Merceditas Valdés
| Merceditas Valdés | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mercedes Valdés Granit |
| Also known as | La Pequeña Aché de Cuba |
| Born |
September 24, 1922 Havana, Cuba |
| Died | June 13, 1996 (aged 73) Havana, Cuba |
| Genres | Santería music, afro |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1949–1996 |
| Labels | Victor, Panart, SMC, EGREM |
| Associated acts | Obdulio Morales, Jesús Pérez, Guillermo Barreto, Mongo Santamaría, Yoruba Andabo |
Mercedes Valdés Granit (September 24, 1922 – June 13, 1996), better known as Merceditas Valdés, was a Cuban singer who specialized in Afro-Cuban traditional music. Under the aegis of ethnomusicologists Fernando Ortiz and Obdulio Morales, Valdés helped popularize Afro-Cuban music throughout Latin America. In 1949, she became one of the first female Santería singers to be recorded. Her recording career, which continued until her death in 1996, was especially prolific in the 1950s and 1980s.
Valdés was born in Cayo Hueso, Centro Habana, on September 24, 1922. Her father was Ángel Valdés, known as Angelito "El Dichoso" (The Lucky One), a musician in Ignacio Piñeiro's influential rumba ensemble Los Roncos. Unlike her mother, his father did not want her daughter to become a musician, so she started her career as a nun in the black congregation Hermanas Oblatas de la Providencia. However, she soon began to stand out as a singer, winning several prizes awarded by the radio show Corte Suprema del Arte, where she sang songs such as "Babalú" by Margarita Lecuona. She then joined the orchestra of pianist and musicologist Obdulio Morales thanks to his sisters, who lived with Valdés at the congregation. With Morales, Valdés gained exposure due to their performances which were broadcast by Radio Cadena Suaritos on Sundays. In 1944, she met musicologist Fernando Ortiz, one of the main exponents of the Afrocubanismo movement, who employed Valdés in his lectures about Afro-Cuban culture to exemplify the African heritage (especially Yoruba) of Cuban music. Thus, Valdés became an akpwón, a Santería singer, which earned her the nickname La Pequeña Aché de Cuba, given to her by Ortiz.
Valdés made her first recordings of Santería music in April 1949 for Victor. She sang in the same sessions as Evelia Collazo, another female akpwón and the mother of percussionist Julito Collazo. The recordings were credited to Grupo Afro-Cubano. In 1951, Valdés sang in the Rapsodia negra show directed by Enrique González Mántici at the CMQ radio station. During the early 1950s, Valdés recorded more Santería tunes with the so-called Coro Yoruba y Tambores Batá, an ensemble directed by batá drummer Jesús Pérez and featuring other drummers such as Virgilio Ramírez, Trinidad Torregrosa and Carlos Aldama, as well as other singers: Celia Cruz, Caridad Suárez and Eugenio de la Rosa. They recorded several songs for Panart, appearing in the 1954 LP Santero. She also recorded two EPs for SMC (New York City's Spanish Music Center): Cantos oriundos lucumí (Vols. 1 & 2).
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