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El Topo, a glory of Puerto Rican music, dies. He was 81

Writer's picture: The San Juan Daily StarThe San Juan Daily Star


By The STAR STAFF


Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Antonio Cabán Vale, known as “El Topo,” a local top performer of the “Nueva Trova” music genre, has died. He was 81 years old.


Caban Vale is the author of “Verde Luz” (Green Light), considered Puerto Rico’s second national anthem. Nueva Trova is a musical movement that emerged in the 1960s after the Cuban Revolution. It combines traditional folk music with poetic and politicized lyrics.


The singer-songwriter’s death comes three years after surviving a stroke he suffered in March 2021. His health problems left him in a precarious state because he was unable to move part of his body and failed to earn a living.


Born in Moca on November 22, 1942, Cabán Vale spent his childhood in a humble town in the western area of Puerto Rico, which awakened in him a deep inclination towards reflection and meditation. In 1961, the young man moved to Río Piedras to study at the University of Puerto Rico, where he began a new stage in his life. The community called him “El Topo,” the name with which he began to mobilize in the artistic industry.


During his university years, in addition to publishing some of his poems in the magazine “Guajana”; publication that represented the youth that stood out in this literary art, “El Topo” began to move into music.


In 1966, the late artist received a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Social Sciences.


For two years Cabán Vale earned a living as a public school teacher. In the 1970s, he began to set his poems to music and later founded a band which he named “Taone.” He was the lead singer of the band, which performed his compositions. His compositions contained simple verses and created a new style of contemporary folkloric music which became popular. His musical style included musical instruments, such as the cuatro and the güiro. Some of his compositions were popularized in many different versions. One of Cabán Vale’s most popular compositions was of the danza genre, titled Verde Luz (Green Light). Verde Luz has been interpreted by the late Argentine singer Ginamaría Hidalgo and numerous Puerto Rican performers.


The composition “Express what you feel” served as a theme for the campaign of the Department of Addiction Services (today ASSMCA). He also denounced abuses as in his son “Antonia” and “Song of the people.”


Cabán Vale was also a writer, publishing two books of poetry.


In May 2020, his wife, María Luisa “Lumi” Butter Rodríguez, died due to complications from cancer.


His son Adeán Cabán Butter offered details of his father’s death. He said that after a family day they even went to the funeral of my paternal uncle, Don Cosme Vale.


“My dad hadn’t been to Moca for more than three years. We had a normal day until we ate on the way. We also went with my sister and we even stopped in Guajataca... He felt very good, I carried him out of the bus when we got home and he went to bed. When I came out of the bathroom, I then realized that he was running out of air. I immediately called the 9-1-1 emergency system and as the paramedics arrived, I gave him assisted breathing...They told me that he still had his vitals. I took him in the ambulance to the Pavía Hospital in Hato Rey, where around 9:00 PM I was informed that there was nothing more they could do. Dad died in my arms,” Adeán explained.

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