MADRID, Spain.- In 1908, the man who would become the first radio healer in Cuba was born in the province of Las Villas. Called Miguel Alfonso Pozo, but known as Clavelito for being the youngest of the Clavero family in Ranchuelo, he was a street vendor as a young man, and the announcements about him to sell were very popular.
Poet, decimista and repentista, he worked for the CMHI radio station in Santa Clara; at the RHC Cadena Azul radio station, where he wrote the famous tenths recited by Pepe Cortés, known as El Bandolero Romántico; for the programs “Rincón Criollo”, “Controversias Toody”, “Por los campos de Cuba”, among others.
But his national fame would come with the program “Put your thought on me.” From this program, Clavelito answered letters to listeners, giving them advice for all kinds of ills, ranging from love or health problems to getting a better job.
“Put your thoughts on me/ and you will make that at that moment/ my force of thought/ exercise good on you”, were the words with which Miguel Alfonso Pozo opened the radio space.
“A miracle of nature in the delight of a guajira song. Manifesto of the elements that contribute to success, health, love, happiness. Poet, interpreter of misunderstood hearts. Good luck messenger. If you are not happy, if you have a problem, if you are not healthy, if you do not have a job, if money does not work for you, if you do not have love, listen to Clavelito in silence, in silence, please,” he continued.
Clavelito acted, without being one, as an experienced healer. He recommended concoctions for cramps, rituals for the evil eye. “Manolo García, your illness has a remedy; girl from Cabaiguán, I know what your problem is, lie down calmly and put your thoughts on me”, ideas like these were expected to be heard every day by thousands of listeners throughout the country.
In 1952, Clavelito received some 50,000 letters a month and the program became the most successful at the time.
Taking advantage of this triumph, Clavelito made “a healing” with water. He called the devotees to bring bottles of water to the station, which he illuminated with a green plastic lantern and pronounced the incantation: “Miraculous magnetized water! Take it to scare away the ills of the body and soul.
Since there was not enough capacity for all the believers to attend the program, its director, Gaspar Pumarejo, had the idea of ”magnetizing” glasses of water from a distance. He had to place them on the spokes and drink it the next day, and thus healing energy flows would reach them.
This practice also had the fanaticism and innocence of the devotees, so its popularity continued to grow. But after this idea, the Radio Ethics Commission denounced the program for breaching the radio ethics code and Clavelito was accused of fraud.
Afterwards, Clavelito returned to improvisation, and was considered one of the best impersonators of his time. He was the author of sones montunos, guajiras, tunes and rumbas, among them the popular “La Guayabera”: “I want a hat / made of guano, a flag, / I want a guayabera / and a son to dance”.
His last job was as a ventriloquist and he retired in 1964. Clavelito died on July 21, 1975, at the age of 67.
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