CubaPLUS Magazine

On June 21, famous Cuban composer José Antonio Méndez would have been ninety-five years old. He was also a guitarist and a very genuine performer of the filin, a Cuban song genre of which he was one of its founders and unforgettable members.

Many of his works such as You are the Glory, My girlfriend, If you understood me, Love me and you will see, For our cowardice... and many more, are emblematic within Latin American musical creations and have been sung by popular icons, who have included them within his most select repertoires.

Of very humble origins, the boy José Antonio learned his first letters from his mother, but was able to do high-school studies. He lived a large part of his existence, cut short by a traffic accident on June 10, 1989, in the Los Pinos neighborhood, in Havana, where he was born.

From a very young age he showed great inspiration to create beautiful songs, with a remarkable melodic fluidity. Those were times when he personally got to know great Cuban musical authors such as Sindo Garay, Manuel Corona and Rosendo Ruiz.

His move to show business was stimulated as of 1940, when he was awarded the Supreme Court of Art, on the radio program of the same name. In the middle of that decade he began to be noted for his authorship in songs.

From the beginning, great Mexican stars like Toña la Negra and Pedro Infante sang his compositions. In Cuba they consider José Antonio Méndez not  only as a composer of high carats, perhaps the most brilliant part of his genius, but also a star of the aforementioned filin, current born in the Havana neighborhood of Key West, they say under the influence of the free and seductive rhythms of American jazz, with a great sentimental and emotional force.

In 1949, he traveled to Mexico at the invitation of Cuban singer Pepe Reyes. Known beforehand, he was able to work with Dámaso Pérez Prado and Benny Moré, among others, and received the support of Ninón Sevilla. He followed a route of promotion with recordings for RCA Víctor, a trip to Guatemala and later back to Mexico. He returned to Cuba in 1959.

He continued to practice his art with the great esteem of all the people. In 1967 he was elected president of the Cuban Society of Musical Authors (SCAM). His name shines within the main authors of Cuban songs of all time.