Last November he arrived from Portugal, with his three. The same one on the cover of the first dance music album made by a tresera woman in Cuba. Yarima Blanco, 24 years ago, arrived in Havana and changed the guitar for that instrument that defines her.
In Centro Habana, in the living room of his apartment, there are many framed photos on the wall. He explains them and smiles. It is not usual to see her without the makeup of concerts and promotional posters. But she didn’t play anywhere that Saturday.
Since he returned from Womex, he hasn’t stopped performing live. The tresera from Bayamese always makes the public laugh. He taught her to laugh Georgia, former director of Anacaona. She points to a photo: “this is Georgia; this one, La China… From the beginning that group, of women, a large orchestra, caught my attention… It was something premonitory, as if I knew that one day I was going to work there. Even so, I kept my interest in groups with small formats.” Just like Son Latino, the septet she currently leads. She was with them in Portugal, at the Womex 2021 event, invited by Unesco.
What was different about Womex?
“I loved that even though it was raining and it was 12 o’clock at night, people were still there. The public itself was the jury. They are called the seven samurai because of how strict they are.”
Perhaps in Portugal, before playing his tres, he would be heard murmuring “In the name of God.” That’s what he says when she asks him what he does before going on stage. And it seems to be true, because when Yarima rehearses or records, he too clasps his hands under his chin as if she were praying. Anything can happen on stage, and not only with music and instruments… «In Esmeralda, Camagüey, playing with Anacaona, the piano broke in a concert and the peasants put on rebencú’s, they even took out machetes. The piano couldn’t be fixed and I had to take on the concerto with the tres». He laughs telling stories like that, even when the platform fell in Santiago.
«One day at the ENA I was practicing with the tres and when I looked up, there was the teacher Pancho Amat looking at me. I was stunned.” “Caramba, what a barbaric thing, a woman playing three!” He mimics her voice. Yarima spends her time imitating the voices in her stories.
A squared and yellowish sheet of paper has been in a box in the living room of his house since he was 14 years old. On that piece of paper, the senior tres player wrote: «Yarima: if the women played the tres, they would take control from the men, said El Guayabero. I hope you become a first-rate tres player », he recites from memory.
He heard a song for the first time in the neighborhood of San Juan, Bayamo, where he grew up. Her mom listened to music every day. «Since I was little he brought me tumbadoras, maracas, güiros… I had real guitars; Small, but true.
Why the three?
«In 1997, after four years studying classical guitar, when I was going to pass the level, Niurka Trueba, a graduate of the ENA and an expert in lute, asked me: “Why don’t you present yourself, in addition to guitar, for three? There are few treseras women, you are going to be the difference, girl!” I hesitated, but I took a risk. The first time I felt the instrument, I fell in love.”
Niurka got one for him through the Bishop of the Bayamo church. “I still wonder how he did it.”
The tres is as Cuban and historic as the place where Yarima was born: «When it comes to playing it must have punch, character… That’s how I am, a guajira from Bayamese, simple and with character».
From the Rafael Cabrera music school to the ENA; from ENA to ISA
“I didn’t know if I had entered, but I was always sure of what I wanted and I told my mom: if it’s not this year, I’ll introduce myself the other; if not, the other; but…”. Finally, her telegram arrived where she was summoned to start studying at the ENA.
In the first hour of conversation, she proves to be a positive woman, “and not COVID” —she clarifies with a laugh—. “I don’t know if he looks good, he’s old,” she says, showing off a π tattoo she has on the back of her neck. “I am very constant. When they told me: Yarima, can you play bass? Can you sing? Can you improvise? Do this… or that…? The answer is always yes, you can. It’s just about showing what you know.”
For my three, his first album, has been in the news in recent months. It will be fully released in 2022. It is made up of 12 songs, Yarima sings seven.
What are the songs about, Yarima?
“Of the life. They take you into stories that are reproduced and are daily: the friendship that remains even if it is not close; love; Party; the man who dresses himself up, goes out and leaves the woman at home…»
For my three It is also the name of the song that her husband, Yunior Molina, singer of Son Latino, composed for her. The theme is inspired by Yarima’s life, “literally,” she says. She met him at La Bodeguita del Medio and from there they fell in love with her. He is the father of Alejandra, her only daughter.
Going out with the three for Yarima Blanco was to be questioned. «People asked me if the tres was the instrument that came out in Palms and Reeds». With a contemptuous tone, she imitates anonymous voices from when she arrived at the places: «she is a woman, she sure sounds female». It’s stressful always having to prove. But it is exhilarating, because when it is achieved, it is satisfying.
In a profession where some stop before, or half way, Yarima defends women from macho prejudices. In less than a second, in her hands, an invisible three. She sings the chorus of the song Yunior gave her:
«They told me a long time ago that I couldn’t play / and that talent wasn’t enough to start with. / It was that same thought / that made me react, / and I decided to play the strings of my instrument… / And so it was with sacrifice and dedication / that in a world of tres players, / little by little I slipped into»..
Live, without a microphone and even imagining the tres, she sings identical to when you listen to her recorded: the same voice, the same rhythm, the same tumbao.
“Although the life of an artist consumes a lot of time, I was always clear that I wanted to start a family,” he says. It must be because he always had the support of his. When he studied music and in elementary school, it was his mother who organized a schedule for him to give him time to fulfill everything.
«I was from one school to another, running at midday, with burned feet —Yarima blows on her feet—, because we were in the special period and my mother made me truck tire shoes. I remember him like he was right now,” she says.
What will Yarima do these months?
«Keep rehearsing, planning the release of the album For my three. Playing, and always drinking coffee. Working so that they remember me as the tresera of Cuba.
