At last! Juan Piñera

August 2, 2018

How much joy it has brought me to wake up with the news of the 2018 National Radio Award for the maestro Juan Piñera among so many other radio broadcasters!

The most humble and most ingenious person I have known in a long time. I saw him arrive at CMBF, Radio Musical Nacional with the shyness of someone who comes to take on a very high baton and doesn't know if those measurements fit well with his body, with his talent.

He already had a path traveled in music as a composer for various formats, media, etc. He was the king of theatrical billboards at that time when I met him. The decade of the 90s where his continued footprint exists until today. Carlos Díaz, Abelardo Estorino, Gerardo Fulleda León, Berta Martínez, Ignacio Gutiérrez, but also Alicia Alonso and Rosario Cárdenas have been privileged with his creativity, among so many others.

To take on the legacy of Maruja Sánchez Cabrera for CMBF, which comprised three weekly programs of Cuban music with a rich trajectory, distinguished by numerous awards in national Radio festivals, and give it continuity, constituted a very great challenge for this industrious Piñera.

But neither short nor lazy, which he has never been I can assure you, he got to work and not only has he maintained it but he has also contributed other spaces to the cmebef audience, with whom he already has very well-earned credit.

If we add to that the fact that here on the radio we inspired him to write for the newscasts, the music critiques that he made us listen to orally; his contribution to the memory of Cuban music and radio in particular is much greater. And this is not said by the summary that appears published in all the media of the country endorsing his Award, the more than deserved one along with others that should be granted to him.

Prolific to excess, he who from that same special period has come to enrich not only the music programs with his knowledge, but also the newscasts with timely criticism of every musical event that occurs in this beautiful Havana.

If Carpentier did it in his time, it is Juan Piñera who does it in these times, without compromises with his profession, he praises those who deserve it and castigates those who don't have good craftsmanship. And we all enjoy that, because he knows how to say things like his renowned uncle, Virgilio Piñera, the greatest playwright this country has produced, with a pleasant encore and without so much fuss.

Congratulations Juan Piñera, I am very glad that your National Award is for your work in radio.

By Mery Delgado
Source: https://universoculturalcubano.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/al-fin-juan-pinera/