The Sucu-suco Festival, dedicated to the Cuban musical genre which identifies the Isle of Youth closed the Week of the Isle of Youth culture recently held.

This festival was dedicated to two personalities of the regional popular music: Mongo Rives and Arnold Dixon Robertson (Sonny Boy), top representatives of the Isle of Youth music in its two main trends: the Sucu-Suco and the Anglo Saxon-Caribbean music, respectively.

Eight compositions ranked for the awarding ceremony participated in this festival. Each one of them by local auhtors and composers. One of them was interpretated by Lidia Piñero, 2007Community Culture Award in the Isle of Youth.

A tribute was also paid to the accompanying musical group along the event: "Capitulo X", due to its 30 years playing and spreading the Cuban and Caribbean music.

Invited as a guest by the jury was Marisol Guillama, daughter of Mario Lorenzo Guillama, from Havana and who accomplished the cultural task of retrieving and spreading the peasant music played in the guateques (peasants' festivities) of the Island along the 1970s. Being a girl Marisol sang and danced during these traditional peasant festivities.

The First, Second and Third prizes of this event were conferred to Tierra mía (Land of mine) by Camilo Amador; Aplausos para el Sucu-suco (Applauses for the Sucu-suco) by Jorge Placer and La hora del Sucu-suco (The time of Sucu-suco) by Evangelina Gómez, respectively.

This yearly Festival is scheduled to be held within the Week of the culture of the Isle of Youth during the second fortnight of December. As a result it sistematically brings about new values from the local people's culture.


(Cubarte)