Rogelio Martínez Furé

Cuban Africanist and folklorist. Screenwriter and promoter of folkloric performances; poet, translator, musical composer and singer. One of the most important scholars of religions, music, dance, oral traditions, African and Afro-Cuban literatures and folkloric themes in Cuba. Doctor Honoris Causa of the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. National Literature Prize 2015. He contributed as a member of this group to the preservation and dissemination of musical and dance traditions of African origin. He was a founding member of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC). In his prolific life he signed his name to almost two dozen books, pamphlets and publications, as well as musical compositions.

He completed his early studies in Matanzas, until he moved to the capital in 1956 to study at the Universidad de La Habana, where he earned his doctorate in Law.

The traditions and customs of his native Matanzas, one of the richest regions of the country in those cultural manifestations, gained his attention. For that reason he attended in 1960 the Seminary for Folklore Researchers taught by musicologist Argeliers León at the Teatro Nacional de Cuba. There his passion for the scientific study of popular cultures emerged and his dedication to the study of these subjects was born.

After finishing the Seminary, he began working in the Department of Ethnology and Folklore of the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba and taught courses and lectures at various institutions in the country, such as the Escuela Nacional de Arte, where he taught the subject of Folklore.

At that time he came into contact with Mexican dancer and choreographer Rodolfo Reyes, resident in Cuba, who was working on the establishment of professional dance in the country. That union promoted the idea of bringing to the stage everything that could be recognized as traditional in Cuban music and dance. In this way the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba was founded in 1962, the country's main folkloric group.

The emergence of this company settled a debt, since there was already a prestigious ballet company and a nascent and successful modern dance company. Martínez Furé, with his knowledge of the roots and scientific foundations of folklore, was able to provide choreographer Reyes with the transformative elements of the spontaneity of dancers of Afro-Cuban religions and traditional rural and urban rhythms to works of scenic art.

In the auditions for the formation of the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba, the natural bearers of these traditions were received, and in the first performance of the emerging group, the artistic elaborations of Yoruba and Conga cultures were presented in cycles; the rumbas and comparsas, works on popular music and abakuá religion and pieces elaborated in the manner of a new type of ballet, without the stereotypes that some similar manifestations possessed before that foundational action.

Advisor and librettist since the creation of the company, Dr. Rogelio Martínez Furé has always been directly linked to the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba as advisor, screenwriter, researcher and cultural promoter, which he has combined with his work as a writer, lecturer and professor at the most important Cuban and foreign cultural institutions.

He has also stood out as a scholar of different African cultures and has done important work in translation and compilation of major African narrators and poets, drawing on his knowledge of English, French and Portuguese.

He has traveled all five continents and has received countless awards and recognitions in Cuba, among which are the Medalla Alejo Carpentier, awarded by the Consejo de Estado; the Orden Félix Varela and the National Prizes for Research and Dance. He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the Instituto Superior de Arte, where he founded the specialty of Folkloric Studies in the Faculty of Dance and Folklore. He holds the Premio Internacional Fernando Ortiz.

He has composed songs with Cuban poetic texts and anonymous African texts, guarachas and habaneras.

Main Collaborations in Choreographic Works
Advisories and Screenplays
Abakuá
Baile de las chancletas
Ciclo congo
Ciclo música popular
Ciclo yoruba
Comparsa El Cabildo
Congos reales
Currerías
Danza de los apalencados
Guateque
Oggún
Oshún
Oyá
Palenque
Rumbas y comparsas
Trío de Oshún
Yoruba-Iyesá

Musical Compositions
El amor de la mulata
Te quiero así
Como cambia la gente
Canción de cuna para despertar a un negrito
Iba yo por un camino
Palma sola
Pero que te pueda ver
Si a mí me hubieran dicho
Nada nuevo

Download Curriculum Vitae https://afrocubaweb.com/fure/Furecv.pdf