“It was the country’s respite from the violence of the Machado era,” recalled bandleader Armando Romeu in one of his last interviews. “There we would be, with Rita [Montaner] onstage, singing, ‘Mejor que me calle, que no diga nada, que tu sabes lo que yo se [It’s better that I shut up, that I say nothing, because you know what I know]’ while outside the cabaret walls you could hear the shooting in the streets.”
