Today marks 73 years since the deathof Gilda Hortensia Bernarda Zaldívar Freyre, whogrew up in a cultured and wealthyfamily. Fromanearlyage, her taste for music and dance wasappreciated. Evenwithouthavingdirectcontactwith ballet, shedanced alone withunmatched art.

HersisterOlivin, widowof Julio Antonio Mella, wasappointeditinerantambassadortoEurope. Gilda accompanieshersisterbecausetheywereveryclose. Thisallows Gilda togettoknowtheoldcontinent, learnlanguages and study ballet withthefamousartist Lore Krohn; classmateof Anna Paulova.

Itisstatedthatshewasthefirst Cuban to show thisexpressionof dance in Europeanspaces and stages, bydancingbeforethekingsofNorway, withgrace and greatacceptance.

ShereturnedtoHavana in 1935, whereshebegan a new stage in herlife as a dancer. Uponher returnto Camagüey in 1936, in her house in La Vigía, shefoundedthefirstindigenous Cuban ballet academy, and itisthefirst and onlyinstitutionofthattype in thecity and thefirstofitskindto debut in theMainTheater.

From a veryyoungage, Gilda hadhealthproblems. Shewasdiagnosedwithbreast carcinoma withmetastasistothelungs. Herhealthbecame more precariouseveryday. Butsheremains active, directing ballet classes.

Herstateofhealthworsenednoticeably in thelastdaysof April 1951. Shedied at theageof 33, on May 2nd ofthatyear, and herbodywasburied in the S/N vault, grave 2 ofthethirdsection, northwestquadrant, in the General Cemeteryof Camagüey.

Today, weremember Gilda Zaldívar Freyre as theinitiatorof ballet and founderoftheteachingofthis discipline in Camagüey. She wastheone whosowedtheseedof ballet culture and markedthebeginningofthattradition in Camagüey; seedthatgerminated and multiplied, as the Camagüey Ballet companyistheprideofallCamagüeyans and Cubans.

Translated by: Aileen Alvarez García