Adolfo Alfonso Fernández

Adolfo Alfonso is considered one of the best decimistas that Cuba has had.

He was born in Melena del Sur. He was very small when his family moved to Güines, and later, when he was eight years old, to the country's capital.

A descendant of Canarians, Adolfo Alfonso was actually born for music. At fourteen years old he was already singing the popular tangos and, as he himself assured "it seems I wasn't doing it badly, because people applauded me". At sixteen years old he radically changed musical genres when he heard a controversy between Angelito Valiente1 and el Indio Naborí.

It was in 1939, at the CMBF station, when Adolfo Alfonso officially began his career as a decimista. "I managed to reach the radio thanks fundamentally to luck. I knew some people who were already linked to some stations and they helped me. From the first presentation I had acceptance and I stayed working in a program aimed at pleasing the requests of listeners and which was directed by Antonio Camino, a repentista member of the blue faction".

Without a doubt, luck continued to accompany him when shortly after he went to work at Las Mil Diez, in a program sponsored by the cigarette company Partagás and directed by Justo Vega. In addition to CMBF radio and Las Mil Diez, Adolfo also worked at CMQ and at Unión Radio. "I had the opportunity to work at several stations, even in different programs at the same time".

Similar fortune would accompany him in television, where in the program El Guateque de Apolonio broadcast by Telemando channel 2, he had the privilege of sharing the set for just over a year with Jesús Orta Ruíz, el Indio Naborí. In that program el Indio played the role of Liborito and Adolfo played that of Manengue. With those characters they made strong criticisms of Batista's dictatorship. They said such daring things in those times that one day they arrived and found that the police were looking for all of them. Of course, they had already shut down the program.

Founder of the program Palmas y Cañas that emerged in October of 1962, he was more than 25 years as a partner with Justo Vega in this program.

For the peculiar way of interpreting country music, for his joviality and level of improvisation when participating in a controversy, Adolfo Alfonso gained the sympathy and respect not only of Cubans, but also of audiences from different parts of the world. For his meritorious work he received several decorations, among them the Antero Regalado medal, awarded by the National Association of Small Farmers, and the Raúl Gómez García.

About Adolfo Alfonso it is assured that he is a born and genuine decimista. But he himself affirmed that everything he achieved in this genre of Cuban music he owed to his artistic partner and cherished friend Justo Vega. "Justo helped me with my formation, more than that, he was my teacher in every sense of life. He taught me everything I know now. Of this great poet I keep an infinite memory. I consider that he was an excellent man in every sense of the word. Besides being a magnificent poet, a poet very dedicated to his work, he was a person with incredible talent and personality. The presence of Justo Vega in any place where he worked was a symbol of admiration, affection and respect. I miss Justo the way you can miss a father, a brother or a son. Because all those things combined was Justo Vega for me".

He received the National Music Prize in the year 2004.