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"By loving so much, his heart got hardened" that's what Polo Montañez used to say in one of his songs. In a country where, just before the 21st century a strong movement of composers-performers has emerged, this artist who was born in the peasant sphere and who is a born-peasant, is noted for his quite original repertory.

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Fernando Borrego Linares, aka Polo Montañez, was born in Cuba, in the Rosario mountains, and his music is as pure the rivers of his region. To catch it, there is no need to understand spanish: his melodies and   rythms are intelligible in any part of the world.

When he was seven years old, Polo started playing tumbadora in family meetings. Then he started playing guitar and accompanied his father, who played accordion, on singing, while his mother was dancing.

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Initially, Polo was a coalman by trade, and during the watches of the night, he learned how to celebrate the scent of the dawn and to enjoy watching the sunrise behind the mountains ridge. Today, he is 44 and the seventy songs he has wrtitten are “printed” in mind, because this composer and performer has never got an academic musical education, in other words, he has never studied music.

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Polo Montañez composes when he wanders through the countryside or when he drives a tractor; when he lazes around under the rain, the sun or the moon, during sowing time, and even when he sleeps. “If I don’t compose, if I don’t sing, I don’t exist anymore”, he says. Well, if he doesn’t have any theoretical musical skills, how can he conduct his musicians? Just singing, it’s as simple as it is: the band follows his voice and it’s like a tropical version of the Hamelin flute player.

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Polo lives in  a village surrounded by forests and mountains, with red tiled roofes houses with white walls and flowers-trimmed windows. His enjoyment is riding horses while he is  flying kites; drinking water running from its source, and looking at his wife sensuous walk. He finds his inspiration in his village, his neighborhood, through children, mothers, barking dogs or flying birds. He doesn’t only sing with his voice, but also with his all body.

 

The soul of his singing bursts out of his chest as flying doves. His music defies classification because everybody can recognize himself in his melodies wherever he comes from or lives.

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Polo is neither a bolero singer, nor a salsa singer, nor a folk-music singer.

Polo Montañez is, as the poet says, “the man escaped from himself”.

 

Written in 1999, by Sergio Bedriñana Isart.