In a research paper titled “Armando Yánez Cacedó: The Cultural Heritage of Guyana (Life and Musical Work)” presented by Carmen Sofía Francia, as a requirement to obtain her degree in Communications at the Universidad Católica Andres Bello de Guayana, Faculty of Humanities. Education, a detailed biography of this illustrious Cotopaxense, I take the most relevant aspects of it to share with my readers.
Carlos Armando Yánez Caesado was born on June 26, 1915, in the city of Latacunga, to Alberto Yánez Jacome and Leonor Cacedo Arellano. When he was only four, the typhoid plague destroyed his mother and most of her family; His father went blind and later died when he was only 10, leaving him an orphan. Some uncle was in charge of the care of the little boy and his two brothers, but when he was 12 his restless spirit prompted him to leave home to play music in the street and thus be able to make a living. Could earn some money.
The adventures continued and at age 13 he enlisted in the Ecuadorian army, fighting on the border against Peru, where he was shot in his right leg. It was the year 1931 when he left the army and began his musical training at the age of 16 at the Miguel Rojas Superior Music Academy in Quito, educating himself under the direction of the great Ecuadorian masters Segundo Luis Moreno, José Ignacio Canelos and Miguel. Rosas Jarvis. It was here that a life as a classical music soloist began.
Over the years, he was reunited with his brother José Yánez Cacedó, whom he colloquially called “Pepe”, and they formed the musical duo “Los Hermanos Yánez Cacedó”.
It started bearing fruit in 1938. The Argentine label Odeon was in charge of recording his first album, which included songs such as “Indigenous Caravans” dedicated to the Indians of Ecuador, and “Guitar with Soul”, which he composed when he was about 16 years old. Was. most important pieces. symbolic.
Musically versatile, he became part of an important Cuban music band, “Los Lecuona Cuban Boys”, where he played trumpet. A few years later, starting in 1942, he showed his mastery with great success on the most famous stages of the American continent. First he went to Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Miami and returned to Ecuador, but he did not stop there and moved to Bolivia for a few years, where he was hired by the Bolivian government to create cultural and historical archives of music. . this country.
In 1944, he moved to Peru, where he was well received by the press. It was in this country where the Association of Friends of “La Laguna Azul” named him “El Mago de la Guitarra” for his exceptional skill as a guitarist and with which he gained international recognition. From there, he moved back to Bolivia and then to Chile, where he also studied accounting and worked in auditing for the RCA Victor record company, showing that his skills extended beyond the realm of music.
On September 11, 1946, he arrived in Chile, where he made several artistic appearances in that country’s theaters and radio stations. At a recital to benefit the fight against cancer, he met his future wife and friend for the rest of his life, obstetrician Iris Marticoreña Pino, whom he married two years later on January 17 in Santiago, Chile. of. 1948.
Chile was one of the countries that the composer loved the most, not only because of his wife’s love for the country, but also because of his outstanding platform as a classical music concert performer. Many Chilean media outlets of the time reviewed the master’s work with great praise.
magazine LookA note titled “Ecuadorian concert artists on Radio Cooperativa”, published in Santiago de Chile on November 5, 1947, made the following review about Ritmo y Melodia, a radio program broadcast by Armando Yánez Cacedó in the morning and at night: “The feeling is and technique on the guitar by Armando Yánez Cacedó. He brought from Ecuador the incomparable finesse of his instrument, which he handles with the grace and ease of Andrés Segovia, which has earned him comparisons with outstanding Spanish guitarists.
“Nothing is more soothing than hearing his guitar strum in the solitude of the night. The review posted, “Her fingers move slowly over the strings of her guitar in a manner that appears haunted.”
will continue…
