The Cuban singer-songwriter Liuba María Hevia visited this month the grave of Pablo Milanés at the Las Rozas cemetery in Madrid to pay a personal tribute, which, in her own words, was a spiritual need that had been pending since the troubadour's death in November 2022.
Hevia was in Las Rozas recording her new album at the Cezanne Studios, located not far from the cemetery where the remains of the Bayamés musician rest. The proximity of the place gave her the opportunity to settle an emotional debt she had carried since Pablo Milanés passed away at the age of 79 without her being able to say goodbye.
"Almost finished recording my new album at Cezanne Studios, very close to the cemetery in Las Rozas, I couldn’t leave without visiting the place where one of the greatest Cuban composers and performers rests, to thank him once again for his legacy and to say goodbye in the way I couldn’t when he departed—better said, when he ceased to be physically present, because his work and his love transcend life itself," the artist wrote on her social media.
At that moment, she was accompanied by Javier Monteverde and Mayda Bustamante, to whom Hevia expressed her gratitude publicly: "Thank you, Javier Monteverde, thank you, Mayda Bustamante, for joining me in fulfilling this spiritual need, beyond the memories and the photos of Pablo, which I have looked at so much during these days at the Cezanne studios."
The bond between Hevia and Milanés is deep and long-standing. The singer-songwriter, born in Havana in 1964, joined the Nueva Trova Cubana in 1982 and has described the troubadour as one of her great teachers. It was precisely the Pablo Milanés Foundation that facilitated the production of her first album, Coloreando la esperanza, released in 1993, establishing a direct artistic and emotional connection between them.
Hevia has participated in several posthumous tributes to the musician. He was present at the event held at Casa de América on the first anniversary of his death. In his remembrance of the artist and friend, he recalled learning to play the guitar with the songs of Pablo and Silvio Rodríguez.
Milanés, co-founder of the Nueva Trova Cubana along with Silvio and Noel Nicola, left behind a body of work comprising more than 40 solo albums, featuring songs that became landmarks in Spanish music, including "Yolanda," "Para vivir," and "El breve espacio en que no estás." In his later years, he maintained a very critical stance toward the Cuban regime.
He was awarded the Latin Grammy for Musical Excellence and the National Music Award of Cuba, and he rests in Las Rozas, where he was buried in the utmost family privacy.
The visit of Hevia to his grave, a continuation of a long-standing friendship and closeness, adds to the numerous tributes that artists from the Spanish-speaking world have paid to the troubadour since his passing, a wave of recognition that has not abated nearly four years after his departure.
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