The Waters of Contramaestre Caresses Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro was only thirteen years old when he first visited the boatswain. He liked the river for the cleanliness of its waters. He had several friends here, among them one who never left Cuba and died as a simple physical education teacher: René Fernández. Who was René? When did their first encounter take place?
René Fernández Bárzaga was born in Contramaestre, the son of Spanish immigrants; he was Fidel Castro’s fellow student at the Colegio Dolores in Santiago de Cuba where they strengthened affective relations between 1939-1942; that’s why René’s father invited him to visit “Contramaestre” from October 10 to 12, 1939, three holidays. The back seat of Aquilino’s wedge car welcomed the two students. They arrived at the house, in the former “San Luis” neighborhood, at noon. Immediately lunch was served with a menu to the preference of the owner of the house, Enma Bárzaga, Aquilino’s wife. On that day Fidel drank water from Contramaestre River and he soon became acquainted with Aida, the fourth in chronological order of Aquilino’ and Enma’s five children. They talked a lot in the courtyard of the house, then they went to Contramaestre River, where they bathed their bodies all afternoon.
On the 11th, after breakfast, they returned to the River and visited the Poza del Diablo (The Devil Pool), a place linked to dark popular legends from impressive lights to fantastic apparitions. Castro enjoys the waters, frolicking like young boys, always watched over by Aquilino’s attentive eye. Fidel feels very attracted by Aida, perhaps she was his first love, without going beyond glances, shared affections and those ludic baths in the “Contramaestre”. The agenda was completed with a visit to Pitillán’s pool, which the locals would later would baptize with the name “Chorrerón” (A strong water stream). The popular myths saying that there were alligators in that pool. Fidel, Aida and René never saw one. A rock walk allowed them to cross from one side to the other without getting wet. Aquilino did not give them permission to go to the most famous of the pools: “El Encanto” (The Enchant), also full of fictions, from fantastic sirens to shocking drownings.
In the “Poza del Diablo” they enjoyed long dives, strokes along the length and width of the pool, games, jokes, furtive glances, hearts agitated by the closeness of the bodies. They hardly noticed as timed passed by. At noon, coming back; heavy lunch. He drinks again the water from the “Contramaestre”, which flows fresh through pipes from the very river to the house. Brief rest and again to the ” Contramaestre”. René said that Fidel did not want to get out of the Devil Pool and Aquilino was forced to get strict
On the 12th, around five o’clock in the morning, the return trip to Santiago de Cuba began. In his head, memories of the magnificent Contramaestre River, its fresh water, of Aida the town. He came back several times, but in different conditions, because his ideas fertilized by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and José Martí, had placed him in the vanguard of a nation, which decided to break the noose of Fulgencio Batista’s tyranny.
(Originally written by Arnoldo Fernández Verdecia)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
