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Talent is a gift of nature, a god-sent present, a magical elf that goes jumping around and knocking down barriers on the beaten track, opening up to all winds until the wings of creativeness are fully spread. When a pair of those mischievous elves get together, a big surprise happens. The act of creation is completed, and works that are destined to go beyond time and origin simply pop up.

That's the case of the Buena Fe duo, formed by youngsters Israel Rojas Fiel and Joel Martinez Rodriguez, two songwriters who cut their composition teeth back in 1999 in the eastern province of Guantanamo. The fusion of these two talented young men with a clear vision of where they were headed for, paved the way for many of their illusions and dreams in a fast-paced, even unexpected fashion. “All of a sudden, we met in the right place at the right time in terms of public acceptance,” says Israel.

Buena Fe saw the light of day as a duet of troubadours. Today, it remains a duo, but, as Israel puts it, it should be seen as a creative twosome. “We're still a two-pronged and four-hand songwriting machine,” he goes on to say, “and that prevents us from being pigeonholed as simple troubadours, even though that's an unbreakable part of our daily work. I'd say it's just the definition of who we really are.”

Israel and Joel have enriched their particular form of expression by bringing onboard a band of top-notch young musicians whose original, assorted and high-pitch instrumental level have chipped in dramatically to Buena Fe's further development as a blockbuster-producing group.

The creation of new styles, of new esthetics called to renew and move past the established guidelines, to make the band find its own niche in Cuba's contemporary music by expressing feelings, ideas and worries marking a certain historic moment, is what Buena Fe is all about. In that respect, Israel says, “we're trying to merge together, to cluster everything around the lyrics. I mean, ideas, feelings, instruments, everything. The band responds to this much bigger effort of mixing all things together, even the trendiest and newest stuff we might come up with goes hand in hand with the most traditional elements of Cuba's musical spectrum. But this merger, to put it this way, fits into a well-defined purpose of creation and the big leap forward in order to make something truly new and original.”

Another aspect worth taking due account of is the fact that Buena Fe is fighting with might and main to ward off any image as a one-genre band. Unity is the nitty-gritty element that glues the band members together. Whether it's rap, hip-hop, rock, pop or traditional music, everything must spin around that renewing unity in which Cuban identity is the name of the game.

Topics, ideas and feelings get intertwined into two big hearts that beat as one in current times. “Above all, we're highly proud of being Cubans and expressing the daily going of our homeland's life through our songs. We want Buena Fe's music to go beyond its time, to put across a true and solid message that comes from the bottom of our hearts,” Israel avers.

Any new enterprise implies challenges and risks, yet this young band takes on both things with plenty of dignity. “Some people say we're way too bold and I say it's true. However, we try not to aim too high and keep our derring-do at bay, just within the boundaries of respect and consideration. We simply want to come up with a new style that's, above all, as legit as the inner feelings and ideas we express through our tunes really are. That's our particular way of coping with life and we do it through our songs,” an enthusiastic Israel says. Speaking of songs, Buena Fe's compositions are intended to make listeners think and capture the pulse of the times to be relayed later on. The success this fledgling band has achieved is owed in part to its in-depth themes, the strength of its ideas and the essence of the message its members try to convey.

Life in today's Cuba actually sparks off these young musicians' interest. That explains why they're so keen to taking a hands-on attitude toward everything that can enrich the island nation's social life: numerous concerts at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana, the campaign to fight AIDS and their participation in the country's sports –for them a key player of Cuban identity- prove this assertion right. “Dreaming in Blue” is a song they dedicated to the Havana Blues, back-to-back champs of Cuba's national baseball league. And with “Behind Your Feet” their heart went out to all HIV-infected people on the island and elsewhere.

They have so far released three CDs (Dejame Entrar, Arsenal and Corazonero), each and every one of them culled with the music of the times they have lived artistically. According to Israel and Joel, the latest album is the most comprehensive of all, a compilation that depicts a band at the pinnacle of an unfinished artistic cycle that, nonetheless, is marching up on the right track.

When asked about the band's immediate projects, Israel's answer is both brief and accurate. “We're planning on touring around some provinces in the country, though our top goal is to make our music waft beyond the national borders in an effort to make a crucial moment of our country's history stay forever in the collective memory of the people.”