# María Teresa Linares, eternal in her legacy

**Date:** 08/09/2020

On celebrating the centennial of musicologist María Teresa Linares last August 6th, the poet and essayist Virgilio López Lemus has written:

María Teresa Linares (Havana, August 14, 1920) has as her second surname that of Sabio (but with a slight version: Savio). Her wisdom lives up to the title, it is more than a surname, because she has offered with dignity and discretion her knowledge grounded in research and analysis. In addition to founding a family with the erudite musicologist Argeliers León, she was his counterpart, for while her husband devoted himself to music and musical instruments of African origins, she focused on the study of Cuban identitary music of rural origin and Hispanic or European roots in a general sense, without leaving aside the contributions of the Afro environment, as exemplified by the records of such manifestations that she produced.

Dr. María Teresa, Teté for her friends, humble and at the same time effective in her studies, persistent and agile, tenacious as few are, did not boast of her knowledge nor did she place herself on a pedestal, but on the altar, on the altar of daily effort, because hers was to serve and discover and describe, devoted to the analysis and enjoyment of popular traditions, determined especially in the enjoyment and dissemination of the singing of the décima as an irrenunciable tradition of the Cuban people. Certainly the sector of the decima writers (writers or improvisers) recognizes and thanks in her a teacher of most notable contributions to the understanding of the development of the décima in Cuba and Spanish America.

She was not content with writing articles and books about Cuban music, she also compiled records, for example, of music called Afro-Cuban, of danceable music such as suco-suco, and of popular song. She used cinematographic and television media to leave her message in brief films, documentaries or recorded and filmed lectures. She participated in colloquia in Cuba and abroad, gave talks wherever appropriate, directed the Museo de la Música for years, and is still Vice President of the Fundación Fernando Ortiz upon turning one hundred years old. Along with the virtue of her intelligence, María Teresa has had a sense of constancy and undefeatable and exemplary tenacity. It was not enough for her to know; she had to disseminate what she found, transmit her experience to the young men and women who approached her, without expectation of essential gratitude but with frank generosity, for she has been not only a respected musicologist, but also a fair pedagogue.

Already in 1958 she had distinguished herself with laurels for her contribution to "Spanish Influence in Cuban Music," she was then a teacher in schools, seminaries and conservatories, universities and foundations dedicated to the study of music. Upon the triumph of the Revolution she became linked to the newly founded Academia de Ciencias de Cuba, of which she continues to be an Honorary Academic since 1998. Her earliest published study was El punto guajiro (1949), on the singing of the décima, which she came to master as a true expert. Her contributions in El punto cubano (1999) have been recognized by specialists in this décima matter of Cuba and other sites in the Hispanic world.

Doctor Honoris Causa in Arts Sciences, Researcher of Merit, she has received laurels of all kinds, such as the Orden Félix Varela from the Cuban Council of State, the National Prize for Cultural Research and the International Fernando Ortiz Prize, among other high honors from Cuba and other nations. But above and below these and many other honors, she has counted on the affection of those of us who learned much from her work and from her own exemplarity as a hardworking and undefeated woman. Modest and diligent, thus do I remember her in her human greatness, that type of greatness that is exercised through systematic work, through wisdom in service of others, through her recognition of what her colleagues discovered or exposed and her unpretentious gaze toward new generations.

María Teresa, the Doctor, turns one hundred years old and she turns it in life. What an honor for the Cuban people to have such a brilliant daughter as her. The word Thanks overflows in recognizing her. Her contributions are rich and living, her effort has been intense, may her memory be everlasting.