Fredesvinda García

Fredesvinda García Valdés (also appears as Fredesvinda García Herrera or Fredesvinda García) was born in the 1930s (sources disagree) in Céspedes, a small village in the Camagüey province of Cuba from a poor peasant family. She died of heart failure on 31 July 1961 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Known as Freddy, she sang a cappella in clubs in Havana and recorded only one album before her death. Her weight (she was over 300lbs) gave a very distinctive, androgynous sound to her voice.

When she moved Havana, aged 12, she became a cook for the Bengochea family (Arturo Bengochea was the president of the Cuban League of Professional Base-Ball) but soon she found herself singing night at the Celeste Bar, on Humboldt and Infanta Streets, a place where artists used to meet. She is the spotted by the director the casino at the Hotel Capri. She is given a contract.

Freddy appeared in several key TV programs, like "Jueves de Partagas" (1959), which she remembered dearly. On that show she met Benny More.

Freddy traveled to Venezuela and then on to Mexico with a company led by Roderyco Neyra (Rodney). From there, she flew, along with others, to Miami and then to Puerto Rico. She got several contracts and was even presented on San Juan's TV.

She appears as Estrella Rodrigues in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book about Havana's night life during the years of the Revolution, "Tres Tristes Tigres" (published in English as "Three Trapped Tigers") (1966). Portions of this, featuring Freddy predominantly, were later republished as "Ella cantaba boleros".

Discography

Her only album is known variously as "La Voz Del Sentimento" or "Ella Cantaba Boleros". It was recorded in 1960 for Puchito Records under the reference: Puchito MLP 552. Humberto Suarez did the musical arrangements and conducted the orchestra.

*"El hombre que yo amo" (The man I love), by George Gershwin
*"Tengo", by Marta Valdes
*"La cita", by Gabriel Ruiz
*"Noche y Dia" (Night and day), by Cole Porter
*"Vivamos hoy", by Wilfredo Riquelme
*"Freddy", by Ela O'Farril (specially written for her)
*"Noche de ronda", by Agustin Lara
*"Tengo que decirte", by Rafael Pedraza
*"Debi Llorar", by Piloto y Vera
*"Sombras y mas sombras", by Humberto Suarez
*"Gracias mi amor", by Jesus Faneity
*"Besame mucho", by Consuelo Velazquez

ASIN: B000009RPF ("Ella Cantaba Boleros")
ASIN: B00008EPKE ("La Voz Del Sentimento")

[http://www.literaturismena.com/Tout%20sur%20Freddy/radioblogueur.htm Listen to extracts of the recording] .

Freddy, the song

Lyrics of the song specially written for her by Ela O'Farril.

"Freddy"
Soy una mujer que canta
Para mitigar las penas
De las horas vividas y perdidas.Me queda sólo esto:
Decirle a la noche,
Todo lo que yo siento,
Cantando canciones;
Despierto ilusiones
Dormidas en mí.
Muchos me vieron
Caminando a solas
Bajo las luces
Desiertas y azules de mi soledad.
¿Qué fue mi vida desde siempre?
Sólo trabajo y miseria,
Por eso cantaba a las estrellas
Y quizás me oyó hasta Dios.
Soy una mujer que canta
Para mitigar las penas.
No era nada ni nadie y ahora,
Dicen que soy una estrella,
Que me convertí en una de ellas
Para brillar en la eterna noche.
Soy una mujer que canta
Para mitigar las penas.
No era nada ni nadie y ahora,
Dicen que soy una estrella,
Que me convertí en una de ellas
Para brillar en la eterna noche.

Rough translation:
I am a woman who sings to soften the sufferings of the vivid and lost hours. This is all I have left: Telling the night all that I feel, singing songs; lively illusions asleep in me. Many saw me walking alone under the lights empty and blue of my solitude. What has my life always been like? Only work and misery; this is why I sing to the stars and perhaps God will hear me.
I am a woman who sings to soften the sufferings. There was nothing and noone and now, they say I am a star; that I turned myself into one of those to shine in the eternal night.
I am a woman who sings to soften the sufferings. There was nothing and noone and now, they say I am a star; that I turned myself into one of those to shine in the eternal night. (translated by wikieditor)

External links

* [http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=4&cont=show.php&item=1357 Freddy the Legend] , profile on Cubanow.net
* [http://www.mambo-inn.com/plantacion-cabrera.htm Ella le Canta Boleros a Cabrera Infante] (in Spanish)
* [http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/dec05/23a9.htm Freddy La Estrella] , profile on Cubanet (in Spanish)
* [http://www.trabajadores.cubaweb.cu/proposiciones/cuba%20por%20dentro/jrb-freddy.htm Freddy, mito de las noches habaneras] (in Spanish)
* "Musica Cubana, del areyto a la Nueva Trova", Cristobal Diaz Ayala, Cubanacan, Puerto Rico, 1983