Aymée Nuviola comes to Coral Gables on Saturday, Sept. 26 with a concert built around a number that carries particular weight in South Florida: 90.
That is the roughly 90 miles separating Cuba from the Florida coast — a short distance on a map that can represent something much larger for generations of Cuban immigrants and their families.
The Grammy- and Latin Grammy-winning Cuban vocalist brings “90 Millas” to Sanctuary of the Arts as part of its Hispanic Heritage Month programming, using music to explore memory, migration, family roots and the cultural ties that have endured across the Florida Straits. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the historic arts center on Andalusia Avenue.
From Havana to ‘La Sonera del Mundo’
Nuviola’s musical life began early in Havana.
Born into a musical family, she studied piano and composition at the Manuel Saumell Conservatory and performed with her sister Lourdes as Las Hermanas Nuviola before the two joined Cuban bandleader Pachito Alonso and his Kini Kini. Nuviola later spent years living and performing in Costa Rica and Mexico before building her career in the United States.
She became closely associated with timba, the rhythmically dense Cuban dance music that emerged from Havana in the late 1980s and 1990s, while drawing just as readily from son, bolero, jazz, salsa and fílin. Her range eventually earned her the nickname “La Sonera del Mundo.” Nuviola’s official biography describes her as one of timba’s pioneering artists and the first woman to lead a timba band internationally.
Her recording career brought wider recognition.
First Class to Havana earned a Grammy nomination for best tropical Latin album. In 2018, Como Anillo al Dedo won the Latin Grammy for best tropical fusion album. Two years later, A Journey Through Cuban Music won the Grammy for best tropical Latin album. The Recording Academy lists Nuviola with one Grammy win and four nominations.
She also reached audiences far beyond Latin music through television, portraying Celia Cruz in the Telemundo biographical series Celia. Her official biography says the production aired internationally in dozens of countries.
What 90 miles can hold
“90 Millas” uses the geographic distance between Cuba and South Florida as its starting point.
The program is described as moving through salsa, son, timba, jazz, bolero and other Cuban traditions, but the larger subject is what travels with people when they leave a country: music, family stories, language, memory and identity.
For Miami’s Cuban diaspora, 90 miles has long worked as both geography and metaphor. Cuba is close enough to imagine across the water and, for many families, distant enough to encompass decades of separation.
Sanctuary’s description of the concert centers on that contradiction — the physical closeness of the two shores and the emotional distance experienced by generations who left the island and built lives in South Florida. The performance is presented by Williamson Cadillac.
A historic church built for intimate performance
The setting is considerably smaller than many stages Nuviola has played.
Sanctuary of the Arts operates from the historic First Church of Christ, Scientist campus at 410 Andalusia Ave., directly across from Coral Gables City Hall. Its main performance space is a 314-seat concert hall, part of a campus that also includes professional studios, classrooms and offices. Sanctuary officially opened there in April 2022 after the historic church spaces were adapted for performance, rehearsal and arts education.
Coral Gables attorney and arts patron Mike Eidson helped establish the nonprofit and secure the historic property for arts use. Sanctuary also operates St. Mary’s First Missionary Baptist Church on Frow Avenue in the MacFarlane district, the historic congregation described as Coral Gables’ first African American church.
For “90 Millas,” that 314-seat room puts a concert about distance, memory and belonging unusually close to the audience.
If you go…
Aymée Nuviola: “90 Millas” begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at Sanctuary of the Arts, 410 Andalusia Ave., Coral Gables.
Tickets start at $48. Tickets and additional information are available through Sanctuary of the Arts or by calling 786-362-5132.
