Writing the Music of the City in the Early 1930s: Two Poems by Nicolás Guillén

Ever since the publication of Motivos de son in 1930, numerous scholars have analyzed the musical effects in Nicolás Guillén's poetry. Unlike most prior studies, this essay focuses on how Cuba's national poet reinterprets two popular songs from the 1920s. By comparing the creative process in these works, I show how Guillén's aesthetic project in "Velorio de Papá Montero" provides a deeper understanding of aspects of the human condition that Eliseo Grenet overlooked in the lyrics of the danceable tunes that he composed for the local stage shows of that era. In contrast, in addressing Guillén's rewriting of Miguel Matamoros's work in "Secuestro de la mujer de Antonio," I discuss how Guillén suppresses the political references that Matamoros included in the catchy lyrics of his son. I also examine the rhetorical strategies the poet employs to provide a more complex and nuanced portrayal of genre differences on both the formal and ideological levels.