The first meeting at the headquarters of the Fondo de Arte Joven (FAJ) was decisive. The itinerary of the Haiti-Cuba Academic Residency Program included a day of exchange between the scholarship recipients and the FAJ beneficiaries at the project's headquarters. That's how Dayron Ortiz met Vava, Kabysh, Cisco and Darlin Johancy Michel. That day he knew they had to work together.

There was no need for intermediaries. It happened spontaneously: a few chairs placed in a circle, a guitar and singing. Haitian songs and Cuban classics were sung alternately, as an act of offering and receiving traditions in equal proportions.

"From the moment I heard them I fell in love with their voices, the way they feel and transmit music," — says Dayron, sometime after the Residency. — I immediately approached the FAJ's operational team, and told them about the existence of La Caseta, my recording studio, and we talked about the possibility of doing something with the students.

"I also invited them to a concert I had in those days at Claxon Hotel with my group La Tropa. That night they sang and we shared. That reaffirmed to me that we had to meet in the studio and create," recalls the young musician, winner of the first call for creative music projects launched by FAJ in 2023.

With this preamble, LUZLIMYÈ was born, a hymn to love, to nature, to the fundamental elements of balance and existence, despite the apparent differences between cultures.

"LUZLIMYÈ is highly spiritual". This is how Darlin Johancy Michel, one of the Haitian scholarship holders and composer of the theme song, defines it.

The song's title is a mix of Spanish and Haitian Creole and reflects the synergy that brought the scholarship recipients to "this light" that marks them forever. It is a song as Cuban as it is Haitian in its rhythms, interpretations and lyrics, says Darlin.

Creating, flowing, recording...

As coordinated: last Sunday in Cuba, the group of Haitian musicians traveled to La Caseta, the recording studio of Dayron Ortiz y La Tropa located in the municipality of Boyeros.

"The creative process was spectacular," —Dayron relates—, because "everything flowed very well.

"They came with a great desire to create. When I asked them what they wanted to do, they said, "Let's do a theme that has to do with our experiences, with what we are feeling. That's when the magic of art happened. All the ideas were born and flowed, and in an hour we had a solid base of the theme". While they were writing it occurred to them to have Gabriela, the violinist of La Tropa, sing in Spanish to achieve a mixture of the two languages.

"I am impressed with the result, with the way they defended the ideas. From my musical universe, I tried to make sure there was a hint of our roots, of some rhythm that had to do with us, and I think it was achieved."

From Haiti come messages from Darlin Johancy, who via Whatsapp recalls those days in Cuba. "Once in the studio, I was assigned the task of creating the harmonic structure of the song. We didn't know where the road would take us, but we were confident in the process. Dayron was spectacular on guitar; Cisco and Kabysh provided the lyrics and melodies; Vava and Gabriela, the Cuban violinist extraordinaire, provided the magic vocals. Cisco also played the cajón part along with another great Cuban percussionist from La Tropa".

But they all agreed on one thing: it was a unique day. Regardless of languages, borders or religions, music and art told the story of the experience in five minutes: a space of confluences that transcends the search for shared traditions or experiential links, and consolidates good cultural management practices that make visible the authentic ways of expressing art behind all the languages of creation.

In this regard, Ortiz adds that it is fundamental for artists to exchange experiences, and knowledge and create with musicians who have a different musical education.

"That they show you their roots, what they have, where they come from, and then merge all that, creating ties through art in a general way. I am very happy for this opportunity to participate in the First Academic Residency, it has been a very interesting trip, which has connected me personally and professionally with these guys, it has allowed me to nourish myself with their culture and give them a little of what is ours".

For Darlin Johancy Michel, in a context of embargo Cuba and its culture are a workhorse. "This cultural exchange changed me forever. It is an eternal healing."