Álvarez Guedes Volumen 22

In one of his albums, Álvarez Guedes recounts the satisfaction he felt from the anecdote of a man whose life was saved by his stories. According to this man's testimony, he once suffered severe chest pain, and while being taken to the hospital, he asked for a tape recorder to listen to his stories, which had a relaxing effect and prevented him from having a heart attack. Humor has been like this for Cubans since the nation's beginnings: the best medicine for all their problems. If we are well, we laugh with satisfaction, but if we are unwell, if we are going through a difficult situation, we also laugh to lighten the burden. That is the lesson of the aforementioned story. Guillermo Álvarez Guedes was born in 1927 in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas province, and left Cuba in 1960, by which time he already enjoyed great recognition as a comedian, having performed on radio, television, and in cabarets alongside leading figures in the performing arts. Although he acted in films and triumphed on television—his performance in the weekly revue El Casino de la Alegría (CMQ radio station, 1950s) is particularly memorable—and in legendary musical shows like El Solar (Montmartre cabaret, 1953), choreographed by Alberto Alonso, where he shared the stage with Benny Moré, Olga Guillot, and Carlos Pou, his favorite medium was radio, where he reigned until his death. However, for those unfamiliar with this aspect of his art, and for the vast majority, Álvarez Guedes is the man of a thousand humorous stories, which, compiled on 32 records, gave him universal acclaim. From 1973 onward, his work began to gain wider recognition. As a traveler and constant observer of the behaviors, language, and customs of other parts of the world, Álvarez Guedes also portrayed and parodied Spaniards, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans, moving among a great diversity of themes and contexts. Guillermo Álvarez Guedes must now be somewhere in the infinite realm of Cuban cultural history, perhaps sharing a table—playing dominoes—with Leopoldo Fernández, Aníbal de Mar, and Mimí Cal, while Germán Pinelli, Alberto Garrido, and Enrique Arredondo comment on the game. Like his companions in that imaginary game, Álvarez Guedes is unique, just like his era. Guillermo's first public performance was at age six, in a neighborhood movie theater. At thirteen, he left home, doing whatever work he could find in a circus-theater. At 19, he traveled to New York, where he earned a living washing dishes, cutting grass in a cemetery, and working as a bellboy in a hotel. In 1949, he was deported to Cuba and began working first at Unión Radio and later at Radio Progreso, on the program "El abogado de los pobres" (The Lawyer of the Poor). He was 22 when Gaspar Pumarejo hired him. He played a country folk poet (a décima singer) alongside three giants of Cuban humor: Germán Pinelli, Aníbal de Mar, and Leopoldo Fernández. But the role that would make him famous was that of the drunkard, starting in 1951, on the hit show "Casino de la Alegría" (Casino of Joy) on CMQ-TV. It was then that he teamed up with Rita Montaner, "La única" (The Only One), in "Rita y Willy" (Rita and Willy), a short-lived show due to Montaner's disagreements with the producers. Later, he starred alongside Minín Bujones in "Viernes a las 8" (Friday at 8). In 1953, he joined the cast of the musical show "El Solar," sharing the stage with Carlos Pous, Luis Carbonell, Benny Moré, Rita Montaner, and Olga Guillot. That was also the year of his film debut, as both actor and producer. "Que todo quede entre cubanos" (Let It All Stay Between Cubans) was his last film. His first album of jokes, of the more than 30 he recorded, was presented in Madrid in 1973, at a tribute to the Sevillian flamenco dancer Pastora Imperio. His only album in English, "How To Defend Yourself From The Cubans," has sold more copies than all his Spanish-language albums combined. In 1983, at the age of 56, he packed Carnegie Hall in New York. An anecdote: In the 1980s, as a teenager, at a school friend's house, on a rickety tape recorder and at a very low, almost inaudible volume, I heard a collection of Álvarez Guedes' jokes for the first time. We thank him for his legacy of stories, now preserved in many Cuban homes on cassettes.