Olga Navarro Thauller

Olga Navarro Thauller was born in Havana on December 3, 1928. She started out reciting poetry and telling stories, and in the early days of Cuban television she worked as a model, chosen for the "Medianoche en París" revue at the Montmartre cabaret. She studied drama, music, literature, movement and dance while still performing in cabarets and on screen.

In the late 1950s she began publishing poems and reciting them with pianist Frank Domínguez at the keyboard. Her first book, "Versos," came out in 1957, followed by "A ti" the next year. Show magazine named her Reciter of the Year in 1960 and 1961, and Bohemia gave her a similar honor in 1962.

As a songwriter she wrote the lyrics of "Te dije quédate" and "Aquí de pie," set to music by Meme Solís and made famous by Elena Burke. Her songs were also recorded by Vicentico Valdés, Omara Portuondo, Rosita Fornés, Alina Sánchez and Ela Calvo, among others. She was the first woman to direct nightclub shows in Cuba, at the Las Vegas cabaret, where she hosted a regular gathering in later decades.

A founder of Cuban Television and of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), she received the National Culture Distinction, the Raúl Gómez García medal and, in 2008, UNEAC's Nicolás Guillén diploma. She died in Havana on October 26, 2026, at 97.