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After the earthquake in Haiti
To heal the wounds of the soul
Leticia Martínez
Hernández Photo: Juvenal Balán
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti. — On March 9, Cuba assaulted
the Champ de Mars Plaza, the same one where
thousands of sad, exhausted people took shelter two
months ago. And yes, it was literally an assault,
but the kind mounted by people devoted to healing
the wounds of the soul. A Cuban-style assault, with
rumba from Santiago, clowns, acrobats, magic,
paintbrushes, colors, dances, stilts, songs… The
captain of the invasion: the artist Kcho. The
conquerors: members of the Marta Machado Brigade.
The target? Hundreds of Haitians who, for one
morning, forgot about the tragedy to smile with
Cuba.
The Cuban artists moved
among the tents and bedraggled
improvised shelters, drawing people out.
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The
clock showed 10 a.m. Everything was ready in front
of the gardens of the collapsed National Palace: the
Haitian police in formation, fencing to mark off the
activity space. But because art has no schematic way
of doing things, far less the spirit of Kcho, the
Brigade of cheer, far from any kind of fear, entered
at the least-expected point. The Cuban artists moved
among the tents and bedraggled improvised shelters,
drawing out the people, whose reactions changed from
amazement to delight as happiness invaded the plaza.
Kensí was a clown yesterday for the first time. The
colors on his nose and cheeks displaced this little
boy’s sadness, sweeping away the bad memories of an
earthquake that left him homeless. Like him,
hundreds of children, and adults, enjoyed the clowns
on stilts prompting a noisy conga line under their
long, long legs; the clown Cebollita, as people
sprayed each other with his water gun; the magician
Sixto, who before the eyes of dozens of people made
gourdes (Haitian currency) and playing cards
disappear; the vocal group Desandann, who had
everyone shaking their hips with their songs in
Creole; the paintbrushes of Rancaño; the sketches by
Kcho, who told Granma daily that he felt
happy at having learned that talent is worth nothing
if not shared with others.
And
it was pure art that the Cubans offered to hundreds
of people in Champ de Mars Plaza. So it was
perfectly normal, under that precept of sharing
talent to make it real, to hear the notes of jazz
musician Yasek Manzano. A young man who studied at
Julliard, the prestigious New York school of music,
and who has played on stages all over the world, and
yesterday showered happiness on this devastated
Haiti.
Neither his name nor his awards matter, Yasek said.
“I’m just another guy who came to give his heart, to
help with the talent that life gave me, with what I
learned in Cuba. I’ve fallen in love with this. I’ve
been with the brigade in Zapata Swamp, in Guayabal,
on the Isle of Youth...and Kcho knows he can count
on me.”
Kcho
says his telephone has not stopped ringing since the
same day of the earthquake, January 12. “The brigade
members, friends, were calling me to ask what we
were going to do, but we realized that it wasn’t as
yet the right time to come here. It was the time for
doctors, for healing, for operating. But our day
arrived, and we are here to heal the wounds of the
soul right now, because if not, the future of this
country will be compromised forever. When am I
leaving? I don’t know. I just got to this country,
and I came to help.”
Yesterday the crowded plaza was a fiesta. It all
seemed surreal, a promise of the happiness that we
wish for Haiti. Even the fence surrounding the
National Palace, which makes one think of the line
between luxury and misery, looked beautiful when
Cuban hands hung from it enormous drawings made by
Cuban children who have also been affected by
natural disasters. A halo of faith, hope, and smiles
covered Champ de Mars that day.
Translated by Granma International
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