Maruja González Linares

Soprano singer. One of the female figures who belonged to the ensembles of maestro Ernesto Lecuona with whom she made her debut and shared stages and applause.

She was born in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. She was brought to Cuba at a very young age and also spent part of her childhood in Spain.

She studied singing in Havana with Joaquín Zon, Alberto Soler Baró, Tina Farelli, Juan González and José Ojeda. She was presented in public by maestro Ernesto Lecuona in one of his concerts and her stage debut took place in 1929 with the zarzuela: "La flor del sitio", by the same composer.

In the early 1930s, she fulfilled numerous contracts in Latin America and mainly in Spain. She married Perico Suárez.

Maestro Jacinto Guerrero wrote "La españolita" for her, with a book by Fernández Ardavín and V. de Pedro, which she premiered in 1935, shortly before her return to Cuba.

In 1936 she premiered in Havana the title role of the zarzuela by Rodrigo Prats, Amalia Batista, and also starred in the Cuban titles "El cimarrón" (1936), by Gonzalo Roig and "Sor Inés" (1937), by Lecuona.

She was united for many years with Spanish baritone Augusto Ordóñez. Both reaped numerous successes in the Hispanic world, with a repertoire in which the following fundamentally stood out:
"Los gavilanes",
"Luisa Fernanda" (roles of Luisa and the Duchess Carolina),
"La leyenda del beso",
"La del soto del parral",
"La parranda" and
"Katiuska" (which both artists made known in Havana, in 1940).

She performed alongside figures such as Jorge Negrete and Miguel de Grandy.
She left recorded the operettas "La viuda alegre" and "Luisa Fernanda" as well as other records with zarzuela romances and songs.

She conducted a successful tour of several years during the first half of the 1930s, in which she premiered several Spanish titles and participated in the Madrid premiere of the Cuban zarzuela "La virgen morena", by Eliseo Grenet (Fuencarral theater, 1933), which achieved hundreds of performances.

She performed on stages in Spain, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela and in the United States.

When the Revolution triumphed in Cuba, Maruja González was outside the country and never returned.
Maruja was a diva in every sense of the word. One of the most cherished by the public as well as by her colleagues, collaborators, composers.

Her last public performance was at the Teatro Tapia in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1965.

She was a very charming lady, with great taste for luxury and splendor. As a singer, she possessed a rare quality for producing the most incredible and beautiful sustained notes or pianissimi. As an actress, her characters were always grandiose, "drawn" with broad strokes. She premiered many of the most famous zarzuelas of the era, by composers Ernesto Lecuona, Gonzalo Roig, Rodrigo Prats, Eliseo Grenet and others. But she also ventured into Spanish zarzuela, which took her to Spain where she performed with great success.

But it was in the operetta La Viuda Alegre by Franz Lehár, where she stood out as the equivalent of a superstar of modern times, both for her precious light lyric voice, her grace in interpreting the character of Hanna de Glawaris and her extraordinary and luxurious costumes, designed by the great fashion designers of the era, both in Cuba and in Paris.

Her famous collection of jewels was also displayed in her performances in this operetta, which required a security detail and numerous wardrobe attendants and hairdressers. Her interpretation of La Viuda was recorded on an LP with the orchestra conducted by maestro Gonzalo Roig and accompanied by great bel canto singers: América Crespo, Hernán Pelayo and Panchito Naya. With Panchito Naya she recorded another iconic LP titled María la O in which selections from that zarzuela are included as well as other compositions by maestros Roig, who conducted the orchestra, Lecuona, who provided musical arrangements and Rodrigo Prats.

She also left the recording of the zarzuela Luisa Fernanda, where she played the Duchess Carolina with Marta Pérez, Hernán Pelayo and Gil Mar, again conducted by Maestro Roig.

She ventured into television in La Leyenda del Beso, Los Gavilanes and other zarzuelas and operettas presented at the Gran Teatro Lírico Esso through CMQ TV.

Already in the United States, she returned to the stage and in 1965 sang La Viuda Alegre in New York with Manolo Torrente. She retired to Miami where she became a "godmother" to Cuban lyric singers who had chosen the path of exile and supported all efforts aimed at restoring Cuban lyric art in Miami, especially with the Sociedad Pro Arte Grateli.

Retired from the public stage, she went to live in the United States until she died in Miami, Florida, United States, on November 26, 1999. Ironically, her death was completely the opposite of her opulent life, as she died alone and in complete poverty.