Guantanamero, proudly Guantanamero. A great father, a notable lawyer and notary, accompanying pianist, composer, arranger, teacher. Director of the Ideal orchestra and shows at the Bayatiquirí cabaret. He held the 33rd degree of Freemasonry and was one of those people who were always willing, always open. All in one.
I would have liked to meet Humberto Sócrates Villalón Hechavarría (August 23, 1924-July 18, 1992). I come to his house in search of his legend. I play at Beneficencia 973 and an entire city welcomes me in honor of his centenary. The stately staircase has been converted into a stand. His daughter, Paula Celerina Villalón Fernández, dentist, teacher and singer, opens her arms. A theme from her father, the filin floats.
The octogenarian Enrique Letarneaut Parra, secretary of the figure to whom tribute is paid, evokes him as an upright notary, “always far from any scoundrelism.” He pricked up his ears to listen to the anecdote he witnessed, when they praised “Socrates’ tumbao” on the piano. There is a suspense when he asks, when he answers: “Do you know who he was, who did it… Lilí Martínez.”
We enter the depth of Cuban music.
The actor Ury Rodríguez, recently elected president of Uneac in the easternmost of the Cuban territories, says, he smiles when he relives the meetings of friends at Sócrates’ house, those gatherings called “Directive Councils.” People talked about the human and the divine, projects emerged, life was colored and, of course, savored.
A beautiful initiative lights up the room. Iselis Danger Bott, director of the Provincial Center for the Improvement of Culture (founded in 1986), communicates the intention of giving the name of Sócrates Villalón to that institution. He is fair and he is consistent. The antecedents can be found in proposals such as the School of Improvement for Professional Musicians that Sócrates created in the 70s, together with other stalwarts such as Antonia Luisa Cabal (Tootsie).
Many remember the sounds that filled the upper floors of the Génova pizzeria, where it was located. Music theory classes and the teaching of instruments were taught, often undertaken on a voluntary basis. He did it just in time when some were beginning to look down on heartland musicians, popular musicians.
That constant concern for artistic sensitivity and legal recognition united the worlds of Socrates. That desire for collective growth, to promote his people and his city, is in the long run one of Sócrates Villalón’s great contributions to Guantanamo culture and society.
Reasons support Adolfo Rodríguez Fernández Rubio, director of Bufetes Colectivos in Guantánamo, when he confirms that the Abogacía 2024 event (upcoming June 8-10) will be dedicated to this distinguished figure. For “the legacy of his legal knowledge, for the practice of his values, because men of law make up the intellectual advance of the nation, and Socrates was an example of this.”
I read the notes that his daughter, María Josefa Villalón Fernández, sends from Luanda: «There was not a question we asked him that he did not know how to guide us. He was an insatiable reader and part of his income was used to buy books. It was always on his family agenda to treat people with respect. However, he was always affectionate and on many occasions, consenting.
Paula, the hostess in this full house, is flooded with memories of her father: the difficult court cases they consulted with him, his scrupulous care of legal documentation, the love he felt for his wife Dixiana, the piano… And she needs stand up, you need to sing again. She opens her arms. Sócrates Villalón has returned on his centenary.
