Bárbaro Alfredo Valdés Cataneo

Cataneo was a member of the Trío Taicuba for more than 40 years.

Cataneo was born in the western province of Matanzas in the early 1930s. Radio launched him to fame as he began to stand out for his interpretations of tangos and other traditional genres such as bolero and son.

In 1934, the old la Torre brought the Duo "Gavilán-Cataneo" (together with musician and creator Evelio López Gavilán) to the shortwave station CMGH (the second in the Matanzas province), where they obtained great popularity, to the point that they received correspondence from listeners living in other countries and made occasional radio performances in La Habana.

In 1936, Manolo Serrano, a tango singer and later announcer on Cubay España, brought them to CMQ Radio. Cataneo sang Argentine songs inserted in the episodes of "Che Mendoza" and debuted in "La Hora Serrano," singing tangos as a soloist alongside Tony Álvarez and Olga Chorens. With Serrano himself, he performed the famous "payadas," musical duels with songs instead of traditional décimas.

In 1939 he joined the Trio "Armónico" with Gavilán and Rebull, performing in Santa Clara for RHC and later in the Havana RHC Cadena Azul, together with the Argentine Orchestra "Río de la Plata" directed by Lorenzo Rego, which was later called "Los Violines de Rego," a group that also accompanied "La Corte Suprema del Arte" of CMQ Radio, on Monte and Prado. In the mid-1940s, Cataneo worked at Customs, sang tangos on the communist station 1010 and joined a hunger strike demanding labor rights at the Association of Cuban Artists at that time.

In 1946, Gavilán once again founded another vocal group, this time the Trio "Taicuba," made up of Gavilán himself, Miranda, and once again, Cataneo, which had Escolástico Sardiñas as its representative. Almost a year later, the Quartet "Taicuba" emerged, this time including guitarist Leyva and Baz Tabranes, who eventually took over the direction of what would become, over the years, the legendary Trio "Taicuba."

At that time they secured a fixed contract with RHC Cadena Azul, starring in regular programs such as "Canciones al Viento," "Taberna Bohemia," "Alfombra Mágica," and the famous "Poemas y canciones," a daily program where Jorge Guerrero recited poems and they sang songs that corresponded to the theme of the verses each day. It was also the era of "Un mensaje para ti" on Radio Lavin, where announcer Carlos D'Mant wrote the lyrics for the premiere songs that each week featured that other great of Cuban music, Adolfo Guzmán, who in addition to playing the piano, also sang.

Television brought them to all homes, as they performed in programs on all commercial channels (Su estrella favorita, Programa partagás, El show del mediodía, Album musical Phillips, Cabaret regalías de cuño, Bar melódico de Osvaldo Farrés, El show del Jabón Tornillo), among others.

They participated in the opening of the short-lived Canal 11, TV Caribe, then worked for Canal 2, Telemundo in its flagship Saturday program "Noches de Ambar Motors" and "Paso a la Juventud," to which must be added from its inception the programs "Mi Cuba" and "Remate de Autos," which did not prevent them from being contracted by the soap company Crusellas. The screen did not prevent their regular performances in the 1940s and 1950s on the stations: Unión Radio (in the program "Bijol y espiga"), Radio Progreso, and COCO.

The Trío "Taicuba" was part of the cultural outreach programs in the 1960s that traveled throughout the island, and during that decade became regulars at the most famous Havana restaurants (El Patio, La Bodeguita del Medio, El Floridita, La Torre, 1830, El Cochinito, La Maison), many of them from their opening.

They participated from the 1940s in Cuban and Mexican cinema, "El Señor Faraón y Cleopatra" starring Salvador Levy; "El Romance del Palmar" with Rita Montaner; and "Una Gallega en La Habana" with Blanquita Amaro and Argentine Nini Marshall, are some of their films. In the 1950s they were invited to the famous Steve Allen Show on American NBC. From the 1970s on, they traveled back and forth through Latin America, Europe, and Asia, representing Cuba at various commercial and cultural events. Despite their retirement in 1989, Cataneo and the Trio traveled between 2000 and 2003, invited annually to London.

For decades, this artist and his Trio stood out for their Cuban and Latin repertoire, the enrichment of their harmony, and the Cubanness of their personality. Cataneo and "Taicuba" are examples of our authentic character, which is why they remain in the memory of an entire people. Thank you, Cataneo-Taicuba, for your art and example on this, your 90th anniversary!

Valdés Cataneo holds the Distinction for National Culture (1982), the Félix Varela Order (the highest Cuban cultural decoration), the Luis Gómez Wanguemert medal, the Radio Microphone, and multiple national and foreign decorations.

Cataneo is a mythical figure for Cuban television workers; not only for his vast journey through vocal groups that obtained famous regular slots on Radio and later on the small screen, but for his pranks and tricks on colleagues, friends, and even executives and strangers, which have been renewed with each narrator as legends.

He passed away on July 11, 2013, at 7:45 p.m. at the Manuel Fajardo hospital in La Habana, where he had been admitted for several days, at the age of 96.

Source: Cubarte