Santiago

When I was seven years old, I used to walk alone across the city of Santiago to go to my piano lessons. Santiago de Cuba was the second largest and the oldest city in Cuba. Founded in the fifteenth century. Santiago was not a pretty city. With its very old houses and narrow streets some people found it ugly, but it was precisely that which made it interesting. To reach Santiago by car we had to take the only highway in Cuba, built by Gerardo Machado when he was president. The highway crossed the long and narrow island from west to east passing through all the important cities and towns and right through the middle of our little town of Palma Soriano, about sixty kilometers northwest of Santiago. Through the lush, rich in fruit vegetation of Oriente, the largest, richest and most beautiful of the six provinces, the highway crossed some of the most picturesque sceneries in Cuba with the Royal Palm dominating the landscape. Through the plains and hills common to this region of Oriente the narrow and dangerous highway climbed through innumerable curves for the nearly one hour trip to Santiago. Santiago was surrounded by the hills that were a part of the Sierra Maestra mountain range in the southern coast of Oriente with its highest mountain El Pico Turquino reaching over six thousand feet. Hurricanes that often passed south of Cuba by the Caribbean never enter Oriente because of the mountains. The sky would turn very dark with purple and green hues and there were strong gusts of wind and torrential rain but they had never enter Oriente. The harbor in Santiago Bay was a very safe port for the ships that dock there from all over the world You enter the city by its highest point. To the left was Vista Alegre a suburb of Santiago with very beautiful houses where most of the rich people lived, and down towards the bay through its tortuously narrow streets was old Santiago. In those days there were buses, streetcars and automobiles in Santiago. We lived on a street named Clarin next to Aguilera one of the two principal streets. Enrramada, the most important of the streets, was always busy with traffic and people shopping. All the good stores were here. La Francia the most fashionable one. The Walkover where they sold the best shoes imported from this country. And not least El caf Novedades where you ate the most delicious French pastries and was a meeting place for the society in Santiago. In the lowest part of Santiago there was a barrio where most of the black people lived. It was called Los Hoyos (the holes) and it was in this intensely hot place where the congas originated. Unfortunately for all of us, my father made the decision to move to Santiago with the family and leave our little town of Palma where we lived comfortably and belonged to one of the oldest families there. Osvaldito Fajardo also from Palma had come to live in Santiago with his family, he was a friend of my father. Both families lived very close, on in the same street. Osvaldito owned many properties in Palma including two ranches La Caoba and San Jose. To the people of Palma, Santiago offered all the things, which we could not have there. Like, good schools, better education and a better life. But the city that was in a hole brought a

bad ending to both our families.

La calle Aguilera en Santiago de Cuba. La calle Clarin where we lived was very short and ended en la Calle Aguilera very close to this place in the picture

Clarin was the name of the street where we lived, the house was the last in this picture with the high pink columns.

I
My fathers name was Fulgencio Puig y Arias. He was one of the son of Magin Puig y Comas and Emilia arias y Arias. Seven brothers came from Spain to settle in Cuba. Of the seven brothers only three of them Magin, Juan and Pedro settled in Palma. Magin was a Catalan from the province of Cataluna in Northeast Spain. In Palma there were Catalanes and Gallegos the last ones were from Galicia. The Catalanes felt better than the Gallegos who were considered a little backward. Grandfather Magin was married to Emilia Arias y Arias a native Cuban from Spanish descent. He was a merchant in Palma and owned a prosperous business. When he died he left his family, not rich but in a comfortable position. My father was in the cattle and sugarcane business. He raised cattle and grew sugar cane at the two fincas he owned in Palma. I was to small then to remember these places but I do remenber the names Santa Rita and Sabanilta. I also remember the names of the two beautiful horses my mother and father rode, Alazan and Biscochuelo. They were always saddled and tied up to a telephone pole by the corner of the house. My father had political aspirations. At one time he ran for some government position but lost the race and a great amount of money. My mother blamed this to one of his friends who betrayed him at the last minute giving his support to some one else. There was in Palma a private club the Union Club, where my father used to play poker with his friends, the game was more of a social nature but they play for high stakes and he always lost money on this games. My mother showed me once the stacks of canceled checks she had from my fathers poker playing days. He also good heartedly give money to a friend in need and according to my mother this giveaways were in the thousands. He had two brothers Magin and Cristobal. Magin was a collector, and had many hubbies among which were a fine collection of stamps, a genealogical tree of the Puig family which dated back to the year of 1540, and a most unusual collection of caterpillars that he kept in cages in his patio. He had white and fuzzy silk worms imported from China and many others of different kinds and colors. My mother who was terrified of worms (as I was of roaches) never set foot in his house. .Cristobal his other brother and Magin were volunteer fireman and used to spend all their time playing chess at the back porch of the fire station which was in back of our house. They always had their red fire helmets on ready to go fight fires, I used to watch them all the time from the back door of our house, but I dont really know if they ever did go to fight fires.

II
Of my fathers four sisters, Maria the oldest was one of my two rich aunts. She married a first cousin who made his money in the coffee business, Fulgencio Garces. Titi as we used to call her had no children of her own but her house was always full of nieces. Her long table was always set for many who came to eat at her house every night, among them my sister Pura. Titi was like her brother Magin a collector but she collected birds. She had enormeous cages in her patios, with every kind of bird, exotic and domestic. She had pheasants, peacocks, all kinds of parrots, mockingbirds and canaries that sang all day and many others of bright and beautiful colors. Even though Titi had a chauffeur driven car she only used it in rare occasions. The only place she went was to her sister's, aunt Pepa who lived in the next block. I was not one of aunt Titis favorite nieces and I would have never dreamed that she would have named me a beneficiary on her will. I was already married when I found out. It was only for five thousand dollars, which at that time was a lot of money and it would have been very welcome, because my husband had lost all he had and we were going through very hard times. Unfortunately when she died the will could not be executed or so they said, they were bankrupt. . Of my father other three sisters, Antonia, Josefa and Altica, Antonia whom we called Nica raised four orphan grandchildren from one of her daughters Luz Maria, who died in childbirth while living in New York. They were not actually orphans their father was alive but he brought all the children to Cuba and left them with Nica who raised them all by herself. Josefa or Pepa was a big strong and energetic woman and also married a cousin Benjamin Garces, she was always busy cooking, cleaning and sewing and liked to help her poor relatives in any way she could. She could make a dress for Emilita her daughter in a day. She also had a son that maybe for genetic reasons (married to a first cousin) was born with six toes. Altica the youngest one married to Angel Oporto, They had seven or eight children. To feed that big family and her husband who was about thee hundred pounds heavy and ate a lot, she spend most of her time in the kitchen. None of the Puigs woman except Titi had servants.

From left: Antonia Puig y Arias, (Nica) Maria Puig y Arias, Josefa Puig y Arias, Altica Altagracia Puig y Arias, with their mother Emilia Arias y Arias.

III
When we visit Palma we stayed at grandmother Mimis house. She lived in a large old house surrounded by her sons and daughters whose houses were connected to hers by a central patio. Except for the Catholic Church, the City Hall and our house, which to the regret of my mother my father never bought, the entire block belonged to the Puigs. Mimis house was facing La Calle Marti, the principal street in Palma. Before they built the highway it was first a dirt road through which they used to ride the cattle herds. Sometimes a bull would brake loose from the herd and charge at the people in the street who ran for cover to one of the nearby corredores Mimis house was next to the Catholic church and even though all the Puigs were Catholics they never went to church, they were not a very religious people, I am not sure if they really believed in God. Mimi was an affable old lady. Wearing her embroidered white linen chemises she was always sitting by her livin groom window. Every time she saw me she would say, "Estas dando la vuelta del descoyunto, which meant I was growing very fast. All her furniture was Vienna style and she had rows of enameled coffee mugs hanging on the dining room wall for the children to drink their coffee, a week sugary brew they gave us. My little cousins used to run around her patio drinking milk out of green or brown beer bottles that had nipples on. I hated milk and never drank it but the milk in the beer bottles fascinated me, it looked so good through the color glass I felt I could drink the milk that way. When we went to Palma we had big picnics either at the Cauto River about a mile from Palma or at the Yarayabo a tributary of the Cauto. It was very exiting to get up real early in the morning when it was still dark, and walk along the highway with a bunch of people for the nearly two miles it took to get to the Yarayabo River. The banks of the Yarayabo were thick with bamboo, the small and copious leaves of the trees formed a green canopy over the river, giving the water its deep green color. There, we would spend the day swimming and eating.

IV
The Puig y Lagos lived across from us facing a small park called El Parque Rosario. The street was also called La Calle Rosario and the church also facing the street was La Iglesia del Rosario. All of the names were in honor of our patron virgen La Virgen del Rosario. There were three brothers and four sisters. Two of the brothers married. Of the four sisters Josefa or Pepa had a platonic relationship for twenty years. Saturnino, her fiancee would come every night to see her and they sat next to each other for hours. Sadly their relationship ended when Saturnino riding his horse in the country was shot and killed. Caridad or "Cachita" loved my brother Cesar as if he was her own son. After he was a grown man and he went to visit her, when was leaving she would say to him, Be careful when you cross the street! (In Palma you could not get run over by a car even if
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you wanted to). One day Cachita went into her room and never came out again. She became a recluse. Obviously there was mental illness in the Lagos family, for Maria Luisa the youngest of the sisters was mentally ill.. Maria Luisa was a strong and corpulent woman, who had to be restrained when she became violent. I remember seeing her in her room, which was bare of any furniture, sitting on the bare floor without any clothes on. Only her sister Juanica could go inside the room when she needed attention. When Maria Luisa was not violent they would let her out. I was very afraid of her. She could pick up a person by the waist and lift them up in the air as you would do with a small child. After a rain shower she would go out to the park and shake every tree by the trunk to get the raindrops on her. Juanica was the good witch doctor. In Cuba some people believed in Mal de Ojo or The evil eye and Juanica believed in this. It was said that if someone admired a pretty plant and it died, it was Mal de Ojo and this could also happen to a child in the form of a sickness" .y husband who believed in all this would send for Juanica every time Frank or Al were sick because Juanica knew how to"santiguar" So she would come to our house with a little branch in her hand, and whlile praying, made the sign of the cross several times in front of the boy who was sick. Of course I would call my uncle Esteban the doctor who treated Frank or Al for whatever they had. But my husband always said it was Juanicas magic, which cured Frank or Al.

V
My husbands grand father, Pedro Fiol and my grandfather Magin Puig, each owned a general store in Palma, they were rivals. But I dont think that it was because of this that the Puigs and the Fiols did not get along and were never friend. We lived no more than a block away from each other, but each family lived in their own little world and the two world never had anything to do with each other. Never had a Puig and a Fiol united in marriage, I was the first one to brake the cardinal rule, and probably the last one (thanks God) for I dont know of another union between the two names. I think the antagonism between the families was not due to the rivalry of our grandfathers as much as it was the difference in the kind of people they were. The Fiols from Palma were very clannish. They lived among themselves and never visited anyone outside of their family circle. They were a charming people, prone to laughter and joking around, so much so that sometimes they made you feel uneasy. One was never sure if you were the butt of their jokes. When we had to go to aunt Blancas house at night we had to choose between having to cross the very scary dark alley between aunt Blancas house and ours or go around the block, by Nenna's house. There was a man in Palma called Pisa Bonito which in Spanish meant (Pretty steps). He was called this way because he had a funny way of walking. He liked to be known as a very refined man. He came to this country to see the World Fair in Chicago but been such a refined a person as he thought he was he would not pronounce the word Chicago because the last two syllables in the word Chicago had a bad connotation in Spanish. The Fiol girls loved to have him in their house just to laugh at the way he talked and the things he did. . The three widow Fiols as they were known, Concha, Nena and Esperanza were
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not married to Fiols actually their father was the Fiol. They were not rich but they owned properties, which provided them with an ample and secure income to live a life of leisure. It was not unusual to see a little Negro girl scratching one of the girls heads or bringing them a glass of water or any other thing they wanted. It was their custom if some newcomer moved in their neighborhood, to practically move into their houses but this never led to a lasting friendship. They would soon tire of their knew friends. The Fiols from my husbands family Panchito, Virito, and Joaquin had left Palma long ago and had established themselves in Santiago. Panchito came back to Palma after many years because of the two ranches he owned near there, these were the ranches that were formerly owned by Osvaldito Fajardo our neighbor from Santiago. Osvaldito became heavily in debt while living in Santiago and as I was told by my husband his father Panchito lent Osvaldito money to help him pay his debts. But Osvaldito could not pay his debts nor pay Panchito the money he owed him and he ended up committing suicide. I was about ten years old when I saw Osvaldito Fajardo being taken out of his house in a stretcher. He shot himself.

VI
The Puigs were a no nonsense, simple people. They were sincere, outspoken and honest, and they were one of the oldest families in Palma and probably the largest. I had thirty-one first cousins of whom only eleven were on my mothers side, and an endless number of second and third cousins. When grandmother Mimi died the costume the family had of gathering at her front corredor every night passed to my aunt Pepa's. All my aunts, cousins and other relatives came every night. Usually there were ten or more people there. Some of my favorite cousins - Berta Puig, Emilia Garcia, Nely Oporto, and Rosa Maria Oporto, just to mention a few, were always there.

From left: me, Nely Oporto, and Monina Perez Berta who had too much fondness for eating chocolates was round as a little barrel. She was very outspoken and had an explosive temper. One time we were going in a canoe trip up the Cauto River to a place called Las Cerqueras. There were several canoes, one of which was to carry Berta. It looked like a difficult proposition to get Berta in one of those unstable canoes. When Bertas time came to board the canoe everyone was in suspense watching. When she put one foot into the canoe it tipped over and all two hundred pounds of Berta fell into the river. Berta lived in El Central Palma a few houses away from my uncle Esteban, from whose milk dairy she bought her milk . But one day her milk turned sour and she accused my uncle of using unclean cans. This enraged my uncle so much they became bitter enemies.. Then there was my cousin Emilia Garcia one of my aunt Nicas two daughters. She was a tall blond woman with green eyes, had a big toothy smile and a jovial personality. She was the kind of woman who attracts attention,she was elegant, and always well dressed. Emilia was a real free spirit and could also cuss like a sailor. She made frequent trips to Havana and to New York and later went to Spain. She liked to tell us stories about her trips and they were very amusing even though you did not believed half of what she said. She would tell us that when she went to New York she would visit the best stores there and asked to be shown their most expensive fur coats and dresses while sitting in their elegant salons without any intention to buy anything. She had no money but aunt Titi gave her plenty, she was one of her favorite nieces. When she went to Spain she said she met some Puigs who introduced her to the high society in Madrid. I hardly believed this but with her great personality and her elegance it was probably she was telling the truth.. I admired Emilia for her free spirit, but I thought she probably suffered from delusions of grandeur. Emilia was the loudest person at Aunt Pepas front corredor.

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From left to right: My friend Emelina my cousins Monina and Emilita and me on the rooftop of aunt Titis house.

From left to right: Fulgencio, (Titis husband), my friend Emelina, me serving the coffee, my cousin Monina and last, my cousin the free spirit Emilia who always did what she wanted without caring what anyone said.

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V II
We moved into a modern six bedroom house in Santiago, across from a very exclusive Jesuit school for boys. El Colegio Dolores, which my brothers began attending. This was the same school Desi Arnaz and Fidel Castro had attended at other times. The house was very spacious. There were two entrances: one for the service, a long hall leading to the indoor patio, separated by a wall from the living rooms, and the front entrance. In Cuba, the woman of the house never went to the grocery store. Many things were bought from the street vendors who came by every morning chanting their little tunes, about whatever they were peddling. The cook went out to buy the other things that were needed and there was a large pantry stocked up with all kind of staples. I remember the big round cheeses imported from Holland and the golden cans of delicious butter from Denmark. We had a cook and a maid. The maid was a Jamaican woman named Aurora who could hardly speak Spanish, but she and my mother understood each other very well. She was very refined and used to call my sisters Miss Pura and Miss Dora, but not little old me I was too young to be given such a distinction. I missed in many things for been the youngest, like wearing beautiful uniforms as my sisters and going to the best schools as my sister Dora who went to El Sagrado Corazon en Vista Alegre, the most exclusive Catholic school for girls in Santiago. I have no recollection of moving to Santiago or how we got there and the memories I had from Palma before moving were few and vague. But I remember our first night there, as clear as if it was yesterday. That night my brothers were playing out in the street, when my brother Raul who must have been around twelve years old, had a fall from a high portico of an old house next door. The porticos or corredores in the old houses in Santiago were very high and this one did not even have a rail. When Raul fell he hit his head against the sidewalk and suffered a severe concussion, he remained unconscious all night. It seems as if Rauls bump in the head must have done something to me for, from that night on I remember everything. It was as if on that night I became completely aware of myself for the first time.

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From left: my brothers Cesar and Raul

Me at about age four

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XIII
I began my piano lessons with Zeida Rozales, a cousin of my mother. Mother had many relatives in Santiago; they were the Rivas from her mothers side of the family. Zeida was a beautiful woman. When she married she had a big wedding and I was her flower girl. I had to walk a long way to go to Zeidas, but in those days it was safe even for someone my age to walk alone. There was only one busy street I had to cross; the rest of the way was through nice neighborhoods with no traffic. I used to run all the way most of the time. Zeida was a very good teacher but I only had her for about a year, after which I began to take lessons from Adelita Tellez an advance student at the conservatory, she was the best piano teacher I ever had. After a year taking lessons from her I began to attend the Conservatorio Provincial de Musica de Oriente. Many years later when I was myself and advance student at the conservatory and was learning to play Chopins polonaise Op. # 53, I was having trouble with it. Dulce Maria the director of the conservatory who then was my teacher sent me back to Adelita to help me with the Polonaise. She was then an accomplished pianist who gave concerts in Havana. With her I finally began to master the polonaise even though those tricky thirds in the first page were very difficult to play. Dulce Maria Serret, and her brother Antonio were French and studied music in France. Antonio was the violin teacher and he also managed the only music store in Santiago. The store was very well supplied; you could find any music book there. I love going to get my new music books and could not wait to get home to begin playing them. They also sold pianos including Steinways, but not surprisingly the concert grand at the conservatory was a French Gaveau. It was a magnificent black concert grand, which was mounted on a two feet high platform, because there was no stage at the concert hall in the conservatory. When I learned how to appreciate the good sound in a piano I always felt a great thrill when I sat at the Gaveau to play in a concert, no matter how nervous I was. When Arthur Rubinstein came to Cuba in 1942 and gave a concert at the Conservatory he played the Gaveau. Rubinstein was not then as good a pianist as he became later; it was at the beginning of his career. But I always like to brag about having played in the same piano the famous pianist played. By this time I was no longer playing, I had already married and my husband and I went to hear Rubinstein together

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IX
My father never had a job in Santiago. All he knew about was cattle and sugarcane. He had sold his fincas and we lived out of this. He and my mother never talked about his financial situation. My brothers and my sisters went to the most expensive and best school and my mother had accounts with all the best stores in Santiago, she bought everything for her and my sisters there. In those days they wore the dresses above the knee and wide brim hats, made out of a transparent material which were very beautiful and very becoming, my sister Pura looked beautiful wearing them. Unknown to my family Pura and Alberto had being seen each other and they used to meet at some of the morning matinees at the Santiago theater. I went with Pura to the theater so she would not go alone. What no one knew was that Alberto would be waiting for her there at the theater. I never told my parents about it, Alberto used to buy me candy all the time, so their secret was safe with me. Pura was a friend of Gloria Barcelo, the daughter of the Governor of Santiago. They were about the same age and went to the same school, they became very good friends. She sometime visited the Governors house to be with Gloria. My sister Dora was younger than Pura and was not into dressing up and socializing yet. My brothers kept on going to El Colegio Dolores. They did not show much interest in learning and my mother used to sit with them in the evenings to help them with their lessons. She used to say I am the one doing the learning, not them We have been living in Santiago for three years. It was it was around the time of the depression of the thirties. I dont think this in anyway contributed to my father been left without a penny for he had sold the properties he had in Palma, rather it was the fashion in which we lived in Santiago. Osvalditos suicide indirectly affected the way in which our life ended in Santiago. He had a mistress whom my father new and became involved with. In Cuba, for a man to have a mistress was not uncommon. The wife would usually ignore it. But my mother was not that kind of woman, she felt deeply hurt and outraged at my father and they separated. This was the end of our life in Santiago.

X
When my mother was a young girl grandfather Picazo took her by horse the sixty kilometers to Santiago and left her there with relatives so she could begin her studies to become a teacher. My grandfathers name was Esteban Picazo Peres. He was neither Catalan nor Gallego, he was a Castellano from Castilla la Nueva a region in central Spain. He was tall, dark and handsome. He married Margarita de la Guardia y Rivas a native Cuban, of Spanish descent, born in the city of Bayamo. All I know about my grandmother is that she died young in childbirth and when she was dying she was singing a song called Over the Waves. Grandfather was left with six children. He remarried Isabel Romero who was from San Luis a town near Palma. She helped grandfather raise four sons and two daughters. Grandfather Picazo was a telegraph operator in Palma. I did not get to know him
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because he died before I was born but I herd many stories about him. The little story I am about to tell you reminds you of things you see in a western movies only in those days there were no movies, at least in Cuba. One day grandfather was having his breakfast when a friend of his came to warn him that a man was waiting for him at the telegraph company and that the man was armed and was saying he was going to kill him. He did not say anything and after finishing his breakfast he very calmly headed for his office He found the man sitting on a taburete in the front corredor of the telegraph company. The man had his legs stretched out all the way to impede grandfather from passing through. Grandfather who was unarmed walked slowly and when passing in front of him he purposely kicked the mans feet out of the way and kept on walking without even looking back. Of his four sons the two oldest, Adolfo and Joaquin, died young. Adolfo died of tuberculosis. He had a son Adolfito who committed suicide after killing his sweetheart. It was a tragic and sad love story. And Juaquin the second son went to New York to study and there he contracted tuberculosis. He also committed suicide. Left were my mother, aunt Blanca and the other two sons Esteban and Daniel.

XI
After grandfather Picazo died Isa came to live with my mother who was already married and have had Pura, her first child. She was the only one of us who grandfather Picazo knew. We lived in a house in La Calle Rosario in front of the park of the same name, until we moved to Santiago. I remember very little of the time we lived in this house but I remember Isa. She used to rock me to sleep every night in the front corredor. I had no bed of my own, I always slept with Isa. Isa was a very religious person, she prayed constantly, sitting in a small rocking chair at the foot of her bed. Her nightstand was full of little figures of saints and the walls were covered with pictures of them. If someone lost something Isa would say Pray to San Antonio, and he will find it for you. (He was the saint of things lost). My mother who was not very religious and did not believe in saints, would say, You can pray all you want but you are not going to find it unless you look for it. When I was going to play in a concert Isa would tell me I will be praying for you. It felt good to know that someone was praying for me. She had a fantastic memory and used to remember dates, names and things that happened long ago. She had great conversations with herself. I liked to listen to her while she sat on her rocking chair smoking her cigars and spitting every time she took a puff. She never took an aspirin and cured her headaches with leaves from medicinal plants she grew herself, and an ointment she called Sacaria that she made from chicken fat it, smelled terrible then she would plastered all of this on her forehead. There was always a scent of Sacaria in the air when Isa was around. When Dora was a little girl she had a life sized baby doll with beautiful blond curly hair. Isa loved and idolized Dora. After Dora grew up Isa kept the doll on top of her armario as a relic because it had belonged to Dora. I always wanted to play with
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Doras big doll but Isa would not let me, or anyone else touch it.

This poem is about Isa who used to rock me to sleep looking up at the stars when I was a little girl.. Here she is holding Alberto (Betico) Raul whom she loved very much. She was my mothers stepmother.

The White Haired Lady I saw a bright light dashing by Its long tail trailing Through the dark blue velvet I asked her what was it She said, a signal from Heaven Of a perilous time coming And she rocked and she sang. I felt her arms hold me tight Against the coolness of her gown And she rocked and she sang Till I soon was asleep, fast and sound.

XII
Uncle Esteban was one of my mothers brothers. He was the doctor at an American sugar mill near Palma. After our debacle in Santiago we had to return to Palma and the family was separated. All of us had to live in the houses of different relatives. My mother, my sister Dora and I went to live with uncle Esteban at the Central Palma. Uncle Esteban house was in the Cuban section where all the Cuban employees lived. The American had their own separate section, which had the best houses with private swimming pools, tennis courts and golf courses. He was middle high had a fair complexion. He walked with his head tilted back a little which gave him the appearance of been a little arrogant which he was not he also had a cleft chin. But the most important was his character, he had a flashy temper but
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spoke in a low voice. If we complained about something he would say angrily Stop complaining there is nothing wrong with you! Other times he would be humorous and say Si te duele el brazo, duelele tu a el or some other silly remark. I loved my uncle very much. He came into my life after my father had left. I was only about eleven, when my parents separated and we had to leave Santiago. Grandfather Picazo was not a rich man but somehow uncle Esteban study medicine and became a doctor and a good one! I think he probably went to study in Spain, but I am not sure. He was very respected as a doctor in El Central as well as in Palma. He did not become rich by his profession for in those days doctors did not charged for their services. He was the attending physician to the workers at the sugar mill but even though he was paid a good salary this was not how he made his money. He made his fortune in the dairy business. He bought a peace of land between Palma and the sugar mill, where he raised cattle and started his dairy business. When he was not at his office he was working at his ranch. But he loved his profession and spent all his free time in his home office studying his medical books. He lived in a nice and comfortable house provided by the sugar mill. I enjoyed living in his house with his wife Blanca who use to make the most delicious desserts. My sister Dora and I use to laugh at the things he did at the dinner table like eating his dessert before his dinner because later he might not have room for it or if a fly fell in his soup he just spooned it out and keep on eating his soup saying It does not hurt! He was a very peculiar person and famous for his antics. He never learn to drive in reverse, he said there was no need to do that. Of course he could get away with it because there were not many cars in Palma and he could park anywhere and drive off without having to back up. He cared very much about his appearance and dressed very well, loved to dab his handkerchiefs with expensive Garlein French cologne and always wore a diamond pin on his tie. He was a man who would not accept favors and did not like to receive presents so he would not have to feel grateful. His favorite car was a Packard but he never drove it and had a chauffer drive it for him and his family he himself drove a small two seats Ford coup that he kept for twenty years. In 1952, I went to visit Cuba (Two months before my son Ralph was born). He took me out for a drive in his little green coup. The car looked just the same as when I saw it last and so did my uncle he never age at all. Living at El Central Palma was like living in the country. We were so close to the sugar cane fields that when it rained which sometimes it did for weeks at a time, we went to asleep with the sound of a thousand frogs all croaking at the same time. During the rainy season in order to pass the time, the neighbors came to play cards at my uncles. We played Michigan Poker that was played with two decks of cards and use red beans for chips. But we played for money, just nickels and dimes and even though I was just a child they would let me play and It was very exiting because I won money all the time. . One night I woke up to this terrible noise, my uncle was screaming over and over Kill him, kill him! It came from the basement of the house. I thought somebody was getting killed and ran down to the basement where I found him holding his dog Trotsky with one hand and raising a walking cane in the other hand, running like a

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madman after a rat. He was married to Blanca Gual a very pretty black eyes brunette twenty years younger than him. Blanca was the perfect wife, the perfect housewife, and she worshipped him. They had a son named Esteban after his father, he was nickname Pacho. They also had a daughter whose name was Elsie she was several years younger than Pacho they were both beautiful children. Pacho was an asthmatic and suffered from severe asthma attacks. My uncle who adored his son sat by his bed helplessly. In those days there was nothing that could be done or medicine that would help. Uncle Esteban and Blanca were my Godparents. He gave me the nickname of Chamaca. And at one time he game me a little calf, which later grew into a cow and every time I needed money for something I would ask him to sell the cow, which was worth about thirty dollars. He sold the same caw many times. The last time I asked uncle Esteban to sell my cow was to buy my wedding dress. On my wedding night dressed in his tuxedo my uncle proudly walked me throw the church isle to give me away.

XIII
We lived at uncle Estebans for a year but my mother wanted to get the family together again and we moved back to Palma. The house we moved into was a small and ugly in back of a caf. It was in the same street where we lived before moving to Santiago. There was an open sewer from the caf next door that ran through our patio and gave a terrible stench. We became used to the smell after a while and only noticed it when someone mention it. Isa who had been living with aunt Blanca came back with us. Grandfather Picazo left Isa the family house, a big old house that Isa was renting to a pharmacist (In Palma there was a pharmacy in every corner). This income plus help from aunt Blanca who sent milk, fruits and vegetables every day would be our main support My two older brothers Raul and Cesar who had been working in the country at the back braking jobs of stevedores, lifting hundred pounds sacks of coffee beans, came back to Palma and began to work at the Mestre pharmacy, thanks to Pepe Mestre the owner who was a friend of the family. Pura went back to school to get her degree in teaching and soon found a teaching job at a public school. During the year I was at uncle Estebans I did not go to school or played the piano. In Palma I was sent to a public school near by where I never learned anything except to fight in the street with other children for which I earned the nickname of Basilia. Basilia was a crazy Negro woman who lived near by and was always shouting obscenities and insults to every one. My cousin Pucha and most of my friends went to Amada Aguileras private school and even though I did not like Amada Aguilera (She looked so mean) I felt like an outcast because I could not go there. My mother could not afford the five dollars a month it cost to attend. I hated school so much I was always finding excuses not to go. Finally I was saved all together from going, by an infection I caught in my feet, which prevented me from wearing shoes. But it was just as good for during the period I stayed home

21

something good happened, I discovered reading. We had a set of books in my house called El Tesoro de la Juventud There were twenty volumes and it was brand-new because no one in my family read except my mother. I read all the time even while my feet were soaking in the green poison water my mother prepared for the infection in my feet. I read the entire Arabian Nights, all of Aesops fables and many other stories. I could hardly wait to finish a story so I could begin with the next one. While were still living in this house there was an earthquake it was a strong one. I remember Isa standing in the middle of the patio with her arms stretched out to the sky screaming Misericordia Senor! We ran to the park near by where everyone in the neighborhood had gone and spend the night eating delicious cod-fish fritters an old Negro woman was cooking in a corner booth, and laughing at the jokes people were telling in between the after shocks that kept going all night.

22

Uncle Esteban and his brother Joaquin

23

XIV
Living about a block from us was the Vasquez family. Eduardo and America Vasquez had five daughters and a son. The two youngest girls Clara and Emelina were my closest friends. Clara and I were inseparable. They lived in a large old house in the corner of the block. On the side of the house facing the street there were five or six bedrooms the last one was the girls room. There was a long corredor along the bedrooms and down about ten feet bellow was the patio in the of which was a big copper caldron where America used to cook guavas to make tusas a guava preserve wrapped in the leaves of corn husks. Pucha the oldest girl was one of the kindest person you knew. She used to make my dresses and charge me very little for her work. She was subscribed to the best fashion magazines, like Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Mademoiselle and others and could make a replica of any dress without using a pattern. They were so conscious of the way they looked; they would not eat bread before going swimming so their stomachs would look flat wearing their basing suits. They read the Havana society pages in the newspapers and always knew who was who in the high society there ane talked about these people as if they new them personally. They had no domestic help, America did all the cooking while the girls took care of the cleaning, and I remember how they scrubbed the wood floor till it looked almost white. Their father Eduardo Vaquez was sort of an intellectual who spend most of his time at his old rolled up top desk reading or clipping newspapers articles and Eduardito his son had communistic ideas. The Vasquez girls were all bright and intelligent, two of the oldest Elvirita and Maria Caridad became teachers; Maria Caridad attended the institude of Santiago, that amounted to a college degree here. But my friends Clara and Emelina as I remember never went to school. During the Summers all the neighbors and friends used to get together in the afternoon to go swimming in the Cauto river, I used to watch the sky all morning hoping that it would not rain. The river was about a mile from Palma and we had to walk all the way there. As we got near the river, perspiring in the intense heat of the burning sun we would run dawn the hill shedding of our clothes and diving from the ten feet high embankment into our favorite swimming hole. No one ever got hurt except the American who had come with us and split his head open because he was too tall.

24

In a picnic at the Club Deportivo in the Cauto River

Back row from left: My sister Dora, Pucha Vasquez, and my sister Pura wearing Mexican hat front row from left My brother Raul, Elvirita Vasquez, extrange girl, Emilita Victoriano, Clara Vasquez, my cousin Pucha , me and Emelina Vasquez

25

XV

(Photo: Margarita Martin)

The Club Deportivo was a private club that at one time was very beautiful. The clubhouse was opened in all sides and in very high grounds. You could see the river turning abruptly to the left running along the cliffs on the right bank. Further down the river was a very shallow and a large area of limestone bottom, completely dry, and was a perfect place to have our picnics. But because of the cliffs the only way to get there was by wading along the shallow parts carrying everything needed for the picnic, including the charcoal to cook with, the pots and pans and the food we were going to eat, usually chicken and rise and green plantains. Some with their skirts rolled up others in they bathing suits, we waded along to the perfect place for a day of fun. To be able to go swimming in the river we had to be inoculated for typhoid fever every year. The river was at its best after a flood when it was full and the water was clearer. Within a quarter of a mile we had everything. Up the river was the confluence of the green Yarayabo river that was no longer green as it merged with the murky water of the Cauto. Further down was a rapid that rang along the cliff. It was a long and swift current with a slick and smooth bottom that ended in a turbulent little pool with big boulder in the middle that people said had fallen on top of someone. But we would not be stopped from sliding down the rapid by any stories of falling rocks from the cliff. And then there was a beautiful waterfall wide and high. On one side of the limestone bed was a round, sunken pool of dark still water, where no one would there go swimming, they said a priest went swimming in the pool and was never seeing again. That is why it was called LA POSA DEL PADRE

26

Natures Playground
Who watched after us When we risked neck and limb On perilous dives In the murky waters Of pools unknown Let loose, unguarded In Natures playground The swift current of a rapid Sliding down.

Photo of shallow pool in the Cauto River

We went swimming in this pool all the time Frank and Betico are in this picture. Betico is the one in the lower left corner and Frank has an arrow over his head. You can see the cliffs in the background.

XVI
Dulce Maria Serret the director of the conservatory of music in Santiago But if it had not been because my cousin Pucha had also started taking piano lessons at the conservatory, I would not have been able to continue even though I did not have to pay for my lessons. My aunt Blanca took Pucha and me twice a week to Santiago in her chauffer driven car for our piano lessons. Driving through that dangerous two way road to get to Santiago was not only dangerous because of the many curves and high elevation, but it was also very tiresome. Since I have been taking lessons before when we lived in Santiago I was already playing very well, and after we had finished our lessons, my aunt Blanca used to take us to Woolworth to buy trinkets and lollipops. Before we left Santiago we always stop at a caf near the entrance of the city, to eat the most delicious ham sandwiches and soda. From the age of twelve I began to play in sonata competitions and in concerts, two or three times a year. We began playing Beethoven sonatas in our fifth year of piano. I always did well in the competitions and used to come in first place all the time.
27

On my sixth year we play the first movement of Beethovens Pathetique, one of my favorites sonatas and I won first place. But on my seven year I did not win first place. I dont know why they assigned to me a different sonata than the one every one else was playing (the third movement of Beethoven Moonlight) also one of my favorites. I new that if I have played Moonlight I would have won first place. In our trips to Santiago we never had any accidents except the time when my sister Pura came with us. Pura had bought a large glass fish bowl and in our return to Palma she was holding it on her laps when she said, If we have an accident I will get rid of this fish bowl real fast No sooner had she said that when a young steer came across in front of us and we hit it. The steer was thrown over the hood of the car, rolled over and fell in a ditch at the side of the road leaving a pile of dung on the hood of the car. It happened so quick Pura did not have time to throw the glass bowl away but instead she clung to it. The car suffered minor damage and no one was hurt except the steer, which died instantly.

XVII
We only lived in the house with the stench for about a year. Aunt Blanca, procured for us, through one of her many friends a very nice four-bedroom house. All the bedrooms had balconies that opened to the street. It had a separate living room enclosed by glass doors, and two big balconies on one side. Here we put my piano, a small black German up-right that was originally bought for my sisters but never played it. Here we also put our gray heavy wicker living room set. There were also to small living rooms and a very large dining room that opened to a patio. The house was right across from my aunt Blancas with only and alley or (callejon) in between them. The (callejon) or alley at night was as dark as la (boca de un lobo). It was so dark and scary that when we had to go across it at night to go to aunt Blancas, someone will watch us while we ran from one end to the other. It was either this or go around the block and pass in front of the house of Nena Fiol that for some special reason we did not like to do. There was a full bathroom with a French Videt. (Most of the houses in Cuba had a videt). Unfortunately sometimes the toilet did not work and we had to use the outhouse in the back patio. I hated this because of the roaches, there were usually some under the seat and the only way I would use it was by throwing a burning newspaper down the metal bowl so the creatures would go away. That was the only drawback that the house had. My mother decided to begin teaching school in this house. The dining room was very long and wide and there was room for her to set up her classroom. She had school desks and benches especially made and everything she needed for her work and we still had half of the dining room for our own use. All our relatives and friend sent their children to my mothers school and soon she had more pupils than she could handle. Not only was she a good teacher but the children loved her. Maybe because my aunt Blancas husband was a doctor and a rich man, sometimes in the alley or callejn in front of Dr. Martins milk dairy we would find some strange things, like an old shoe wrapped around old rags. Brujeria was practiced in Cuba, (mostly among the black people) it was like witchcraft. And when something like this happened, my aunt Blanca would shout at us Dont touch it! Its brujeria! But my mother who did not believed in brujeria would disregard aunt Blancas warnings
28

and kicked all the things out of the way.

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XVIII
Aunt Blanca was my mothers younger and only sister. She was married to Andres Martin, a doctor. Martin of French ancestry was a soft-spoken man of a mild disposition. I never saw him angry but this did not mean he was weak of character,he was very persuasive and always got his way. He spoke to aunt Blanca very sweetly without raising his voice and usually convinced her to see things his way. But sometimes he would make aunt Blanca so angry she would fly into a rage and would come running to my house to see my mother who was the only one who could calm her. I was afraid of her and did not like to be near when she was in a bad mood. In Cuba anyone could afford to have servants because they were paid next to nothing. We had both a cook and a maid. One time we lost our maid and I, who was only about twelve years old, was doing the cleaning. Aunt Blanca and my mother were sitting in a corner of the dinning room talking while I was mopping the floor and doing quite a bad job, leaving streaks of unmapped tiles everywhere. Aunt Blanca was watching me, suddenly; she turned to my mother and said Marina! Dont you see what she is doing? She is just like all the others who cant do anything right! My mother who rarely, if ever, lost her temper, did this time. She said, snapping back at aunt Blanca. What do you mean like all the others, Blanca? Are you comparing my daughter with one of your maids? She is only a child Blanca! What is the matter with you? I was so proud of my mother for standing up to aunt Blanca. Aunt Blanca was a very sociable person and could be very amusing with her humorous and harmless gossip. She had a coquettish nature and a picaresque expression. She would pucker her lips as she spoke, my mother would just laugh at aunt Blancas gossips and say Oh, Blanca! We usually celebrated Christmas Eve or Noche Bueana at her house. Martin, who was a very frugal man and went around turning the lights off to save in electricity would come home loaded with Spanish turrones bags of nuts, dried fruits, Spanish wines and all the other customary things we ate on that night. We always had the traditional roast pig, which was brought to the house alive to be killed and cooked there. It was put on a large kitchen table and tied down by the feet. You could hear that pig squealing for blocks until the merciful knife finally put it out of his misery. There was also a stuffed turkey, and my aunt Blancas famous chicken pie. We danced and drank till it was time for La Cena. At midnight we sometimes went to hear La Misa del Gallo in celebration of the birth of Christ. That was the custom then. There were no Christmas trees and presents. On the night of the six of January the Reyes Magos brought the toys to the children.

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XIX
Aunt Blanca had four children three boys and a girl. My three cousins, Andresito, Guillermo and Oscar were like brothers to me. Andresito the oldest was studying medicine in Havana and was never home. I was closer to Guillermo and Oscar. Guillermo the second of the brothers was the serious, reserved type; he never talked to us younger kids. He was thin and small and probably because he was not too strong he was very prudent. He would never start a fight with anyone and if someone provoked him into one he thought the best thing to do (If diplomacy did not work) was to run. But there was something attractive about him, I guess he had sex appeal and the girls liked him. He also liked girls very much. I must have been around sixteen or seventeen and obviously becoming attractive when I had an encounter with Guillermo. I went to aunt Blancas house every day, many times a day. When you went there you usually went in through the back yard but if this was closed you had to go in by the front through Martins office. One time I came into the house through the front office and was walking by a small emergency room Martin had, when I saw Guillermo coming from the opposite way, when he came by me he grabbed me by waist and threw me back with the intention to kiss me (Hollywood style). Of course I was as strong as he was and he could not over power me and did not succeed in his attempt. As he walked away he had this funny grin in his face. Martin used to buy a new car every year and as soon as Guillermo was old enough to drive he began to drive us to Santiago. He became a pharmacist and took over his fathers Pharmacy. That was another of the many pharmacies in Palma. Oscar the youngest was the most likable of my cousins he was what you call Simpatico in Cuba. He became a lawyer. They all loved music and were always dancing to the radio. But with all the privilege and abundance in which they were brought up they did not get along well. Their dinner table was a battleground. My Aunt Blanca pampered them making each their favorite dishes and tried in vain to keep the peace. Dora and I were often asked to eat with them but it was not a very pleasant occasion. My cousin Pucha was the youngest and because she was the only girl aunt Blanca adored her, there was nothing that Pucha would want aunt Blanca would not give her. She used to call her my Princess. Pucha had riding outfits and long leather boots to ride the horses. They owned a ranch about five miles from Palma and Pucha and I rode the horses to the ranch accompanied either by Oscar or one of the ranch hands, and after we drank plenty of coconut water and lulled around the place they would send the car to get us back to town.

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Shown is a photo of Pucha wearing her riding pants and leather boots. This photo was taken at El Pilar, the finca owned by her father five miles from Palma where Pucha and I often went riding the horses

XX
When it rains in Cuba it rains and rains for weeks without stopping. This period of so much rain is called a Temporal. Temporales were fun because we did not go to school. We loved running from house to house under the rain. For some reason all you could think about during a temporal was food. During those days we prepared especial kind of dishes, Cuban native dishes that were hearty and delicious. A temporal meant Ajiaco on the table, a dish in the form of a thick soup made with pork and every kind of vegetables and viands available. Or it meant dry codfish boiled and garnished with onions slices and olives all drenched in olive oil and eaten with boiled green plantens. It meant everything good to eat, but Ajiaco was a must and also a must during a temporal was to go and see the Cauto River in a flooding stage. My father had not left Palma yet. He was still trying to have a reconciliation with my mother, but she refused to have him back. In the first place he did not have a job, but the most important thing was that she could not forgive him. They had arguments all the time some of them very bad. During this time he was staying at aunt Pepas. I was around eleven years old when he came to get me. We were having a temporal and it had been raining for weeks without stopping, He was wearing a raincoat and carried an umbrella and we drove down in a car to see the bridge, which was about a mile from town. It was raining hard when we got there and we walked under the umbrella to the middle of the bridge. The water had already risen two-thirds up the high cliffs riverbanks and the churning chocolate looking water rushed with tremendous force against the wide concrete pilings holding the high bridge and bringing all kind of debris,
32

dead animals and everything else it found in its way. While I look down at the rushing water I was afraid that any moment the bridge would give out and we too would be carried away like the dead cattle. For many years I had recurring nightmares about the Cauto River bridge collapsing while I was trying to cross it and that I was left precariously hanging from a plank, looking down at the raging water below.

El Puente del Rio Cauto.

XXI
Uncle Daniel was my mother's youngest brother. He was tall and thin and had the Picazo nose, bulbous at the end. He was married to Eloisa the widow of his older brother Adolfo with whom she had a son, Adolfito. He had four sons Danielito, Humberto, Joaquin, and Rico and a daughter, Margot with Eloisa. He owned a coffee plantation up in the mountains where we sometimes went to visit during the summers. It was a long trip mostly by horse because we could only go by car to a certain point and then we would have to ride the horses up the high trail skirting the mountains to get to his house. I was afraid of high places and tried not to look down, but I could not help looking at the beautiful Bayamo River way down below winding on a bed of sun bleached white pebbles. When we finally got to uncle Daniel's house, he, his wife and his five children were waiting for us.

33

They lived in a rustic house in a clearing in the woods. There was no running water or electricity and at night we had to do everything by gas lamps and candle light. There were two rivers very close to the house. You could hear the murmuring of the river's running water all the time. "El Rio de Oro'' and "El Rio de la Plata'' were as beautiful as the metals for which they were named. The water was as clear as glass so you could see the bottom in the deepest pools. When someone who had never been there went swimming in the river and because they could see the bottom clearly and thought it was shallow they would step in and sink to the amusement of every one. Swimming in the rivers and climbing the hills where the coffee grew were our favorite pastimes. There were fresh water springs gushing out among clumps of green ferns and brightly colored leafy plants everywhere. We ate mostly fresh corn and pork meat that Eloisa could prepare in a variety of delicious dishes. Apart from the house under a long roof was the kitchen and a long table where we ate. Uncle Daniel was an easygoing man. I never saw him angry. He had a good sense of humor if a little on the odd side. He had two dogs that he named (Comotu) and (Yonose) which meant (like you) and (I dont know) so you can guess what the reaction of the people who asked for the names was. Comotu and Yonose were very ugly and skinny dogs, their diet was mostly corn, which they have to share with the chickens and all the other animals. Even though he owned a coffee plantation he was always in debt and had to borrow money from my uncle Esteban who would come complaining to my mother You know Marina, I can't say no to that fool because he always comes with that saintly look on his face, but he never pays me back''. Uncle Daniel was an alcoholic who tried to stop drinking many times and sometimes he went for long periods without having a drink, but sooner or later he would go back to drinking. It was very painful for the family because when he drank he became bellicose and got into brawls.

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My mother at Uncle Daniels coffee plantation (1936), feeding the menagerie of animals among which are Comotu and Yonose. Can you find them? The entrance gate to Uncle Daniels farmhouse is shown here.

35

XXII
Pura had a weak stomach and would throw up at the sight of anything that was up setting, like the time she saw a very skinny horse at the entrance of our patio and becomed violently ill. When Alberto Raul was born I became very ill and could not take care of him, and since my mother was at the hospital with me, Pura volunteered to take Alberto Raul home with her but this arrangement did work well (poor Betico) for long, because getting up in the middle of the night to take care of the baby made her sick. So it was my aunt Blanca who finally took care of Alberto Raul until I was able to come home. Meanwhile, my uncle Esteban took Frank, who was then about two years old, and with his own nurse to help with his care went to my uncles house at el Central Palma. In my house, out of necessity we ate only a big diner at noon, for the cook did not come at night. So in the evenings everyone had to fend for themselves, you either cooked you own food or went hungry. But of course there was always a place you could go to eat. My brother Cesar to Cachita his second mother, Dora usually went to aunt Blancas and Pura to aunt Titis where I think I already mention she had a big table and where most of her nieces came to eat every night Pura was one of aunt Titis favorite nieces and she was named in Titis will. But Pura at one time was romantically involved with her cousin Manengo who was the son of Nica and Titis nephew. She broke up with him to go back with Alberto who was the love of her life. This made Tiiti very angry and she took Pura out of her will naming me instead, something I never knew. Pura was a good teacher. At one time she began a class at home for older girls who never went to high school. All these girls were about Doras age, one of them was from a German family who lived in Palma and whose father worked at the sugar mill. Most of them were Doras friends. Even though I was much younger I joined the group. I learned almost everything I know from my sister Pura, and later from a private teacher who came to my aunt Blancas every day for a year to prepare a few girls including me for the entrance examination to Santiagos Instituto of high learning. That and my music consisted my entire education. As I grew older Dora and I became closer to each other. We were both closer to my mothers family, the Picazos, while Pura took to the Puigs. Dora was the motherly type. She would mother me, my brothers and even my mother. She never had much money but she would spend the last few dollars she had to buy a piece of material for me to have a new dress. When we were going through very difficult times and there was not enough food on the table she used to take the food from her plate and put it on my mothers who was always cutting short her portions to give it to us. She loved babies and collected beautiful baby pictures from magazines to put them in a scrapbook, and brought home all the babies from the neighborhood. She was also a good listener and her friends came to her for advice about their boy friends and other things.

36

Dora was a very attractive girl and had a nice figure. She had many admirers, but never took them seriously. She was probably waiting for her prince charming and there were no prince charmings in Palma, at least not for Dora. She had a good sense of humor. I remember this time at a picnic in the Club Deportivo there was a guy, an American from the Guantanamo base. Dora was helping with the cooking and was having trouble getting the fire going, her hands were black with soot and she was feeling a little frustrated. When she was introduced to the American, she shook his hand with a big smile and got his hand full of soot, he and everybody else laughed.
On the following picture; Dora in the middle of back row. Left same row Chela Fiol. Left front row Vitico Fajardo, Pucha, Manguta, Clara and others.

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XXIII
Mother had no money to buy me presents for my birthday instead she gave me jewels. Of course I am kidding! The reason that I say this is because of a couple of jewels she gave me, one of which was a diamond solitaire, which had been her engagement ring. She gave it to me in my twelve birthday tha t was the happiest birthday in my live because I also got a watch, my first real watch. But in another occasion, also, as a birthday present she gave me a diamond earring, which had lost its mate. This was a pendant that had a medium size diamond at the top, a string of little ones with a large diamond encased in platinum at the end. For a long time my brother Raul had been begging me for one of the diamonds so he could have a tie pin made out of it. At the age of eleven I was not very interested in diamonds and I agree to sell it to him. He was extremely happy and took the diamond to a jeweler to have his pin made. Unfortunately while making the pin the jeweler accidentally cracked the diamond in half- and Rauls heart as well. But the pin was made nevertheless, and Raul wore his cracked diamond pin for which he never paid me a cent. He was the oldest of my three brothers. He and my brother Cesar the second oldest were as different in character as they were in looks. Raul was tall and fair with light color wavy hair, Cesar was short, stocky and had black curly hair, one reason he got the nickname of Mulato In those days men wore white suits made of a stiff and shinny material that would wrinkle very easily. Well, Raul who was very conscious of his appearance used to iron his pants every day but Cesar found an easier solution to the problem of wrinkle pants, he just wrinkled his coat a little to match his pants. Raul was always in need of money. My mother used to say he could smell it because no matter where she hid it he would find it. My brother Cesar on the contrary never care about money. Cesar was very generous and when I needed money and he had it he gave it to me. When we left Santiago Raul had completed his third year in High School and Cesar his second at El Colegio Dolores and even though my mother complained about them not wanting to study they did learn at the Jesuit school and because of this they were able to get good jobs at the Mestre farmacy. Ernesto El Chino. I dont know why they called him that way, was cocky and feisty and only had an elementary educatio. He was of middle height but strong, he ate mountains of food, but never gain in weight. From the time that some negros came by aunt Blancas front corredor ripped a rope from the canvas shade and swung it around guns. There was political unrest in those days in Cuba. Machado was still in power though his days were counted. Because of this, and also because my brothers had bemixed up in scraps with negros due to the facts that they had molested a white girl. And for this reason my mother was always afraid something would happen to one of
38

them. On a very dark and stormy night, Ernesto did not come home my mother was very worried. He came back next morning saying he had stayed at on e of the widow Fiol becauthere was no man in the house to take care of them In another occasion Ernesto was at Cuco Fajardos house at night. The house faced the park and a crowed of blacks was gathering and their intention was clear, they were after my brother or Cuco. Ernesto could have left through the back of the house but like the big man he was especially when he was wearing his revolver, he went out the front facing the crowd and looking straight ahead passed by them.

Above: my mother, Marina Picazo Rivas Puig y de la Guardia

XXIV
The only honest President Cuba had was the first, Don Tomas Estrada Palma. After the explosion of the battleship Maine in the Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, President McKinley declared war to Spain. The Americans blamed the Spanish for the explosion of the ship but the Spanish said the Americans did it, to have an excuse to declare war to Spain. . The US. won the war and the official Peace Treaty with the U. S. And Spain was signed in Paris in 1898. The Cubans were unfairly excluded from the negotiations and were made to accept a transitional period of American rule, which lasted four years. In 1901 a constitution was written following in many ways the American Constitution but the U.S. requested an amendment authorizing them to intervene in Cuba if they felt it was necessary. It forbade the Cuban Government to borrow money without permission of the U.S and it obligated Cuba to lease land to the U.S. to establish naval bases. The Cubans did not want this amendment but McKinley made it clear that without it the American rule would continue in Cuba and so what was known as the Platt Amendment was unwillingly accepted in 1901. In this same year Don Tomas Estrada Palma was elected President. Estrada Palma tried to establish commerce with some of the European nations because he thought Cuba did not benefit from the trade agreement it had with the United States. But the U.S. Government prohibited Cuba from trading with other countries or borrowing money. Cubans resented the meddling of the United States in their countrys internal affairs. With the Platt Amendment the U.S. had a free run of the country and the independence of Cuba was nothing but a farce. Gerardo Machado was elected President in 1924 and at first he did some good things in public works and education. Because of a national policy he was not allowed to run for a second time. He then forced Congress to issue a proclamation called Prorroga de Poderes which gave him the power to keep on governing the country without an election. He became our first dictator, and the struggle that lasted for a long time, began. The University of Havana became a hot-bed for dissent and the blood ran in the streets of Havana while the tyrant rode in his thirty thousand armored car and had the mutilated bodies of students thrown at the door steps of their parents houses. By the end of his regime there were bombings all over the island and no day passed without an incident of shooting somewhere.

39

I was about twelve years old when my cousin Pucha and I were visiting a friend and a shooting began at the City Hall across the street. Bullets were flying all over the place and our friends mother made us lies down on the floor till the shooting stopped. In Palma the Guardia Rural or government police, mounted on their fine horses and neatly dressed in khaki uniforms and high leather boots went around terrorizing the people, they were ruthless and everyone feared them. By 1933 things had become so bad in Cuba that the United State decided Machado had to go and encouraged the army to a coup-de-tat, which Batista carry into effect. Machado fled the island taking millions with him. The populace went on a rampage and several of Machados henchmen were lynched. There were lynchings in Santiago and horrors were committed all over the island. The Rural Police went into hiding and any one who had been connected with the Machado regime was in extreme danger and one of these was Alberto. Alberto Lopez del Castillo y Bertot came from a good family of modest means in Santiago. He was a civil policeman during the time of Machados presidency. As a Civil policeman he had nothing to do with the Machado regime but been a policeman during the fall of Machado put Albertos live in danger and in order to be safe he fled to Palma where friends took him to a hiding place in the mountains. By this time his relationship with my sister Pura had ended. Soon after, the police came looking for him and the first place was my house. They searched all over the house even under the beds. Isa who was not too fond of Alberto was indignant that anyone would think Alberto would hide under a bed. Then she told the searching party they had forgotten to look somewhere and she led them to the back yard and to the out-house and pointing to the hole in the sit, she said you forgot to look in there! Alberto remained in hiding for nearly three years. No one knew where he was except for those who helped him escape, not even my sister Pura knew.
,

XXV

My mother, Isa and the six of us lived in the house across from tia Blanca nearly four years. We seldom saw our father, he had moved away to another part of the island. I did not miss him that much but I felt bad about not having a father it made me feel different than my friends who all had fathers. My mother was busy teaching and doing very well, she was happy. She had many friends who helped her get through the difficult times and painful separation from my father. Sometimes money was a little tight but we did not lack anything. As my mother used to say Dios aprieta pero no ahoga. The three Urena sisters were my mothers closest friends. They advised her and encouraged her to go out and not become a recluse because of what had happened to her. In those days a divorce or separation was not common and my mother felt the shame not only of her broken marriage but also the poverty in which we had been reduced to live. I myself was to young to understand, all I knew was that I felt different than all my friends. Concha, one of the Urena sisters owned a house in the country and used to invite

40

my mother to spend time there and my mother always took me with her. The Urena sisters Concha, Lela, and Paca were fun to be with. They were always giving parties, liked to joke around and kept you laughing all the time. When I went to Conchas house in the country I had fun. It was a big house with no electricity but plenty of good food. I loved been outdoors and used to get up early to go running around the countryside, this gave me a voracious appetite. One time I went out before having breakfast and when I came back I ate a banana so fast it made me faint. That was the first time I fainted and the last time I ate a banana. Paca the youngest of the sisters was married to Perucho Caynet who was a lawyer. They were very good friends of my parents. My mother told me that she and my father were at Pacas house one night when she started having labor pains. I was born that night. Paca and Perucho Caignet had two daughters. Bebita the oldest was one of my dearest friends the youngest one was called Tutu. When I married I could not afford to hire an organist and Bebita who played the piano offered to play the organ. As I walked down the aisle accompanied by my uncle Esteban who gave me away, Bebita played the wedding march. When the ceremony was over the priest signaled to her to start playing again but nothing happened, the priest kept signaling but silence prevailed, Bebita had nothing else to play I had my last year of school at this house across Aunt Blancas. She hired a private teacher to come to her house to prepare a group of six or seven girls for the entrance examination, which was a requirement to pass to be admitted at the Instituto of Santiago a school of higher learning (the equivalent of a Junior College here). Carmela Chamizo a mulatto woman was the best teacher in Palma. She came to aunt Blancas every day for a year. We had a schoolroom especially prepared for us. I did not plan to go to the Instituto because of my piano and other obstacles, but I learned a lot that year with Carmela. This year of school at aunt Blancas and what I learned with my sister Pura was the extent of my education.

XXVI
Unfortunately we had to move from our beautiful house because the owners wanted it for themselves. We moved into a house owned by a lawyer, a friend of aunt Blanca - she always had such good connections. The house was originally a six-bedroom house, which the owner had divided in half. One side he used for his office and the other side he rented to us. The lawyer used half of the living room, so our living room was very small; he also had the two bedrooms and a bathroom that were on his side. In our side of the house we had three bedrooms plus a small one, which my brother Ernesto occupied. There was a central patio and a small one next to Ernestos room where my mother built a schoolroom. Also, there was an empty lot in the back of the house, that was fenced, and we used as a backyard. My sister Dora used to buy little pigs and raised them here till they were big and fat and then sold them. We also raised chickens. By this time my brother Raul had married and had a son. He married Paulina Soto whom we called Cuchy. She was older than Raul but he could not have married a better woman or one who would have put up with all his faults and loved him as much as she did. My brother Cesar was still single but he was living at the Mestre pharmacy
41

where he had his own private rooms. My brother Ernesto was still living with us and was by this time beginning to saw a wild oat or two for which reason my mother put him on a curfew on the time he had to come home at night. Ernesto respected my mother and obeyed the curfew for a while, then, he began to come home late and broke the curfew, which almost cost him a broken nose. One time when he was late my mother waited for him armed with a wooden hanger and when he came in she smashed him in the nose with the hanger. It most have hurt him a lot but he took it very well just as he used to take my fathers spankings when he was little and use to say every time the belt hit him That is just a mosquito bite! In this house we hired Elsa, a little Negro girl about twelve years old, to do the cleaning. I was about two years older than her. Her parents were very good people and they believed it was good for Elsa to work in our house. She was more or less put in our care. But Elsa spent more time doing errands for me than doing the cleaning. I kept her running all day long, going to the store or bringing messages to my friends because we did not have a phone. She inherited all my dresses, which Pucha Vasquez made for me, so she was always dressed in high fashion. They used to call her Marinita la negra when they saw her wearing my dresses and they also called her my secretary. She loved it. We became very close; she was more a friend than a maid. Elsa was a fine looking Negro girl with a pretty face and also very intelligent. We were always dreaming about the things we would like to do. I was then at an age when I wanted to do everything and be everything. Sometimes I dreamed of been a ballerina and another time I wanted to fly a plane, or I wanted to be an opera singer and sang at the top of my voice not minding my poor neighbors who already had to put up with my piano practice and never complained about it. Once I read a book about the Amazon jungle and the Amazon River, I was owed by the enormity of the jungle and about all the people who had gone in and never came out. The last two persons who had gone in looking for some friends were also lost and the storys end was they were swallowed by the jungle! Elsas dream and mine was to go there someday. My last obsession was to come to the United States and learn how to speak English. I bought all kind of magazines in English and read them with the help of a dictionary but the problem was where would I get the money for the trip. So Elsa and I came up with an idea. We searched all over the house for things we could sell, anything we could fine that was not used like clothes, fake jewelry, and junk, packed it in an old suitcase, that Elsa took the to her neighborhood and sold it to the poor people there. She always came back with an empty suitcase but soon we ran out of things to sell and that was the end of our free enterprise and my dreams of coming to the U.S. When I got married I took Elsa with me to serve in our house but in my vanity I wanted to change my former friend into my servant and thought she should called me Senora but she would not do it. Finally she left.

42

Above: Elsa

XXVII
Paco Ramon was a rich man who made his money not by winning the lottery but selling lottery tickets. His daughter Cuca was a close friend of my sister Dora. He owned a house in Cayo Smith, one of the summer resorts in the Santiago Bay and Dora and I used to spend time there during the summers.

43

Above: Me, at Cayo Smith Cayo Smith was a small, round key situated in the middle of the basin or body of water at the entrance to the bay. It took about an hour to chug along in a slow motor barge the six miles long bay, from the docks in Santiago to Cayo Smith. You could also go by land in a car and cross the small distance to the key by boat from one of the land resorts. There was a small hill in the middle of the key on top of which sat a small white church with a stipple. There were some houses by the side of the hill but most of them were by the water side with their large open porches supported by wood pilings protruding in the water while the back of the houses were mostly on land facing the only

44

street that was just a dirt road going all around the key. There was also a small park and a grocery store. When you entered the bay through the narrow channel you could see to the right a high promontory on top of which were the ruins of the old Morro Castle built centuries ago by the Spanish, and sloping down the hill dotted by villas was Ciudamar, the prettiest of the resorts at the bay. Further down was Punta Gorda and across the channel from Ciudamar was La Socapa. This resort was in a very rocky terrain, which was crawling with large crabs. There were many private homes and a private beach and a clubhouse. Pacos house was the newest and the largest if not the prettiest in the key. The Front porch had two wings one on each side protruding out in the water and underneath were the boathouses. Except for Cayo Smith, which was the farthest away from the channel, all the other resorts had their swimming areas fenced in with a heavy mesh wire to keep out the sharks that followed the ships into the bay. Next door to Paco there were some young men from well to do families in Santiago. Cuca, Doras friend would have loved to see Dora or me romantically involved with one of these young men and she used to lead them on telling them that a very rich uncle of ours had given us a dowry of ten thousand dollars each. This even though Dora and I were very attractive girls gave the boys an added incentive, they took us on boat rides at night and sang and play the guitar under the moonlight but to Cucas disappointment nothing came out of it. Paco loved to go deep-sea fishing out in the open sea, which was the Caribbean, and he sometimes took us with him. We never venture to far from the coast for fear of been caught in a squall that were very common in the summers and came suddenly. But, one time we did get caught. We were a few miles out South East from the coast when clouds began to appear in the eastern horizon. As soon as Paco saw them he turn around but before we knew it a sea that had been calm turned rough and what had been a blue sky minutes before began

45

to look ominously dark. It seemed as if we could reach the coast in time to avoid the storm, but the swells were getting big and the motorboat, which was not very large, was going over the crests splashing water over us. Some of us were getting seasick and were sucking on lemons, that we had brought for that purpose, when we felt the first drops of rain. Paco was worried because the narrow entrance to the bay could become very dangerous during a storm. It was raining hard when we finally reached the entrance to the channel and we went in, in the nick of time. The storm hit with all its force as we were approaching the key. Paco did not catch any fish that day but fish was on the table that night in the most delicious yellow rice with fish a dish which was the specialty of the cook. During dinner we joked around with Paco about what a good sailor he was, but we decided, that was our last deep sea fishing expedition.

Above: Cayo Smith

46

XVIII
I was nearly eighteen and I had never had a boy friend. In my house sex was not talked about and I was completely ignorant about everything concerning it. We did not talk about it with our friends or anyone. That is the way I was brought up. Of course there were girls that had boyfriends, and they smooched and kissed, like any normal person would do but I was not one of them. I dont think I was any better than them; I was just brought up thinking that it was bad to do those things. But anyway I had no desire to go against my mothers wishes and I was very busy with my piano. When I entered my last sonata competition it was in my eighth year of piano and last This time I was not disappointed with the sonata they had given me to play for it was one of my favorites, Beethovens Appassionata. Even though we were only playing the first movement it was a challenge. I wore a beautiful light green dress with some black velvet hanging from my shoulders that night, which my sister Dora helped me buy and Pucha Vazques made for me. I won El Premio de Honor, the highest award given in the competition. That was the last competition I played while my sister Dora was alive. I never wanted anyone from my family to go hear me play because I thought they would make me nervous. Just around this time aunt Blanca decided that is was time for Pucha to start having parties at home with dancing and she open her big house, hired musicians or conjuntos of four or five who sometimes were great. In tia Blancas two big living rooms you could easily have fifteen or twenty couples dancing. We always wore beautiful dresses and for the first time we starting dancing with boys It was around this time my cousin Pucha, who had always been a little on the chubby side decided to loose weight and on her own (even though her father was a doctor) put herself on a rigorous plan of exercise and diet. She never sat down and tapped dance constantly. In a few months Pucha lost a considerable amount of weight. Then she began to show changes in her moods; sometimes she was irritable and withdrawn. There was mental illness on her fathers side, I dont know if this was the cause of her illness or it was the rigorous plan in which she put herself to loose weight but she became mentally ill. This was a great tragedy for aunt Blanca. Her only daughter whom she adored had been lost to a disease, which according to doctors at that time had no cure. From that time my aunt Blancas house was closed and it was as if no one lived there anymore.

XXIX
In the spring of 1938 my sister Dora Beatriz, twenty four years old and in perfectly good health died suddenly of an embolism. This happened at the house of the Vasquez girls where we were visiting after Dora and I came back from the movies. But before we came to the Vasquez, Dora and I went to visit a lady across the street who had just had a baby. We both drank a small glass of alinao, a Cuban drink customarily offered to those who come to visit the parents of a newborn baby. Afterwards we went
47

back across the street to visit the Vasquez girls. We were all sitting in the girls room talking about the movie we had just seen although Dora was doing most of the talking. She was describing the beautiful white dress worn by Kay Francis, a very popular actress at the time. Dora was sitting in a rocking chair, the only chair in the room, while the rest of us sat on the beds. All of a sudden Dora lifted her hand, touched her forehead, and complained of a headache. Those were her last words. The death of my sister Dora was not just shocking to me but to my mother it was devastating and also to Isa who loved Dora very much. Everyone loved Dora! She was seven years older than me but we were very close and went everywhere together. My mother did not speak for weeks and just sat in a rocking chair staring at nothing. I could not cry because I did not believe her death was real though I saw her lying in the coffin for twenty four hours. She had a smile on her face. The room was full of flowers, Easter lilies and roses, and the fragrance was so strong that for many years every time I smelled roses it reminded me of her death. Even after many months had passed, I kept thinking that she was not dead and that she would come back any moment. For many years afterwards, I had dreams about her and could hear her voice and laughter.

Dora Beatriz Puig Picazo (1913 1938)

XXX
A year after Doras death I entered the competition for the Chopin Concerto #1 at two pianos. I had to go to Santiago (this time by bus) to practice with the student who was accompanying me with the second piano part, she had two pianos and a metronome in her house, which were indispensable to practice the two piano concerto. Cristinita Casas was already a teacher and a very good pianist. Sometimes I had to stay in Santiago, either in the house of one of my teachers or at Altertos sisters house. Caridad and Clotilde, never married and lived alone.. Clotilde was tall with a full figure and had very red hair, Caridad was the opposite, skinny and with dark hair. They were very nice and took very good care of me. While I was at Albertos sisters I heard for the first time the name of Tonton Fiol. In the house next door to them was living a young woman who happened to be my theory teacher at the concervatory, her name was Marina Soler. She was a very striking blue eye blond. It was very funny how, when she was giving my cousin Pucha me the theory
48

lessons she was at the same time flirting with Antonio the violin teacher and brother of the director of the Conservatory. By Albertos sisters I found out that my names sake had been engaged to Jose Fiol or Tonton whom at that time I have never heard of, and also heard he had broken their relationship after he found out she has had a relation with another man and never told him about it. Only gossip, but a warning about the character of the man I was to be marry later. The Concerto was incredible hard and I practiced for hours every day. . We only had to play the first two movements but the first movement was very difficult. It was a challenge. I did not mind the long hours of practice because I love playing it. We also had to play a solo and I chose Chopin's Polonaise Op.#53 I did not practice the Polonaise as much as I should have done, and it was also a very difficult piece. However, they were only judging for the concerto to win the gold medal. We had to play our solos later in another concert when the medals were going to be awarded. Since I had not yet mastered the Polonaise, Dulce Maria sent me back to my first piano teacher Adelita Tellez who helped me with it and I finally conquered the piece, or I thought I did. There was a passage on the first page where I seemed to stumble, it was only a phrase but I felt very insecure about it. It was an intricate measure of thirds. The reason that I was having trouble with it was, that I learned to play it using the wrong finger numbers. I used to do this all the time but sometimes you just could not get away with it and it was very difficult to successfully change your finger numbers after you have learned to play with the wrong ones. The governor of Santiago was giving away the medals, it was a big night. I was worried about the passage of thirds in the polonaise, but there was something else that made me feel bad. Dulce Maria my teacher warned me that my medal had not been finished and I would be pinned with a medal they barrowed from one of the teachers. The time for me to play my solo came and I had to forget about the barrow medal. I sat at the Gaveau concert grand knowing that if I played through that passage I would be all right. But that was not to be for as soon as I reached that point my mind went blank. I sat there for what I thought it was the longest most terrifying moment in my life. Then I realized I had nothing else to loose and all the fear left me. I started from the beginning and played it through to the end without a mistake. I was applauded longer than usual. By the end of my eighth year I had my final examination and received my piano teachers degree. Then Dulce Maria the director of the conservatory who was my teacher, wanted me to give a recital and assigned to me all the pieces for my repertoire which was mostly Chopin, Beethoven and a Liszt rhapsody. I moved my piano to my bedroom so I could practice as much as I wanted without having to worry about bothering my neighbors, even though they had never complained about my piano practice. I kept going to the conservatory during the following year and I learned all the pieces for the recital, but I never heard about my gold medal, which I had not received yet. About this time my interests began to take a different direction. I felt I was never going to be good enough and I stopped going to the conservatory, I never gave the recital.

49

XXXI
Pura and Alberto were married not long after Dora died and Dorita was born a year after. Pura gave birth to Dorita at her house with the help of a midwife and became very ill due to an infection. She was taken to a hospital in Santiago where she remained between life and death for along time. While my mother was at the hospital with Pura I was at home with Isa and Elsa. We were still living in the house of the lawyer (The half a house). Meanwhile the Vasquez had moved away to the house their grandmother left them when she died, and when I heard about this house for rent that was close to aunt Blancas and also to the Vsquez girls I went to see it. It was a nice four-bedroom house whose owner we knew, he had been associated to aunt Titis husband through the coffee business. My mother was still at the hospital with Pura but they let us have the house and my brother Cesar with the help of some of his friends moved all the furniture to the new house. When Pura recuperated and my mother came home we were already living in the new house. My mother who was still teaching used one of the four bedrooms for a classroom, and she, Isa and I occupied the other three. By this time Ernesto was no longer living at home, he had married Asuncion after eloping with her and were living in their own house, which aunt Blanca had helped furnish. Doras death was a great blow to my mother from which she had never fully recovered and after Puras illness she was not in very good health. I worried about her a lot and wanted to help in some way. I started teaching the little English I knew to her pupils in order for her to have some rest while I was with them and I began to teach piano to some of my little cousins. I knew my mother was tired and that she should stop teaching but the income from Isas property alone was not enough. Isa had been renting this house to a pharmacist for twenty years or more and there was a law in Cuba that after thirty years of paying rent in the same house you would own the property, unless the owner would move in the house before this time. We never gave any consideration to moving in Isas house because in the first place, it was not suitable for family living and second; it was mainly, our only source of income. We all knew that the house would pass to my sister Dora when Isa died; she had named Dora the beneficiary in her will. What I did not know was that when Dora died Isa named me the beneficiary. I found this out after I married when Isa changed her will again and name my mother the beneficiary, as she realized my mother would need the house more than me. I think now, how ironic it was that I was named as second choice in two wills but did not inherit either one.

XXXII
I declared my independence when I was eighteen. I felt I did not have to ask my mother for permission to go anywhere. But the most I ever did was to take a bus to Santiago and go shopping, or go to a movie. But we did have fun in our own silly way. A group of us (including boys)
50

Would sometimes charter a bus to go spend a day at Siboney, a beach resort south of Santiago, facing the Caribbean. We were all over eighteen, and we were on our own. The beach was in a very secluded cove it was very small but very pretty. Usually there was no one there except the people who lived in the houses nearby, so we had the place to ourselves. The sea was rough, deep and dangerous in the cove. There was a raft a few yards out to which we swam back and forth, or lay on it to get the sun. There were rumors of sharks sightings around the raft when there was no one at the beach. There was an open casino with a large dance floor and a cantina to buy drinks and food. We spent the day swimming and getting a suntan then, we got dressed and went to the casino to eat and dance. Tinin Vargas son of Esperanza Fiol, was one of my admirers like many others, but I never paid attention to him in a romantic way, but we danced a lot to the tune of Barrilito Cervecero in the casino.

From Left, Vitico Fajardo, Tinin Bargas and me, in the Marti park, Palma. Emelina Vasquez continued to be my closest friend after her sister Clara got married. Claras husbands last name was Cuba and shortly after he came to Palma from Havana he swept Clara off her feet. He was much older than her and a complete stranger; he was also a very strange man. The Union Club was a private club in Palma where only white people were admitted, discrimination in Cuba was not only about the color of your skin but some

51

times about who you were or not liking the person or having something against that person. Every New Years Eve they had a formal ball at the Club. Emelina and I had never been to one and were planning to go to the next one. On a Summer previous to the New Years ball, a young man who I had met while I was spending time at Cayo Smith and who had been proposing marriage to me, met with me again while I was staying at La Socapa (another resort at the Santiago bay), and made a date to go with me to the New Years ball. (I should have known better than to count with a date, made so long before the ball).

From left: Vitico Fajardo and Manguta Vargas en La Socapa The day before the ball I received a telegram from my date saying he was unable to go with me to the ball because he did not have a place to stay in Palma that night, that the family whom he was counting to stay that night did not have room for him. I could not have him in my house that was not possible. So here I was was left with my beautiful blue taffeta long gown, for which I had to ask my uncle to sell my cow again to pay for it and without a date to go to the ball. Emelinas date was a boy from Palma so she had nothing to worry about. I had to swallow my pride and look for someone to escort me to the dance, and I did find someone who very graciously did, he was Tinins brother Uvita. By this time Tinin was in love with my cousin Monina Perez to whom he later marry. Monina was a beautiful girl and one of the four orphans my aunt Nica raised. Blanca Gual, uncle Estebans wife had many jewels, among which was a diamond cross pendant, which she wanted me to wear on the night of the ball. It was a beautiful

52

two inches long cross all covered with diamonds. She always kept her jewels in a safe at the bank in Palma. The day of the ball she took the jewels out of the bank and brought them to her house at El Central Palma. That night she and uncle Esteban came to Palma to bring me the cross and they did not return to El Central, but spent the night at Blancas sister in Palma. Emelina and I went to the dance wearing our beautiful dresses and I, the diamond cross. We stayed at the dance till three in the morning. Late that morning when I woke up it was to the bad news that when uncle Esteban and Blanca returned to their house at El Central that morning they found they had been robbed, all of Blancas jewels were gone. The jewels were never found. All she had left was the diamond cross I wore to the ball.
.

FIN

53

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