at the national level.

Son is the genre from Cuba that, due to its root character, and its artistic value "transcends in time and space as an outstanding element of the intangible heritage of the nation", as dictated by the declaration of cultural heritage, in 2012.

Many activities are taking place for the celebration. Camagüey has prepared twelve audiovisual capsules produced by the Provincial Music Center, with the participation of important cultists of the genre in the province. Likewise, two distinctive groups that defend the son in their repertoire have composed the themes for the campaign: the Maravilla de Florida orchestra with Un son para mayo and Andys Daniel Ft. Pedrito and guests, with Para los soneros mi son.

This May 8 we dedicate Son Day to Enrique “Nené” Álvarez, an indispensable figure in Cuban music, who from his early 18 years was a singer and director of the Conjunto Avance Juvenil in the 1940s, although according to researcher Gaspar Marrero "already existed under the name of Conjunto Avance at the end of the 1930s."

Shortly before his death, Enrique “Nené” Álvarez was still the oldest active sonero singer in Cuba. On June 1, 2016, he celebrated his 90th birthday with the premiere of the documentary El Embajador del Son, directed by Gustavo Pérez. Photo: Still from the documentary.

“Nené” Álvarez was a great son musician, educator of many musicians in the love, cultivation and development of the genre, starting with his son Adalberto Álvarez to those who accompanied him in the emblematic Soneros de Camacho. In this last orchestra he not only stood out as a singer, conductor and composer of numerous popular sounds, but also for expanding the sound of the previous Conjunto Tipico Camacho, by including three trumpets and the piano.

In Camagüey, the son was cultivated mainly in the instrumental formats of ensembles and orchestras, and to a lesser extent in septets. Some of them were El Conjunto Sorpresa, La Sonora Camagüeyana, La Ritmo Moderno, Avance Juvenil, Maravilla de Florida and Soneros de Camacho. Although there were composers of son, most of the orchestras mounted the works of national orchestras such as Rumbavana, Roberto Faz, Chapotín, among others.

Shortly before his death, Enrique “Nené” Álvarez was still the oldest active son singer in Cuba. On June 1, 2016, he celebrated his 90th birthday with the premiere of the documentary El Embajador del Son, directed by Gustavo Pérez. Photo: Still from the documentary.

Although the province has produced important figures that have taken the son to its maximum splendor such as Adalberto Álvarez, Manolito Simonet, Pancho Terry or Norberto Puentes, we cannot affirm that a new stylistic has been developed or a son different from the oriental or the one from the western zone. Its cultists have drank from all the sound influences, and have impregnated their own stamp, reaching a national character.

Choosing a day to sound is a fair and loyal act, because the son is not only a musical genre, a dance, but an expression of the most genuine, authentic and representative of the Cuban personality.

Adalberto Álvarez at the funeral of his father Nené Álvarez, on February 9, 2017, in the General Cemetery of Camagüey. Photo: Orlando Durán Hernández / Adelante

• Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez