Certainly this virtuous and simple woman, with a lot of talent, spent nearly 20 years touring European, Latin American, North American and North African stages; reaping laurels and cheers
From the small town of Senado to the great theaters of the world
“I was born in the Senado sugarmill, on October 3th, 1916. My mother Avelina, a housewife, and mother of 13 children and my father José Ramón, a construction worker; He was my first teacher. “He taught me how to read the primer.” She told me.
“My grandparents were slaves. I met my grandfather Roque Batista, an African, already very old; his physique very deteriorated. He spoke to us very rudely, he told his children, my father especially, that he had been spanked, which is why his fingers were completely crippled. He spoke very beautifully in Congo dialect, really really beautiful.”
“At 12 years old we came to Camagüey and at 17 I was already singing with several orchestras. I started with the Ángel Tomula Orchestra, then La Especial, Columbia, and La X, I worked with Generoso Gutiérrez, who was a renowned director of dances, troupes, and theaters, and he allowed me to go with him to other ‘events’ of the time.”
Being very young, this artist, like almost all colossal men and women, knew very closely her suffering due to the loss of several siblings and her husband, who was only 21 years old: the Camagüey violinist Víctor Agüero. But she… keeps going despite the attacks and she left for Havana, “(…) to join the Obdulio Morales Orchestra and join a musical show directed by Paco Alfonso.”
Candita Batista in Havana
Obdulio Morales, an interesting figure in Cuban musical development, dedicated himself to studying the rhythmic cells of African music since 1936, which allowed him to incorporate them into the musical scenography and found the Cuban Folk Choral Group. Distinguished figures passed through this group, among which stood out: Candita Batista, Mercedita Valdés, Pastora Doné, Xiomara Alfaro, Juana Bacallao, Bertha de Cuba…
Later, Candita was introduced to the Batamú Company, also from Obdulio, by her second husband Julio Morales; who served as representative of this orchestra. They were black musicians who, under the tutelage of Armando Borroto, had an Afro-Cuban show.
And it was at the Martí Theater, in 1941, where they worked 15 days in a row with this show. There she debuted as an artist with a national profile and, in turn, this Theater served as a catapult to the great international stages.
The world at the feet of The Ebony Goddess
“The directors of the Artigas y Campos theater did not want blacks, things of the time, you know? But, the show was something very big, very accepted, tremendous success, and at that moment José Bridas from Mexico arrived, he loved it and we spent three months with the Teatro Lírico in important cities of that country.”
Those open doors were the paths of a victorious route of the Empress of the Afro, the Goddess of the Ebony, the greatest Cuban figure of color, as she was named in Seville in 1951. The Portuguese saw her as the extraordinary black star.
These nicknames are part of the old newspaper advertisements kept with great zeal, but without the necessary knowledge to preserve them, which, with great care, her niece, Josefina Aróstegui Batista, showed me one by one.
London, Berlin, Brussels…
The golden voice of Cuba, the most faithful interpreter of Antillean sounds recently triumphant in London, Berlin, Brussels…, was one of the headlines that made me understand why so many Spaniards of different ages who pass through Camagüey, ask and greet our Vedette.
The contracts in France of 800 francs a day for four weeks, their repetition at the request of the public starting on September 22th, 1950 at the Cabaret Parisiena in Brussels, the lavish settings, fantasy hairstyles, all imposing and owner of the stage; They reminded me of other contemporary stars of theirs such as Josephine Baker, Celia Cruz, Lola Flores, Celeste Mendoza, Elena Burke, among others.
Candita and international songwriting
Cinema, theater, radio… were part of her life too. But her singing marked her forever as one that the international catalog of the ’40s and ’50s could not ignore. She also shared stages with Nat King Cole, Charles Aznavour, Michel Legrand, among other great international songwriters.
Pintor!….Angelitos negros!
Angelitos negroes… that song identifies her so much that it has been one of Candita Batista’s best-known artistic pseudonyms. Its composer was the Venezuelan Eloy Blanco, with music by Masist, according to the press of the time.
It can be said that this great artist from Camagüey is the brilliant creator of the musical piece, due to the interpretive contributions, the melodic and dramatic turns, timely silences and the high communication that she achieves with the public on any platform in the universe.
Candita in Africa
In 1950, the Columbia record label in the United States listed her as one of the singing celebrities. In North Africa her debut was sensational alongside the bongo player Rubén Amat, the Gran Ballet Sevillano, La Orquesta Calahorra and the vocalist Angelines Gara; who were the sensation of the celebrations for the day of the National Uprising that year.
“June 5th, 1959 was one of my last contracts abroad, in Germany, I even recommended Bola de Nieve and came to Cuba at the request of my mother.
At mother’s request, Cuba
Her request for me to return made me think that she wanted to spend the last days of her life by my side and I prioritized my feelings. That made me feel happy with myself because I was with her in Havana, then in my Camagüey, which I have never given up on and where I closed her eyes.
The complexion?
“The complexion?… On one occasion I met Josephine Baker in Paris and she told me… brown sugar and water for my face, nothing more… And it was the Valencians who told me how I should wear my hair, always up with a bun and since then That’s how I did it. There are many memories, many…”
This is how Candita comments slowly, without rushing, knowing her great gift for conversation. Her hands are intertwined with thin fingers, with her nails carefully styled, which from time to time touch her cane, which accompanies her as she walks inside the house and on her stage.
The eternal smile
The lips are owners of an elegant smile, which with their eyes and nose, constitute the defining elements of a face that several artists of the plastic arts have perpetuated, among them the artist Víctor Moreno, one of the first to do so, a portraitist of great worth for the mastery he has when approaching portraits.
The sepia, white nuances and shadows captured the psychological essence of the star; The sinuous lines of it enchanted her and, the light, the transcendence of it. He located the face among the mists, perhaps alluding to the song Angelitos negros, which by association, returns to memory.
Legacy
Today part of her artistic Universe is treasured in a permanent exhibition in the Music and Popular Dance Room in the House of Cultural Diversity of Camagüey, of the Historian’s Office.
Reference
Multiple interviews by the author with Candita Batista over the years in her private home on Cristo Street no. 2.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
