Benguría, Carmina

Benguría, Carmina

1920-2017

Carmina Benguría Rodríguez was a famous poet and reciter (“declamadora”) of pre revolutionary Cuba. She was born in a sugar cane colony owned by her family in Ciego de Avila, Cuba on January 18th, 1920 to Enrique Benguría Pérez de Corcho and María Elisa Rodríguez Melcón. Soon after her birth, she was moved to Havana where she grew up and spent her youth. Her first performance reciting poetry was in 1937 at the “Círculo de Amigos de la Cultura Francesa” in Havana, which was arranged by the Cuban publicist Conrado Massaguer.

On October 11, 1937 she gave a recital of poetry at Columbia University at the behest of Spanish philologist and Columbia University professor, Federico de Onís, when she accompanied her father there for work-related matters. After her performances at Columbia, Benguría’s mother encouraged her to continue performing as entertainment and took charge of her training and education. While studying for the Baccalaureate, Benguría took ballet classes at the Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical, learned French and English and studied music at various conservatories. Her mother organized a recital at the National Theater in Havana on April 17, 1938. The recital was a great success and this led journalist and poet Ernesto Fernández Arrondo, who was in attendance, to become Benguría’s agent until 1956. He organized additional performances at the Encanto Theater in Havana as well as a tour of all the major Cuban cities. At her second presentation at the National Theater in Havana on October 12, 1938, the Nobel Laureate and Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral was in attendance. She was deeply impressed with Benguría’s performance, calling her a child prodigy to her agent, Fernández Arrondo. Mistral reached out to the prominent Mexican poet Alfonso Reyes, in order to get support for a tour in Mexico, which Benguría made in 1940, performing at Palacio de Bellas Artes and other theaters.

Upon her return to Cuba, Benguría became a household name due to her frequent appearances on the radio, such as radio COCO and the June, 1939 recital that was broadcast live through the CMBZ station from the new Anfiteatro de La Habana, which was met with critical acclaimed. In the 1940’s she continued performing at major venues around Cuba and completed studies of diplomatic and consular law at the University of Havana. In 1947, she was awarded the Cuban Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Order.

Beginning in 1949, Benguría embarked on several international tours, performing in Spain at prominent venues such as the teatro del Ateneo de Madrid. Esta fue la primera de una serie de presentaciones que continuaron en Teatro Lara, el Teatro Español, el Teatro Principal de la Comedia, la Real Academia Española, la Universidad Complutense y el Real Conservatorio de Música y Declamación, as well as in Venezuela, México, Honduras, Ecuador, Perú, Panamá, and Colombia. Between 1953 and 1959, she completed a total of 5 tours of the Americas. During these tours, she was met with much esteem and praise from academics and writers, including Melchor Fernández Almagro and Ramón Bernal. On May 8, 1950, the Spanish government awarded her the Civil Order of Alfonso X The Wise with the category of Cross; and in June of that same year she was awarded the Gold Medal from the University of Panama. In 1953, the 100th birthday of José Martí, Benguría went on a tour throughout Cuba exclusively reciting Martí’s works. She was joined by the soprano Iris Burguet, the harpist Margarita Monter and la Orquesta Filarmónica de La Habana at a special performance on June 15th, 1953 at the Auditorium Theater in Havana to raise funds for the tour.

In the 1950’s, Benguría was often away from Cuba on tour, or touring the island. Between 1952 and 1956, she made appearances on early Cuban television programs such as the “Hour of Art and Culture,” which aired on Sundays on the CMQ channel. She also recited and discussed poetry on the “La Universidad del Aire,” radio program hosted by Jorge Mañach on Sunday afternoons on CMQ radio.

In 1950, she met the Cuban sculptor and draftsman Roberto Estopiñán Vera (1921-2015.). They married 1958. After the Revolution of 1959, Estopiñán was given the position of cultural attaché of the Cuban embassy in Egypt and Benguría continued her performances and appearances in Cuba. She even performed a rendering of the Marcha triunfal for Che Guevara and the soldiers of the Ejército Rebelde while they were stationed at the La Cabaña Fortress. She also participated in Operation Culture organized by the University Student Federation (FEU) in 1959 and in the Martí recital organized by Jorge Mañach in the Plaza Cadenas of the University of Havana in January 1960. Her last performance in Cuba was a performance of “Cenizas” by Juana de Ibarbourou on CMQ-TV on April 10, 1960. In May of 1960, she followed her husband into exile, joined shortly later by many other of her close friends and associates, including Jorge Mañach, Gastón Baquero, Emeterio Santovenia, José Ángel Buesa and Ernesto Lecuona. First, Benguría went through Honduras, where she was granted citizenship by President Ramón Villeda Morales and then she arrived in Miami in March 1961, joining her family there. She worked cleaning offices, a significant step down from her professional life in Cuba. However, she was unknown in the United States and its public. In 1963, she moved to New York.

In 1972, after struggling in relative obscurity for over a decade and with the help of a group of well-known Cubans, Benguría performed a recital at a rented space at the New York Cultural Center. From there, she began to perform again and garner praise from her audience. During the next two decades she performed at The New York Cultural Center, Hunter College, the Gramercy Arts Theater, the Carnegie Recital Hall, and the Little (Hayes) Theater. She was also a long time collaborator and founding member of the Cuban Cultural Center in New York. In 1993, she made a recording called “Palabras para ti,” which was a compilation of thirty-seven works by the best Latin American poets. In 1994, she narrated the book of poems “Vientre del Trópico” by Alina Galliano.

In 2002, at 82 years old, Benguría and her husband returned to Miami. She continued to perform and participate in cultural events, including various “Cultural Colloquiums” sponsored by Gastón Álvaro’s Ego Group publishing house, which were held at the Books & Books bookstore in Coral Gables. In 2012, the CD “Carmina Benguría, una voz universal,” was released. It features sixteen of Benguría’s interpretations of works by Latin American poets. She also published two books of poems, both of them when she was already over 90 years old. Escúchame La Voz (2012), and a collection of intimate and autobiographical poems titled Desde el Libro del Alma (2015). She presented several of the poems at Books & Books in Coral Gables in 2015, in collaboration with Ego Group and the poet and composer Orlando Coré, who acted as editor of her final book. Benguría passed away in October of 2017 in Miami, Florida.

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Biographical note written by Kate Villa, 2020-2021 UGrow Fellow for Manuscripts and Archives Management.

1. Gaspar, El Lugareño: En Memoria de Carmina Benguría (por Juan Cueto-Roig) (ellugareno.com)

2. BLOG DE MANUEL SÁNCHEZ DALAMA: Carmina Benguría (sanchezdalamas.blogspot.com)

3. Benguria, Carmina - Archival Collections (miami.edu)

4. Carmina Benguría - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre