On September 9, Guantanamo native Rosa Chacón del Río, affectionately known as La Chacona, passed away in Havana. She was the most resilient changüisera, not only for breaking competition records for the longest changüí in Cuba, with more than 22 hours of dancing the authentic rhythm of her land, but also for all the trials of life that she overcame with admirable tenacity and charisma.
Despite facing multiple adversities, Rosa never stopped fighting for her life, including a prolonged stay in the intensive care unit at the Miguel Enríquez Surgical Teaching Hospital in Havana due to an ischemic stroke that caused her death.
Since her birth on November 8, 1959, in Rancho Grande, a mountain community in the municipality of El Salvador, La Chacona and her large family of ten siblings listened to the strains of Guantanamo peasant music, becoming over time a revered representative of this syncopated genre, which speaks to the soul and history of her land.
The big Chacón Del Río family, as well as the residents of Changüiseros in Cuba and abroad, will always remember La Chacona at the gathering dedicated to her mother, Distinia Del Río Santo, a celebration held at Alto de la Bandera in the San Justo neighborhood, where she lived much of her life and strengthened family ties and the fabric of Guantanamo culture.
There, in her modest home, before an altar, offerings of fresh flowers and a sincere prayer to the Virgin of Charity, Rosa welcomed important exponents of the genre invited to the Elio Revé Matos National Changüí Festival: Odelkis Revé, Elito Revé and his orchestra, the American musician and researcher Benjamín Lapidus, and all the traditional music groups in the territory, who dedicated songs to her and her monumental body.
Radio programs on CMKS Radio Station and Solvisión Television Channal recorded the unique dance and humor of Rosa, also known as “La Faraona del Changüí.” She featured on the Sunday program “Palmas y Cañas,” a prime-time program on Cuban television.
Rosa Chacón Del Río, known as “La Chacona,” is immortalized as a woman who embodied resilience, elegance, loyalty, joy, and love for her roots until the end of her days, following the celebration of the patron saint festivities of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre.
