He was invited a few days later to participate in a musical competition for children held by the same station, this time directed by the well-known announcer Germán Pinelli. This time, he won first place for singing the bolero Viajera ("Traveler"). When he was five years old, Silvio and his family moved to Havana due to a better job opportunity for his father in the tapestry business. In the capital, he participated in a radio event with the theme "We are Happy Today." He received his first instrument, a conga drum, from his uncle Ramiro. He would use it to imitate the rhythms of Benny Moré and the Orquesta Aragón. In 1953, at the age of seven years old and the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, his father enrolled him in the La Milagrosa Conservatory. There, he passed the introductory class and the first piano course, given by Margarita Pérez Picó, within six months. However, in spite of Pérez's enthusiasm, Silvio lost interest and dropped out of the course after a short time. At nine years old and motivated by his father, who read him poems by José Martí and Rubén Darío, among others. He took an interest in literature, paying attention to the work of both poets, as well as the genre of science fiction. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince remained one of his favorite books in adulthood. At the age of ten years old, Rodríguez's parents divorced, and he temporarily returned to his hometown with his mother and sister. The two years that followed this event would be immortalized later in various songs published between 1969 and 1984, such as "El Paplote" or "Me veo claramente". However, his parents reconciled in 1958 and decided to move back to the capital, specifically to 530 San Miguel Street, in the city center. Adolescence On January 1, 1959, when Rodríguez was thirteen years old, Fidel Castro's Éjercito Rebelde violently overthrew Fulgencio Batista. This event shaped the musical life of the singer-songwriter and coincided with his transition from childhood into adolescence. Like many Cubans of his generations, he became involved in the new dictatorial regime. Despite regularly traveling between his hometown and the capital, he enlisted in the San Antonio de los Baños chapter of the association of socialist youth, created by Che Guevara. In parallel to his participation in this organization, Rodríguez enrolled in night school at the Carlos J.