CAMAGÜEY.- As a popular celebration, the Camagüey’s San Juan had among its makers simple people like Rafael García Grasa, musician with access to secrets of African councils in this city. Papito García, as neighbors and colleagues called him, inspired confidence in those who revealed elements of African cultures in our roots when the topic was of no interest to historians or academic researchers.

The newspaper Adelante gave the first of its finding of the first conga players in Camagüey, when in 2008, by chance, it found the recordings with the data in the voices of its informants, made half a century ago.

"The African descendants had never secrets for me. Now I find the names of the musicians of the first Camagüey’s conga, which people associate with San Juan, "he said.

Coiling with the old players was the title of that text where he spoke of the capacity of popular culture to transform itself, and in that way he advised to understand the San Juan in the vital dynamic.

"Now, you see how the congas and comparsas are enthusiastically rehearsing a tremendous amount of young people, because they feel it, and that is the belonging that we cannot neglect or allow to be stolen," he said.

On another occasion, on June 25, 2011, on the monthly page La Hendija, also by Adelante, he explained about Camagüey’s conga, the musical group created by Antonio Izaguirre and his friends, between 1933 and 1934.

"The conga is a continuation of the musical culture of the Congos Chapters in Camagüey. Izaguirre learned in the council of the congos loangos of San Lorenzo Street. Precisely, the first conga’s players were the young people who were taught there to play drums. These places functioned as centers of social administration of the blacks of the same African nation, and allowed the Spanish authorities to control them, "he said.

Antonio Izaguirre with his baton in June 1952. The book Fiestas y Tradiciones Cubanas, by Virtudes Feliu Herrera, makes reference to the fact.Camagüey’ s Comparsas was this last collaboration and saw the light posthumously, on June 23, 2012, because by his will had been reserved for publication on the eve of San Juan.

"The festivities of Camagüey’ s San Juan have been some of the most beautiful and sounded that there has been in Cuba", he emphasized in that work where he proposed, for the study of the comparsas, the classification of choirs, society, guaracheras and artistic.

Papito García died on June 10, 2012, at 72 years of age. Part of his legacy is saved in the pages of Adelante, available for those interested in tuning in certain cultural identity keys of Camagüey.