Calixto Callava

From childhood he immersed himself in the cultivation of rumba in his Belén neighborhood.

As a singer and musician he was part of the guaguancó Groups Marítimo Portuario and Yoruba Andabo.

He always worked at the Havana port, a setting he reflected in his musical creations.

Among his musical works are those titled La rumba brava, Retozón y Tumbayaya, Lo bailo solo, El callejón de los rumberos, Guaguancó sabroso, Mi guaguancó sí da la hora and Tiembla tierra.

He always lived a humble life, and even traveled without a ticket to Mexico to try to improve his life. After a short time he quit and returned to Cuba. There he wrote some famous songs, such as "Lo Añoro", popularized by Vicentico Valdés.

But still Calixto had to continue working as a stevedore.

He was a founding member, in 1961, of the group Guaguancó Marítimo Portuario Zona 5, which in 1986 was reorganized as the Grupo Yoruba Andabo. With Guaguancó Marítimo Portuario he began to gain fame and awards.

Groups:
-Guaguancó Marítimo Portuario (Founder)
-Grupo Yoruba Andabo (Founder)

Compositions:
-El Callejón de los Rumberos
-Chano en Belén
-Guaguancó Sabroso
-Tawiri
-Tiembla la Tierra (¿Dónde Vas, Mulato?)
-Canta la Ceiba, Baila la Palma Real

Calixto Callava could fill our souls with a love melody just as easily as he could compose a fiery rumba. He left to the musical catalog that bolero full of nostalgia that says I will have one like you, so lovely... which Vicentico Valdés popularized, and numbers like El callejón de los rumberos and Chano en Belén, which synthesize the fraternal feeling that the drummer Chano Pozo inspired in him.

Calixto learned what poverty was, and dreamed that everything would change one day; the sadness of pocketless hope wounded him, and he left for Mexico in the 50s of the last century, hidden in the hold of a ship. The stowaway thought that without a ticket he was traveling to fame.

In several months of stay in the country there was nothing certain; he wandered through cabarets, knocked on doors that did not open. For Callava the nights were long and cold; he felt strange walking through those avenues, full of establishments and luminous signs: nostalgia laid traps for his heart. He returned, but many images of the visited country remained in the well of memory, from which he came back without the glory he yearned for. He wrote three works: México, distrito federal; Mande, usted and México, qué grande eres.

BEAUTIFUL CUBAN

And one day —because such things tend to happen and more often than one thinks—, while talking with a friend, on the Havana Infanta street he saw pass a woman who was like a star escaped from heaven, and that precious thing touched his soul deeply; just one glance and the song put verses to the melody so that this hymn would emerge with which lovers still lull themselves, and which Vicentico popularized: Lo añoro.

I DANCE IT ALONE

In the moments when the mozambique rhythm was all the rage, Pello el Afrokán included in his repertoire Callava's number Lo bailo solo, which Pedro Izquierdo on his 1965 trip through Poland, East Germany, the Soviet Union and France, turned into a great success.

Calixto learned to admire the figure of Chano Pozo, whom he saw daily in the Havana neighborhood of Belén. From there was born another famous piece: El callejón de los rumberos: Near the sea/ is the alley of my memories/ and the very sea/ where I work./ People are having fun/ and I like the atmosphere/ so I'm heading there/ From the patio of the house where I live, I hear the drums sound/ which are wonders/ because they have flavor...

At the port, the musician stevedore joined Chano, Chori, and the already legendary Pancho Quinto to form the Guaguancó Marítimo Portuario Zona 5, which won awards and triumphs. Later came Yoruba Andabo, with which he sang rumbas, some of his own making like El congo, La tumba brava, Guaguancó sabroso, Mi puchunga de amor, Inútil espera, Tagüiri and Tiembla la tierra. One of the last compositions of this unforgettable rumbero, Calixto Callava, who died at sixty years old in 1990, was the piece Canta la ceiba, baila la palma real, recorded by Los Van Van.