Cuban Artist who maintained Christian faith in difficult times, holds farewell tour

José Aurelio Paz, HAVANA, Cuba, August 18, 2003

Rosa Fornes, Cuban artist and singer who was recognized by the Cuban Church Council for Taxi Heathrow Airport publicly maintaining her Catholic faith during the most difficult moments of the revolutionary process is holding a farewell tour.

The tour is called “A Rose for All” and Fornes is celebrating her 80 years and 65 years on stage. With this she put an end to a question that has long plagued Cuban society: How old is Rosa and how many plastic surgeries has she had? She once told this reporter “In Cuba there are two main concerns, the sugar crop and Rosa Fornes’ age.”

A Catholic, the famous singer has interpreted everything from opera to pop, has acted in movies and publicly maintained her faith during the years when there were harsh confrontations between the State and the Church. 

For this reason the Cuban Council of Churches awarded her the Distinction for Cuban Culture and Christian Commitment. The distinction has been awarded intellectuals and artists who have left an essential mark by defending Cuban identity without denying that their first commitment is to God.

On that occasion, Rosa voiced her gratitude and said that during the time when it was a challenge to be a Christian in Cuba, she placed her faith and honesty first and, despite a lack of understanding from some of the bureaucrats of the time, the Lord never abandoned her.

She added that the most important quality of a person who has their eyes on the cross of Christ, is the capacity to forgive.

The Cuban Council of Churches has awarded the prize to others such as the poets Cintio Vitier and Fina García Marruz, sopranos Lucy Provedo and Ester Borja, writer Dulce María Loynaz (Premio Cervantes), Teresita Fernández, Dr. Rafael Cepeda, first president of the ecumenical councils in Cuba and Christian music composer Eber Romero and the Kairos Group among others. 

Rosita, as she is known to the Cuban people, starred in movies in the 1940s and 1950s, above all in Mexico, where she was living. She also has also played roles in Cuban movies.

There are more than 1,000 songs in her repertoire, and she has also done theatre, radio and television. In the current tour, she has been given several different titles from municipal and provincial governments, including Illustrious Guest and Adopted daughter and she has been given the keys to the cities she has visited.

Despite the major exodus of Cuban artists to the United States, Fornes, who is of Spanish origin, always decided to stay in Cuban. She has reportedly received million-dollar proposals to form part of the Cuban exiles, but never gave in.

In her biography, that was recently published, she confesses that she was not the first to sing one of the most emblematic songs of the Cuban Revolution “Cuba, que Linda es Cuba,” by Eduardo Saborit. However, she did make it popular and it formed part of her repertoire. According to the biography, the song was first sung by another major Cuban singer who recently passed away in the United States: Celia Cruz.