# Agustín Rodríguez Castro

**Date of birth:** August 29, 1885

**Date of death:** October 2, 1957

**Categories:** Arts, theater, actor, screenwriter, professor, Society

Agustín Rodríguez Castro was not only a prominent author, theater director and entrepreneur, but also distinguished himself as a screenwriter for Cuba's emerging sound cinema and lyricist of famous songs; in addition to being a librettist of sainetes and zarzuelas, bringing his works to television. A professor of excellent theater actors and Cuban comedies, but above all, the best author who knew how to highlight the themes that identified the Cuban people.

Born in Galicia in the place known as El Coto, in Vicedo, Agustín was the son of Fidel Rodríguez Fernández and María Matilde Castro Mera. His father was a teacher. He was the grandson on his paternal side of Antonia Rodríguez Fernández (an unwed mother) and on his maternal side of Francisco Castro and María Mera.

His baptism took place the day after his birth, in the parish of San Esteban del Valle, in Riobarba. His godparents were Agustín Rodríguez Martínez and Dolores Castro (sister of Agustín's mother), both farmers by trade. From the marriage of Fidel Rodríguez and María Matilde Castro Mera, besides Agustín, four children were born: Saturnino and Cándido (who also emigrated to Cuba) and his sisters Esperanza and Delfina, who remained in Vicedo.

Saturnino had a store in Baez (in central Cuba, in the south of Guaracabuya), province of Las Villas, on Calle Real, called "La Verdad", dedicated to selling clothing, hats, furs and hardware.

He emigrated to Cuba in 1901. His uncle José Castro Mera, his mother's brother, brought him when he was 16 years old, after he had been left fatherless. He was soon captivated by the emerging Cuban theater of zarzuelas and typical sainetes, an activity he cultivated intensely, premiering more than four hundred works.

By 1911 he was a recognized poet whose poems the best composers set to music and converted into successful songs, and likewise an extraordinary screenwriter of theatrical works.

He premiered his first work in 1908 called "Cuba se hunde". In 1912 he traveled to Mexico with the company of Arquímedes Pous and a cast of first-rate actors such as Julito Díaz, a Havanan who had just debuted with great success in 1911 at the Molino Rojo theater on Galiano and Neptuno. Upon his return, Agustín wrote together with Julito for the Alhambra theater the piece "La toma de Veracruz".

Julito Díaz remained in the Alhambra cast and when Agustín founded his own theater company with Suárez, he went with him to the Teatro Martí (1932-1936), where he received great acclaim and roles created for him by Agustín, such as the character "Roca", in the zarzuela El clarín, which Gonzalo Roig set to music (1932), he also accompanied him in the Cuban film "El romance del palmar" (directed by M. Peón, 1938). For which reason it is assured that Agustín Rodríguez first wrote works for the famous Teatro Alhambra.

After the successes at the Alhambra, in mid-1931, Agustín Rodríguez created the Suárez-Rodríguez company, together with Rafael Suárez Solís, which from the Teatro Martí staged the best works, as it is known occurred on August 2, 1932, when they re-premiered María la O, by Galarraga and Lecuona, with the principal figure of Caridad Suárez, as well as Candita Quintana (Caridad Almendares), Consuelo Novoa (Ña Salud), Miguel de Grandy (Niño Fernando), Alberto Garrido (Guadalupe) and Federico Piñero (Santiago Mariño), to which the Havanan newspapers gave the best of reviews as never before. Beginning August 7, 1931 until November 2, 1936, which accredits him as the director and producer who offered the longest season of zarzuelas and sainetes in Cuba.

There is no doubt that Agustín Rodríguez Castro is among the main promoters of Cuban zarzuela. The Cuban zarzuela, influenced by the Spanish zarzuela, famous since the second half of the 19th century, succeeded in capturing the characteristic life of Cubans, framed by the most typical forms of our music, managing since the middle of the 20th century to be the most varied in Spanish America.

As we had said, Agustín created his own zarzuela company in 1931 with Rafael Suárez Solís with the musical collaboration of Cuban maestro Gonzalo Roig, and later also with maestro Rodrigo Prats, making it one of the most successful, due to his profound knowledge of Cuban identity and Cuban talents.

He was hired as a screenwriter for the film "Sucedió en La Habana" (1938) with an argument by Ramón Pérez Díaz, under the direction of Ramón Peón; that same year he participated in "El romance del palmar", also directed by Ramón Peón García, and screenplay by Ramón Pérez Díaz who worked based on an argument by Agustín Rodríguez, and he was also hired to write the argument for the Cuban film "Estampas habaneras" (1939), by Jaime Salvador.

Agustín supported the projection of the lyric genre during the first stage of Channel 6 (CMQ-TV), because emerging Cuban television had the privilege that this multifaceted artist would conceive some unforgettable spectacles, such as the Grand Lyric ESSO Theater, which was broadcast on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CMQ-Channel 6 from November 28, 1951, presenting weekly a zarzuela or operetta live with an orchestra in the studio where figures such as Blanquita Becerra, Paco Salas, Luz Gil; Ramón Espígul, Julita Muñoz among others performed. Agustín Rodríguez was its artistic director between 1951 and 1952 presenting works of his own authorship such as "La Habana que vuelve" (music by Rodrigo Prats); "El batey" (with music by Ernesto Lecuona); "La de Jesús María", etc.

On October 4, 1957, the multifaceted Galician-Cuban Agustín Rodríguez died in his adopted homeland. Leaving behind a long and fruitful period of Cuban vernacular theater, created with his extraordinary effort, which amply demonstrated his profound knowledge of Cuban identity.

For all his contribution to Cuban culture we assure that Agustín Rodríguez Castro was the Galician who most contributed to the Cuban character, bringing nationalist themes to the stage and establishing styles. The creation of hundreds of zarzuelas and sainetes, his participation in the argument of the first films of emerging Cuban sound cinema, his primacy in Cuban television, but above all, having been the librettist of the zarzuela based on the masterwork of Cuban literature, give him the category of excellence.

His irreparable physical disappearance on October 2, 1957, after suffering from terminal cancer drew heartfelt words from playwright Feliciano Salas: "He remained forever in the land he chose as his own and went down to the grave, one morning, wrapped in the notes of 'Quiéreme mucho', conducting the orchestra firmly, without a tear, the maestro Gonzalo Roig".