Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, Feb 12th. - Cuba cries Eduardo Sosa, President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote today, after the death this morning of the popular and prominent troubadour in the eastern city of Guantanamo, victim of a hemorrhagic stroke suffered February 3rd.
We have left the proud son of Tumba Siete, the enthusiastic organizer of the festival Pepe Sánchez, who brought us back to Sindo, Corona, Ñico Saquito and won with his work a place next to them in the pantheon of the greats. Let his voice not die, the Cuban president published on his social network X account.
The Cuban Ministry of Culture also offered its condolences to family, friends and admirers of the beloved Cuban artist who died at the age of 52.
Born in the municipality of Mayarí, in Santiago de Cuba, Sosa joined the movement of amateur artists from the age of 12 and won numerous awards, especially during his time at the University Student Federation, at the Frank País García Superior Pedagogical Institute of Santiago de Cuba, where he graduated from Bachelor of Musical Education.
He began his professional career in 1997, with the duo Postrova, which immediately attracted the attention of critics and the public for their originality and artistic quality. At that stage he recorded two albums for Caribean Production and EMI Odeón España and participated in the Cuban fiction feature film The Prophecies of Amanda, directed by Pastor Vega.
In 2003 he began his solo career. He recorded four other albums and, in 2017, won the Cubadisco Prize in the category of Trova, with the production As if they were mine, of the record house Colibrí.
It was known throughout the country for successes of its authorship such as: Mañanitas de montaña, Retoño del monte, El son de Contramaestre y me gusta, compay, among others, as well as for its musicalization of the simple verses of José Martí and his fabulous versions of emblematic themes of Cuban songs, among which is highlighted by La Bayamesa, by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, José Fornaris and Francisco Castillo.
In parallel with his prolific work as a composer and interpreter, he developed an arduous work as a cultural manager. For more than ten years, the Organizing Committee of the Trova Pepe Sánchez Festival of Santiago de Cuba, in whose organization he worked at the time of contracting the disease, presided for more than ten years.
During his successful career he represented Cuba in multiple international events, of a cultural and political nature, in which he shone for his artistic quality and patented his commitment to the Revolution and his solidarity with the noblest causes of other peoples.
He shared the stage with great figures of Ibero-American music such as Ana Belén, José Luis Cortés, Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Frank Fernández, Beatríz Márquez, Vicente Feliú, Pancho Amat, José María Vitier and Raúl Torres, among many others.
He led, along with singer-songwriter Marta Campos, the television program Entre manos, dedicated to the promotion of the trovadoresca song.
Throughout his artistic career, he received multiple recognitions, such as: the Distinction for National Culture, the medals Raúl Gómez García, Abel Santamaría and Alejo Carpentier and the replica of the machete of the Generalísimo Máximo Gómez.
In 2023, he was elected deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power in its Tenth Legislature, for the municipality October 10. At the newly held tenth Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, he was elected vice president of this organization.
The quality of his work as a composer, his exceptional talents as an interpreter, his raigal cubanía and his firm commitment to the Revolution, earned him the great prestige and leadership that he achieved among Cuban musicians and made him worthy of the admiration and affection of his people.
By family decision, his body will reportedly be cremated and paid posthumous tribute to him in the cinema of his native Mayarí and, later, in the Casa de la Trova in Santiago de Cuba. His ashes will be deposited in the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia, in that city. (Text and photo: PL)
