As overnight, the different radio stations of the country surprised us one fine day with the charm of titles such as A bunch of stars yes Natural peacockmoving pieces that were at the head of a certain Fernando Borrego, who is none other than the composer and interpreter of Pinar del Río, better known as Polo Montañez.
With the original proposal of sones and guarachas inspired by him, contained in the CD Natural peacock (2000), Polo reiterated the powerful onslaught of the original music of our fields when it comes to being engaged with honesty, talent and simplicity, coming both from her work and from her way of being as a person.
precisely the theme A bunch of stars achieved an unexpected success in popularity, capable of upsetting the course of artificial campaigns marketing from other musical contexts as if art were not strictly linked to the irrefutable criterion of evidence, embodied in the events that occurred with this important artistic event. There is no other way to explain the rapid and massive reception he had among us, the one that led him to become the celebrity Polo Montañez, much less try to justify the euphoria caused by this work in countries like Colombia, Mexico and France, among others.
Polo was a carbonero, or reed cutter. As a hobby he indulged his passion for music, and was discovered, to the amazement and approval of crowds around the world. When personalities of the artistic rank of the Puerto Rican Gilberto Santa Rosa included in their active repertoire the version of A bunch of starsAt the same time that he has been invited to share the stage with luminaries such as Compay Segundo and Panamanian Rubén Blades, Polo knows that less than three years after his professional career took off and with only two albums recorded, he had managed to position himself among the legends of the popular music of the time, without fame going to his head.
Despite having the support of favorable economic conditions, he never abandoned his homeland Pinar del Río, nor did he abandon the radical essences that defined him in his ennoblement Tribute to José Martí, as in the commitment to put poetry to music I will be backof the Hero of the Homeland Antonio Guerrero.
20 years after his physical death, Polo Montañez’s legacy is overflowing with the joie de vivre that his songs have forever imbued in our souls. Like few others, Polo was able to place the value of humility and the naturalness of the human being in its rightful place, even among eminent figures of contemporary art.
