Notes
Chapter 7. Conga San Agustín: Con el Tamarindo
Introduction
Conga San Agustín has been one of Los Hoyos' principal rivals for several decades. Most consider this group a direct successor to Conga El Mejiquito, founded in 1922 by Victoriano Palacios “Vitué” (See Chapter 2). After El Mejiquito moved its rehearsal to the corner of San Agustín and Santa Rita in 1937, it became known as “La Conga de San Agustín” (the conga from San Agustín). While this new location was only a few blocks away, it is part of the neighborhood known as San Agustín or La Rusia. The group's origin story, which consistently cites Vitué as its founder, is not subject to the same dispute as those of Los Hoyos and Paso Franco because the stakes are much lower: San Agustín has never claimed to be Santiago's oldest or first conga. Although Galis and others attribute the introduction of the iron brake drum (campana or bell) to Los Hoyos, San Agustín is widely credited with this innovation and continues to emphasize it as essential to its identity.
Los Millionarios (The Millionaires): Siempre vestimos mas lindo que ellos (“We always dressed nicer than them”)[1]
In 1951, San Agustín's comparsa, entitled Recuerdo de San Agustín (“San Agustín's Memory”) was a big hit because of its luxurious costumes and brilliantly adorned capes. The group's fans nicknamed them Los Millionarios, and Conga San Agustín has maintained a reputation for beautiful capes and fancy costumes. Abelardo Larduet Luaces notes that residents of San Agustín and nearby neighborhoods have traditionally cultivated a reputation for material luxury and respectability, both in their carnival parades and their practice of the Afro-Cuban religion santeria. This reputation is often juxtaposed with a denigration of Los Hoyos (the neighborhood, its conga, its invasion and its santeros) as poor, backward and dangerous (51).[2]
The San Agustín Sound
Since at least the 1960's, Conga San Agustín's sonic identity has been strongly defined by its tempo (faster than Los Hoyos and Paso Franco, around 160 to 170 bpm), its bells, a quinto/bell “breakdown,” and its famous anthem.
The “Golden Age:” c. 1955–c. 1985
In the 1950s, two highly innovative members of the Vitué family joined the group: Vitué's son and grandson Miguel Palacios Duany “Miguel Vitué” (9/29/1935–6/20/1996) and Lorenzo Guerra Palacios “Botao” (8/10/1944–5/15/2018). At this time, the group's director was Carlos Giro Zorilla (3/3/1915–2013), Botao's father and Vitué's son in law.
Miguel Vitué, one of San Agustín's most beloved figures, was a virtuosic and innovative tambora player, singer, composer and arranger. He served as musical director from roughly 1965 to 1975 and general director of the comparsa from around 1975 to 1981; he was also a key member of CFO. With a trumpet player known as “Clarín,” he co-composed the group's celebrated anthem which continues to excite revelers over sixty years later:
Vamo' a bailar
Con El Pin Pin [or: vamo' a gozar]
Con el Tamarindo
de San Agustín.
[Let's dance
With the pin pin pin (?) [or: let's party/rejoice]
with the tamarind
of San Agustín].
According to Bertha Armiñan, this refrain was inspired by a tamarind tree that provided shade for the group's rehearsals at its traditional spot on the corner of San Agustín and Santa Rita. The song and its origin story inspired the short documentary “Con El Tamarindo / Made in the Shade” which explores San Agustín's sonic identity and honors Miguel Vitué and Botao:
Video Example 7.1. “Con El Tamarindo / Made in the Shade.” Video by author.
Los Maniceros: The San Agustín Bell Sound
According to Galís, San Agustín earned the nickname Los Maniceros (“The Peanut Vendors”) in the late 1930s because their high-pitched brake drum (then known as la salidora [“the starter”], now called maní tostao) resembled the pattern played by peanut vendors to announce their arrival (203). In Walfrido Valerino Giro's account, the group was nicknamed “Los Ralladeros” in the 1960s (19 December 2023).[3]
Since at least the 1960s, Conga San Agustín has been known for its distinctive bell (brake drum) variations, often described as one of Miguel Vitué's many innovations; he was also known to flamboyantly solo on all three bells simultaneously. San Agustín's players have a unique way of holding the middle-pitched bell (on left in Figure 7.1 below); this position produces a more muted sound than the more common position (on right).
Musical Examples 7.1(a) and (b) attempt to decipher a melo-rhythmic ostinato from an early 1960s field recording; this track (Video Example 7.2) seems to include only two brake drums.[4]
Video Example 7.2. Conga San Agustín, “Ambience de Rue” at 0:00.
Field recording, Chant du Monde label, c. 1961. Uploaded by World Field Recordings.
In the first passage, Musical Example 7.1(a), the high bell plays a four beat, clave-oriented version of the mani tostao pattern, and the low bell plays a version of the Western Cuban/columbia bombo pattern. In the second passage, Example 7.1(b), the high bell plays the “modern columbia” bell pattern from Musical Example 6.1 (written in its 3-2 clave orientation), but the bass drums maintain their typical conga-pilon patterns; this may explain way some have described San Agustín's groove as “in between columbia and pilón” (Millet et al. 172).
This interwoven bell combination is notable for its balance of extended syncopation with onbeat phrasing. The high bell's offbeat 4a/1e sequence “skips over” the downbeat and builds toward the lower bell's bombo note on 1a. Beats 3 and 4 on the low bell reinforce the “straight side” of the clave and Burns' 341 archetype. This pervasive 4a/1e cell is also prominent in the tambora/Monguito cell combination (Musical Example 6.5). A similar balanced effect is found in the telecoteco (samba), conga habanera, and nine-stroke Angolan kachacha timeline patterns, all of which incorporate the 4a/1e cell in their 3-2 clave orientations. Several (Western conga, telecoteco, and the nine-stroke kachacha) also include a 4a/1e/1a cell, which spans from “paan” (4a) to the “bombo note” (1a), to accentuate the syncopated quality of their “3 sides” (see Musical Example 7.2).
Other examples of San Agustín's bell variations, which are usually played on the middle-pitched un y dos bell, appear in Musical Example 7.3 and Video Example 7.3:
Since roughly 2000, San Agustín's bell players have usually played the “standard” middle bell pattern shown at :22 in the clip above and in Musical Examples 4.3 and 7.3(b). They hold the bell in the lower position as shown in the clip.
Quinto y Campana
Another unique aspect of San Agustín's sound is a quinto y campana (quinto and bell) section, where the other instruments drop out and the quinto solos accompanied by the three bells; this section is usually followed by columbia. Conga San Agustín does not have a tradition of playing the masón groove.
The Siboney studio recording “Con su pin, pin, pin” (c. 1982) includes the “Tamarindo” anthem and a quinto y campana section followed by columbia. The same quinto “ride pattern” is heard on this track, Oye Niña, and several other San Agustín recordings. See Musical Example 7.4 and Video Example 7.4.
Los Ralladeros: creators of the San Agustín sound
Lorenzo Guerra Palacios “Botao,” is remembered for his musical versatility and his ability to project on the quinto. After joining San Agustín as a teenager, he eventually became musical director in 1981 and then general director before retiring in 2004. He was also a member of CFO from roughly 1963 to 2003.
Walfrido Valerino Giro, “Macho” (b. 1944), Botao's cousin,[5] continues to contribute creatively to Santiago's congas in 2026 after over sixty years of work as a dancer, choreographer, singer, percussionist, arranger and corneta china player. He started playing tambora in San Agustín in 1963, learning while playing alongside Miguel Vitué, who he remembers for his innovative arrangements and extraordinary bare hand improvisations on the underside of the tambora. In the 1970s he joined CFO and co-founded Grupo Folklórico Guillermón Moncada (credited as Grupo Folklorico del Puerto [The folkloric group from the port] on the album Carnaval en Santiago); the latter included many of his coworkers from the port of Santiago. While directing Grupo Moncada, he took up the corneta china after Neno Betancourt declined the position due to schedule conflicts; he quickly became a virtuoso.
Since the 1980s, Walfrido has been a beloved figure in Santiago's carnival, playing corneta china on horseback and recording the diana mambisa for the local television station. He performed for many years with Conga San Pedrito, Los Tambores de Enrique Bonne, and Cutumba. Walfrido is a living legend whose enthusiastic contributions to this project have been invaluable: his anecdotes about competition, creativity and legendary invasions are highlights of “Lo Maximo,” “Made in the Shade,” and “If We're Talking Corneta.” This clip shows a brief sample of his tambora playing:
Alberto Salazar Pérez (1937–1982) “Alberto La Bandera” (pilón) and his brother Roberto Salazar Pérez “Mozo” (1939–1999) (quinto, percussion, lead vocals) were both founding members of CFO in 1959. They both sang in the comparsita which recorded for Nosotros La Música and played with CFO and Conga San Agustín for several decades.
New Generations and Transition: Carlitín and Raulito
Carlos Guerra Pimentel “Carlitín” (b. 1979), Botao's son and Vitué's great-grandson, grew up in the conga. He learned percussion from his father, his great uncle Miguel Vitué, and other virtuosos from CFO and San Agustín. He was musical director of the conga from 1996 to 2004 before joining CFO in 2006 and becoming the groups musical director in 2012. This clip shows some of his virtuosity on quinto and tambora:
Raúl López Martínez “Raulito,” a.k.a. “El Tiburón (the Shark)” was born in 1954, played bokú as a teenager and eventually became director of Conga San Agustín in 2004. Under his leadership, a smaller version of the group, “Raulito y Su Charangón” (inspired by the popular band Revé y su Charangón) has enjoyed a reputation for youthful energy and choreographed interpretations of timba, Cuba's post-1990s style of son/salsa.
An important aspect of San Agustín/El Charangón's reputation is its status as the “official” conga of Santiago’s baseball team, the Avispas. Throughout Cuba, baseball teams are cheered on by their hometown conga ensembles at both home and away games. While several of Santiago's congas play at the city's Guillermón Moncada stadium, El Charangón is the group most strongly associated with this stadium and the Avispas, sometimes supporting the team at important away games.
Along with Lázaro and Rubestier from Los Hoyos, Raúl is a key figure in the 2022 film Lázaro and The Shark, where he is portrayed as Lázaro's arch-nemesis. This outtake remind us of the political realities and controversies that often enmesh Cuban musicians.
This refrain, while not as famous as “Con el Tamarindo,” has served as an alternate anthem for La Epoca del Tiburón (The Shark Age):
Cuando tu llegas a San Agustín
Pregunta por lo mas pegao
El se llama Raulito
Y le dicen “caso cerrao”
[When you arrive in San Agustín
Ask around for the big shot
His name is Raulito
And they call him “case closed”]
As Raúl explains, this song alludes to his reputation as a tough taskmaster who insists on discipline and loyalty from musicians; this is the only refrain I know of that explicitly extols a group's leader. Conga San Agustín, like Paso Franco and Los Hoyos, continues to assert its identity and defend its reputation.
Quote from Walfrido Valerino Giro, 19 December 2023.
While racism, colorism and a need for “respectability” clearly play a part in this discourse, many of my collaborators confirm the reality that all conga processions can be dangerous due to the huge crowds and mass quantities of rum involved.
The middle pitched un y dos bell is sometimes known as El Rallao (“The Scraped One”). “Maní tostao” is also a mnemonic phrase which imitates the bell pattern.
None of the four short conga tracks on this album, Carnaval A Santiago de Cuba, is credited to a specific group, but “Ambience de Rue” has the most identifiable groove because of the bells. Many musicians attributed “El Macuquillo Oriental” to Los Hoyos and Neno Betancourt, but there is some chance it was Paso Franco because of the moderate tempo and a pilón–columbia–pilón cycle which omits the masón groove.
Walfrido is related to Botao but is not part of the Vitué family.