Premiered documentary "Teresita Fernández" by Liuba María Hevia

August 20, 2018

The Cuban singer Liuba María Hevia presented a documentary about Teresa Fernández on the Mesa Redonda program of Cuban Television, an endearing singer-songwriter in her country, as generations of children grew up and still adore the songs composed by her.

Many consider her the most outstanding composer in musical creation for children in Cuba, however, the short film directed by Hevia does not illustrate that well-known facet of the creator but rather her comprehensive work as a musician.

Through photographs and interviews with acquaintances and the artist herself, one discovers Fernández's closeness to music from the cradle, due to her pianist mother; and how at 14 years old she chose to exchange the piano for the guitar, an instrument that was closer to her heart, as she said.

Also, one can see how much her Catholic upbringing influenced her and the privilege—as characterized by the composer and performer herself—of having worked alongside the Cuban singer and pianist known as Bola de Nieve and the duo of the Hermanas Martí.

A series of interviews and recordings carried out by the writer, poet, composer, sculptor and painter Ada Elba Pérez (1961-1992) was vital for the realization of this work, who had the purpose of constructing the memoirs of Teresita, as everyone in Cuba called Fernández.

Hevia, a great friend of both, continued the project and with the support of her brother Pepe Hevia; her representative Yeney González (Misuko), and filmmakers Alejandro Rodríguez and Lidia Morales, created a documentary of enormous aesthetic, photographic and informative value.

As long as I breathe, Ada Elba Pérez and Teresita Fernández are going to live. I don't know afterwards, but as long as I live these two are going to be in my life and my work, commented the vocalist when presenting the short film at the Charles Chaplin cinema in this capital.

The audiovisual allows us to confirm Fernández's human quality, her pedagogical vocation, her love for animals, the austerity in her way of life.

Poor, nomadic and free, describes her the poet, filmmaker, narrator and Cuban journalist Víctor Casaus, for whom Teresita's way of sharing the song taught much to the poets of his youth.

Singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez underscores the singer's commitment to poetry and to Martí, and recognized the influence she exerted on other creators in the country.

Fernández passed away in 2013, at the age of 82, and although most people in her native land remember her as the author and performer of Mi gatico Vinagrito; Tin, tin, la lluvia and Lo feo, to name only three very popular songs, she composed songs that were broadcast by the media without mentioning the author.

One of them was Cuando el sol, performed in different eras by Hevia, Rodríguez, Gema Corredera, Luisa Maria Guell, among other singers, while Fernández with a smile states the obvious, that her songs are the chronicles of her own journey.