Museo Municipal de Guanabacoa

This guide to the Museo Municipal de Guanabacoa in Havana follows Ignacio Villa, a shy, self-taught pianist born in this town in 1911, discovered by singer Rita Montaner and given the nickname that became his stage name in Mexico City in 1933. It traces his decades performing nightly in a tuxedo at a Havana restaurant, singing songs he studied obsessively before he ever touched the keys, and the wit that made him one of Cuba's most loved entertainers. On what would have been his hundredth birthday, sculptor Felix Madrigal spent three months building a lifelike piece from photographs and his sister's memories. Stand close to the bench, where the piano is real and the man is not.