Juan Márquez Gómez, Cuban composer, arranger, and guitarist, was born in Holguín on July 4, 1929. He studied music with his father, the renowned Cuban conductor Juan Márquez Gómez, who taught and conducted the city’s Municipal Band for decades. He studied the guitar from a young age, mastering it very well.

In 1948, he joined the traditional and very Holguín-based Hermanos Avilés Orchestra, the oldest Cuban musical group (1882), from his hometown. He began writing orchestrations in the early 1960s for the local group and for the Riverside Orchestra, which featured Tito Gómez on vocals. He worked in Havana cabarets. He joined a jazz group with trumpeter Nilo Argudín, pianist Rafael Somavilla, and percussionist Guillermo Barreto.

Juanito Márquez composed the boleros “Alma con alma,” “Qué desesperanza,” and “Como un milagro” (Soul with Soul); “Dulce de guayaba” (Guava Sweet) (danzón-chá); “Esos tiernos ojos” (Those Tender Eyes) (bolero-chá); the Cha-Cha-Chá (Cold Little Nose), as well as “Pituka la bella” (Beautiful Pituka), “Come Over Here,” “Cuidao con la vela” (Beware of the Candle), “Joropero” (Joropero), and “Ahora tengo una niña” (I Have a Little Girl Now).

He was the creator of the Pacá rhythm, a blend of joropo and Cuban rhythms, which enjoyed national success in the 1960s and was widely danced and popular. In the early 1970s, he lived in Spain, where he continued his respected work as a musician and arranger. He recorded several albums with his own works and covers of other composers’ songs with a group he led.

Juanito Márquez later settled in the United States, where his career continued to grow in success, earning him prestigious awards. He has worked with significant artists such as Julio Iglesias and Paul Mauriat, and has participated in major record productions, such as Gloria Estefan’s album “Mi Tierra.”