Adolfo Alfonso: a hundred years of a popular poet

The controversies of Justo Vega and Adolfo Alfonso have long been part of the heritage of popular culture in Cuba. Two improvisers: one, serious and cautious, with little patience for jokes; the other, the buzzy, jovial and rowdy Cuban: two sides of a coin, two kings of the same deck. And how many great moments of complete enjoyment they brought to the people to whom they devoted their creation.

We celebrate one hundred years of a poet who opposed the judicious Justo Vega in those sparkling and meaningful fights at the Palmas y Cañas TV show. But Adolfo Alfonso was not only Justo Vega's singing partner, he shared many times with Jesús Orta Ruiz himself, whom entire promotions of decima singers recognize as a father and trainer.

Already in the difficult years of the second half of the 1950s, Adolfo Alfonso challenged the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista with the subtlety of his verses on television. He, who began singing tangos, soon understood the great possibilities of oral poetry, a tradition so deeply rooted in these lands.

He honored that heritage out of respect for the great representatives of that type of music, whom he always recognized as maestros. Adolfo Alfonso insisted that his was a creation with less lyrical depth, more attached to the folksiest expression. But no one can argue his good taste, good creation, or the high profile of his compositions. He had talent for music.

All the poets who pay tribute today in Cuba to the thriving movement of improvised verse recognize in Adolfo Alfonso as one of the best. He perhaps would have laughed at those hierarchies... Perhaps he would have dedicated some humorous verses to them in a song.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff