Lázara Ribadavia has not sung in Havana for more than five years. The last time she did it was in the theater of the National Museum of Fine Arts to celebrate her fifty years of life. Reaching half a century of existence, she deserves more than a recital.
On this occasion, the author of “Con poquita fe” will celebrate the 40th anniversary of having declared the historic center a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“Our Havana” is the title of the concert that the singer-songwriter will offer next December 16 at four in the afternoon at the Casa de la Obrapía Museum, a jewel of Havana architecture.
Numerous artists and followers of Ribadavia recognize, in addition to his interpretation, the fine poetry that comes from his songs: “How big is your heartwhat good luck mine /who paid me with your love/ how you lighten my life ”.
A student of Leopoldina Núñez, Lázara maintained “La Peña del Azar” at the beginning of the 1990s, turning that space into “a kind of cultural lung in the capital”, as she herself declared. The author of “Canción de tarde” and “Razones” (recorded at the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center) currently resides in Mexico from where she continues her artistic work.
Apart from being in your city, what other reasons do you have for the concert?
Sing to my people: I had that need, because of everything that has happened, and give them an afternoon, which is the most authentic thing I have. Those of us who have gone to live in another place take Cuba with us, we are not leaving. Cuba is in the heartbeat, in the constant concern for ours.
I have closely monitored everything that happens and I felt that urgency to be able to share a different afternoon, to provide that beautiful moment that our people deserve. Music has always been essential for relief, for that union that we need so much. It has been perfect, because I have arrived on the 40th anniversary of the historic center as a World Heritage Site and the Casa de la Obrapía Museum recently turned 39 years old. There is a magnificent project to care for women being developed there and I was blessed to be included as part of that initiative.
Also when the trova has been declared Cultural Patrimony of the Nation…
The declaration of the trova has me partying. The importance of trova in the development of spiritual language is fundamental. There is a discourse closely related to reality and it has been based on recognition, criticism of what can be improved, where love has also played an essential role.
There are dear people who are no longer there, how do you get along with absences?
With the absences I have come to have an understanding. I believe in energy and nobody abandons us completely. Lichi Diego told us that “the dead that one loves never die.” I hold that same philosophy. I believe in the permanence of love and in how indestructible it is.
