grupo que dice', 'Los funerales del insecto', 'María', 'Muerto', 'Oye', 'Quién va a pensar en algo más', 'Si se va la esperanza', 'Tema de la adolescencia', 'Tengo que estar en ti', 'Treinta años', 'Tu beso', and 'Y anoche'. Some of these were dedicated to a woman named Emilia, who he viewed as his first important love. Rodríguez affirms that he has always felt a sense of panic in front of the lights and cameras. However, despite his notoriety for being a nervous television host, his program received a positive reception from the Cuban public. Nueva Trova It wasn't until 1967, with his first television experience, that he started to become well-known and influential among Cuban youth. With pro-revolution, yet very independent, lyrics (together with his very informal dress code), Rodríguez soon attracted the animosity of some members of the new Culture Ministry, which was devoted to the eradication of the United States' influence in Cuban culture. In this context, a very important role was played by the cultural institution Casa de las Américas and its then director Haydée Santamaría, the former a respected revolutionary who participated in the Moncada barracks assault of 1953 and sister of Abel Santamaría, who was tortured and killed after the failure of the assault. Haydée Santamaría became a protective mother-figure of the young composers and of several of his colleagues at the time. Casa de las Américas became the home not only for the new Cuban trovadores but also for many other leftist Latin Americans. It was in this institution that Rodríguez met Pablo Milanés, and Noel Nicola, who along with Rodríguez would become the most famous Nueva Trova singers and composers. In 1969, for almost five months, he worked as part of the crew on the fishing boat Playa Girón, and during this fertile episode he wrote 62 songs, among which are the famous "Ojalá" and "Playa Girón." The lyrics and music of these songs became a book named Canciones del Mar. In 1976, he decided to join Cuban troops in Angola, playing for the soldiers. After more than 40 years of artistic work, Rodríguez has now written a vast number of songs and poems (said to be between 500 and more than one thousand), many of which have never been set to music and probably never will be. Although his musical knowledge has been continuously increasing (counting among his teachers the famous Cuban