Ernesto Duarte Brito
musician

Ernesto Duarte Brito (November 7, 1922 – March 4, 1988) was a Cuban musician born in Jovellanos, author of the bolero Cómo fue, whose performance by Benny Moré became very famous. There are many versions of this bolero all over the world. He was the father of the multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger Tito Duarte.
Artistic career
He was a composer and producer, conductor and arranger. Among the many songs he composed, the most outstanding are Nicolasa, El baile del pingüino, Bájate de esa nube, Anda dilo ya, Cicuta tibia, Arrímate cariñito, Dónde estabas tú, Qué chiquitico es el mundo, etc. As a producer, he launched to fame, first with the record label "Gema", founded with Guillermo Alvarez Guedes, and later with his own label "Duarte", artists like the afore mentioned Benny Moré, Rolando Laserie, Rolo Martínez, Celeste Mendoza, Tata Ramos, Xiomara Alfaro and Fernando Alvarez. He also worked as an executive at the record company RCA Victor.
He left Cuba in 1961 to settle in Madrid, Spain, where he died on March 4, 1988, at the age of 65.
The public source identifies “Ernesto Duarte Brito” as musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ernesto, Duarte and Brito.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16492758. VIAF identifies the subject as 56819613. The Library of Congress control number is no2004023925. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1988 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ernesto Duarte Brito” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.