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Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez (born November 29, 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños) is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement. He is known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio azul and La maza. Rodríguez is well known for socially critical yet ambiguous lyrics, which have raised the suspicions of both the Cuban government and Cuban-American groups on various occasions.
Rodríguez was born on November 29, 1946 in San Antonio de los Baños, a fertile valley in Havana Province known for its tobacco crop. He was raised in a family of poor farmers. His grandfather, a tobacco farmer, knew José Martí. His father, Víctor Dagoberto Rodríguez Ortega, was a farmer who supported socialist causes. His mother, Argelia Domínguez León, was a hairdresser. On many occasions Rodríguez has spoken how his love of music was developed by his mother, who would pass time singing boleros and songs from Santiago. Although Rodríguez had an uncle who played the bass, his mother had a far greater influence. Later, she also collaborated with him on a few musical works.
When the Revolution led by Fidel Castro triumphed in January 1959, Rodríguez was only 13 years old, and, like most Cubans of his generation, became involved in the new Revolutionary enthusiasm. He participated in the Literacy Campaign held in 1961, and then started working as a comics designer in a magazine. During this period a friend taught him how to play the guitar.
Guitar playing took a major role in his life while he was in the army, during 1964. But it wasn't till 1967, with his first television experience, that he started to become well known and influential among Cuban revolutionary youth. With very polemical lyrics, and Revolutionary but independent thought, Rodríguez soon attracted the animosity of members of the new Culture Ministry, which was devoted to the eradication of the United States' influence in Cuban culture. In this context, a very important role was played by the cultural institution Casa de las Américas and its then director Haydée Santamaría, a former respected revolutionary who participated in the Moncada barracks assault in 1953, and sister of Abel Santamaría, who was tortured and killed after the failure of the assault. Haydée Santamaría became a protective mother-figure to the young composers of the time, and had a very important influence on their thoughts and success. Casa de las Américas became the home not only for the new Cuban trovadores but also for many other Latin Americans. It was in this institution that Rodríguez met Pablo Milanés, and Noel Nicola, two of the future most famous nueva trova singers and composers.
In 1969, for almost five months, he worked as part of the crew of the fishing boat Playa Girón, and during this fertile episode wrote 62 songs among which are the famous Ojalá and Playa Girón. The lyrics of most of the songs he composed while aboard the Playa Giron subtly hint his resentment and frustration with the hypocritical, lying inconsistensies of the government. The lyrics and music of these songs became a book named Canciones del Mar.
After more than 40 years of artistic work, Rodríguez has now written a vast number of songs and poems (said to be between 500 and more than one thousand), many of which never been set to music, and probably never will be. Although his musical knowledge has been continuously increasing (counting among his teachers the famous Cuban composer Leo Brouwer), he is more widely praised for the poetry in his songs, than for the accompanying music. His lyrics are a staple of leftist culture throughout the whole Spanish-speaking world, and he has been banned from the media during many dictatorial systems in Latin America.
Some critics suggest that his recent lyrics have lost the questioning nature so praised by bohemians and many university students, when he would criticize government oppression, and that with his new social status as a Cuban social and political figure, his lyrics have become existentialist and obscure.
In 2003, Rodríguez was elected to the National Assembly of People's Power, the Cuban parliament, and is regarded as one of the most influential intellectuals in present-day Cuba.
In 2007, he received a doctorate honoris causa from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos[1] (Lima, Peru).
<big>Studio albums</big>