To purchase the book, The Breath of Cuba, please click here. If you are interested in traveling to Cuba, please consider booking your travel with The Breath of Cuba Travel to support the author. Cheri offers custom and signature tours to Cuba with or without her services, and works with reputable Cuba Travel Service Providers with over 25 years of experienced bringing travelers to Cuba. Book and inquire here. To learn more, subscribe to Cheri’s YouTube Channel.
Ismael is a true angel and I’m quite sure he’s been sent from Los Dios for me to protect and guide this journey for me. He’s 6’3, soft but strong, and anchors me here in this dusty town with his kindness and big loving heart. He is my place and person of refuge and friendship and he is like a big brother I’ve never had, always caring for me in such a sweet and special way.
Some in town say he might be gay, and I say all the better as it is a complete relief and gift to have such a beautiful strong male ally here. He is elegant, refined and articulate with no sexual overtones at all. He is so kind always to me and we are learning to communicate pretty well thought I’m sure at least half of what he tells me I misinterpret or don’t fully understand.
We can be silly and free together like children and his child spirit, at 48, is so pure and so precious to me when it comes out to play that I am moved into deeper love every time. We laugh non stop together, and his smile could lite up the world. It lights mine every day!
I picked him out of a sea of swarming bodies somehow. Or perhaps I was divinely guided to him thru some kind of intuitive magic. Frank and I were walking thru town the first night I was in Cuba and ran into a man who just happened to be from the same area of Florida that my brother lives, very close to where I grew up. I shared with him my intention for the trip and he excitedly told me that there was a ceremony happening now very close to his father’s home. “All the people there are dressed in white. You can walk there now and see. I don’t know, but you can go.”
I grabbed Frank’s arm and half dragged him down the street. “I don’t know if we should go there. Maybe they’ll try to sacrifice us,” he said in his witty sarcastic way, with a devious but scared smile on his face. I knew he was joking but that he indeed had some real fear brewing. The closer we got, the more his anxiety increased. “Don’t worry Frank, I’ll protect you. We are safe, trust me.”
When we came upon the house, the music stopped and people started spilling out into the street. “Oh well, it’s over, let’s go,” Alejo said trying to make a fast break. “No, no, we wait. I want to talk to someone and ask,” I said and I stood my ground, holding onto his arm keeping him there with me. “Let’s go, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Can’t we come back in the morning?” I couldn’t help but laugh at this big man so afraid of these beautiful people who had just been praying together, but I stood my ground. “No, no, I’m looking for the right person.” I said.
His sarcasm kicked in again, “And how are you going to know, will he be carrying a sign that says, “Ask me?” I laughed, but then I saw him. He was the tallest, biggest man in the street, towering over everyone else. He had undeniable strength and a quality of dignified elegance about him. He walked with 2 women, one on either side of him and the way he moved spoke of a gentleness that his size couldn’t hide. “Come on,” I said to Frank, and we followed him down the street for a few yards before I called out to him, all the while with Frank trying to talk me out of it.
In my pathetic Spanish, I first apologized for not knowing if this was a respectful and appropriate time to talk to him, and for not yet understanding the culture or customs. I told him I had just arrived a few hours ago, and then explained to him my intention and reason for talking to him and my desire to study the Orishas and learn whatever I was allowed to learn.
For a few eternal moments I was afraid I had made a mistake. He looked down at me with a blank look on his face, which could have meant anything. I wasn’t sure if he was going to yell at me for being so ignorant and stupidly white, or laugh at me, or if he even understood anything I had just attempted to say. I could see Frank out of the corner of my eye fidgeting and backing away, but I just stood there with my hand on my heart in humble grace, watching this big black giant of a man staring back at me.
It was a long pregnant pause with us just locked into each other’s eyes. It was as if he was making an assessment of my soul and looking deep beyond my form, and I felt a connection between us that wasn’t from this place or time. Without changing expressions, he dryly said, “Benga,” and turned and walked ahead of me with the two women as if I didn’t even exist. I was smiling ear to ear inside, but just walked behind him with Frank falling behind me a few steps, hesitant. We walked to a big white gate and I stood outside, “Benga,” he said again and I entered. “I’ll wait here,” Frank said.
I entered a house filled with black bodies all dressed in pure white. My first few hours in Cuba, I had no idea whether I had made a mistake or whether my courage was being commended but I felt no fear. I felt a feeling of family, perhaps estranged because of the language barrier, but somehow I felt comforted and like I belonged there in some weird way. My first initiation was having the courage to step past that gate, and I knew I was on the right path.
Ismael returned from the back of the house and found me on the porch, “Regresses manaña a lass 10,” he said to me and then dismissed me. I had no idea what I was coming back for, but I knew I would be there and on time. My first night there and I had found what would be my first father and family of Santos.
This video is Ismael, when I went to visit him a few years later, listening to the track entitled “Blue” off of my CD: Muse of Turiya. You can download the CD from CDbaby
To purchase the book, The Breath of Cuba, please click here. If you are interested in traveling to Cuba, please consider booking your travel with The Breath of Cuba Travel to support the author. Cheri offers custom and signature tours to Cuba with or without her services, and works with reputable Cuba Travel Service Providers with over 25 years of experienced bringing travelers to Cuba. Book and inquire here. To learn more, subscribe to Cheri’s YouTube Channel.