Young people don’t want to be second to anyone. Everyone wants to be an overnight star. Look how many years I had to wait, how many roads I had to travel, how many songs I had to sing. And now I’m just beginning, never ending. I am still simple, just as if I were beginning. My secret? A desire to work, years of dedication and loving what you do; I can't live without music. As long as your heart beats, one is never too old. I started to play the tres and the guitar, but between the tres and the guitar there is a harmonic jump that does not continue. The armónico is similar to the guitar and it is my own creation. As far as pleasures, you’ve got to have limits. You shouldn’t have too much of good things, so you’ll always have a desire for more and you won’t get bored. I make love, I dance, I sing. Everyone should have a philosophy for living better. I am a scholar of life. Every night before I go to sleep, I analyze every detail of what I did that day. I evaluate things and people, which helps me avoid mistakes. I don’t sit in the corner waiting for death: death has to pursue me. I’m going strong. I hope to reach 100 and ask for an extension, just like my grandmother did. As a 94 year-old citizen I ought to have some experience with life, men in this world need to come together, chat; there needs to be more conversation because the way that things are going, it's crazy, I don't like seeing a child being destroyed by a bomb, what type future are we offering him. Towns are suffering from all these things, we should unite until we are all satisfied, man cannot be killing each other as if we were animals, as if we had no culture; that is a lack of culture. I tell young people that they should always remember traditional music. You can´t forget about it. You can't forget your roots and that's what I do. The roots of Cuban music are in my head. In Cuba people are very demanding when it comes to music, and when they like the music over there it's because it's good. Cubans are frantic when it comes to appreciating music. | 
