Havana Cuba -. Juana Bacallao, who died this Saturday in Havana, at the age of 98, kept her promise to remain on stage until the end of her days, delighting us with her grace and her witticisms.
Some considered her extravagant, crass and vulgar, but she was the most original and authentic artist in the world of Cuban singers in recent decades, where pretentious poses, false tinsel and the fanfares of vedettes and divas that are far from be.
Irreverent, playful, mocking, spontaneous to the point of scandal, Juana Bacallao, with her platinum wig and swaying on her very high heels, created a character that became herself.
Friendly gossip, foul-mouthed but never rude to her audience, whom she greatly respected, she was the caricature of a showbiz star, a kind of Havana and rumbera parody of Marilyn Monroe. A performer with a harsh and poorly tuned voice, who changed the lyrics of the songs, with the intention of parodying them or simply because she forgot them or was unable to learn them, who sang We are the world or something by Michael Jackson in an English that she invented, As he himself exclaimed, with the atmospheric handsomeness of the ancestral home of Central Havana: “What’s up with what’s mine, asere?”
It was the pianist and composer Obdulio Morales who discovered her, baptized her with his stage name, which was the title of one of his guaracha, and predicted that she would go far. This, despite the fact that Neris Amelia Martínez Salazar (which was her real name) had everything against her: she was poor, orphaned, unattractive, of small stature. And also, black. “Black black and cocotimba” – as she described herself – in a country that even today, despite racism being abolished by decree six decades ago, has not yet overcome racial prejudices.
In the 1960s it was difficult for Juana Bacallao – who had already performed with artists such as Nat King Cole, Celia Cruz, Benny Moré and Bola de Nieve – to be accepted on TV. The very pedantic and elitist commissioners and decision-makers of official culture, with her lack of sense of humor, considered her tacky and in bad taste. But finally they had to accept it and even confer the Distinction of National Culture on it. And Juana never allowed herself to be manipulated nor did she lend herself to her politicking and she even went so far as to mock the uptight communist bosses. Like on one memorable occasion, when after having to wait for a senior leader and her entourage to arrive to start her performance, she asked: “What’s up, are all the henchmen here?”
Goodbye, Juana. Thank you for having fun and for never stopping being who you were. We Cubans are going to miss you.
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2024-02-25 19:11:49
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