Niño Saquito, Elena Burke, the Hermanos Avilés Orchestra and Faustino Oramas have been some of the targets of Holguin researcher Zenovio Hernández Pavón (Báguanos, 1959). I met him at the provincial station in Holguín, where I saw him arrive with his easy step and his silent character to offer talks on this or that topic concerning music. Although he has not studied any instrument or theory, his life goes on and he remains motivated by this manifestation.
Graduated in radio and TV directing from the Holguin branch of Isa, Zenovio’s working method consists of conducting interviews, collecting information, comparing it with various sources and putting together a great chronology from which he takes chapters to achieve his books, which Now they take advantage of the digital format, according to what he tells me.
As he has been in the effort for years and because this work has earned him some encouraging phrases from other specialists, I wanted to ask him questions so that they could get to know him. Xenovio answered them in his own way, overwhelmed by blackouts and the low charge on the phone’s battery. He sends text and photos thanks to the help of a niece. Here, the answers.
Amazon Alternative
Given the limitations to be able to publish my books in Cuba in recent years, I have found a good alternative in amazon. Through it my biographical studies on Ñico Saquito, El Guayabero, Elena Burke and for a couple of weeks the entitled Miguel Matamoras. a challenge to time. Some scholars of Cuban music, such as maestro Cristóbal Díaz Ayala, have praised the one I made with the grandson of El Guarachero de Cuba, but Elena’s, who was the favorite songwriter of several generations of Cubans, seems to have interested more readers, especially from the island. Several have written to me asking if it will be published in Cuba and I have replied that the publishing house Ediciones Cubanas de ARTEX has signed me a contract. Hopefully it will soon reach the readers that interest me the most, read my books and value the work that as a professional researcher I have been developing with passion and gratitude to many people and institutions that have stimulated my vocation.
Holguín Editions / Oriente Editions / Acknowledgments
In the first place, the Holguín Music Company, which pays me a salary and provides me with some facilities to carry out this work. Of course, local heritage has been the focus of nearly twenty books, most of which I have produced with other researchers and friends that I have gathered around me. Of the Holguin-themed books, that of El Guayabero has been the best received, since the so-called “Last Minstrel of the Cuban Tradition”, with that peculiar personality and style, established a chair in the field of music with humor. I interviewed him on several occasions for the radio and those recordings were the starting point for the book, because after forming a great chronology, the chapters of his life flowed easily. However, I couldn’t publish it in his hometown.
Ediciones Holguín, the institution in which I forged myself as a researcher and to which I am very grateful, showed me an opinion signed by a very notable historian, which pointed out an error detected in a historical date and the lack of depth when reviewing childhood of the trovasonero, which prevented its publication. I amended the date, I waited for the following year and since it was discarded again, I went to Editorial Oriente, a very prestigious label that accepted it with pleasure and whose edition was favorably received throughout Cuba. With this house I later published a book on Barbarito Diez and the one dedicated to Ñico Saquito is ready to be printed, which I made with one of his grandchildren. Given the current difficulties of Cuban polygraphy, he made arrangements for its publication on Amazon.
crisis/musical heritage
During the first two decades of the New Millennium, Cuba really experienced a period of splendor in the publishing world. The extension to all the provinces of new stamps made an important contribution to the culture of the country, above all by providing a veritable host of new makers of the Bellas Letras, its main mission. I am not the best person to criticize, because in that boom I was very favored, however given the importance of music in Cuban culture, I have to say that in that period of time, especially in the provinces, little was done and is being done to promote the best of its musical heritage from these institutions. There are no longer even contests that include genres such as biography, testimony or others where the results of these investigations are generally exposed.
Provincial figures/provincial publishers
Given the scarcity of music publications, I conceived a series of reviews on important figures that the provinces have contributed to the national and international musical scene. I was able to publish those of Las Tunas, Holguín and Manzanillo, while Ediciones Matanzas has not even sent me the opinion on Matanceros in Cuban music; For its part, Ediciones Ávila required me to add a group of figures and groups, which was impossible for me without spending months in that territory. Neither was the intention to exhaust the subject, nor to carry out the history of music in those territories. I ended up stopping the series and dedicating my energies and savings to other projects.
These are some of the difficulties and adversities that I have faced in my work as a professional researcher of music, I could stop at others such as the lack of diet and resources, but if you love your work and feel useful, you have to grow, seek financing, study, seek advice and know how to defend their ideas. I did not study musicology or any instrument, but since 1986 I began to write about music, I have been prioritizing the study and promotion of composers and authors of Cuban popular music. That systematic work on the radio and my searches in the periodical press has allowed me to put together a dictionary of Cuban composers that I hope will soon also be available on Amazon.
The years
I have already turned 63, the pandemics that devastate us and the ups and downs of life have been sapping my health and my strength. However, I hope to be able to conclude my study on the trova del son and another on notable figures of Cuban music. He worked feverishly on Olga Guillot. A queen on her island, an approach to artistic work and her life in Cuba, but her daughter has sent me a document from her lawyers who has arrested me. Determined to defend the image and memories left by the admired Queen of Bolero —which she promises to publish on her centenary— have ended up curbing my momentum. At least for now, because since I’m not driven by a profit motive, maybe in the future I’ll look for a new way to publicize my research. Despite the laws that Olga María argues, she will not be able to stop the multiple visions that circulate about her progenitor in books such as Three sad tigersby Cabrera Infante and in countless publications and audiovisuals, in many of which the songbook reflects her excellent musical qualities and also human weaknesses that are never lacking in every mortal.
Although this and other of my studies jealously guarded in my archive never circulate publicly, they are part of my life, of my desire to know and share that knowledge that confirms how great is the musical treasure of the largest of the Antilles. Yes, it has been worth dedicating my life to his defense.
