With the show Preludios para un poeta, staged at the Cultural Plaza, the 58th Cucalambeana Fiesta said goodbye, which became a space for the confluence of culture and tradition, beyond any harshness that could appear, as happens in any human and perfectible event.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- Although we still have the debt of inviting the population to enjoy more activities (something that involves various factors: promotion, transportation, planning, management); which calls for a multidisciplinary and provincial conception, the Supreme Guateque was made, from the variety and quality of the proposals, reasons for pride.
High-flying invitations reached different places, and El Cornito, its quintessential cradle, once again became that place for the embrace of poets and defenders of traditions; that property where cultivators of peasant folklore always want to return, despite its poor infrastructural condition.
How beautiful it was to see Cuba's national stanza between lullabies of bamboo and reeds! How nice that the imposed foot galloped, without the need for much push, and that artists like María Victoria Rodríguez, Marisol Guillama, and Luis Paz (“Papillo”), reached an intricate community like Palancón, or the Villa de los Molinos to sing to the author of Tu Mirada! Or that Emiliano Sardiñas, with his Creole humor, gave us unexpected spinels anywhere, or that Sindi Manuel Torres, at the closing gala, with an incredible octosyllabic speed of thought, recognized the professional and human values of the artists from Las Tunas.
We ended up dancing with María Victoria Rodríguez, after being recognized for her 36 years of artistic life, right next to the Major General Vicente García Provincial Museum. It was a golden closing with the song Santa Bárbara Bendita, which was sung by Lays Rodríguez, Fidel Sánchez, Berlis Fernández, Samuel Martell, Taymara Portillo, Lary Teruel, Marisol Guillama, Yaniuska Hernández, Arletys Medina, among other singers.
It was beautiful to see people on their feet dancing to autochthonous rhythms, children -who ran around in the surroundings- stopping for minutes under the spell of some performance, or admire how Papillo built a décima with four imposed foots and turned it upside down seemingly effortlessly; and also one of our dance groups to perform El Papelón (a typical dance from Las Tunas) with oil lamps in their hands and movements so fast, harmonious, and synchronized, while one wondered what could happen if one of the ruffles of a dress were caressed by fire.
It was beautiful to see the actors Elizabeth Borrero and Luis Andrés Till share fragments of a little-known play by El Cucalambé; listen to the poem that Argel Fernández wrote -glossing Naborí- to his friend Renael González (sadly deceased), to whom the final show was dedicated. Shocking verses like these: “When I say Renael,/ to the music of the sea/ a soft trilling/ of mockingbirds is added for him./ His hand returns to the brush,/ his word challenges time/ and once again the restless rhyme/ in his peasant verse,/ is a lamp for the road,/ a prelude for a poet.”
Under the direction of Orlando Matos, the last gala moved those present in the Cultural Plaza, in the heart of the historic center of Las Tunas, on Sunday night. The Cucalambeana Fiesta is gone, but its echoes remain here, honoring Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo, the greatest bucolic poet of the 19th century in Cuba. The Supreme Guateque of the Cuban Peasantry continues to be the soul of this city. Let's take care of it and start thinking about the next chapter.
