When Victor Alvarez boarded a flight from Cuba to Spain 43 years ago, he did not know whether he would ever see his native country again.
The 13-year-old was not just leaving behind the culture and warm climate of Havana, but also his cousins, his mother and the grave of his father, a Fidel Castro supporter who was killed by the outgoing government of Fulgencio Batista, he said.
“In Cuba in the early ‘60s, parents were sending their children to safety, thinking they would maybe see them in a couple of months,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez did not see his mother again until two years later, when she too left Cuba and the two reunited in New Jersey. Coping with exile in a strange country, Alvarez found comfort in music.
In Cuba, Alvarez’s mother had taught him to play the laúd, a 12-string Cuban guitar.
“Except when I came to the U.S., there weren’t any laúdes here,” Alvarez said. “I found a mandolin, and my mom told me, “That’s as close to a laúd as you’re going to find, so play that.”
Alvarez said he was surprised to find that the mandolin allowed him to play two separate elements of Cuban music — syncopated rhythms and soaring solos. That unconventional interpretation of Cuban songs took Alvarez to Houston, Texas, where he headed a 16-piece band, and later to Northern New Mexico, where he leads the four-piece band Savor. Since moving to New Mexico 12 years ago, Alvarez and his wife have lived in Chimayó, Coyote and now Chili.
“Let me tell you, I hate the cold,” Alvarez said about moving to New Mexico. “But it’s just so beautiful here, it breaks out the creativity, even if it’s cold. I sit on my porch and grab my guitar, and it just comes.”
Alvarez was playing a Christmas gig in Santa Fe last winter when he was approached by Carlos G. Maier, a filmmaker. The ensuing conversation led to a project in which Maier and his film crew followed Alvarez when he returned to Cuba for the first time in 43 years.
A documentary of the trip, “One Among Thousands,” is set to premiere Nov. 30 at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe.
“I was a little bit surprised how, after so many years away from Cuba, how easily he just fell in with people,” Tracy Eaton, who wrote and produced the film, said. “He was just reminiscing with his old friends, almost as if he had only been away for a summer.”
The film follows Alvarez as he searches for relatives and old friends, visits his father’s grave and plays mandolin in the music clubs where he first listened to the masters of Cuban folk music.
“I’m hoping in some small way (the film) will help heal some wounds,” Alvarez said, referring to the politics of United States-Cuba relations and their effect on Cubans in exile. “But also, the truth is there’s a lot of good things happening with Cuba right now and one of my hopes is that this movie opens up a small window for arts there.”
The first screening of “One Among Thousands” is scheduled for Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. at the New Mexico History Museum at 113 Lincoln Ave. in Santa Fe. Tickets are $7 per person. For ticket information, call 988-1234.