An important commemoration is approaching in our country, I am referring to the Cuban Culture Celebration, and of course I cannot stop remembering events, people, artists and institutions, which are part of my happy days of active work, within a sector as controversial, but wonderful and loved, as is the cultural one.
Making history
It was a day, of a month, of a year, in the nineties of the last century, when the inspection team of the Provincial Sector of Culture was heading, like every thirty days approximately, to make a visit to one of our municipalities, -Which of course, you will imagine I do not remember because of the elapsed time -; when someone who frequently accompanied us to check the plastic arts, after greeting me with his affectionate and usual manner, called my attention, with great respect, about something that I will never forget.
Although it may be implausible for you to believe it, day by day, I keep it in mind; Well, I always do. Everyone who knows me knows, I usually say: “… I have to put on some lipstick to think and think better …”
The action: put on some lipstick, and the person, rather the friend, is and will be: the plastic artist Nazario Salazar Martínez, who, incidentally, recently became one year older.
Well, yes, I was wearing a checkered loose shirt in a color between purple and old pink, and I had lipstick almost the same tone, but very pale, which was, according to what he told me, too light for my complexion and did not match with my skin tone, since I practically looked like I was on the verge of fainting; so he recommended that I keep the advice in mind for future occasions. Grateful that day I managed to darken my lips and I have never forgotten it.
Permanent legacy
For this artist, the Office of the Historian of the city has seen fit to hold more than one personal exhibition in its Art Gallery that bears the name, Fidelio Ponce de León, there on Carmen Street # 7 and which have attended to appreciate his art not only people from Camagüey, but also people from all over, whose comments have been reflected in the visitors’ books that keep his history.
This man knows that I think about it every day, and he laughs, he laughs a lot every time we meet or talk, because he also knows that it is true, that I learned that from him among other things, as I also did from so many artists that I had the great pleasure to know in the course of my working life, and today, their knowledge has served both to enrich my cultural heritage and to share it with my students, whose teachings have been very useful for their comprehensive training.
So, on this Cuban Celebration, I congratulate him once again, not only for his proven virtuosity, but for being the great person he is and for the legacy he gives us in each of his works, now, a Camagüey cultural heritage.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
