CubaPLUS Magazine

Born in rural areas, but later extended to urban areas, the Cuban Punto (music genre), awarded Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, reflects authentic roots of national identity, with increasing promotion among the younger generations.

Specialists agree that this poetic and musical expression has a Spanish lineage and was created from tunes and sung verses brought to the island by Spanish emigrants, especially Canaries and Andalusians.

Theysay that the &punto" began to unfold in the 18th century and since then, in continuous growth and expansion, it came to dominate the cultural life of peasants with its melodies and the thematic treatment that ranges from epic to humor. 

Thepoint is the life of the so-called guateque (feast of the Cuban countryside). The instruments that make up the accompaniment are the guitar, the tres, the tiple, the lute, the harpsichord, the güiro and the guayo (these instruments made of fruit shells), which support an interpreter who sings in learned tenths, or improvises and establishes the so-called controversy, a kind of brotherly duel between two singers.

Itis said that it was the canaries settled in Cuba who created this genre once they assimilated elements of Andalusian music. A hint of the African gave it its Creole character. 

One of the most diligent researchers in the Cuban musical field, the late Argeliers León, explains the emergence of this manifestation in the following way: "With the Spanish population came a rich songwriter who was a synthesis of old Mediterranean ways of singing and a verse and rhymed saying in which the Arab had participated so much". 

It was, he continues, a coplero who responded to the multiple circumstances that filled the life of the Spanish people, with verses for all occasions, but in America it underwent a profound change.

The music genre sought local success and accommodated itself to new social relationships in which the white sectors of the exploited class remained. The black was with this sector and would also adopt the couplet". 

Thegolden age of the Cuban punto occurred between 1940 and 1945. At that time, this artistic manifestation flooded the Cuban radio waves and later, emblematic figures of peasant song began to emerge in Cuba. 

Amongthe main cultists of this genre we must mention Jesús Orta Ruiz, the Naborí Indian; Adolfo Alfonso and Justo Vega; Inocente Iznaga and Celina González, perhaps the best known worldwide, all deceased already. 

It is valid to clarify that the Cuban punto has a great richness and among its different styles we can mention the free point, the fixed point, the crossed point, the party point, the tunes and the sequence.

Currently, a renewal movement of expression is recognized, especially through the work of Alexis Díaz Pimienta, who has rescued modalities that were in disuse, such as the series, and the existence of numerous projects throughout the country with kids’ participation.