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EP record "Clara y Mario" (Areíto/EGREM 7″ 45 rpm EP, EPA-6193)

Audio Recording

A 7-inch, 45 rpm extended-play vinyl record in an illustrated paper sleeve, produced and distributed by EGREM on its Areíto label. It is a two-song bolero single by the Cuban duo Clara y Mario: side A "Que Pena Me Da," side B "¿Por Qué Me Has Olvidado?" (credited on the disc label as a bolero by Francisco Olivera). The blue Areíto disc label carries the Taíno cemí device, the EGREM slogan "La música cubana alrededor del mundo," "45 rpm," "EPA-6193."

2025.1.288

Clara y Mario were a much-loved vocal duo billed as "el dúo romántico de Cuba"; according to a Cuban radio profile, the pair — Mario Rodríguez and Clara Morales, who lived in adjoining houses in the across-the-bay town of Regla — had sung together since childhood, with Mario carrying the lead voice and Clara the second, and they debuted on the television station directed by Gaspar Pumarejo. Both songs here later appeared on their Areíto/EGREM LP El Dúo Romántico de Cuba.

45 RPM Record

Music

The Cabrera Arús family collection

Leopoldo Arús Gálvez collection

2025.1

Clara y Mario

Singer

Areíto

Bolero

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

Spanish

The sleeve uses EGREM's standard concentric-rings template (blue, orange, and teal bands) with the duo's name in a half-disc panel and, in the other half, a color aerial photograph of Havana's Vedado dominated by the circular, spider-roofed Coppelia ice-cream pavilion.

Dating: EPA-6193 falls between the Los Van Van EP (EPA-6169, 1969) and the Sucu-Sucu (EPA-6263) and Bonne (EPA-6301) EPs, so best dated c. 1969–1970.

Que pena me da

Clara y Mario

Singer

Juan Arrondo

Composer

Spanish

Qué pena me da

I feel sorry

¿Por qué me has olvidado?

Clara y Mario

Singer

Francisco Olivera

Spanish

Por qué me ha solvidado?

Why have you forgotten me?

Makers Mark

back cover

EPA-6193

Spanish

EPA-6193

Printed

18.5 cm

18.5 cm

vinyl, record case

Case

Fair

Leopoldo Arús Gálvez

owner

Clara y Mario

artists

Havana

Cuba

Caribbean

Central America

production, represented, acquisition, use

The most telling detail for the archive is the packaging: this sleeve is the same stock Areíto design used for the Tambores de Enrique Bonne EP (EPA-6301) — the identical concentric-rings template and the identical Coppelia aerial photograph. EGREM evidently reused standardized generic covers (and the Coppelia image specifically) across multiple EPs in this catalog range rather than commissioning artist-specific artwork — an economical packaging practice that also kept Mario Girona's 1966 Coppelia, an emblem of revolutionary Havana, recurring on record sleeves regardless of the music inside.