Since last month and until the end of August, artists from Las Tunas, defenders of rural traditions, have been strengthening cultural ties with exponents of Veracruz folklore.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The improvising poets Julián (Dimitri) Tamayo and Argelio Torres García, the interpreter Yaniuska Yudislaine Hernández Arechea, the tres player Benito Leyva Ramírez and Ramón Batista López, director of the El Cucalambé Ibero-American House of the Décima, make up the delegation that celebrates the roots of Cuban folklore in Mexico.

According to Batista, they participated in the Encuentro de Decimeros de Santiago Truxtla (held in honor of the local celebration) and exchanged with the branch of the Cátedra Nacional de Poesía of that town.

"We were received with intimacy. We shared in Xalapa, where the Décima is widely cultivated. On the agenda of presentations is the Huasteca region, with a wealth of art that includes the typical dance of the huapango, and representatives from that region have even attended the Jornada Cucalambeana."

"It is a very beautiful thing. We have to defend Cuban traditions all over the world," adds Yaniuska, who has performed songs from the Cuban pentagram such as Yo soy el punto cubano and La Guantanamera. Argelio, the most experienced of the group, said: "We are two nations defending our roots, we feel like cultural warriors, like El Cucalambé."

For his part, Benito said: "We have shared with friends and the welcome has been impressive. "In addition, we are receiving other cultural invitations, we have to multiply. The audience is enthusiastic," said Dimitri. Even Cali Niño, a woman from Veracruz in the auditorium, summed up 26: "We have had a great experience with the Cuban brothers. There were very good things that enriched the culture. It's more than I expected."

According to Batista López, relations with the Aztec country date back to 1996, when personalities from the country participated in the Ibero-American Festival of the Decima. "On that occasion, it was Carlos Tamayo, late poets Renael González and Jesús Orta Ruiz (Indio Naborí), other people, and myself. In the previous calendar, it was proposed that this event be held one year in Cuba and the next in another country. Already in 1997, a Mexican delegation came to the Festival Iberoamericano de la Décima, included in the Cucalambeana Fiesta."

"That is how we met Nicolás García Flores, a poet and cultural promoter from Veracruz, who had a farm called Martha Elena, similar to El Cornito. In 1998, thanks to the support of this man, Cuban artists began to travel there and we established a partnership that lasted for many years. These exchanges, interrupted by the arrival of the pandemic and other situations, are now being resumed."

"It is very important for us to nourish ourselves with a culture as solid as the Mexican one, in addition to consolidating the exchange of experiences between our peoples. Here we show, for example, knowledge about the cultivation of the décima, the work with the new generations, and the tradition in defense of the Cuban point," explained Ramón Batista.