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Antonio Herrera was a storyteller, a creator full of fantasy and his work has reached this time through oral expression, so it came with all the influences of those who transmitted it. If Barón Herrera had had the chance to write his fantastic creations, today he would enjoy a work full of imagination and Creole popular wealth.

Some of his most popular stories were: 

 • "One day the baron went to the bush to hunt a jíbaro pig, he was going with several of his hunting dogs, when suddenly one of those animals approached them quickly and two of the dogs threw themselves into their ears; but as soon as he arrived He was lost again in the bush, but with the baron's two dogs hooked in his ears.

The next year, the Baron returned to the same place and for the same purpose, when suddenly he heard that a tremendous noise was coming that made firecrackers, then he could see that it was the same pig from the previous year that had taken his two dogs in the ears. To his surprise he saw the skeletons of his dogs still attached to the ears of that great animal. "

 • In a 1967 publication this story of his appeared:

"Once Baron Herrera came to a swamp and tied his horse in a palm. He started to walk and heard a noise. When he looked back, the horse and palm were gone. The palm had grown on the shell of a jicotea very old from the swamp. "

 • "One day when he went to the South to hunt with his dog he heard a noise. When he looked he saw the dog fighting with a crocodile. To try to help the dog, he took the machete to hack the crocodile, but the blow failed him, Giving the dog: Since the machete was very sharp, he broke the dog in two. Seeing that misfortune and without wasting time he reached out to a majagua to sew it, but in the rush he was wrong, sewing one half of the dog up and another to down.

Thus the dog walked a few times with both paws on one side and then turned when tired and walked with the two paws that were left on top. With the bottom eye he looked at the pigs and with the top one at the hutias. "

 • "Once in the South, he wanted to correct. When he took off his pants, he put the watch on a matter. But he finished and forgot his watch. After about 12 years he passed by that place again, hearing the tick of the clock, which came from inside a tree trunk. He split the log with an ax and found the clock ticking. "

Variant of son, whose origin is located at the end of the 19th century, in Isla de Pinos (current Isla de la Juventud), and which has a peculiar way of interpretation. Sucu-suco is called to dance, music and partying in general. Music is similar, in its formal, melodic, instrumental and harmonic structure to a son montuno. Currently, his greatest cultist is the musician and composer Ramón (Mongo) Rives Amador.
According to the [oral tradition] of Pinera in 1870 in Santa Fe, the first town to be founded, the chords of a rhythm that has reached us and identifies the pinero territory were already being heard. This cultural manifestation was representative of the dominated class since at that time Isla de Pinos was a colony of Spain. The songs were a diversion for the inhabitants of this area and a way of expressing their feelings, since they also used it against the Spanish presence. A good fortune has been extracted from the cucumber harvest. But the poor of the Isle of Pines have not been left with a single real.

Among legends, [sayings] and stories, this rhythm, a variant of the son, passed from generation to generation, is happy, contagious, is the lyrical expression of the guajiro pinero, owner and lord of the guateques, where songs like El rabito de lechón, The majases have no cave, Sucu Suco for you for me, and I want to dance with María Elena they have made hundreds of people enjoy. The name of the genre is derived from the sound caused by the dragging of the feet with the floor when setting the rhythm; But, this tradition of music and dance that identifies the Isle of Youth is brought to the market and reaches its peak in 1940, but in competition against creations of such popular force as the Mambo or the ChaChaChá it is defeated. It does not disappear because a man with his voice and his lute was in charge of keeping him alive during all these years: Ramón Rives Amador or simply Mongo, cultivator of this rhythm that comes to him by family tradition, since his grandmother was a singer and in 1870 premiered some roots of [Sucu Sucu].

The first instruments used by the cultivators of traditional pine music, were created from the originality of those who used them.

 1. Machete: Work instrument that is used as a fundamental typical percussion in this rhythm. Its sharp sound and is produced with a knife ripping the back of the machete.
  2. Tumbadora: It was dominated in this way by the function it performed, but they actually used a hollowed-out potbellied palm and put a leather on it, and most of the time a stool with a leather seat was used to which a previous role was leaning. hammering using a drawer.
  3. Bandurria: musical instrument of the family of the cordófonos, of six double plucked strings (6 of gut and 6 wound) that usually end with a plectrum. It is very similar to the lute to the zither and, due to the flat shape of its case, it also resembles the guitar.
  4. Bell or Cowbell: Metal percussion instrument hitting with a key to cause the sound. A guataca and a nail were also used.
  5. Key: Two spoons were used and also a bottle or the combination of some other solid bodies that can be struck.
  6. Marimula: It is a wooden drawer with four, five or seven keys. Percussion instrument that replaces the string bass and was manufactured by the pineros themselves using the most varied resources.
  7. Guiro: A guayo was used to scratch cassava.
  8. Bandoneon: bellows and free reeds cormatic musical instrument similar to the accordion.

Later it was added:

 1. Lute: In replacement of the bandurria. String musical instrument, can have dies, twelve, eighteen and twenty-four strings.
  2. The three: A typical instrument from Cuba, originating in the eastern zone, consisting of six strings mounted in three pairs tuned to the onison, two in the high octave and another pair in the lower octave, in D minor. On the Island, for a long time, Chino Bebo, the luthier pinero, made them with nine strings and a longer arm, which was an innovation for those times.
  3. Guitar: Musical instrument from the family of chordophones. It has a flat and waisted body, with a round hole and a fretted neck along which there are six strings, a number that can vary according to the type of instrument, fastened at one end with screw pegs and on the other side to a jumper attached to the instrument case. The three treble strings are normally gut or nylon; the others made of metal.
  4. Accordion: A portable instrument formed by a bellows, attached to two oval racks with buttons, and, in some models, keys like pianos. Recently incorporated into the Mongo Ribes group. 

Dance steps

How couples form: The dancers used to light a candle to Saint Nicholas - the patron saint of the Island - and it was not allowed to stop the dance until the spark plug had been consumed, so the rest is a in the obligatory granting of a sieve by both dancers to those who were idle and required to dance. In the Sucu suco the couples held together in the following way: the gentleman took the lady by the waist, both hands placed in such a way that the thumb and index finger were only -in principle- that of the palm of the hand was of course a more or less prohibited license ... The lady crossed her hands behind the knight's neck without ever joining the two bodies. This posture was adopted in the fashion of the huge syas of the old malacó imported from Spain.
Suscu suco is a danceable genre. It constitutes one of the basic forms within pine music; Due to its extraction, development, sound characteristics, choreography and social use, it has been the most ideal means of expansion for the pinnacle peasantry.
As a result of the above, we cannot overlook their way of dancing; It is a dance for couples, taken, loose or mixed, and, depending on their character, they can be festive or gallant, whose origin is rural ...

In closed position of social dance It will be done on the left.

  1. The man steps out with his left foot to the left. (1 time)
  2. Then the right foot joins the left foot. (1 time)
  3. The left foot goes out to the left again. (1 time)
  4. Then the right foot joins the left foot. (1 time)

This step is repeated twice to the left dragging the foot.

Now done right

  1. The man goes out with the right foot to the right. (1 time)
  2. Then the left foot joins the right foot. (1 time)
  3. The right foot goes out to the right again. (1 time)
  4. Then the left foot joins the right foot. (1 time)

This step is repeated twice to the right dragging the foot.

Numerous choreographic corridors enrich the dance, such as: In a position of social dance. The man's hand comes off the woman's waist; she takes her left hand off his right shoulder. Face to face only holding hands, the male left hand, and the female right hand; taller than the man's head in an oval shape. Male right hand to hat; Female left hand takes the pint of the dress and makes a complete turn around, starting with the left shoulder. (8 times)

 1. In face to face position the man extends his right hand, hat on the left control at shoulder height; Female right hand taken from the right hand of the man at chest height, left hand holding the dress; By moving your shoulders continuously, you turn around in a clockwise direction. (8 times)

 2. The Woman, is placed on the right of the man, left hand placed on the right shoulder of this, left hand saying goodbye, the right hand man on the waist of the woman, left hand with the hat; the walk is done, but dancing

 3. To greet the public, the couple is only taken by the jumpsuit or by the waist, in such a way that the free hand is raised and can make the greeting movement, always dancing forward, towards the public.

 4. It is frequent in traditional festivals to let go of the couple for some moments, until the woman is requested by another dancer and the change of partners takes place. It is very common to remove the partner from the dancer.

The new generations have made contributions to this dance, introducing the movement of the shoulders by the woman in a continuous and provocative way; in the case of the couple they introduce lateral movements.

The Sucu sucu that Felipe Blanco composed was one of the most famous: The majases no longer have a cave, Felipe Blanco covered them up, They covered them, they covered them, They covered them up to watch it. White buried them, buried them, buried them, buried them when I saw him. There have also been famous songs in the most traditional form of the pinero rhythm, such as I want to dance with María Elena, Dame el rabito del lechón and El chivo.

Some better known Sucu suco

  1. CompayCotunto. Anonymous.
  2. Anonymous.
  3. Chinito, what are you selling? Mongo Rives.
  4. Give me the pig's tail. Mongo Rives.
  5. Santa Fe, dear people. Mongo Rives.
  6. Pull my ox. Rosa González / Mongo Rives.
  7. I want to dance with María Elena. Avelino Cabrera / Mongo Rives.
  8. The lady of the Sucu suco. Avelino Cabrera.
  9. Feast on the cucumber. Severion was running.
  10. Sucu sucu my heart. Olga Rodríguez / Camilo Amador.
  11. I follow the sucu sucu. Camilo Amador.
  12. To Cayo Largo. Amayry Varona.
  13. El sabrosito. Rodríguez Stewart brothers.
  14. Sing it but dance it. Adalberto Álvarez.
  15. How it is enjoyed in Crocodile. Jesús Quintana / Mario L. Guillama.
  16. Sowing for you. Alberto Tosca.
  17. Love at first sight. Carlos A. González.
  18. The melon. Bruna Castillo.
  19. Linda Pinerita. Fulgencio Verdera.
  20. Felipe Blanco. Eliseo Grenet (collected from the pineros folklore).
  21. Sunday Pantoja. Eliseo Grenet (collected from the folk pine ros).
  22. Just like you. Ramírez was running.
  23. Mario Márquez.
  24. The blow of the bibijagua. Julio Cueva.
  25. Santa Fe, city of waters. Benigno de la Paz / Silverio Collado.
  26. If it weren't for Emiliana. Carlos Puebla.
  27. The little step of the Bibijagua. Moncada Group

Undoubtedly, the stories associated with corsairs, pirates, buccaneers or filibusters and their lavish treasures take precedence in the narration of those who live on the Isle of Youth, located in southwestern Cuba.
According to the popular voice on nights with a full moon, it is best to see La Barca emerge from the deep waters and next to its mast the stout figure of the Mallorquin, the executioner who harassed the English fleet, which maneuvered in the insular Caribbean area .
They say he is still seen wandering the dusty streets that line the second largest town in the special municipality.
It is as if the ghostly image still cared for the residents of Santa Fe, the place where he lived and protected the theft carried out by alligators and Jamaicans, who accessed the site through the Las Nuevas, Las Casas and Santa Fe rivers, to provide themselves with whatever was within your reach.
José Rives, was born in Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and dedicated to seamanship since he was a child. It is not known how and when he arrived in this part of Cuban geography, it is only known that in the 1920s XIX was already greatly feared in the area.
As this was an obligatory route for the fleets that filled their warehouses with the wealth seized from the peoples of America and transported it to the old continent, the bandits of the sea not infrequently intercepted the booties after fighting fierce fighting.
In response to the damage caused to these ships in December 1822, the English decided to beat the pirates during an attack in the Santa Fe river delta, where despite the superiority in troops and weapons they were defeated by the Mallorquin.
They say that the following year the fearsome pirate would sustain his last combat, withstood the attacks of the enemy and shot his blunderbuss so many times that it burst into his hands, fatally wounded he reached the daughter of the Mayor of the Sea Juan Vinajeras, Rosa and died in his arms.
Today many wonder where Pepe el Mallorquín will be buried, in the cayo del monte where he lived with Rosa Vinajeras or in some other enigmatic place next to his lavish booties ?.
The truth is that the ghost of La Barca still roams the coastline of the then Isle of Pines, which, according to the popular voice, emerges from the waters to indicate the exact point where it was sunk by the English while keeping well the secret of the site where the treasures of the Mallorquin lie.