2023-11-25 22:13:30
Nobody knows how many times Antonia Carbonell went out to the patio of her house made of tiles and bare blocks, on the edge of the Yayabo, to check, with her big 80-year-old eyes, if by chance she would find herself leaning again against the railing of the overpass of the river, to the man he saw on television on countless occasions, and with whom on July 27, 1986 he spoke with the familiarity of an old acquaintance.
No one knows how many times Manuel Pérez, the Senior Bridgeman, recounted his meeting that same noon with Fidel, when he came down from the elevated; He would see the Commander again in 1989 in the execution of the bridge over the Zaza River, where there would be no shortage of recommendations from the leader of the Revolution that he not abuse his age. Even my calluses don’t hurt, Manolo, now deceased, replied.
In newspapers tired by time you can find the communion between Sancti Spíritus and who on August 13, 1926 announced himself to the world before the eyes of his parents Lina and Ángel, in the Birán of hard cedars and unmarriageable leaves, near the Camino Real.
The chosen one was born who adhered to the star and not to the yoke; grew up who on January 5, 1959 arrived in Sancti Spíritus, wrapped in drizzle and smelling of the Sierra, to give us in the early morning of the 6th the definition of the city, which, by dint of feeling it and repeating it, today is an anthem.
Without a hint of the controversial Nostradamus in his blood, from the balcony of the El Progreso Instruction and Recreation Society, he predicted the unpublished work to be built and the conspiracies to come, such as the Trujillo plot of August 1959, which he himself was in charge of abort in Trinidad on the 13th.
But how many times did he also hasten his long steps through the Escambray mountains to direct operations against the counterrevolutionary bands? In the end, the warrior did not want degrees on his shoulders, he gave them to others: The patriotism of the people of Sancti Spiritus shone in that fight, a fight that cost lives (…), which used an important part of the time we needed for development.
He expressed it on a day of glory, which did not fly away, as the poet would say: I am talking about July 26, 1986, when he was among us in the Plaza, where he talked about the daring of the nascent province as well as about the delay in the construction of the Tuinucú dam, which apparently began in prehistory.
That afternoon he praised and guided; at the same time, with the trick of an old orator, he joked about the strains of Thought, coming from the then digital clock, embedded in the face of the 12-story building, and which reminded him of his minutes behind the microphones.
The next morning he went to town, inaugurated and visited works everywhere, as in that May of 1989, when he was seen in Sancti Spíritus, Fomento, Taguasco, Cabaiguán, Jatibonico and Yaguajay, in this last case, in Los Lagos de Mayajigua; There he asked and recommended with his own teaching, and he sprinkled lightheartedness into the conversation with the reporters, after the extensive tour of the place: They have talked to me about water; but they haven’t offered me even a glass.
From the spirituality of my people, enterprising and kind, boisterous and sober – if the time dictates -, Fidel drank, nourished himself during those days, similar to that of September 1996, when he arrived again, and in the Plaza he reflected with the wisdom of the mythical King Solomon: “Sancti Spíritus did not have the 26th, but he had the 28th. Without telling anyone he appeared here that day, not out of the habit of being a conspirator I would argue; but for being a man of details, reverent.
Much later he also showed his gratitude, when, after the forum was finished in May 2002, he told the Sancti Spiritus and Havana artists of the Plastic Arts who with their brushes denounced terrorism: We’ll see each other soon; The invitation arrived a few days later for a special dinner in Havana, which became “The Night of the Napkins,” titled by a colleague and not at all related to the night of the pencils, under the current Argentine dictatorship.
Fidel felt so comfortable that he did not believe in the possible criticism of his guests and dared to draw our most Creole palms on the fragile pieces of paper, jealously guarded today by Sancti Spiritus painters.
No one knows exactly how many times he was among us; The trips to Banao for grapes, onions… are scattered in memory, like the visit to the town of San Pedro, Trinidad, in 1971, where he would later send an electrical plant Skodaand jeep to transport the sick, four televisions that they placed in public places.
Pictorial work by the Sancti Spíritus artist José Perdomo, inspired by the visit of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution to Sancti Spíritus in 1986.
Although he physically left on November 25, 2016 at 10:29 p.m., Birán’s chosen one, who did not promise, will always be back; but he offered a toast, so as not to tarnish the prophecies of the Jesuits from Havana’s Colegio de Belén when the young man graduated from high school there: “Fidel has the makings and the artist will not be lacking,” because, like Abel Santamaría, he had been born in the Sun of the night, the poet would later add.
Cover photo: Fidel’s hands. Photo: Alberto Korda (1965).
#sun #night