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Cuba Español

I must have seen the sea at an early age; only I don't remember when... My earliest memories take me back to Santa Fe beach, northwest of Havana, where my father used to take me when I was a child. We used to go there because a Galician by the name of Castiñeiras, one of my father's countrymen, had a restaurant at the seaside. Immediately after exchanging the customary greetings, I rushed to the changing rooms, or casetas, as Cubans called them, put on my trusa, or bathing suit, and jumped directly into the water. There I would spend the whole day, diving around coral reefs that housed hundreds of goldfish that painted the water in ochres, greens and oranges.

Later on it was my mother who took me to the beach. We took part in excursions organized by America, a Signora who rented buses in which, like one big family, singing and storytelling, the inhabitants of Santiago de Compostela de las Vegas fled the scorching summer heat. Interestingly enough, the buses took us to the same Sta. Fe beach and the same restaurant belonging to the Galician Castiñeiras of my early childhood. I remember vividly how the wind coming through the window changed as we approached the seaside. You couldn't miss it. Since that time, whenever I go with someone to the seaside, I am the first one to notice that we are close by.

And then, although I should say at the beginning, the sea also played a role in the beautiful legend of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba's patron saint, called Cachita by all Cubans. "The African slave Juan Moreno says that while paddling in a canoe along the Bay of Nipe, northeast of Cuba, they saw in the distance a white figure that looked like a girl floating on the waves..." Once they recovered from the shock, the improvised seamen approached the image and saw that it was floating on a piece of wood with the inscription: "I am the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre".

¡Let the sea cover your feet, pilgrim, and let it heal the wounds of your camino!

Translated by Denise Maxwell.