Neris Amelia Martínez Salazar

Popular Cuban artist.

She was born into a humble family, her father was a dock worker

Popular Cuban artist.

She was born into a humble family, her father was a dock worker, and she became an orphan at a very early age, so she was admitted to a school run by Oblate nuns. Although she never received formal music training, she learned to play piano and tumbadoras.

Working as a domestic employee, she was discovered by Obdulio Morales, when she was cleaning some stairs at the corner of Laguna and Perseverancia. Upon hearing her sing while doing her domestic chores, he stopped and told her he wanted to give her a test to work in a production titled El Milagro de Ochún at the Teatro Martí, where other greats like Rita Montaner, Garrido y Piñeiro, Candita Quintana, and Alicia Rico had triumphed, and there, among all those stars of that moment, Juana Bacallao appeared or was born. Obdulio Morales promoted her debut at the famous Teatro Martí in Havana, with the performance of the guaracha "Yo soy Juana Bacallao". This determined her artistic name forever, which later evolved to "Juana, la cubana". The black goddess of Cuban cabarets.

No one has sung with such grace and national vigor those verses like her:
I am Juana Bacallao
I am Juanita Bacallao
The Black woman at the bembé
Splashes so as not to get wet

Subsequently, she performed at important venues in Cuban nightlife such as the Salón Rojo of the Hotel Capri, the Parisien of the Hotel Nacional, the Tropicana, and the Sans Souci cabaret.

She worked at the Hotel Capri in a show called La Serenata, with Meme Solís, Moraima Secada and Celeste Mendoza, and in another highly successful production called La Caperucita se divierte. Other performances by Juana were at the Teatro Campoamor, Los Aires Libres de Prado, the cabarets Sans Souci, Tropicana, Copa Room of the Riviera, Parisien of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Salón Rojo of the Capri, Caribe of the Hotel Habana Libre, the Bar Alí and Palermo.

Juana Bacallao has been applauded on important stages, but she always wishes to return to her stages, to Cuban ones, where she became the figure she is today.

She shared stages with artists like Nat King Cole, Bola de Nieve, Chano Pozo and Beny Moré, and performed in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Spain, the United States, France, Mexico, Venezuela and at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Until 1959, her presence was banned from her country's television and her career was limited to performances in nightclubs. This led to the development of an extravagant theatrical presence in her that not a few came to label as vulgar.

In Paris, Juana Bacallao appeared at the Opéra-Comique on three occasions, each one was a resounding success.

In 2005, Juana performed with her group Tiembla Tierra in Mexico City with a show titled Tiembla Tierra, directed by Armando Guerra Sarduy, where she shared the stage with the well-known performer Nelson Ned.

She has faced a long, very long career, in which there have been no shortage of obstacles, misunderstandings, discrimination and disdain.

Before '59, television was off-limits to her. Confined to second or third-rate nightclubs in Marianao beach, Centro Habana or Habana Vieja, she did her thing in front of hostile audiences that created in her a very peculiar way of facing the audience in which boldness became her most efficient weapon of battle. Her theatrical appearances provoked a real battle with the cheap seats crowd and her forays into carnival festivities in the provinces were always an event that was gladly appreciated. After '59 for many years the television studios didn't receive her either: she was considered a representative of a subculture, vulgar, coarse, inappropriate.

Since the early 60s of the past century, she came out of the closet that the small-time clubs formed for her and was brought to the Hotel Capri to headline a very successful revue. It was the time when some impactful phenomena were discovered: the singers Freddy and La Lupe who achieved a reach that Juana never had access to.

She continued performing in nightclubs, moving through the provinces, hosting carnival celebrations, but far, very far, from the media outlets: no television, no radio, no records, no major theaters. However, Juana Bacallao was known, popular, admired and loved. How did she achieve it? Well, with a unique and very personal sense of marketing.

In times when no one imagined that cell phones would ever be invented, she always carried the receiver of a conventional telephone in her purse. As soon as she arrived at a place where a considerable group of people gathered, she would open her purse, take out the receiver and start talking and giving various orders: Have my meal ready, I'm on my way there... Tell the hairdresser to wait for me... I can't find the address, can you repeat it for me? etc., etc., etc.... When crossing the street, Juana waited disciplinedly for the light to change. As soon as they put the red light on, she would begin crossing, her face turned towards the cars that had stopped, a smile on her lips and... Thank you! Very kind! Thank you! as if they had all stopped so she could pass. At night, when she met someone who told her they hadn't seen her in a long time, she would answer at the top of her voice: I don't go out during the day, because stars only come out at night.

Her wardrobe was always the most striking and eccentric one could imagine, although to be fair, it must be said that she always wore quality clothing. Her wigs, her high heels, her long earrings, the silver boots traversed with her the most central streets of Havana. And that is how Juana Bacallao became a very popular urban character.

But battles always bring adversities. And she had hers. She lived a dark and sad period: alcohol imposed a pitiful dependence on her. During those times she was not always as well-groomed as she usually was. She walked the main streets of Vedado in a deplorable state. Until one day she disappeared and another, much better day, she reappeared completely cured of an affliction in which she has never succumbed again. She recovered her strength, returned to her vital environment, embarked on those nights of hard work in front of the cabaret audience, the most grateful and the most relentless. She stood up, with courage, over wasted time. She became herself again and much more.

She has received recognitions such as the Distinction for National Culture, the "Alejo Carpentier" medal and the Gold Record in Canada.

With her picturesque wardrobe and her humorous interventions, she became a popular and unique character of Havana's nightlife.

Since she premiered the guaracha composed by Obdulio Morales, she lost her given name to become Juana Bacallao. And it doesn't matter if it was she or not who was composed the song, if they know her or admire her or it is an invention of hers or someone else's. But at this point in her long life, she has long since ceased to be Amelia Martínez, just as she will continue to cease to be Juana Bacallao... to pass to posterity, in imagination and in reality as what she has always been. Like this, simply: Juana... the Cuban.

But the greatest mystery remains that Juana Bacallao neither sings, nor dances, nor has she ever been able to learn a cabaret musical script. Spontaneous witticisms and body gestures characterize this show woman. The timbre of her voice is harsh, not melodious or very pleasant to the ear. She always does on stage what she feels like, sings as she sees fit, sings badly out of tune, forgets or changes the lyrics of songs, without artifice. It's that Juana has always been a rare and unique case in the history of Cuban vernacular art, a whole show out of the ordinary, extravagant. On stage she transforms into an explosive and devastating being, especially because of her vocabulary of pure fire and popular grace, even becoming vulgar on occasions.

Without a doubt, Juana Bacallao is a phenomenon that holds the mystery of life itself, Juana is authentic, fully realized, without frustrations, honest with herself and with others, she is above all, simply and plainly that, extremely Cuban!

Source: Ecured, Wikipedia