Born into a modest family, he did several types of manual jobs during his youth (carpenter, mechanic, sugarcane worker, shoemaker), but quickly became interested in music, and especially in the guitar. He learned how to play the instrument by himself, without a teacher. He began composing during the 1930s, and met with a certain amount of popularity in his native city. He recorded his first songs in the 1950s with his group Los Tradicionales, formed in 1953, and politically he stood beside Fidel Castro before the 1959 Revolution.

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