María Teresa Vera: Google Doodle Celebrates Cuban Singer’s 125th Birthday

Google Doodle honors the life and work of Cuban singer and guitarist María Teresa Vera’s 125th birthday celebration, who additionally made the country’s rural people song style, trova. Known as the Grande Dame of Cuban Music, she is broadly viewed as one of the nation’s most influential musicians.

Who was María Teresa Vera?

María Teresa Vera was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. She was an extraordinary example of the Cuban Trova movement.

Born on this day in 1895 in Guanajay, Cuba, María Teresa Vera got the guitar at a youthful age after becoming a part of a bohemian community of trova musicians. Known as “troubadours,” the wandering road entertainers taught Vera how to make trova songs and perform the genre’s poetic lyrical vocals together with the guitar. In 1911, María Teresa Vera performed her first show in Havana’s Politeama Grande theater.

María Teresa Vera began her career as a singer in 1911 in a theater where she sang the Criolla Mercedes of Manuel Corona. Her first guitar teacher was the cigar-roller José Díaz. Manuel Corona proceeded with her musical education by clarifying such things as the various techniques for first and second guitar and eventually taught her his compositions. That was without question of the best advantage to the young girl.

María Teresa Vera formed a pair with Rafael Zequeira from 1916–1924 when he became sick and died. They had made over a hundred recordings together in New York, a large portion of which has not survived. At that point she met Carlos Godinez, an author, who taught her more the guitar; the friendship went on until his demise in 1950.

María Teresa Vera then formed the Sexteto Occidente in 1925 with Miguel García as first voice, clavé and Director (since he thought most about music), Ignacio Piñeiro on double bass, Julio Torres Biart on tres, Manuel Reinoso on bongo and Francisco Sánchez on maracas. They were a group of skilled musicians who might have shining careers.

María Teresa Vera joined Lorenzo Hierrezuelo as a duet in 1935, and this duet went on for 27 years. For quite a bit of this time, Hierrezuelo ran his duo with Vera nearby his partnership with Compay Segundo (Francisco Repilado), as the duo Los Compadres.

One of her best compositions, the habanera Veinte años, has been performed by various Cuban artists; Sólo Pienso en ti, a bolero–son, is likewise notable. In 1945, María Teresa Vera was contracted to Circuito CMQ for the radio program Cosas de Ayer. During the 1950s, she showed up in the TV program El Casino de la Alegría and during the 1960s she got public tributes on her retirement in 1962.

One of the first female voices of trova, María Teresa Vera formed a few successful duos and bands to perform original compositions alongside her interpretations of other Cuban styles. A few of her songs became regular features on Havana’s radio stations, and her music assisted with making the way for the ascent of popular Cuban music around the globe during the 1930s and 40s. All through her career, she recorded near 200 songs, however, those near her say she could play over a thousand.

María Teresa Vera’s lifetime achievements in music have a lasting effect and inspired a tribute album, “A María Teresa Vera” (“For María Teresa Vera”), a collection of songs recorded to celebrate her 100th birthday.

On February 6, 2020, Google Doodle was made by Doodler Erich Nagler, who said his interest in María Teresa Vera started with the contemporary musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club and eventually working its way back to the impact she had over Cuban musicians and singers who followed in her footsteps.

While the Doodle initially showed up on Google search results in the US and Cuba. it’s since been saved to those in the island country.