Every October 7, Cuban culture pauses to remember a name associated with childhood, hearty laughter, and a phrase that became a popular saying: \u201cHave faith that everything comes in time.\u201d On that day in 2004, Consuelo Vidal Regal died in Havana at the age of 73 from cerebrovascular disease. Her passing was more than a simple obituary. As the press of the time noted, it marked the closing of a chapter in Cuban entertainment. Two decades later, her name remains an essential reference in any discussion of Cuban radio, television, film, and theater.<\/p>\n
Born on December 4, 1930, in Havana\u2019s Cerro municipality, Consuelo Vidal Regal began her career in the media at an early age. Her first attempt to enter a new-voices competition organized by RHC Cadena Azul was unsuccessful: the spot went to Ra\u00fal Selis. On her second attempt, however, at just fourteen, she won first place over Reinaldo Miravalles. Someone remarked at the time that she was \u201ca rough diamond that could be polished over the years.\u201d That intuition proved prophetic. In 1944, she joined RHC Cadena Azul\u2019s New Voices Movement and soon became a professional actress. Her training also included music studies, fulfilling a promise she had made to her parents.<\/p>\n
By 1946, she was already appearing in El ladr\u00f3n de Bagdad<\/strong>, an adventure serial by F\u00e9lix B. Caignet. By the late 1940s, she had joined CMQ Radio, where she became part of the cast of radio soap operas that would go down in broadcasting history. Alongside Maritza Rosales and Carmen Ignarra, she was regarded as one of Havana radio\u2019s leading \u201cyoung ingenues.\u201d Vidal herself always acknowledged that radio was the medium that discovered her: \u201cAlthough I deeply love television, it was radio that discovered my potential and dramatic abilities and launched me as a dramatic actress and commercial announcer.\u201d<\/p>\n Her move to television made her a familiar face to millions of Cubans. For years, she hosted the comedy program Detr\u00e1s de la fachada<\/strong>, working alongside Cepero Brito. There, her spontaneity, quick wit, and uninhibited manner became her trademarks. Critic and journalist Antonio Paneque Brizuela described her as a woman who made television history through her distinctive presence on the small screen: spontaneous, colorful, sharp, and perceptive.<\/p>\n Her versatility extended across genres. She appeared in television dramas such as En silencio ha tenido que ser<\/strong> and in the series Julito el pescador<\/strong>. In 1964, she starred alongside Sergio Corrieri and Edwin Fern\u00e1ndez in the television adaptation of Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca\u2019s Yerma<\/strong>. Specialists regard that production as a work of artistic significance worthy of preservation in a museum collection. Vidal made her first foray into film in 1965. Among her most memorable films are Reina y Rey<\/strong> and Rolando D\u00edaz\u2019s Los p\u00e1jaros tir\u00e1ndole a la escopeta<\/strong>, in which she played a leading role praised by critics.<\/p>\n But it was on children\u2019s programs that her voice acquired an almost mythical dimension. For twenty years, she voiced Amigo in Amigo y sus amiguitos<\/strong>. She also appeared in T\u00eda Tata cuenta cuentos<\/strong>, programs that became an integral part of the childhood of generations who grew up during the 1970s and 1980s. Her musical talent was preserved on record as well: she performed children\u2019s songs released by the record labels EGREM and BIS Music.<\/p>\n Consuelo Vidal\u2019s farewell became a mass public event. On October 8, 2004, a crowd accompanied her funeral procession from the funeral home at Calzada y K to Col\u00f3n Cemetery. The procession moved forward amid applause, the same applause with which the public had honored her throughout her lifetime.<\/p>\n Her legacy transcends the media in which she worked, thanks to her remarkable ability to inhabit an extraordinary range of roles and registers. Consuelito was not merely an entertainer. She was an actress who made every format her own, a broadcaster who understood radio as a space for intimacy, and an artist who built her popularity on authenticity rather than artifice.<\/p>\n Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez<\/p>\n Photo: 11 millones de Cubanos on Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Consuelito was not merely an entertainer. She was an actress who made every format her own, a broadcaster who understood radio as a space for intimacy, and an artist who built her popularity on authenticity rather than artifice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1238],"ppma_author":[14],"class_list":["post-5370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-cuba","tag-consuelo-vidal"],"authors":[{"term_id":14,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lazaro-hernandez-rey","display_name":"L\u00e1zaro Hern\u00e1ndez Rey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5372,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370\/revisions\/5372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5370"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}