We knew him as Cruz, although it is generally accepted that his given name was Luis. Born in La Guaira on September 14, 1922, Cruz Felipe Iriarte emerged from the steep hills that lead down to the Caribbean Sea in La Guaira. And his material poverty was no limit to his desire for expression.
He was a student of Vicente Emilio Sojo and also of Antonio Estévez while working laying bricks and nailing wood so he could study the symbols in the scores, while without loosening his smile he was already composing writings and melodies sheltered in the sunny afternoons of La Guaira that he always refused to leave.
Their social environment was the nourishment that allowed the jewels that now remain as a legacy to us, and to which we turn in these overly intense hours, where tears are much more salty in beloved La Guaira, pained, musical and hopeful.
Cruz Felipe and La Guaira were one and the same: soul and landscape, reflective everyday life and poetry, the very essence of the people. Cruz Felipe was one of the finest musical heralds of his homeland, and at the same time, he was a chronicler of La Guaira with his keen powers of observation. "El Frutero," "Juana y José," "La Negra Dorotea," "Allá en la playa"—these were songs that would be amplified by the voices and instruments of Inarhú, Jesús Sevillano, our own Lilia Vera, Fabiola José, and El Cuarteto, to name just a few of the great singers and artists who shared in the charm of La Guaira.
We remember him in these days of sorrow and hope.
Well, we truly always remember him because Maestro Cruz Felipe, with his ever-present hat and his boundless teaching, left his own painting in the area that refuses to die.
The Maestro passed away on May 17, 2012, from the same coastal region that loved him and declared a Cultural Heritage site in its own right. We believe he is still there, offering strength to his people.
