Chamaco's cover design for "Canto de Ciudad" employs striking graphic imagery that bridges the revolutionary present with nostalgic memory. Against a vibrant yellow background, three stylized missiles or rockets appear in bold silhouette—one in red-orange, two in black and white—creating a dynamic composition that evokes both technological progress and the ever-present reality of Cuba's defense posture during the Cold War era. The simplified, almost childlike rendering of these military objects suggests a tension between innocence and militarization, memory and modernity.
Esbértido Rosendi Cancio, born in 1949, was 23 years old when this chapbook was published. At the time he served as Director Provincial de Literatura in Las Villas. "Canto de Ciudad" won the poetry prize in the 1972 Concurso Literario 13 de Marzo (March 13th Literary Contest), organized by the University Extension Commission of Havana. This was his first published cuaderno. The collection explores themes of city life, its people, childhood, and absent power within the context of violent struggle for a better future. The poems merge nostalgic memory with revolutionary present, where reactionary planes momentarily give way to the songs of Silvio Rodríguez—the beloved singer-songwriter of the Nueva Trova movement.
Published by the Department of Publications of the CEU (Centro de Estudiantes Universitarios) and printed at the Talleres de la Impresora Universitaria, this chapbook represents the robust literary culture of early 1970s revolutionary Cuba, when university extension programs actively promoted new voices in Cuban poetry. The jury included notable figures Fayad Jamis, Luis Marré, and Rolando López del Amo. Chamaco's design exemplifies the experimental graphic language of the period, transforming instruments of war into bold visual poetry.