Israel Rojas: Two songs to embrace life duo Buena Fe

April 12, 2021

By the authorship of Israel Rojas, lead voice of the duo Buena Fe, both titles exalt the work of health professionals, who inside and outside the Island combat the pandemic, and of scientists, immersed in the achievement of national vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The composer never thought that the first song would achieve such notoriety, but today the public associates it with the brigades of the Henry Reeve Contingent, whose commendable performance continues to contribute to the favorable management of the disease in several nations, many of them developed.

Conceived in 2018 for the documentary "Gracias por el miedo" by filmmaker Rigoberto Senarega and premiered in November of the following year in the presentation of the album Carnal, Valientes became an anthem to distinguish the men and women who in the red zones of hospitals and isolation centers stand up to death.

Rojas expressed his joy and pride upon learning that this melody identifies the altruism, solidarity and humanism of Cubans wherever they may be. Just when the largest of the Antilles is testing five anti COVID-19 vaccine candidates, the groups Buena Fe, Ronald González and Explotación Rumbera, Changüí Guantánamo and the Banda de Boyeros came together to give voice and music to La fuerza de un país, launched on March 24th in the space of the Round Table.

Exclusively to the ACN, its author, Israel Rojas classified it as a true challenge, particularly because the lyrics had to be positioned, artistically, at the height of the feat of Caribbean scientists, who spare no effort to achieve immunization against this fierce disease.

The original idea for the song is found in a post by Omar Valiño, director of the National Library, on the social network Facebook where he exposed what those vaccines meant to him, those tiny bottles, he commented. Through those short lines he understood the path to develop the first text, the one by Buena Fe, and then the ones by the rumba and changüi groups, and it was necessary to respect their codes without breaking with the content composition, there was the other challenge: musically it had to be organic.

He highlighted the help of Ernesto Cisneros in the arrangement and orchestration of the Changüí and Explotación Rumbera, and of Ernesto Oliva to include, in a harmonious way, the Banda de Boyeros. Although commissioned by the communication team of BioCubaFarma, none of the participating musicians charged a single peso, duty and the intention to pay homage to science and those who strengthen it prevailed. He alluded to the emotions of the scientific community on the occasion they presented the piece, in contrast with the rejection of those who, desperate over the evident progress of the country, justify their animosity toward the Cuban government and seek to damage the trust of the people.

With La fuerza de un país, Israel recognizes the merit of those people committed to the health of their fellow citizens and a good part of humanity that harbor in Cuban vaccines the hope to protect their citizens. Because of its content, the singer-songwriter would like to be remembered for this work when, from another dimension, he inspires songs and gives life-embracing hugs.