Omara Portuondo: Cuban Music's Matriarch

Omara Portuondo is a legend of Cuban music, with a career spanning more than 50 years. Her life story is amazing: She's been a singer, dancer, actress and world traveler on behalf of her country, though most of us in the U.S. came to know her through her singing with the Buena Vista Social Club.

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Cuban legend Omara Portuondo recently performed at the WFUV studios in New York City. Tomas Mina hide caption

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Tomas Mina

Cuban legend Omara Portuondo recently performed at the WFUV studios in New York City.

Tomas Mina

At 81, Portuondo is beautiful, glamorous and a focused performer. For our session at WFUV, she agreed to being videotaped and really played to the cameras in the studio. She charmed me the entire time, and kept saying I seemed like a "good person." We spoke mostly through a translator, but Portuondo often slipped into English.

Portuondo was in the U.S. for a tour that brought her to Carnegie Hall, the venue where she famously appeared with Buena Vista Social Club in 1996; that concert was captured in the Wim Wenders documentary of the same name. For this performance, she was joined by Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, a relative newcomer and a real talent.