Cuban Troubadour Raúl Prieto Dies

September 23, 2023

Cuban troubadour Raúl Prieto passed away this week at age 54, according to his son-in-law, playwright Yunior García Aguilera, who confirmed it on social media.

"Raúl Prieto, the troubadour, my friend, my wife's father, has gone. When we left Cuba we couldn't say goodbye to him. And in recent months, his children Dayana and Raulito have suffered in silence from the pain of knowing they could no longer give their father a final kiss. Raúl was not only a great artist, one of those enormous talents that provincial borders failed to make known on a larger scale, as he deserved. He was also a giant of a human being, the kind that calls you brother from the first minute, and behaves like a brother until the last second," García Aguilera wrote.

"With brilliant work, he also worried about the fate of all his colleagues, founding the Troubadour Fair. His soul never knew jealousy, ego or envy. And he worked tirelessly to promote the works of younger artists. The institutions he belonged to have behaved with the grayness that characterizes them, but friends never left his side for a single moment during these difficult months. There is no better institution in the world than a good friend," he added.

"Do not rest, dear Raúl, keep creating from your light, keep dreaming poems, melodies and embraces. It has been a privilege to listen to your songs, to imagine freedom together and to have had the enormous fortune of being, more than your son-in-law, your brother," he concluded.

Raúl grew up in Báguanos, in the province of Holguín. "Since 2000 I have had a band accompanying me: Raúl Prieto and his group. I can create with the peace of mind that I compose the song and the arranger makes me a proposal that can lean toward a contemporary or traditional genre. Other times the song is born with a specific style," the musician said in an interview with Bohemia magazine last year.

"In 2006 I founded the peña A Esta Hora together with Artex S.A. Cultural Management, without a doubt it was a cultural phenomenon in the province. The Casa de la Trova was a site that was decommercial from a cultural standpoint," he added.