His music arose from the hills of Las Terrazas, in Pinar del Río. With the company of his guitar and the little group that always travelled with him into the magical world of composition, he went to places where his music was acclaimed and where his songs made people cried of emotion. This repeated over and over until his physical death.
Polo Montañéz, his full artisitc name, was the pride of his birth province, Pinar del Rio. I remember in San Cristobal, my home town, we used to argue that his origins where there, while in Candelaria, another town of Pinar del Río, the arguments were sound enough to confirm that Polo had come from there.
Truth is that Polo was a great human being with a remarkable music genius and everyone felt it as their own. Everytime his voice came on the radio, no matter what part of Cuba I was,I would pridely say: “He’s from Pinar.”
After his death, his music is still played in the radio stations. His life and work has been the base of countless of books, documentary films and dramas that try to cast light on his genius.
But all this would have been meaningless for Polo. Like any other dweller of the Cuban countryside, all he needed was the land, the fields, the mountains and the music to feel completely pleased and radiant with his great passion: to write good lyrics and to make melodies that nurture the soul.
