I was looking for an August 13th, 2010 recording by Cuban singer/song writer Sara Gonzalez, an afternoon in which she offered a concert at Havana´s Pabellon Cuba and I arrived with renowned poet Carilda Oliver Labra whom had received the Juventudes Award from the Hermanos Saiz Association.

At that time Sara Gonzalez agreed to speak to me briefly on the new song movement, youth and the “chemistry” that she had achieved in her El Jardin de la Gorda jam sessions.

I have been looking in my computer’s archives where I saved her statements, her voice and a smile before she performed that day to share with the people awaiting for her that emblematic August afternoon.

I saw her for the first time when she was still with the Guaican musical group with Pepe Ordaz years ago. Most of us grew with the intelligent music of the new song movement, that same one that Silvio shared with her, although we will miss her, we will be able to listen to her once and once again.

I recall the time she offered her music to the residents of the Bay of Pigs and moved the audience with the song “Canto y Llanto de la Gloria”, “De Luces se Lleno el Ciego, de esta Tierra Insurrecta”, or singing to songs by Eduardo Ramon, “Su Nombre es Pueblo” with her fist up in the air and a brightness in her eyes.

Sara was there in 1967 when alongside Silvio Rodriguez sang and also Pablo Milanes, Noel Nicola and Vicente Feliu. She made up the Experimnetacion Sonora del ICAIC group and sang to Cuba without ever resigning.

She will continue singing. In my memory I see her sitting on a chair, last August at Havana’s Pabellon Cuba singing “Aunque yo viva sembrando para ti….” By Barbara Vasallo Vasallo