Silvio Rodríguez says goodbye to Aute with the verses of "De paso"

April 5, 2020

The Cuban troubadour Silvio Rodríguez chose the verses from the song "De paso" to say goodbye to his friend Luis Eduardo Aute, a singer-songwriter who died in Madrid this Saturday at the age of 76.

Rodríguez published the lyrics of that Aute song as an entry on his blog "Segunda Cita," which is also, especially through its comments section, the vehicle that the Cuban performer has used for a decade to speak and debate current topics with admirers and friends.

The friendship between Silvio and Aute dates back to the 1970s and was also reflected in musical collaborations and on stage, the last time in May 2016, when they sang "Al Alba" together in Madrid a few months before the heart attack that forced the Spaniard to retire.

In December 2018, Silvio Rodríguez also participated in the concert "Ánimo, animal," a tribute to send encouragement to the Spanish singer-songwriter, which also included other major names such as Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat, and Cuban Vicente Feliú, another one of the references of the new Cuban trovador movement along with Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés.

Precisely Feliú also chose Silvio's blog this Saturday to say goodbye to Aute: "A strong hug, Flaco, and for Maritchu, the boys and Mon. Even though it was expected, I am very, very sad. One of my greatest sources of pride will always be having lived in the same time as him, and being his friend," he wrote.

In Cuba, a country to which the Spanish singer-songwriter was deeply connected and where he received medical care on several occasions, the death of the author of "Al Alba" has been received with enormous sadness.

Cuban Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso echoed the news on his Twitter account, in which he referred to Aute as a "loyal friend of Cuba, who always supported noble causes."

"With tremendous sorrow we bid farewell to this great artist, who 'enriched our days' with his work," Alonso added.

Former Minister of Culture and current director of the cultural center Casa de Las Américas, Abel Prieto, wrote on that same network that Aute's death is "a very painful loss for Cuba and for all of us who defend utopias."

"Also for lovers of an art of emancipation, never subordinated to merchants," the statement concludes.

For his part, President Miguel Díaz-Canel mourned the death of the Spanish singer-songwriter, citing a fragment from the lyrics of "Me va la vida en ello," one of the musician's best-known compositions.

"Aute is gone, but he leaves us his music and his verses, which help us understand: '...that not everything was shipwreck, for having believed that love was the most beautiful verb...'. And to feel that our 'life is at stake in it,'" the leader wrote on his official Twitter account, in which he sent his condolences to family and friends.

The singer-songwriter, painter, sculptor, poet, and filmmaker Luis Eduardo Aute died this Saturday at the age of 76 in the Madrid hospital where he had been admitted on Friday. The author of "La Belleza," who was born in 1943, had been retired from performing since he suffered a serious heart attack on August 8, 2016, which left him in a coma for 48 days.