Who says son music, says Cuba, because, for Kiwa, the island and its sounds are part of the same passion. Of course, when you ask him about his relationship with Cuba, he prefers to start with another reason:

“The first thing is that I’m a communist, all my life. Since I was a child, I have my own communism. I lived for many years in the United States and I think I’m one of the few Dominicans who has given up residency, that document that everyone wants to have, that people kill each other, go across the border, throw themselves in a boat and I did like this: “look, I don't need it, because I can't live in a country that I am an enemy of. I am not an enemy of the American people, I am an enemy of the American governments, because they are the ones who have created misery in the world and today they have it in total chaos, they are still investing in war, in Gaza it’s a great genocide what they do, but in this country we have had three American invasions, three in our history, which have brought many misfortunes.

“I have always seen Cuba: Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, the Cuban Revolution, what you have been, more than 60 years holding strong. If you put a 20-day blockade on this country, we will eat each other up.”

His given name is Enrique Domínguez. There in the Dominican Republic, like in Cuba, Enriques are usually called Kike, but he is original from head to toe, so he replaced “ke/que” with “what” and that’s how Kiwa came out, which is known to half of Santiago de los Caballeros or Santiago and a half. He is an architect by training, but music has been in his veins since he was a child:

“Since I was a child, in this same neighborhood, well, in these two neighborhoods there were around 40 cabarets, bars and brothels, where son music was played. Near my house, about 3 or 4 houses away, in the early mornings you could hear the son Ma Teodora, since I was a child we would dance to it, I played instruments... I didn't dedicate myself to learning because I directed my studies in another way, I became a high school graduate and then an architect, but I was always attached to son music.”

To that childhood and an extraordinary perseverance, we owe the wonder: a Son Music Museum made by hand and customized, like dreams are made:

“I have dedicated myself to researching the origin of son music and in the end I said, well, I'm going to make a museum, a simple museum of this genre, but it's here. I have a lot of videos and things that I'm going to show, because here I'm going to bring the tourists who come to Santiago. With my hands I have done everything, even the paintings, the decoration, everything, because I am also a plastic artist.”

Except for the electrical installations, because he confesses that he is afraid of electricity, every millimeter of the place bears his imprint.

“What do we want to show here? We want to show the origin of son music, which comes from the nengón, from changüí, from the rural rumba. From 1908, with the troubadours like Sindo Garay, etc., they transformed the bolero, adding percussion, it evolved and became the trio, the quartet, the sextet and the septet, but it was born with the bolero singer. Here we have everything that has to do with Cuba, not the Cuba that makes the modern son now, because “I have had the experience with Cubans who have told me that in Cuba that sound is no longer heard, the one from Matamoros, Los Compadres, the one from Ignacio Piñeiro, well, Pancho Amat, Eliades Ochoa have continued, creating new sounds,” says Kiwa with a mixture of pride and humility.

In the middle of the conversation, if someone decides to play the bongo, you should know that Kiwa will not resist, he will have to get up and grab the timbal, the güiro or the maracas, to be part of an improvised group in the heat of the environment. Kiwa's is a living museum and that is how its creator projects it: “What we want is for people to understand that this rhythm has existed since 1908, and that it has endured over time.”

Recently, he was a guest at an Ibero-American museum event attended by representatives from Brazil, Chile, the United States, and Cuba, among other nations:

“When I presented this proposal, I said: the only museum in the world dedicated to son music is in Santiago and we have it. The Cuban was there and we asked her and she replied: there’s no son music museum in Cuba. So I told her: look, this one is available.”

There are those who have dared, he says, to tell him that son is Dominican and, although he has plenty of historical arguments to disprove the hypothesis, he closes with one that is pure passion: “let's see, tell me two Dominican son music songs right now… they never know how to answer. Do you want me to tell you 100 titles of Cuban son music right now, quickly, without thinking too much? So, it's Cuban.”

Kiwa is one of the organizers of the Carnival of Santiago de los Caballeros and is determined to bring our music to this popular festival. He has never been to Cuba: “I don’t like airplanes because I’m claustrophobic, but as if I had been there…” he says, and after spending a whole day with him, no one can doubt it.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSi Translation Staff