"We have reserved it to tiredness and young people see it as a distant reality"

Manzanillo/“We have reserved Martí until tiredness, we limit it to a photo, a slogan, a piece of marble and each time children and young people see it as a farther reality,” says Armando, a secondary school professor in Manzanillo.

172 years after the birth of the Apostle of Cuban Independence, in the province of Granma the usual taxes were also paid. Pilgrimages, parades, special morning, vigils, but a growing apathy can be seen in an audience already more scarce. “We stopped in time. We became monotonous and repetitive.”

From the largest city to the most intricate town, they have a street, a school, a monument to its name, but “a society that Martian is recognized must be able to build on his legacy, and there I think we are going back,” Add the teacher.

“Martí must be seen as what he is. A visionary, but above all things, a human being with a solid ethical formation and great wisdom. That is why I dislike certain managing about his person and his work. Martí was a deep patriot , independence, anti -imperialist. ”

And much less than to build Fidel’s tomb, next to the teacher’s mausoleum, they had to make a referendum. The old people say that even to make a source or a tarja, before we had to request permission from the municipalities. It was not what was done in Santa Ifigenia in Santiago. But there is no one who changes it. Luckily it is not my subject, so I just tell my boys that José Julián was a handsome, and intelligent as few. ”

Manzanillo has a primary school, an avenue, a cinema and even a replica of the home house of Paula Street. However, Martí Avenue is full of ditches that AFEAN, the cinema does not just specify its corporate purpose and the cultural center still does not afford its privileged position on the city ride.

Meanwhile, Lázaro, an old man who calls himself as a patriot since childhood, laments. In those years it was common to have photos of the apostle in the houses of the communists. No one asked, it was something that was born from you. Now everything has changed. January 27, a good Martiniana was made, a vigil that was filled with people in the house of Navarro, the poet. I can no longer go for my health. Today those who go is because they cite them for work. In my time we were like who goes to Mass, to worship the biggest Cuban. And point. ”

When asking Lázaro for his octogenarian dreams, and his frustrations, he disarms us. “At my age I no longer dream. I would have wanted another city, another country. One Martian really. Beautiful, with prosperity, although I continued loading bags in the port. So I am satisfied with praying to Martí at night. And he I apologize, like the Child Jesus, for all the spots they have put in his name. ”