Silvio Rodríguez: "Leal, the giant hidden in the appearance of a human being"

December 18, 2020

"It strikes me as odd all of a sudden, there's like a constant readjustment of perception with conclusions. Suddenly I see so many photos of Eusebio and I ask myself: Why are there so many photos of Eusebio? And suddenly I realize: well, why are you here. It really costs me a lot of work to talk about an absent Eusebio. It happens to me with all the friends I lose, much more if they are very dear as is the case with Eusebio," expressed Cuban troubadour Silvio Rodríguez during the funeral rites for Doctor Leal Spengler.

On this December 17th, the Cuban people paid tribute to the man who led the restoration and rehabilitation work of the Havana Historic Center. The event at the National Capitol brought together friends, collaborators and admirers of the imperishable work of the Director of the Office of the Historian of the City of La Habana for over 50 years. Among those present was Silvio Rodríguez, who recalled when he met Eusebio: "I met him when he had just begun his career as a Historian, it had been very little time since they had appointed him. He had already gone through many hardships and then what started with all that project.

I saw him rise from the darkness in which he lived and gain more and more light, dimension, and what started as a simple friendship between two contemporary people was really becoming a great admiration. It was realizing that what one had as a common friend, normal, really wasn't so common, nor so normal, but a kind of giant hidden in the appearance of a human being," emphasized the author of emblematic pieces of Cuban trova.

The friendship between Silvio and Eusebio transcended for many years during which they shared countless situations. "I remember when he was in Camagüey, in the plaza where they held vigil for Agramonte, San Juan de Dios, where the plaque was placed (…) when he was unveiling it I told him in his ear: You're heading for bronze in a leap. And that other times I repeated it to him afterwards because Eusebio was probably a hero. Whoever doesn't see that is blind".

For Silvio, Doctor Leal was a great friend, a great man and at the same time an enormous figure in our history. If there was something that Leal radiated it was inspiration, and inspiration for an artist like Silvio is fundamental; that's why there is much of Leal in Silvio.
"One of the first concerts we did was in the Cathedral plaza; that's why it's an inspiration, a moment of inspiration. There were many others, we had many exchanges. Already in recent years we didn't see each other perhaps as much as we would have liked; but there was always an affinity, it was one of those friendships that one, when you meet again it's like the conversation continues where you left off. It was like that. There was no preamble to make, there was nothing to explain, everything was perfectly clear about us," Silvio confessed.