The Chan Chan Son Route Gets Deeply Rooted in Holguin

By Maria Caridad Martinez Peregrin and Sailis Quesada Requejo (journalism students)

“De Alto Cedro voy para Marcané , llego a Cueto voy para Mayari!” reads the most popular song by Cuban singer Compay Segundo - which inspires the first edition of "The Chan Chan Son Route," an event that made a successful come-back in early November 2010. The La Periquera Museum - National Monument – marked the start of the caravan headed by members of the Latin American Association of Motorcyclists. The caravan made a halt in Barajagua, birthplace to the famous Cuban caricaturist Tomy (Tomas Rodriguez Zayas), who passed away recently and whose work made people in and abroad laugh and think. Right next to his tomb, caravan members and Tomy’s relatives paid homage to this noted artist with wreaths and the performance of troubadour Fernando Cabrejas.Alto Cedro, the meeting place of last century’s most noted Cuban eastern troubadours, was the second stop because it has become since 2009 the starting point to the Chan Chan Route. Carvanists visited the place with a wall commemorative inscription created by the visual artist Pepe Vidal marking it. Right there the traditional “Viviendo Futuro” sextet from Alto Cedro made a performance for town dwellers and visitors. Alexis Triana, director of the Provincial Culture Board, donated books and photographs on the local cultural history to be exhibited at the community museum in construction. The Birán History Complex, National Monument and birthplace to Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro Ruz, also welcomed the Caravan, made up also of foreign guests, artists, cultural promoters and communicators from Holguín province.

The folklore dance company “Renovación Haitiana” performed for the new comers while historian Antonio Lopez briefed them on the place and its history.
"The town of Marcane is also part of the Chan Chan route…" reads a commemorative inscription, placed during this tour on the wall of the “old train station around which the town of Marcané arose”, Alexis Triana said. At the place’s main square the casino dancing group “Holguin Forever” and the local one “Nueva Creación Campesina” danced shared the stage to bear out culture as a unifying force. "… llego a Cueto…” and in the homonymous jurisdiction’s head town rises the sculpture of Repilado (the beloved Compay Segundo), where the Chan Chan Caravan was welcomed by the Municipal Concert Band and the Mezcla children dance group. Later an exhibition with some Tomy’s original caricatures was opened.

Guaro town became next stop. The tour was welcome with Jamaican dances, as a present sign left behind by immigrants’ cultural legacy. And finally Mayarí, where Mayacuba musical group gave a warm welcome, followed by a meeting at the municipal culture house and a performance at the Martin Melendez square by the “Los Tainos de Mayari” son orchestra that recently arrived from a tour in France.
The Son Music Route or Chan Chan Route, came to an end in its second edition with music and different other artistic manifestations. And now, far from resting until next time, its promoters are making plans to turn the Route into a tourism route in order to universalized Holguín’s rich cultural traditions.