“Cecilia, the incomparable” continues to give something to talk about, despite her death in July 2023. New passages from her life come to light thanks to the launch of the book Cecilia – the last danceby author Johanna Watson (Toucan editions).
According to Culto de La Tercera, the book does not have only one line of narration, since it mixes a profile, an experiential chronicle, unpublished interviews and the perspective of a fan of Cecilia Pantoja.
In addition to unpublished interviews with the singer, there are also testimonies from members of the New Wave, such as José Alfredo Fuentes. In the book, “El Pollo”, reveals a fact that until now had been kept hidden, the affair he had with the singer.
“I was in love with Cecilia, when I was fifteen I dreamed about her”said the also artist.
“Chicken” in love with Cecilia
“My brother Iván flirted with a friend of a woman named Myriam in Tomé. It was during a summer, and while there he became good friends with Cecilia. He told him: ‘I have a little brother, he is fourteen years old and sings well, I would like to introduce him to you.’ “My brother knew that I loved Cecilia, the singer I liked the most, Cecilia drove me crazy, she is one of those people who, keeping in proportion with Violeta Parra who wrote wonderful things, the charisma that Cecilia had…”, said the animator.
“She would appear on stage and I would think: ‘I want to see her sing, I want to hear her.’ Furthermore, later her songs made me cry. Cecilia said, ‘Well,’ and I went to her house the first time with my brother. From then on I went two or three times a week, because we became good friends. I was fifteen and Cecilia must have been nineteen or twenty. We sang, she taught me and corrected me a lot of things (…)”, she added.
El “Pollo” gave more details: “We did a tour, when I started singing, I became famous. She said: ‘This is Alfredo, look at the half-shit that this bastard left singing.’ We went on a tour, and in the bus where we were going I gave her a kiss and she responded, but that’s as far as she arrived, we had a soft, bye-bye hitch.”
“It was a moment when we were talking on the bus and something happened that made us feel very close, and I thought: ‘It seems like this is the moment I can give him a kiss.’ I grabbed her and gave her a kiss, she reciprocated it, but that was nothing more, a kiss on the bus during the tour and that’s it. The next day we were friends again. I don’t know if I ever told it. She was laughing her ass off. ‘You’ve acted stupid,’ I tell him. ‘You’ve never said that we got hit,’” Fuentes said.
“Cecilia, the last dance” is the second volume of the “Entrenotas” collection by Tucán Ediciones, which debuted with Patricio Manns – Of words and music, written by journalist Patricio Cuevas.
