{"id":257534,"date":"2022-09-08T14:23:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T18:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=257534"},"modified":"2022-09-08T14:23:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T18:23:20","slug":"abraham-rodriguez-hanze-i-am-marked-by-a-coming-and-going-always-around-the-same-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/abraham-rodriguez-hanze-i-am-marked-by-a-coming-and-going-always-around-the-same-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Abraham Rodr\u00edguez Hanze: \u201cI am marked by a coming and going always around the same place\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would seem like a coincidence, but no. Those of us who know him personally or those of us who began to \u201cfollow\u201d him on social networks noticed, from the first moment, something that runs through his personality from one end to the other: the unshakable love for Cuban music. That is why we are not surprised that his first theatrical text is: <\/span>La Cantante vuelve<\/span><\/i>, a monologue inspired by voices from exile and chosen as the winning work of the Open Scene Hispanic Playwriting Contest in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Open Scene keeps alive the intention of contributing to the creation of spaces for the consolidation of art in Spanish in the United States, according to its official pages, and the management of bridges to bring together the different multicultural and diverse communities that live in the country, united by a common language and heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: courtesy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abraham Rodr\u00edguez does not know if he will write theater again, for the time being, and, while he banishes that idea, here are his points of view.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know something of your professional life but I stayed in the locution. I heard of a job in a biotechnology center, is this true?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

My professional life could be likened to a roller coaster because of the different turns it has taken, and some people are surprised when I tell them that the first studies I did were in Industrial Chemistry. The astonishment makes sense, because after having worked for four years at the Finlay Vaccine Institute I went to study Theater at the University of the Arts of Cuba (ISA); since childhood my sensitivity was focused on the Humanities. Already in adulthood, while working for \u201cthe Finlay,\u201d I was an announcer on Radio Ciudad de La Habana programs during the weekends. I like to write and I always make it clear that in no way am I a playwright; when I sit down to order the scattered letters in my head, poems, short stories, narratives, criticisms or some type of writing that is difficult to classify may emerge. Even if you haven\u2019t asked, I\u2019ll tell you that I sing for my friends when I have two drinks, and without having them too. If no one is around, I sing to my loneliness.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Abraham Rodr\u00edguez. Photo: courtesy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the radio, did you do music programs? Tell me about that experience<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I love the radio. When I was a child, I dreamed of being an announcer, I finally achieved it; then I loved and hated the radio equally, I think that this medium in Cuba urgently needs to ask itself the hackneyed but key questions of why? When? And above all, for whom? I also understand that many of its inconsistencies are not intrinsic to radio itself or its countless talents, they are largely due to unavoidable commitments with agendas and directives of a painful verticality that force us to sacrifice laudable truths and ideas. I did almost all kinds of programs on the radio; I started as an amateur in 2007 and stayed in it until 2021, when my time in that medium ran out for various ethical reasons: I needed to be at peace with my conscience and get rid of texts that were not to my taste. I saw great injustices around me. We already know what free thought costs on the island. Radio is the professional space that I most appreciate and enjoy. I was the host of music programs, various revues, radio contests and other modalities. I tried to avoid the news in every possible way juggling a tightrope where you don\u2019t always have a choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I remember correctly, the theater text, now awarded, was born almost three years ago, or more…<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

It emerged in 2018, I finally decided to honor some of those exiled singers I admired. The figure of <\/span>Celia Cruz<\/b><\/a> worked as the fundamental coup of inspiration to write <\/span>La Cantante vuelve<\/span><\/i>. When I began to write the text, she was in my senses like a subtle rumba. While writing, her image and her music constantly occupied me.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, before delving into the text, where does that love for Cuban music come from, especially for Celia?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

If you ask any of my friends, relatives or fellow students at the University of the Arts, they will tell you that I am a Celia follower to the death. My colleagues from the Faculty of Theater Arts laughed because I used to be very serious until I started singing Celia\u2019s songs and also La Lupe\u2019s or Olga Guillot\u2019s. I started listening to Celia Cruz thanks to my father, who put a record of hers in my hands when I was just a child. I was seduced by her deep voice, the charisma that I noticed in her interpretations, and it began to offer me evidence of a Cuba that was not the one they taught at school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, I have suffered the evil or the good, as you like, of insatiable curiosity. I tried to understand why that woman spoke of impossible returns, nostalgia for Cuba, and what could be hidden in her music began to be interesting for my innocent ears. I will always be grateful to Celia, for being the person who began to open my eyes regarding the possible ways of understanding Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

My preference for Cuban music I would not know how to explain, it may be that I inherited it from my previous existences, perhaps, just like <\/span>La Cantante…,<\/span><\/i> I am marked by a coming and going always around the same place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now then, that theater text: when and how did it definitely take shape? Did you have any contact with the world of theater in Cuba?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The work took definitive shape last March during a stay in Mexico. I made variations to the text, but its essence has always been the same. My link with the theater was very direct and constant during my studies at the Faculty of Theater Arts at ISA; I used to spend many hours in the theaters of the capital watching productions and the studies themselves demanded many hours of reading. It was also the time to tour several provinces in Cuba and witness their theater. The ISA allowed me to get to know a significant area of \u200b\u200buniversal playwriting, especially the texts from the Greco-Latin times, which fascinated me, and also the work of contemporary authors. Training as a theater critic provides tools for analysis, in the field of theatricality and creation that, I suppose, will last. In Cuba I collaborated with various publications on performing arts and advised some creative processes for the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who advised you on the writing?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I had all kinds of opinions and that was very helpful: the criteria of my cousin Isabel Cristina L\u00f3pez, who is a playwright, playwright and actor Maikel Ch\u00e1vez, Osvaldo Hern\u00e1ndez, who was my professor of Cuban Studies at ISA, L\u00e1zaro Sarmiento, a Radio director, were fundamental, as well as other friends and relatives to whom I am very grateful for their opinions. All interpretations were valuable, even of those who didn\u2019t share my writing perspective and \u201ctore it to pieces,\u201d as I like to say as a joke.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you try to present it in a contest in Cuba, for example?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I would have loved it, but I thought it would be useless, considering the obvious political background of the text. Censorship in Cuba changes according to interests and, unfortunately, it is never for its total eradication. Yes, I know that it happens in almost all parts of the world, but I think that on the island it is much cruder, ruthless. In other contexts, it is possible to maneuver with the censors: there are different infrastructures based on multiple interests, with which while some doors are closed, it is possible to alternately open others. In Cuba, all possibilities are canceled when they target you because there are two options: yes or no. The autonomy of the institutions that call for contests is, from my perspective, quite questionable. I always thought that I would have more possibilities in any other cardinal point of the world, as painful as that may be, but I would like nothing more than to see the work performed in Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, Open Scene is already preparing a dramatized reading and, according to its executive director, Thamara Bejarano, something else could happen with the work next year within its stage platform, but specifically, at this time, only the reading will take place. If any director is interested, they are welcome! I am very grateful to Open Scene for this award. I don\u2019t think that competitions are necessarily the way to legitimize creative work, but they can be a catalyst in the impulse to continue writing.<\/span><\/p>\n