CAMAGÜEY — From October 17th to the 19th, the Camagüey branch of the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS) is holding the National Trova Festival Canto Adentro, dedicated to the memory of Miguel Escalona.

Young artists from different provinces are participating to celebrate Cuban singer-songwriter music and to honor Escalona, the agramontino troubadour affectionately remembered as “The Last Bohemian.”

The El Colonial courtyard will host the festival’s opening and welcome cocktail on Friday, featuring the project Camagüey Sings to Escalona, supported by the Camagüey Chamber Orchestra and other local and guest singer-songwriters.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, the Dodo’s Café will screen the documentary El Último Bohemio (The Last Bohemian), presented by journalist and researcher María Antonia Borroto Trujillo, an Honorary Member of the AHS in Camagüey.

That same day, October 18th, the AHS celebrated its 39th anniversary with a special event at Bar La Casona, including a concert by Rey Montalvo, Yatsel Rodríguez, and Breismer Hernández, to which all local members were invited.

The closing of the festival will be led by the group Hierro y Cristal, with a descarga de trova (improvised trova jam session) at Bar Yesterday.

As a prelude to the festival, earlier in October, young troubadours visited Miguel Escalona’s resting place at the Camagüey Cemetery, bringing guitars, flowers, and songs of silence.

The pilgrimage served as an overture to this edition of Canto Adentro — a space where Cuban trova breathes youth, and the legacy of the last bohemian blossoms anew in voices that sing with the same passion and devotion.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez