Opposing oblivion, the musical researcher Rosa Marquetti Torres decided to include in her book Desmemoriados. Stories of Cuban music an artist also hit by the amnesia of producers and record companies: Moraima Secada. «Of the fifty-four years that he managed to live, fifty-one were marked by music, figures that only admit a reverence» [1], says the author.
With the same respect and veneration that Rosa Marquetti demands towards La Mora, over a year ago the audiovisual director Felipe Morfa committed himself -with the help of the Bismusic record label and the co-direction of Mayra María García- in a documentary that explained why Moraima Secada is a diva who can never be cornered. For this Morfa «requested» the help of those who knew her, shared the stage with her and that today they can give testimony of her defects and virtues. The material entitled La razón no valía -which competes in the categories Documentary music / Compilation and Archive in the present edition XXIII Cubadisco International Fair 2019-covers in about 50 minutes the career of Maria Micaela Secada Ramos, born in Santa Clara Wednesday, September 10, 1930.
To abound in the singer's childhood, the reasons why she arrived in Havana in 1940 and her professional interests, the filmmakers chose as "guide" the well-known musician and producer Tony Pinelli, who leads the viewer with his perfect way of to communicate for the Cuba of yesterday in which Moraima Secada left her imprint.
Although the edition of the documentary is not up to the stories that are told (too slow, in monotonous instants, compared to the speedy personality of Moraima) it is necessary to distinguish an enviable soundtrack that illustrates the musical evolution of La Mora and her pass through different formations as the Quartet D Aida, Meme Solís and solo.
The selection of videos and photographs (some viewed for the first time) support the Bismusic product in the best way, including a CD with more than twenty unpublished numbers recorded by Moraima Secada and rescued by Felipe Morfa from the archives of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television. It is what we can call, a great tribute from head to toe.
La razón no valía exposes the criteria of her daughters Clara and Nildée, Omara Portuondo, Zenia Zayas Secada and Jon Secada (nephews), Aida Diestro, Jorge Rodriguez, from the own Meme Solis, Malena Burke, King Montesinos and a nice Pablo Milanés that reveals anecdotes about the ingenious personality of the Secada. And it is precisely almost half of the audiovisual, when all the interviewees let themselves be seduced by the memories where a Moraima appears capable of laughing at her hardships and also those of others or infecting those around her with a laugh.
«In real life I saw her very passionate. She was an intolerant woman, she did not like mediocrity and she insulted everyone», says Pablo. Then, when comparing the vocal and interpretative virtues of Moraima and other figures of the time with some contemporaneous artists, Meme Solís says:
«That is not repeating itself. Everyone is singing the same in many parts of the world».
Again Paul says: «The training is very technical and there are great singers in this era, you just have to discover them. The artist promotion system, for me, does not work well. Sometimes, for personal interests or influences, but the real talent is not going to look for ». A counterpoint that is born by invoking that natural brilliance of Moraima Secada, the same one that at the end of her life could not hide her sadness and surrendered to the despair. A final too painful on December 30, 1984 when La Mora disappeared as a result of an irreversible liver disease. It hurts more to hear in this material one of her daughters declare: «the media - neither being alive, nor in the first years after her death - did justice to her».
Perhaps with this gift that Bismusic makes us thanks to the unstoppable talent of Felipe Morfa and Mayra María García, we can compensate for such errors. Let's oppose to oblivion.
Watch the documentary at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6y_Rm_7G4Q
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