In recent years, the life and works of Cuban composer Arsenio Rodríguez has been the subject of at least three important books. They are: Arsenio Rodríguez written by Fidel Aldo Valdés Ginebra, Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flow of Latin American Music (2006) by David F. García and Arsenio Rodríguez padre de la salsa (2007) by Pablo Emilio Delvalle Arroyo. These excellent research projects have unveiled aspects of Arsenio heretofore undisclosed. We propose to discuss some of them here.  

         

When the great, blind, Cuban composer Arsenio Rodríguez wrote his tune La vida es un sueño, he was making a philosophical statement about how to face reality. He said: Después que uno viva veinte desengaños,¿qué importa uno más? (After one has suffered twenty disillusionments, who cares about one more?) He used the number twenty figuratively, to indicate a large number of tragic occurrences. God only knows that  Arsenio’s life was  a long sequence of misfortunes.

 

Rodríguez took the theme for his song from an old classic play of Spanish literature written by Pedro Calderón de la Barca entitled La vida es sueño as well as from a rhyme written by Spanish romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer that he called Es un sueño la vida.

 

Es un sueño la vida, pero un sueño febril; que dura un punto.

Cuando de él se despierta.

Se ve que todo es vanidad y humo.

 

¡Ojalá fuera un sueño

muy largo y muy profundo;

un sueño que durara hasta la muerte!...

Yo soñaría con mi amor y el tuyo.

 

Life is a dream,

A feverish one that lasts for just a moment;

One can see that all is smoke and vanity,

When the dream is over. . .

 

Oh, if it were only a dream

Very long and very profound.

A dream that would last until death! . . .

I would dream of my love and yours.

                   (Translation by David F. Altabé)

 

Even though Arsenio lost his sight at an early age and never learned to read or write, he was blessed with an inquisitive mind. His cousin Dalia and brothers Israel and Raul read books of world poetry and past and present Cuban history to him. With their help, he was acquainted with the writings of: José Martí, Simón Bolívar, Karl Marx, Plato, Aristotle, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Ramón del Valle Inclán, Gustavo Aldolfo Bécquer and many others who in time had an influence on his musical compositions. It is also quite possible that Arsenio was familiar with Calderón de la Barca through the Cuban oral tradition of repeating famous verses from memory. He may have also heard excerpts of classic Spanish literature aired on Cuban radio stations such as Mil Diez.

 

In the most popular of his songs, La vida es un sueño, Arsenio gives us a summary of his philosophy of life. He tells us that we live in a cruel world where nothing is true. (Hay que darse cuenta que  todo es mentira que nada es verdad.) The only reality is that we are born and that we shall die. (La realidad es nacer y morir). He further warns us not to expect perfect happiness in this world. (El mundo está hecho de infelicidad.)

 

However, Arsenio was not a pessimist. He believed in enjoying whatever pleasures life  offers us. In his song he urges us to enjoy the happy moment and to have a good time whenever it is possible, because when all is said and done, life is a dream and as such will pass away. (Hay que vivir el momento feliz. Hay que gozar lo que puedas gozar. Porque sacando la cuenta en total la vida es un sueño y todo se va.

 

Arsenio was a realist and faced his sad reality courageously. As we proceed with this brief study of Arsenio Rodríguez, the human being and composer, we must start with a consideration of the reality of his life. He was born into poverty to a family of field workers in a rural section of Cuba. His father was Bonifacio Travieso, who earned his living as an “aguador” (water boy) in the sugar cane fields. His mother was Dorotea Scull Rodríguez, a housewife who gave birth to 15 children, one girl and 14 boys. Nine of them died in their infancy. They gave their third-surviving son the grandiose name of Ignacio de Loyola Arsenio Travieso Scull. (Ignacio de Loyola was a famous warrior-saint in Spanish history.) The artist would eventually adopt the stage name of Arsenio Rodríguez, taking his maternal grandmother’s surname. The other siblings were: Julio Travieso, born in 1902, Aurelio Rafael (1906), Estela Travieso (1915), Israel Moisés Enrique Travieso (1917) and Raul Manuel Travieso (1920).

 

The first three as well as Arsenio were born in Güira de Macurijes, a small rural town in the municipality of Bolondrón in the province of Matanzas.

 

Some of Arsenio’s biographers disagree about his birthplace. Those who claim he was born in Güines, base their argument on that his birth was registered in that city. The real facts as told by his siblings and other family members are that the musician was born in Güira de Macurijes on August 31, 1913. When Arsenio was five years old, the family moved to the large agricultural municipality of Güines. This city is located on the south coast of the province of La Habana. On April 13, 1940, they registered his birth in the Güines Civil Registry. In this document the date of birth is given as August 31, 1910.

 

Another fact about Arsenio’s life that needs clarification are the events that led to his blindness. One thing is clear, he was born sighted and lost his sight later on in his life. In one of his own compositions Güira de Macurijes, Arsenio clarifies two matters, his birthplace and that he was born sighted. The lyrics he wrote say the following:

 

Güira de Macurijes, eres tú mi pueblo natal.	Güira de Macurijes. You are my birthplace.
Güira de Macurijes, no puedo olvidarte jamás.	Güira de Macurijes, I cannot ever forget you.
Qusiera que Dios se apiadara.	I wish God would have pity on me.
Y en un triste clamo oyera mi ser	And in a sad plaint heard my soul.
Y permitiera, mi pueblo querido	And allow, my dear town,
que mis ojos pudieran verte otra vez.	that my eyes may see you once again.

 

Latin music historians disagree at what age he lost or began to lose his sight. Helio Orovio wrote that Rodríguez lost his sight when he was thirteen years old. Cristóbal Díaz Ayala says Arsenio started to lose vision at the age of seven after having been kicked by a horse. Brother Raul Travieso said in an interview that Arsenio first lost sight in his left eye when he was seven years old through an accident and a few months later lost sight in his right eye. Jesús Blanco Aguilar maintains that Arsenio began to lose sight in his right eye when he was nine years old he had very limited sight in his left eye until 1933. As of now, no definite date has been established for that sad happening.

 

Several possibilities have been advanced for the cause of the vision loss. As stated above, Cristóbal Díaz Ayala says that it was the result of being kicked by a horse. Marcelino Guerra Abreu states that Arsenio fell and suffered a severe blow to his head. His parents did not get medical attention for him in time and he lost his vision. Max Salazar wrote that Arsenio was kicked by a mule. Richie Blondet wrote that Arsenio’s brother Raul told him that Arsenio did get kicked by a mule and was taken to the hospital. The nurse that attended him washed his bruises with some liquid that affected his eyes. Cuban musician Alberto Montero claims that Arsenio was playing with other children in a street behind a horse cart used to transport water that was parked there. Arsenio was running without looking where he was going and ran into the back of the cart. The resulting head blow caused him the loss of his eyesight. Arturo Gómez “Marcané” has written that Arsenio suffered from a congenital illness that has attacked his entire family. According to him he interviewed Arsenio’s brother Raul and he told him that Arsenio did not have any scar in his face which would have been a necessary result of being kicked by a horse or a mule. Musicologist Jesús Blanco Aguilar is quoted by Pablo Emilio Delvalle Arroyo in his book Arsenio Rodríguez padre de la salsa as saying that the musician and his entire family suffered from an eye affliction brought about by untreated diabetes. His siblings: Estela, Aurelio Rafael, Raul Manuel and Israel Moisés Enrique all ended up blind o near blind. It is important also to consider that nine of the fifteen children born to Arsenio’s parents died in their infancy due to a congenital family illness. Perhaps that disease combined with diabetes caused the family its loss of vision.

 

No matter which explanation we accept, the reality is that Arsenio as a young man was left sightless, black, poor and with the difficult task of finding a way to earn a living. As was the case for many black, Cuban young men, music offered a possibility of employment. Arsenio’s older brother Julio gave him his first music lessons. He taught his younger sibling to play the conga (tumbadora) and the bata and yuka or makuta drums. Thereafter, Arsenio learned to play the bongos, marímbula and botija, which were substitutes for the bass. However, his main interest was to master the guitar and eventually the tres. Once again, older brother Julio came to the rescue. He made Arsenio a make-shift guitar from some boards taken from a box and strings made from fine wire. On that rude instrument the future great tresero played his first chords. Eventually, Víctor Feliciano Cårdenas formally taught him to play the guitar and later the tres. Rodríguez was also tutored on the tres by Timoteo “Cuerdas” Tejera, who played with the Sexteto Botón de Oro and by the famous tresero  and leader of the Sexteto Matancero, Isaac Oviedo. From that point on, Arsenio concentrated on the tres, even though at times he played the conga drum and even taught his bongo player Antolín Suárez “Papa Kila” special beats on the drums to give the son the particular Rodríguez flavor.

 

Arsenio as a musician and composer was heavily influenced by his African heritage. His great-grandfather­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ was a slave from the Congo brought to Cuba in the 1800s. He taught his children all he could remember about his African culture including the language and the secrets of the Palo Monte religion.       

 

Palo Monte, is the name given by slaves in Cuba to a religion brought from the Congo to the island. Other names associated with various branches of this religion include: Palo Mayombe, Kimbisa or Santo Cristo Buen Viaje. The word palo ("stick" in Spanish) was applied to the religion in Cuba due to the use of wooden sticks in the preparation of their altar. Followers of Palo are known generally as paleros. The Palo Monte religion developed from ancient African beliefs, in which the world is inhabited by spirits, and the name refers to the branches of sacred trees the spirits inhabit.

 

Arsenio’s ancestors religiously passed on their Congolese traditions from generation to generation until they reached him. Rodríguez’ maternal grandfather and his father Bonifacio, who were both practitioners, probably taught him the rituals of palo monte. Arsenio admitted that fact in an interview in these words:

 

My family and I come from the Congo. So as a child I knew many things that my grandfather taught me and many other things that I no longer practice.

 

Arsenio also grew up well versed in other African secular traditions. His uncle Catalino Scull Rodríguez “Güingo” would take him and his cousins in his truck to participate in rumbas in the neighboring communities. In those celebrations, the boys learned to play the authentic beats on the congas, tumbadoras and yuka drums from great rumberos such as Malanga, Mulence, Roncona, Tanganica and Andrea Baró.

 

By the time Arsenio was eight years old he could play all types of hand drums, the marímbula (substitute for the bass), the guitar and the tres. He played at all the parties and bembés (a santería ceremony or secular celebration using batá and other similar drums).

 

The Rodríguez family had to move from Güines when a hurricane destroyed most of the city. After that, they lived in several wards of Marianao. The first was in the barrio Quemados of Los Hornos. One of their neighbors was the famous maraquero of the Sexteto Habanero Felipe Neri Cabrera. He was able to get permission for Arsenio to rehearse with the group. When the family moved to La Serafina, another section of Los Quemados, Arsenio met Isaac Oviedo who was the tres player and leader of the Sexteto Matancero. In the nearby barrio of Redención lived Alfredo Boloña, the leader of the Sexteto Boloña who also befriended Arsenio.

 

When the young tresero was seventeen years old he organized the Sexteto Boston in cooperation with his cousin Jacinto Scull. The group was composed of friends and relatives many of whom came from Güines. They played mostly at third-rate clubs in Marianao Beach catering to black, working-class Cubans. The group had a hard time surviving as a mostly black ensembles in the heavily racist Havana scene. By 1934, Arsenio dissolved the sexteto and joined the Septeto Bellamar. This group’s leader was Arsenio’s uncle-in-law, trumpet player José Interian. They had a steady engagement at Sport Antillano, which was an academia de baile, a taxi dance type of establishment. Almost from the start Arsenio began acting as the leader of the group. By that time he had achieved some success as a composer and musician. He had innovative ideas and was always urging Interian to alter the group, to add musicians and to play mostly Arsenio’s compositions. Interian eventually got tired of fighting with Arsenio and left the group. Vocalist Esteban Regueira Dorvigny became the leader. That arrangement did not work out and by 1940, Regueira turned over complete control of the group to Arsenio. He told him to reorganize the group and institute any changes he considered appropriate.

 

That move gave Arsenio the opportunity to create the new son conjunto with additional musicians, a special sound and a new repertory. The first addition to the group was vocalist and guitarist Marcelino Guerra “Rapindey”. Other founding members were: singers Elizardo Scull and Pedro Luis Sarracent, bassist Ezequiel Lino Frías, bongo player Luis Regatillo, conga players Antolín Suárez “Papa Kila” and Israel Moisés Travieso and trumpeters Rubén Calzado and Mario Miguel Molinet.

He called the group Conjunto Arsenio Rodríguez and made its debut in the Sport Antillano. Initially, the group was a septeto although he called it  a conjunto. The innovative tresero redifined the conjunto which from then on would consist of two first voices (with one doubling on claves and the other on maracas), two trumpets, piano tres, guitar (doubling on second voice),  bass, bongo and tumbadora or conga drum. Arsenio used this conjunto formation at first only for recording. The first of these sessions was on September 12, 1940. On that date he made his first two recordings for RCA Victor. He used the same type conjunto for his second session for RCA Victor on March 31, 1941.

 

By this time Arsenio had established a name as a talented composer and successful bandleader. He had obtained a contract to perform at the famous Sans Souci, a nightclub that attracted foreign tourists and the best of Cuban high society. For his performances at the club he used the septeto format. According to his brother Raul Travieso, Arsenio did not begin to use the conjunto ensemble for in-person performances until he completed the Sans Souci contract in February 1941. This date has been questioned and it could possibly be that the Conjunto Arsenio Rodríguez in fact made its first public appearance in May 1942.

 

Arsenio’s contribution to Latin American music as a composer, musician and innovator have no equal. His songs with an African theme and rhythm are especially valuable. In his lyrics he expressed the pain and suffering of the Cuban blacks imposed on them by the white society.

The message was given authenticity by being delivered in the dialect of the negro bozal, the mixture of Spanish and African languages spoken by the recently-arrived slaves brought from Africa. Although in his songs Arsenio denounced the evils of the long past slavery period, at the same time he was protesting against the racism that still existed in his lifetime.

 

With the help of the great Cuban singer Miguelito Valdés, Arsenio introduced Afro-Cuban music into the ballrooms, nightclubs and even the homes of the white Cuban elite. Arsenio told an interviewer from Colombian radio network Caracol that he selected Miguelito Valdés to sing his Afro-Cuban songs.

 

Precisely when I started to teach Miguelito, because I fell in love with Miguel’s voice- Miguel was predominantly singing a type of music called danzonete. I went and listened to that voice and said to myself “That voice is what I need to sing my Afro-Cuban tunes.” At that time, Miguelito did not sing Afro-Cuban songs. I had to teach him that, because what he had was the base, he had a very good voice.

 

Arsenio taught Miguelito all the Afro-Cuban vocabulary and pronunciation he needed to properly interpret his songs. Then, with the backing of the Orquesta Casino de la Playa, Valdés recorded Bruca maniguá, Ben acá Tomá, Fufuñando, Yo ta namorá, Yo so un makuá and several other numbers that became international hits.

 

The composer was extremely proud of his African heritage. Testimony of this is the song Yo nací del Africa (I Was Born of Africa), recorded in 1960, in which he openly affirms his African identity.

 

          Yo no soy Rodríguez,           I’m not a Rodríguez

          Yo no soy Travieso.            I’m not a Travieso.

          Tal vez soy Lumumba.         Maybe I’m a Lumumba.

          Tal vez soy Kasavubú.         Maybe I’m a Kasavubú.

          Yo nací del Africa,              I was born of Africa.

 

Rodríguez was a very prolific composer and wrote nearly 200 songs.

He cultivated almost all the genres of Afro-Caribbean music. Arsenio wrote son-afros, pregones, guarachas, rumbas, boleros, bolero sones, guaguancós, congas and was the father of the son-montuno.

 

In the second part of this article we will discuss the innovations that Arsenio Rodríguez brought to our music.