He was born in the neighborhood of Atarés, Havana, on December 29, 1911.  He lived his childhood and adolescence in the towns of Regla and Guanabacoa. According to notable specialists, with the musical line inaugurated by Arcaño and his Maravillas, rhythmic, melodic and harmonic factors that would determine the later course of the genre entered Cuba's sound environment.  He performed in a new type of Danzón that generated two great and important currents within Cuban music that would be all the rage in the following years.

Atarés Neighborhood

At present it constitutes a Popular Council of the Cerro Municipality named Pilar Atares.  Its name is due, the first, for having in the parish of the region the patron saint Our Lady of Pilar,  and the second,  for the existing Castle in the locality built in times of Captain General Ambrosio de Funes Villa Pando y Abarca de Bolea, Spanish general known as the Count of Ricla.