Armando Fernández Soler

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For many Cubans the name Armando Fernández Soler does not achieve identification with its bearer. It is enough to say Cholito, and a full smile floods the face of any of our compatriots, as he is one of our most admired and beloved artists.

His artistic trajectory, quite unapproachable in this space, is vast and involves various cultural spaces and media of communication during a period of decades in the 20th Century and continues in the current one.

From age 11 he performed, thanks to the opportunity provided by Sinesio Fraga, who directed a music band that alternated stories or situations written by himself and staged by a dramatic duo with the execution of the musical repertoire. At 15, he was already alternating the family dental prosthetics workshop with acting in small roles in the theater Company of the Spaniard Nicolás Rodriguez during his performances in Cuba, who also introduced him to the mysteries of the Performing Arts in his Comedy Academy, later complemented in the University Theater and in the Academy of Dramatic Arts (ADAD) in which years later (1947-48) together with Mario Martinez Casado, he would teach classes in various specialties in this Municipal Academy.

Cuban Theater, Radio, Television and Cinema have seen him traverse them with unparalleled mastery, but also with unparalleled work capacity and optimism.

On stage, the actor who debuted as a student in Shadow and Substance, a work premiered at the Principal Comedy Theater, alongside Violeta Casals and Alicia Agramonte traversed all manifestations and spaces of the Performing Arts, from Ana Leontieva's Ballet, to the work of lighting technician, props, assistant director at the Auditorium and Martí Theater, passing through the theater group La Comedia (French vaudeville) by Mario Martinez Casado, where he began as an extra and became a leading figure in three seasons, until the Lyric Theater, where he was not only an interpreter and director of numerous works but also contributed to the development of companies of this type outside the capital. Thus, Soler traversed all stages, creating step by step, an impressive curriculum.

Already in 1954-55 at the Hubert de Blanck Theater, he directed A Christmas Carol, starring Vicente Revuelta, for which he received the ACRI award, from the Association of journalists and in 1959, he was part, along with other figures, of the Examination Commission of ACAT, Association of Cuban Artists, in dramatic interpretation backed by his trajectory. (In 1955, he was awarded as a generic actor by CARTV). After 1960 he continued for a long time acting and directing theater until new projects made him change course.

He came to Radio, doing bench work, as it was called the act of waiting for the ruling of principal actors during the broadcast of live programming, in case of any eventuality. In this way he made his first dramatic role in The Soul of Things by Juan Herbello, directed by Sol Pinelli. From then on from drama to comedy, from acting to directing the most important Havana radio stations and even some outside the capital, knew of the work and talent of this man of the people who forever was recognized with the epithet given to a marquis of fiction.

Cuban Television had him among its founders from 1950 itself, on Channel 4, the founding one. It would be on Channel 6, during 1951, in the space Modern Home, written by Francisco Vergara, where the character emerged whose name renamed Soler:

In the fiction, various suitors sought a marriageable young woman (Consuelo Vidal). One of them was the little marquis of Clear Mist, whom everyone called Cholito, a character that fell to Armando Soler.

On TV, he joined in the same way in acting in various channels and genres and gradually assumed the direction of various spaces for decades.

Not content with that he ventured into Film from the 1950s.

As a sample, one example:

Mexico:
Never Forget Me (1955). Debut.
From the Moon to Montevideo (in English) and
A Gypsy in Havana (1955)

(Cuba). After 1960:
Mella, The Resource of Method, The Survivors, The Age of Enlightenment, Paty Candela and Nothing.
Multiple projects of Cuban public interest Television from the 1960s decade, counted on his participation.

Examples:
*Artistic Brigades that traveled for several years through our archipelago mounting shows in rural communities and military units.
*Creation of dramatic groups in provincial radio stations where he became an advisor and director of radio programs.
*Between 1967 and 1974, he was director of curriculum plans and acting professor in various provinces (Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, Pinar del Río and Camaguey).

Armando Fernández Soler, Armando Soler, Cholito, has emerged victorious from the assaults of life and illnesses and with the passion, enthusiasm of a young man, acts on Cuban Radio and Television, involves himself in community acting projects and prepares his memoirs.

For this and much more, the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, granted him its highest honorary decoration, the status of Artist of Merit, for the work of a lifetime.

The applause of those gathered at the Auditorium Theater that afternoon, were the expression of an entire people, who thanked him for having worked the way he did.

His last appearance on Cuban stages was in Romance for Federico, a staging by Nelson Dorr based on texts by Lorca himself, Dorr, Jesús Barreiro and Eduardo Sánchez Torel, premiered in the Cavarrubias room of the National Theater on March 21, 2003, where Cholito shared the cast with Nieves Riovalles, Zoa Fernández, Roberto Perdomo, Frank González, Danny Villalonga and his Flamenco Company ECOS. The piece was later revived in the García Lorca room of the Gran Teatro de La Habana, on April 10, 11 and 12 of that same year.

On Cuban television, he was last seen in the telenovela What I Have Left to Live alongside Elsita Camp, with a script by Maité Vera.

Other ventures of Cholito in our scene, as actor or director, according to our databases are:

Some Men and Others, by Jesús Díaz. Staging by Lilliam Llerena, by the Ocuje group. Premiere: December 22, 1969 at the Mella Theater. He performed alongside Mario Balmaseda, Tito Junco and Omar Valdés, among others.
The Count of Luxembourg, by Franz Lehár, staging by Adela Escartín and Carlos Piñeiro, with the National Lyric Theater of Cuba. Premiere May 14, 1966 in the García Lorca room of the Gran Teatro de La Habana. He performed here alongside figures such as Armando Pico, Ramón Calzadilla, María Remolá, Rosita Fornés and Gladys Puig.
The Hawks, original by Jacinto Guerrero. Staging by Jesús Hernández. National Lyric Theater of Cuba. Premiere in December 1976 in the García Lorca room of the Gran Teatro de La Habana. He performed alongside Rafael Aquino, Esther Valdés, Humberto Lara, América García, Mario Martínez Casado and Martha Aguiar among others.
The Festival of the Dove, original by Tomás Bretón. Staging by Armando Soler for the National Lyric Theater of Cuba; premiere in November 1977. In addition to directing the show, he performed alongside Humberto Lara, América García, Ramón Zamoramo, Martha Aguiar, Adelayda Gómez.
Cecilia Valdés, original by Gonzalo Roig. Staging by Jesús Hernández. National Lyric Theater of Cuba, December 1976, García Lorca room of the Gran Teatro de La Habana. He performed alongside Armando Bianchi, María de los A. Santana, Asseneth Rodríguez, Alina Sánchez and Aldo Lario.
In film his most recent work was in Nothing, by Juan Carlos Cremata.

Armando Soler directed television spaces, among them the historic Write and Read, still present in our weekly programming.

When he died he was still part of the daily radio humorous program Joys of Dessert Time, from the Radio Progreso station, a program in which he worked for 7 years.