TWO names have followed singer Daniel Santos throughout his career. The first was bestowed upon him in Havana: a restless Anacobero, meaning an imp or bohemian. Either one could be used to describe him and to reflect upon his intense and difficult life. Much later, having triumphed, Colombians called him El Jefe (The Boss).

Doubtless an exceptional figure of Latin American song, Daniel Santos (Puerto Rico, 1916 – United States, 1992) remains an almost unforgettable figure today.

But it is not the complete story of his life and career that concerns us now. For those interested, there are several biographies, not including his fatefully prophetic autobiography Vengo a decirle adiós a los muchachos (I Came to Say Goodbye to the Guys), launched in San Juan in 1992. That same year, he died in a retirement home in Ocala, Florida (his remains were interred in his native Puerto Rico).

There are just 15 years of restless Anacobero’s life that attract our attention now. But what years they were! No less than the time he lived in Havana, the city that brought him fame.

It’s a period that has been brought back to life thanks to one of the most diligent Cuban documentary makers, namely Lourdes Prieto, on this occasion working alongside José Galiño. The film is Daniel Santos: para gozar La Habana (Daniel Santos: to Enjoy Havana).

Prior to his arrival in Havana, the young Santos worked as a shoeshine boy, sang in his elementary school choir, began his professional career in a band, and met Pedro Flores (composer of numerous hits including "Amor pedido") in New York, who then invited him to join his quartet, as well as substituting Miguelito Valdés in Xavier Cugat’s big band.

Offstage, during the 1940s, Santos had to serve in the U.S. Army and "was influenced by the nationalist ideas of Pedro Albizu Campos, ideas that caused problems with the FBI and the U.S. State Department every time he traveled."

Following this, all the songs he composed were related to episodes from his own life. From this era were "La despedida" (The Farewell), "Los Patriotas" (The Patriots) and one inspired by the book by Don Juan Antonio Corretjer, Puerto Rican national poet, "La lucha por la independencia" (The Struggle for Independence).

Havana was to be the city that would change the course of Daniel Santos’ career. In 1946, he debuted on the Bodas de Plata de Partagás program on the already famous RHC Cadena Azul radio station, and a year later came his encounter with Sonora Matancera, the mythical group that marked a whole era. Together they achieved total success and went on to record more than 80 memorable tracks.

It is this brief but crucial period of Daniel Santos’ life that Lourdes Prieto and José Galiño tackle in their documentary. It has not been selected to compete in this year’s Film Festival in Havana, included in the Made in Cuba section. It has just won two prizes at the Cine Plaza – one for best documentary and another for Círculo de Cultura from the Union of Journalists – and will compete in the Documentary Film Festival in Navarra, Spain 2005 and the 1st Latin American Short Film Festival at Princeton University.

Just like Santos’ life, making the documentary wasn’t simple either. Galiño and Prieto arrived at Anacobero’s history via different routes. Director of ICAIC’s Sound Department, Galiño is a fan of Anacobero’s music and so it was logical that he would present his project there but, painfully for him, it was rejected.

For her part, Lourdes Prieto didn’t know anything about Daniel Santos’ music but, whilst in Puerto Rico for her documentary Conversando con Ruth (Conversing with Ruth – the sister of Pablo de la Torriente Brau), she was taken to visit the singer’s grave and then in Cuba, Galiño himself, suggested one of El Jefe’s songs for the soundtrack. Blissfully, it was the start of a joint project.

"It was always my idea to make the documentary with the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center," Lourdes Prieto told Granma International, "because thanks to its director Victor Casaus and coordinator María Santucho, I have been able to carry out my work (including Bajo la noche lunar – Under A Moonlit Sky, Rumor del Tiempo – Rumor of Time, about painter Julio Girona, and the aforementioned Conversando con Ruth).

The Pablo Center offered Lourdes and Galiño the resources and ICAIC President "Omar González authorized us to open the archives." And so the documentary – in digital video – includes, as is customary in Lourdes’ work – news footage of the era and images of the singer himself from his appearances in two films from the 1940s: El ángel caído (The Fallen Angel) and Rumba en televisión (Rumba on Television).

One very interesting aspect is the inclusion of interviews with eight individuals who knew Anacobero in Havana and it is their anecdotes that lead the documentary. They include Bigote Gato (who gave his name to the famous song), Chino Melo (Daniel Santos’ bodyguard), Conde Negro (singer with the Benny Moré orchestra) and directors Alfonsín Quintana from Los jóvenes del Cayo and Xenén Suárez.

As is to be expected, the songs are the nucleus of the documentary and it is there that the directors’ treatment is highlighted; illustrated with images from that era. What songs can we hear? "Vive como yo", "Dos Gardenias" (of which he recorded one version although it is said that composer Isolina Carrillo didn’t like it), "Patricia", "El preso" (written after he left prison in Havana), "Que cosas tiene la vida" and "Sierra Maestra" (composed in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1957 about the guerrillas who were fighting the Batista dictatorship).

During the interview with Granma International, Lourdes Prieto said she would like it to be acknowledged that the documentary is the fruit of a beautiful collective effort: production by the Pablo Center; photography by Raúl Rodríguez and editing by Duli Janiel. She placed special emphasis on the fact that the International Film School in San Antonio de los Baños "opened its doors to us in the post-production phase and most of all, to those who gave their testimonies and without whom this film would have been impossible to make."