ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the singer and composer Sara González (1951–2012) as the representative woman of the nueva trova scene of the 1970s, a space that was led by renowned male figures such as Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Noel Nicola and Eduardo Ramos among others. Based on an investigative approach that demonstrates the context-figure interrelation, this work reconstructs the formative stage and new creative phase of González within the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) Sound Experimentation Group (GESI). The GESI is considered a fundamental biographical event for González (Leclerc-Olive 1997, 2009). Since the event is itself the object and trigger of the story, it is relevant here to explicit the situations of enunciation of it. For that, I take as a guideline the testimonies of González and her contemporaries, registered in several press interviews. In the GESI, González collaborated to establish and develop the ‘stylistic features’ (Orozco 2010) of her composition-interpretation and of the nueva trova in a general way. The articulation between the stylistic features of her song and her committed lyrics in the song ‘¿Qué dice usted?’ (1975) will be shown as an analytical example. In that song, González proposes a new horizon of expectations in relation to gender discourse. The feminine figure is represented from a different perspective, the epic vision of the woman who demands her rights and adopts a new position of emancipation before society.
