Poet, improviser, singer of ten-verse poems, “verseador” (as they call them in the Canary Islands) ... Adolfo Alfonso is all that and more: a humble son of Cuba that, until his death, is proud to have chosen the difficult way of stringing words and make them rhyme.

Perhaps it was this: the hard struggle for life, from childhood, taught him the rigors of poverty and hunger in the journey that began in Melena del Sur, a town about 50 miles southwest of Havana, on July 8, 1924, when his mother bore him. His sentences in this posthumous chronic were narrated to this writer a little more than a decade ago.

From that village, locate in the middle of nowhere, he moved to a larger town at the time: Guines. "I was then three years old. There I sold newspapers, shine shoes ... I did things that were not typical of a child.
But it was the needs of that uncertain time. "

The day arrived when, with a bundle of hope to the shoulder, in a nomadic adventure, Adolfo and his family embarked on the capital, Mecca where the vast majority of the inhabitants of the island rested their large eyes, and only a few could succed.

“We were three brothers. Two died and was left alone with Mom. By then I felt the ten-verse poems beating within me, and I took that course. Also, something that few know, I tried the Argentinean tango. "

At age 14, his attention got drawn to some rural programs. "One day I said I can do this. I started at CMBF station, which tested me, and from that moment, I went to almost all radio stations in Cuba. The ten-verse became my constant companion. "

The ten-verse poetry needs some study. It is essential therefore to master the vocabulary required to beautify and make more poetic quatrains. "But the other, the art of improvisation, is the person, and that however much you study, if it does not come out, is fruitless."

He had the privilege of working along the top Cuban verseadores Jesus Orta Ruiz (Naborí Injun), Angelito Valiente, Justo Vega (his mentor and guide), and other singers of that time, all empirical improvisers of exceptional quality.

It is speculated by the public that improvising is prepared beforehand and when poets came on stage they have previously studied the verses they will sing. “We value and exchange ideas on a particular topic, especially on television, as the point-blank punto guajiro is something extremely difficult to master”.

“For example, Justo and me, we never prepared anything, but we had brotherhood, tuning and identification so great that we were like the combination of shortstop and second base, just by looking at each other we knew where the improvisations will aim”

For Adolfo Alfonso fame doesn’t exist. However, he considered a priceless treasure walking through the streets and people greet him, care about his health or work.

Justo Vega and Adolfo Alfonso formed inseparable pair in the dispute and the Cuban improvised poetry. Also in life, they were like brothers.

At present there are many talented verseadores, "but I particularly admire -no disrespect to others- Jesus Rodriguez and Omar Mirabal, since they are fluent in the language, young and have good voices."

The interview comes to an end. Several hours with this man, an encyclopedia of life himself, leave you the craving of staying talking to him him. Everlasting talker, sometimes brooding, Adolfo Alfonso is a server of his people, and that he was in more than half a century of artistic life. by Marcos Alfonso