EGREM - Centro de Estudios Martianos (cover design: Umberto Peña, music: Amaury Pérez and Miguel Porcel, texts: José Martí), "Poemas de José Martí cantados por Amaury Pérez," January 1978. Vinyl LP

Umberto Peña's cover design creates a striking modernist tribute to Cuba's national hero and revolutionary poet José Martí. Set against a rich royal blue gradient background that transitions to violet at the bottom, the design features an oval portrait of Martí rendered in a distinctive halftone dot pattern using warm orange and yellow tones. This graphic treatment transforms the historical photograph into a contemporary pop art aesthetic, bridging nineteenth-century Cuban independence struggles with 1970s revolutionary culture. The elegant white script typography frames Martí's name in the center, emphasizing the reverence for Cuba's founding poet-philosopher whose writings inspired generations of revolutionaries.

This album represents a significant collaboration between the Centro de Estudios Martianos (Center for Martí Studies) and EGREM, bringing together nueva trova singer-songwriter Amaury Pérez with an exceptional ensemble of Cuban musicians to create musical settings of Martí's poetry. Pérez, born in 1953, emerged as one of the valiant young composers and interpreters of the nueva trova movement, which sought to create socially conscious music rooted in Cuban and Latin American traditions. The album features orchestrations by Miguel Porcel and includes legendary musicians such as bassist Orlando "Cachao" López (inventor of the mambo), pianist Pura Ortiz, drummer Ignacio Berroa, and guitarist Pablo Menéndez, with string and brass sections from the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional under the direction of Armando Guerra.

The back cover note by Francisco Garzón Céspedes eloquently describes how these young poets find "la palabra íntima y amorosa" (the intimate and loving word) in Martí's verses to express their multiple breath with tenderness and strength, with beautiful melodies that sing of love so that it resonates freely in other human hearts. Track listings include settings of Martí's poems "Abril," "A Enrique Guasp de Peris," "Dolora Griega," "Magdalena," "La vi ayer, la vi hoy," "Rosario," "Mucho, señora, daría," "Cartas de España," "Carmen," and "Je veux vous dire." The album exemplifies how revolutionary Cuba honored Martí's legacy by keeping his poetry alive through contemporary musical interpretation.