Ovidio González has created a musical bridge between Cuba and Ecuador

June 21, 2018

Cuban music has in Ecuador a fervent defender in singer and actor Ovidio González, who demonstrates through his daily work the Martian maxim that "music has heaven," which makes it infinite.

With an extensive career in the world of singing, teaching and acting, that Cuban guajiro, as he defines himself, has managed to become a cultural bridge between the two countries, where he has left his mark.

Ovidio, as he is known by Cubans who during the 1980s and 1990s enjoyed his voice and his presence in theatrical works and television programs, opened the doors of his home in Quito to Prensa Latina to take a tour through his 34 years of artistic life.

The world began to know him from 1987, when he represented Cuba at the International Song Festival in Dresden, Germany, where he obtained the Second Prize of the Jury and Prize of Popularity and then, a year later, he returned to that European country to participate in a Press Days Festival.

In 1991 he arrived at Viña del Mar and as he emotionally commented about it: 'I was fortunate to be the first to represent Cuba at that festival, but the luck was twofold because the song I sang is by Silvio Rodríguez: 'What a Distraction,' which was very special for me, since Silvio, with great kindness and simplicity, allowed me to choose the theme among many of his authorship.'

He recounts that in Cuba not only singing caught him, but also the world of musical theater, television and teaching, which he began at the ISA (University of the Arts) from 1985 and after several exchanges in Ecuador, in 1995 he began as a vocal technique teacher at the Coro Mixto Ciudad de Quito and theater and body expression at the National Music Conservatory.

The following year, in 1996, a new step allowed him to bring the culture of the Caribbean archipelago to Ecuador, the radio program 'La Propuesta de Ovidio,' made to his specifications to make known, in this South American country, the work of Cuban music, first from Radio Visión and for the past five years, on the station of the National Assembly.

The idea caught on so much, which he speaks about with a mixture of pride and passion, that today it has been on the air for 22 years, completed last May, and with aspirations to enter a new phase.

'It is a watercolor, a landscape, it has no musical limits. There you hear nueva trova, traditional trova, choral music, dance music, Cuban ballads, jazz, everything fits into La Propuesta de Ovidio. I believe that was the distinguishing touch of the space because around here Cuban music has always fascinated people, but there was great ignorance about that world,' he estimated.

Regarding his link to teaching, he affirmed that it is a surprising profession with which he does not intend to lose ties, as he understands it as a magical act open not only to transmit, but also to receive.

With deep simplicity, about that part of his work, he stated: 'I love transmitting what little or much I know and when I do it, I try to ensure that the person who comes to trust in me surpasses what I once was able to do or does what I never achieved. That for me is teaching, giving myself completely and opening myself to learning.'

The artist, to whom life granted the opportunity to rediscover love in Ecuador and create a family, has also ventured here in dramatized television series, in theater, which has greatly influenced his discipline with work and as a vocal coach in participation programs, such as 'Yo me Llamo,' 'La Voz Ecuador' and 'Pequeños Gigantes,' singing and imitation contests.

'How nice it has been to be able to combine these two worlds, especially having done it from what one likes to do. I continued developing in Ecuador what I did for so many years in Cuba and I go to Cuba and develop what I have learned, for so many years, in Ecuador.'

And about his native land, he assures, with total conviction, that it is the path to where he always returns because 'Cuba is so many things.'

There he recorded his first album at 10 years of artistic life and since then others have come, all with special labels and edited there, where he is drawn to the sound of studios that smell of wood, of nature and the fact of recording near the sea, details to which he grants great importance.

'And We Will Fly,' 'My Proposal,' 'Count on Me,' 'I am Guajiro,' 'Passionate Secrets,' 'A Little More,' 'On Different Paths' (pasillo album), 'Embrace Me' and 'Longed-For Encounter,' are his phonographic productions, some of which have been released by the Cuban labels EGREM and Bis Music.

Regarding the most recent, 'Longed-For Encounter,' he asserted that it is special for the four cardinal points, as they are duets with recognized figures of Cuban songwriting.

Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Omara Portuondo, Sory, Tania Pantoja, Yenny Valdés, Vicente Feliú, David Blanco, Amaury Pérez, Anaís Abreu, Manuel Argudín, Dayany Gutiérrez, Trío Los Embajadores de Cuba, María Victoria Rodríguez and the piano accompaniment of Frank Fernández for a version of the well-known in Cuba 'Where Love Grows,' are part of the work.

The singers from Ecuador, María Tejada, from Chile, Américo and Colombia, Jorge (Coqui) Villamizar, were also invited.

As for short-term plans, he revealed that he is involved in a great dream, an album that 'will make many people vibrate,' with a very authentically Cuban and traditional sound, in a very contemporary repertoire, but he refused to give more details.

For closing, obligatory topics such as the significance of Cuba and his native land, San Antonio de los Baños, which he considered his space, necessary because it represents his roots and allows him to enjoy his family and friends.

'I define myself as a Cuban guajiro and I believe that is how I am going to die. Moreover, I believe that is how I see myself in the future. I would like to live many years, but to be standing and singing until the end, listening to the music I like to listen to, savoring the rum I like to savor, smoking the cigar I like to smoke and drinking the coffee I like to drink. I have no other way of seeing myself.'

Source: Prensa Latina