A piece of news saddened me this Wednesday afternoon: Salvador Regueira Millán has died a great loss for our culture. In addition, it hurts us not only because of his excessive dedication to research and the defense of our traditions but because he was an extraordinary human being, a tutor of generations.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- From that teenager of only 14 years old who was part of the Literacy Campaign, bringing the light of education to the rural community of Los Sitios (on the border with the province of Camagüey), to the teacher of the Provincial Center for the Improvement of Culture (CPSC), who trained countless pupils in subjects such as History of Cuban Music.
Much could be said about this beloved personality of the region. In the 2008 Cubadisco Festival, for example, he won an award for his work in the dissemination of our musical traditions. He was always researching something and sharing his knowledge at events such as the Barbarito Diez Popular Music Festival, which he loved every year.
He created and maintained the fixed space Cosas del Alma, within the CPSC, where he promoted the best of the autochthonous pentagram and local values. The event, named after a bolero by the composer of Las Tunas Pepe Delgado, since its inception in January 2009, became a meeting place for amateur and professional musicians, as well as friends of "the most beautiful form of beauty", even from other nations. Among the garnishes of the meeting were the most relevant events of the month related to the event.
This Master of Science took very seriously that phrase of Fidel's that expresses: "One of the fundamental purposes of the Revolution is to develop art and culture, precisely so that art and culture become a true heritage of the people."
Together with researchers Zenovio Hernández Pavón and Joaquín Osorio Carralero, he wrote the book A Puerto Padre me voy. Tuneros en la música cubana, published by Sanlope Publishing House (2015), is a text that brings us closer to figures such as Emiliano Salvador, Barbarito Diez, and Kelvys Ochoa.
As part of the teaching staff of the CPSC, many are the students who drank from his inexhaustible source of wisdom. Some had him as a tutor, and others learned from him during workshops and conferences, but whatever the moment, his knowledge and smile showed the passion of someone who "dared" (because he always had documentary evidence) even to question the birth or death dates of a musician in important dictionaries.
The Saturday program Pentagrama, of the provincial radio station Radio Victoria, owes much to this affable gentleman. This is how Ana Ibis González Fonseca, his friend and one of the protagonists of the program, summed it up in her Facebook profile: "What a beautifully Cuban work Salvador Regueira Millán left us. How not to let the world know that your heartbeat is in every rhythm, in every chord that you defended by studying so hard (...), because you were like Quixote, always in defense of your roots. You also left that mark on your listeners (...). An audience that surrendered to the influence of your words and emotions, to the wise selection of themes, to the best of our culture (...)."
Like that, many are the messages of pain and gratitude that people from Las Tunas and foreigners express today. These lines are not enough to cover such a prolific life. His history has to be told so that the new generations know that here there was a man who did much for our idiosyncrasy. Rest in peace, dear professor. May Las Tunas know how to perpetuate your legacy?
