On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the Fundación Mezcalería is painted in the colors of Cuba when Rubén González Jr. plays the piano. In that place, the son of Rubén González, the pianist of the mythical Buena Vista Social Club invites several local artists to share music with his father and other surprises.
Rubén González Jr. began playing the piano at the age of seven in his native Havana, where for a period of one year he prepared to enter the Manuel Samuel Conservatory in order to study piano as an instrument for five years.
After six years in the Cuban army brass band, he took up the piano again. Although he clarified that he never completely left it, he continued to study and play with amateur groups on the island, it was 1979.
In part, it was his father who infected him with a taste for music. For González Jr., children always want to do what their parents do. However, he acknowledged that his mother forced him to study.
After leaving the army, he began to play with somewhat more professional groups and arrived in Mérida in 1993 to play with a group called Los Trillizos, since it was made up of triplets.
Later, they traveled to Mexico City (CDMX) where they decided to settle down for a while to work together with other of their Cuban countrymen.
It was there, that he fell in love with his music and was a member of the band until 2001 when the group retired with a recital at the National Auditorium.
After that, Rubén González Jr. returned to Mérida together with his father. In this city he set up a restaurant called El Cumbanchero, on Paseo de Montejo. His father, he claimed, died in 2003 and the restaurant closed in 2013.
Ruben is playing at La Negrita on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and in La Mezcalería on Tuesdays and Saturdays -(every other week)- from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.
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