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When the peasant Pedro Pablo Pérez founded the music-dance ensemble Nengón de Imías on June 24, 1954, in the mountainous areas of that municipality, few would imagine the value that this group would have for Cuban culture, as a continuation of a tradition whose origins are date back to the colonial XIX century.

Revitalizing this sound was the work of the Pérez-Matos family, along with other friends and acquaintances, such as the Oñate, Mendoza, Moreira and Viquillón; each one imprinted his personal seal as a guarantee of continuity between singers and dancers.

On birthdays, serenades, popular parties, treats, family gatherings, schools, workplaces, commemoration of historical ephemeris ... listen to the nengón, with its typical mix of three, guitar, bongoes, marigula, maracas and güiro, it became natural. Those downloads were the main space for interaction and entertainment in the villages, such as El Salao.

Knowing the genre

Ramón Frómeta Silot, cultural promoter of the Municipal House of Culture and musical researcher, assures that one of the reasons that contributed to boosting the rhythm in the hill was the possibility it gave young people of finding couples, since it was the only time when parents let single women leave the house.

“The dances were performed in the neighborhoods and attracted people from the surrounding area, even miles away, which made it possible for them to meet and make new friends –said María Oñate Pérez, dancer-, in addition, the typical step favored proximity and flirting for the soft cadence, which allows improvisation, and in which the man dances with gentleness when dancing, ”.

In addition, the nengón is super fun, adds the veteran dancer, since the interpretation is performed with a predominance of chorus, Hispanic-type quartet or tenth-rhythm octosyllable that are inspired by the humorous stories, legends of the mountain communities, in life , the drink, the woman ... hence the attractive and seductive influence that has allowed it to survive over time and become a benchmark for the inhabitants of Imías.

A group that makes you proud

To speak of the Nengón Imías, is to refer to the flagship group of the territory, with a great endorsement in the artistic career, favored by the emergence of the Directorate of Culture in 1982, the inauguration of the Municipal House of Culture, the consolidation of an artistic program own and the granting of the national category within the Movement of amateur artists.

In 2009 they became a professional group, subsidized by the Institute of Music, which broadens the possibilities of acting in squares in the territory and participation in cultural days organized by the municipality, the Fiesta del Verraco since 1985, the Festival of La Farola y de las Aguas, in the municipality of Baracoa, La Guantanamera, the National Festival of Changüí Elio Revé, the Fire Festival, the Peasant Music Festival Reutilio Domínguez, the acts in greeting to April 11, and galas held in the Guaso Theater and in the Pedro Agustín Pérez Square.

With its staff of 13 musicians, led by Cristel Rodríguez Cobas, composer, singer and bongo player, and with Arismeldo Pérez, the elder nengonero, as lead voice, the group has managed to excel in the current musical scene, in which songs such as For you, Nengón, El rancho de Ramón, Gavilán y gato, La esperanza, La china, La rupía, Linda Rosa, La yaterana ... performed at various traditional music festivals in Cuba and in national television spaces.

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