Remembering

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Remembering (blog by Stan)



Cuban folks can’t help but remember history; they are surrounded by historical references at every turn. We live, for example on the Second of May Street, and shop at the Eighth of March convenient store. Siempre 26 (Forever the 26th) is plastered on many buildings and signs, a reference to July 26, 1953, the opening salvo of revolution. I am writing this blog on October 10, Independence Day, honoring the beginning of Cuba’s war for independence from Spain. Last month, on September 28, we found our streets filled with chalked messages celebrating the birthday of the CDR, Cuba’s highly controversial “neighborhood watch” program. That night, every block had a party, with loud music, food, and dominos. In a few days there will be another national holiday, Cuban Culture day, on October 20.



A few weeks ago, the Cuban emphasis on remembering history took on a more personal tone, as the country celebrated National Memory Week, a time to raise awareness of the work being done around alzheimers and other dementia-related illnesses. There was a big parade in town in support of this work, and a concert by the municipal orchestra. The week took on special significance in Matanzas, because Wednesday of that week, September 17, would have been the 100th birthday of René Castellanos, one of the leading supporters of this campaign in Cuba. He died three years ago, but I had the good fortune of getting to know him on earlier visits. Known to his friends and colleagues as “Maestro”, he was one of the founding professors of the seminary, beginning his teaching career when the seminary started in 1946. He had three great passions in life: psychotherapy (he had studied with Carl Rogers at Columbia University), teaching Latin and biblical Hebrew and Greek, and introducing people to the joy of folk dances from around the world. Even in his mid-90s, he was still leading these circle dances, having more than 200 different danzas folkloricas from around the globe in his memory bank.



There were two wonderful tributes to Maestro Castellanos during Memory Week. The seminary held the first one, with wonderful testimonies from the seminary president, two faculty members, and representing the wider community was our good friend Wanda Hernández from the First Baptist Church, who has carried on the tradition of teaching the folk dances to young people in the church. The next evening the church held a community-wide tribute service, with more testimonies. It was a joy-filled time, with lots of laughter, as Maestro was, much like my mentor Mac Bryan was, a “laughing prophet,” with tremendous wit to go along with his wisdom. I loved the story one of the seminary students told, of going to his apartment and knocking on the door, hearing Maestro ask “Who is it?” The student simply replied, “It’s me.” Maestro repeated his question, “Who is it?” The student replied again, “It’s me.” Maestro asked the question a third time, and the student added to his response, “It’s me, the one who loves you more than anybody,” to which Maestro asked “the Lord?” Along with such stories, we got to play some music (Lord of the Dance), and Kim got to do a mime sketch on a little girl’s first try at dancing. A group from the church demonstrated some of the folk dances (including a square dance to an Appalachian fiddle tune!). It was marvelous.





Later on in that tribute week of memory, Kim reminded me that it was my dad’s birthday; he would have been 90. We laughed about not knowing which day it actually was, as he had a different date on his birth certificate than what he generally celebrated as his day of birth. We had a good and poignant time remembering him, recalling some of his sayings and actions, and it was fun to imagine what he would have thought of our Cuban experience. If he had ever had the opportunity to come on one of these trips, I’d like to imagine him getting to know René Castellanos. Pop could have added his Lawrence Welk polka steps to the Maestro’s repertoire, in between sharing insights over biblical passages. Maybe that’s what they’re doing now in that great cloud of witnesses.

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