Today like yesterday, Benny Moré

LIKE one more person walking along Cienfuegos Boulevard in central Cuba, the all-time popular Benny Moré has been perpetuated in a bronze sculpture by José Villa Soberón, who has broken with the traditional scheme of statues to place it in an environment with an eminently communicative language.

It is the figure of the myth in a complicit relationship with the city that he loved the most, walking with his unfailing hat and cane, cast in bronze to a height of 1.82 meters and weighing 300 kilograms.

Sculptors Rafael Gómez, Daniel Torres, David Placeres and Modesto Concepción collaborated in making reality of this dream of Villa Soberón, the man responsible for emblematic works such as those of John Lennon, the Paris Gentleman, Ernest Hemingway and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, all in the country’s capital.

Speaking to AIN, Villa Soberón acknowledged the affective identification with Benny, an indispensable premise for humanizing his figure and bringing him close to spectators without artifices.

"We wanted to return the image of Benny Moré to the city, as a character identified with Cubans of the mid-20th century, a man at a remove from conventionalities who broke with certain standards and rules, and that is why he is placed in a natural space," he affirmed.

Considered to be one of the most outstanding cultural happenings in the city in recent years, the placing of the sculpture in this busy artery was quite an event for Cienfuegos’ residents, where the"Bárbaro del Ritmo" is venerated.