The funeral service was held at the El Sauce Cultural Center in Havana
14ymedio, Havana, 26 October 2024 — Dozens of people went on Friday afternoon to the state-owned El Sauce Cultural Center in Havana, to say goodbye to the Cuban reggaeton singer José Manuel Carbajal Zaldívar, known as El Taiger, who died at the age of 37. Although the ceremony was held only for the artist’s relatives and acquaintances, as reported on social networks by the Cuban Institute of Music, 500 followers accompanied the funeral procession to the Colón Cemetery, where his ashes were deposited.
During the tribute, the urn was placed on a table surrounded by wreaths next to his portrait, along with a Cuban flag and some candles. Behind, a screen projected images of the reggaeton singer. In one of them he was seen with his arms crossed next to a message that read: “El Taiger, the emblem of a country forever.”
After the tribute, the urn was taken to the cemetery, and when it was deposited in the family vault, the artist’s followers burst into applause and sang songs by the musician. The funeral procession led by his family and friends was accompanied by a group of admirers who left flowers in farewell.
The urn was taken to the cemetery, and when it was deposited in the family vault, the artist’s followers burst into applause and sang songs by the musician
The Havana necropolis, hit by vandalism, and now with El Taiger’s ashes in a colorful container, is unleashing the concern of his followers, who fear that his remains may be desecrated or stolen.
The ashes of the musician, who died on October 10 in a Miami hospital after remaining unconscious for days, arrived in Cuba on Thursday in a black bag from the Miami Memorial Plan funeral home carried on her shoulder by Teresa Padrón, the singer’s manager .
In a brief text published on social networks on behalf of the relatives of El Taiger “and Cuban cultural institutions,” the Cuban Institute of Music thanked the crowd for their displays of admiration and respect “expressed by our people in the face of the hospitalization, death and funeral ceremony for the young Cuban musician.”
In the Havana necropolis, hit by vandalism, the colorful container with his ashes is a source of concern to his followers
The Cuban Government rarely grants the use of a cultural space to pay tribute, especially to figures that are “uncomfortable” for the official cultural world. This time, however, the willingness of the authorities was the finishing touch on a series of acts of solidarity with the singer, whom the official press described as a “victim of a society as violent as the American one.”
The acts of support by the ruling party included extensive coverage of the case since El Taiger appeared in the back of a van with a bullet in his head, next to a few gallons of gasoline, on October 3, near Jackson Memorial hospital, in Miami.
The investigations in Miami to clarify his murder are still ongoing, and recently the chief of police, Manuel Morales, stated that the crime could be solved very soon because they have new evidence of what happened. “At this time we are not ready to discuss that level of detail of the investigation,” he said in an interview with Univision.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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