I love Beny Moré, and I can’t get enough of classic Cuban music. You Tube is wonderful, it seems new video gems get uploaded almost everyday. This is great footage of Beny with his orchestra, but that’s not the reason I’m posting it. I was dumbfounded reading the comments.
What do you say Babalu readers? Does anyone have knowledge of this?
From YouTube:
havanaclub1980 (1 month ago)
My grandfather was still stuck in Cuba when Beny died. Fidel killed him. He sang a song against the revolution in a bar. He was beaten to death. VIVA BENY Y BE TE PA CARAJO FIDEL Y CHE! Ask anyone in Cuba who was there at the time.
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patachin06 (3 weeks ago)This is true. respect.
My understanding is that he succcumbed to cancer. beny did not live a “healthy” life-style, as we all know, and it may have killed him before his time. This is the first time I have heard this rumor; devastating, if true.
I, also, heard that Benny More was beaten to death by the Castro regime. It’s a persistent rumor and knowing the repressive nature of the regime, it is not unlikely. Don’t forget that one of Castro’s cornertones is the sickening lie that he made his “revolution” for blacks. That’s why he has a special hatred for blacks that rebel against him and is especially harsh towards black dissidents, etc..
There’s an album which has Beny on the cover playing the guitar and wearing a big country hat. In it there’s a live cut wherein el Beny sings about those he considered real Cuban freedom fighters–the mambises; he was implicitly putting down Fidel’s rebeldes (said song has been edited out of the contemporary Cuban version). You see, as occurred with many Cubans at the time, Beny had sympathies for the ‘revolution’ in 1959, but he soon became disenchanted with it. Nevertheless, that rumor (lo mataron a palos) has been around since 1963, but it is unfounded. He died of liver disease due to excessive drinking. My older sister knew him personally and I went with her to visit him at home not long before he died. The regime lucked out with his quick deterioration and subsequent death, as el Beny was the most popular Cuban at the time and was bound to cause trouble for the dictatorship.
I called my TIA whi is old as dirt. She came to the US in ’69 and she says that Castro caught Benny trying to flee Cuba. They placed him in njail and last she heard he died in jail. Has anyone else heard that story?
Guajiro,
That is the same story that was circulated here in Miami around that time. It was said that he tried to flee in a boat with some members of his orquestra and that he was beaten severely, then thrown in jail and died from complications a couple of days later. It was said that his liver, which was in bad condition, burst from the blows. Knowing the atrocities that the regime has inflicted on its people, this story seems quite possible. Hopefully we will be able to know the truth soon.
On February 16, 1963, while on tour in the province of Las Villas, Benny Moré went to the town of Palmira to do a show. He had begun to feel very ill, since before leaving Santa Isabel de las Lajas, (his hometown) on his way to Palmira. Hours before his show he started to throw up blood and he was asked to cancel the show and head towards La Habana. This he refused to do. Ever the showman he did not want to disappoint his fans and the show went on as scheduled. Some of the songs he sang that evening were: Dolor y Perdon, Maracaibo, y Castellanos que Bueno Baila Usted.
After the show Benny’s brother Pedro and the band members tried to convince him to leave for a hospital in La Habana. He agreed to head to La Habana, but not to the hospital. He insisted that he be taken home to see his wife and children first. The group made several stops along the way in Colón and Perico with Benny still vomiting blood.
They arrived in La Habana on February 17 and headed to Benny’s house in La Cumbre. By now he had stopped vomiting blood and was feeling better. His condition worsened later that evening and on the early hours of February 18 he was admitted to the Hospital de Emergencias. On February 19, 1963, 8:00a he lapsed into a coma, and dies at 9:15p.
If there is one thing the Cuban government is guilty of is in not providing Benny with good medical care (intentionally). I quote: “no se dice, cuáles fueron los esfuerzos desde el punto de vista médico, ni que recursos se emplearon los dos días que estubo el enfermo en ese centro, para sarvarle la vida. En opinión de otros médicos, el tratamiento fue muy pobre y los recursos de la ciencia no fueron debidamente aplicados. En síntesis, hubo negligencia por sarvarle la vida al Bárbaro del Ritmo.”
Benny had tried to leave Cuba in 1962 and fifo did not to allow it. Benny was too popular in Cuba and fifo didn’t want another Black entertainer to follow on the footsteps of Celia Cruz, Blanquita Amaro, Olga Guillot, Miguelito Valdes and others. For that reason the government took his passport and froze all of Benny’s assets so keep him in Cuba. Benny was very vocal about this.
this confirms what my grandfather always had told me about Beny More’s death. “He was stomped to death.”