Being among the winners of the recently held Provincial Radio Festival, with his program “Domingo Lírico”, dedicated to the 87th years of the birth of the Holguin born prominent artist Raúl Camayd, has a special meaning for its director, Eduardo Martín Arranz, because they coincide in their rich career with a total dedication to theater and to CMKO, which has just marked its 88th founding anniversary.
And in that Festival, also dedicated to the 102nd anniversary of the Cuban Radio, Arranz among the 38 winners, out of the hundred or so works presented, with his program “Domingo Lírico”, which a few years ago won the Premio de la Ciudad (Holguin City Award).
Arranz and Camayd were both born in 1937, shared childhood, dreams and achievements, such as lyrical singing, the direction of the Rodrigo Prats Theater and the passionate link with the radio since their childhood years; they defended and promoted tango, a genre that, as Martín himself remarked, “if it had a surname, it had to be Gardel”. Also, their human sensibility united them in a just cause, which included, among other protagonists, the supportive Argentine friend Eladio Gonzalez (Toto).
It is admirable to appreciate the content of Arranz’s radio productions, who shared a large part of his artistic life with the baritone Raúl Camayd (1937-1991), founder and first director of the Teatro Lírico Rodrigo Prats, writer, scriptwriter and director of radio and television, singing teacher, choreographer, arranger, orchestrator, one of the founders of the UNEAC in Holguín, and honorary member of the Association of Pedagogues of Cuba.
Precisely, so distinguished personality of Holguin’s culture, also founder, director and conductor of the program Domingo Lírico, that, after his death, it was taken over by Martín Arranz, is the main protagonist of the book that my interviewee entitled.
Apuntes del teatro en Holguín, published by Ediciones Holguín.
Radio, tango, passion and dedication
From the physical and professional height that distinguishes the 87 years lived by Martín Arranz, the humbleness and modesty that characterize him, one can discover in his gaze the nostalgia for those childhood years, when his loving mother enjoyed and supported his inclination for tango, poetry declamation and theatrical acting, for which, occasionally, he wore moustaches.
Childhood rewarded with the invitation to participate in some radio programs of cultural promoter Fermín Chelala, in which he sang, accompanied by a guitar. There he met the owner of the CMKO, Manuel Angulo Farrán, whose name the station was taken at the request of its workers, days after the revolutionary triumph.
Thus he grew up linked to the radio, participating in children’s programs and other assignments that helater took on, never to be able to separate himself from this important means of communication, where, for so many he has defended the lyrical singing and tango.
The fact is that both loves complement each other, since the lullabies with which his uncles and older brothers and aunts put him to sleep during the first years of his life were tangos, and later, when his parents went on a trip, instead of toys and knick-knacks, he would ask them to bring to him Argentine music, to such a point he got to make an important collection of Carlos Gardel’s records.
Later on, with the triumph of the Revolution, he declaimed and sang, by invitation, in some organizations and was a member of Methodist and Catholic Church choirs. When in Holguín a wide choral movement began to develop, he joined that of Commerce, source of the Lyric Theater of Holguin, today “Rodrigo Prats”, which was founded on November 16, 1962.
A his rich story as singer and actor of that transcendent group of the Holguín culture, of which he was also deputy director, the five years as director of the Infante Theater (today Eddy Suñol), the performances in different Cuban stages and his tours in Peru (1983, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2012) and Spain, but his huge love for the radio and the promotion of Gardel’s tangos never fade away.
In that way he was the director and host of the program Domingo Lírico, which Camayd conducted until his death in 1991, and he replaced the official host, when the latter retired, of the program “La voz inmortal Carlos Gardel”, which had as antecedents “Radio Tango” and “Así cantó Carlos Gardel”, which was produced by the director of CMKO Manuel Angulo Farrán.
Carlos Gardel, nicknamed the Zorzal Criollo, the Morocho del Abasto and the King of Tango, grew up in Argentina, transcending as a composer and singer of tangos, as well as a movie actor, died on June 24, 1935, in an unfortunate plane crash.
As José Martí used to say, “great personalities are like foundations on which peoples get deeply rooted in, I promise I will add soon other pages of the rich life story of Martín Arranz, related to the solidarity offered to Cuba by great Argentinean friends in unforgettable moments and in which this compatriot has honored and honors with his life the mixture of Spanish, Arab and Mambisa blood that runs through his veins.
- Yaniset Mariela leads popular actions in Felton - 31 de May de 2025
- John M. Kirk, a love for Cuba that withstands difficulties - 15 de May de 2025
- Icap is distinguished for its solidarity - 30 de April de 2025