MIAMI, United States. – The Cuban musician José Manuel Solís Fernández, better known as Meme Solís, assured Cuban newspaper that, before 1959, Havana was “a capital where everyone wanted to be.”
“There was no city in the world that had the hectic nightlife of Havana. I saw the best cabarets there, with the best shows, there was a lot of glamour, everything was always full. Havana was abuzz. When I arrived I was fascinated, I have traveled a lot, and that only happened to me with Havana”, explained the Cuban musician, founder of the popular Los Meme quartet.
Despite his great success in Cuba, Solís had to leave the island due to the intolerance of the regime towards those who had no interest in being part of the Castro political system.
“They could not allow one of the most recognized artists of the time not to be integrated into the system. They took me out of the world of Culture and did not let me leave Cuba for 17 years. I was not in prison as many say, but they were painful years, from which many compositions came out. The songs that have been most successful are those of pain, ”he explained to Cuban newspaper.
Finally, Solís was able to leave the island for Spain due to the pressure exerted by his family. Even the then Spanish president Philip Gonzalez included him in a list of political prisoners that he handed over to the authorities of the Cuban regime on a visit to the island.
Throughout her career, Solís has worked with artists such as Farah María, Moraima Secada, Rosita Fornés, Las D’Aida, Elena Burke and Malena Burke, among many others.
As part of Los Meme, in the 1960s, he came to participate in the famous Josephine Baker show on the Island.
“I remember we were at the Josephine Baker show, which opened Bola de Nieve, they were good friends from Paris. People wanted to see Josephine and we went ahead of her, but they still wouldn’t let us go, they wanted to hear us more,” she recounted.
interrogated by Cuban newspaperassured that it would be a dream to return to Havana and perform again at Tropicana, but only if the Cuban regime falls.
Solís, 83, currently resides in New York City, in the United States.
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