
{"id":268940,"date":"2023-05-01T19:14:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T23:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=268940"},"modified":"2023-05-01T19:14:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T23:14:30","slug":"wilfredo-torres-most-of-the-editions-of-dedete-in-the-1970s-and-1980s-would-be-seditious-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/columns\/wilfredo-torres-most-of-the-editions-of-dedete-in-the-1970s-and-1980s-would-be-seditious-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilfredo Torres: \u201cMost of the editions of Dedet\u00e9 in the 1970s and 1980s would be seditious today\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wilfredo Torres (Havana, 1950), before being the ceramist he has become over the years, was in charge, between 1971 and 1991, of the art direction of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), undoubtedly the best Cuban satirical publication of all times. Pound for pound, as they say in boxing slang, the team of artists that met there in its moment of splendor had no rival in the country. I venture not even beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the time I worked as a journalist at <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juventud Rebelde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I regularly visited the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> newsroom, or what must have been the newsroom, since there was nothing conventional there. Next to a pair of Manuel\u2019s socks drying on the back of a chair, you could find a splendid drawing of Carlucho. They lived there, joked at all times and with the greatest intensity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had never known a collective that got down to work so joyfully. I would never meet one like it again. It was a Renaissance workshop. At any hour of the day or night, there was someone drawing splendors: I don\u2019t know if the critics have already noticed it, but one of the things that dazzled me the most was that many of the drawings that were produced there \u2014 I\u2019m thinking of Manuel, Ajubel, Carlucho \u2014 could have been hung immediately in a gallery or museum since they lacked the provisional nature, nervous urgency, that journalism imposes. I don\u2019t think those artists tried to pose as virtuosos. They simply could not be otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I liked, above all, the human warmth that its members gave off, their noble mischief, the optimism with which they lived precariousness, their quality of being, smiling and hungry, in the here and now of that time, the overflowing lucidity and\u2026their ability to get girlfriends. What more could a young editor want? Somewhere in the office, they had hung a sign that read: \u201cDo not enter unless required. Avoid being employed.\u201d And I was dying to be required, I was dying to be employed. But I didn\u2019t get it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So much water has gone under the bridge since then. The publication virtually disappeared. It remains as a glorious reference to a peak moment of graphic journalism in the country. Moth-eaten issues of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can still be found in newspaper archives. Every time less. Let\u2019s hope that heritage can be saved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stopped coming out, Torres had to reinvent himself. Today he has a renowned work as a ceramic artist, exhibited in a dozen countries, and he continues to dream of \u201cstarting up again\u201d humorous publications. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S\u00e1tira Opini\u00f3n<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0(2017-2019) and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dos bufones<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2019-2021) are his most recent attempts. In some future editions of this section, I will address his artistic work with clay. Now we focus on those two vertiginous decades in the art direction of the publication.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268943\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268943\" style=\"width: 1140px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268943\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1140\" height=\"815\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2.jpg 1140w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2-1024x732.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2-120x86.jpg 120w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2-350x250.jpg 350w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wilfredo-torres-2-750x536.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1140px) 100vw, 1140px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268943\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wilfredo Torres. Photo: Taken from FB.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>For twenty years you were the art director of <\/i><\/b><b>Dedet\u00e9 (DDT)<\/b><b><i>, which at that time brought together a group of stars. I remember the publication was located in rather dilapidated premises in a building on Teniente Rey Street. How did you get to <\/i><\/b><b>DDT<\/b><b><i>? What were those early years like?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before beginning to answer your questionnaire, I must clarify that my story is personal and, as such, there are many gaps in these answers since it would be an immense job to write the history of this publication, the best humor published in Cuba in the post-revolutionary period.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got at <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 1971, although I had joined the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juventud Rebelde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) newspaper a year earlier. I had come out of the Compulsory Military Service (SMO), and was on probation for twelve months, without salary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That period was very valuable for me since I went through all the art departments of the newspaper. I understood how it worked, I learned a lot about typography, etc. It was my university, in essence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had worked during my stint in Military Service in technical drawing and that practice had given me a fundamental basis for my later development. I come from a family of publicists and architects, and somehow, I always knew that my final destination was going to be graphics. I loved tabloid design, and in fact, followed the world of editorial cartooning since I was a child.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During that probationary year at <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I was able to develop many graphic design and illustration skills. I remember that almost at the end, Virgilio Mart\u00ednez, the artistic director of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, came up to me along with Agust\u00edn Urra, its editorial director, and they suggested I join as a director. It was really exciting to start working with artists that I admired so much.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At that time, the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was made up of Virgilio Mart\u00ednez, Agust\u00edn Urra, and the cartoonists Juan Padr\u00f3n, C\u00e9sar Janer, Tomy, Manuel, Carlucho, a colorist, two editors: Ilse Bulit and Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Capote, and me as a director. Its fundamental collaborators were Hern\u00e1n H, with his <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gugulandia<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and L\u00e1zaro Fern\u00e1ndez, an artist with a magical line and very interesting ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be good to explain how <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> worked in those early years of life. It was a completely different publication from what it was later. From my point of view, it was very anchored in obsolete clich\u00e9s, and the conceptual graphic solutions were not in line with the group of young people that made up the base of the team. I\u2019m talking about Padroncito, Tomy, Manuel and Carlucho.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268944\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268944\" style=\"width: 1140px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268944\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1140\" height=\"815\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete.jpg 1140w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete-1024x732.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete-120x86.jpg 120w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete-350x250.jpg 350w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nota-dedete-750x536.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1140px) 100vw, 1140px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The announcement note of the first issue of DDT in February 1969.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the vicissitudes of fate intervened, and with a stroke of the pen all the people who did not fit into what would become the publication left <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Literally, we were left with the aforementioned cartoonists and me, as the director. At that moment it was decided that Tomy would provisionally take charge of the direction, and that was the essential initial jump to what several years later would be the publication. The creative floodgates were opened from all angles, creating a feverish artistic atmosphere. A short time later, Padroncito also left, and the definitive nucleus that formed the publication for the next 20 years was left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I must emphasize that those of us who made up that basic nucleus were empirical, and we grew by force of work. We all came from the Compulsory Military Service, and we knew the possibility and opportunity that we had in our hands. I remember that at that time we said that we were the owners of a publication that printed 250,000 copies every fortnight and that, due to those strange things of fate, and although many do not believe it, no one clipped our wings at that time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The conflicts would come sometime later. We started and nobody put a brake. You have to give Tomy the recognition of that leap. He was the one who saw the future <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and began to develop it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During that time, the supplement was located on the 5th floor of the newspaper building, on Prado and Teniente Rey streets, in a place we called La Pecera, surrounded by glass, and with really great air conditioning. We had a table tennis table and chess boards. We almost lived there. It was a lot of fun and helped a lot to shape a collective spirit. In fact, Manuel and Tony slept on two sofas that we had between the drawing tables, since they did not have a home in Havana. My experiences of those times and the memories are so pleasant that every day I think about my colleagues and remember a lot of what happened there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But not everything was rosy, nor was that the only place through which the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> transited.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268945\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268945\" style=\"width: 1140px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268945\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1140\" height=\"815\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas.jpg 1140w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas-1024x732.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas-120x86.jpg 120w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas-350x250.jpg 350w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portadas-750x536.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1140px) 100vw, 1140px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268945\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some of the covers of DDT. Each one in charge of the different caricaturists.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A short time later, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper evicted us from the fifth floor and we found ourselves in a small room on the third floor of the publication, where the workshops were. We gave this place the nickname of The Yellow Submarine. It was only for a few months, terrible though. Making each edition was an ordeal. The team scattered, almost on the verge of disappearing. But luckily, they got us out of there and sent us to what became the best possible location for a humorous publication. It was located on Teniente Rey between Zulueta and San Jos\u00e9, next to that famous hotel that advertised itself as having 100 rooms with bathrooms. There we were free again and we began to recover and rebuild what we had lost a short time before as a publication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That place was the one that definitively confirmed the identity of the supplement. It is then that Ajubel enters the publication, and the team rounds off its creative capacity and strengthens its graphic-humorous profile. That\u2019s where the real <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was born. That\u2019s where the myth started.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ren\u00e9 Garc\u00eda and Ardi\u00f3n also arrive as members of the team, thus completing a team of excellent artists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at that point began to get bolder, and as a cultural project it had its ups and downs, but all we were doing was looking for our true identity. Large murals were painted in the office, which became littered with graffiti; it was an inclusive space, and many personalities began to visit us and hold gatherings there. Students, people from the street, came in to sniff and laugh. Seeing caricaturists draw without taboos broke down many barriers between ourselves and helped us loosen the few ties we had left with the handicapped mentally, as the Galician Posada would say. Years later we were transferred to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> again; and, finally, to the Combinado de Peri\u00f3dicos Granma, where in 1992 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was eliminated as a publication and became the last page of the newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There have been multiple attempts to revive the publication by a group of excellent artists, but my perception is that it is no longer possible. Everything has changed, and those great cartoonists, whom I respect, inherited more of a problem than a tradition. The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at its end already had many detractors at the political level who achieved their purpose: to make it disappear and to disperse the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268946\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268946\" style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268946\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"896\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino-1024x573.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino-1536x860.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino-750x420.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/equipo-dedete-quino-1140x638.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clockwise: Rogelio Naranjo (Mexico), Juan Padr\u00f3n (Cuba), Ren\u00e9 Garc\u00eda (Cuba), Tomy (Cuba), Carlucho (Cuba), Joaqu\u00edn Salvador Lavado, \u201cQuino\u201d (Argentina), Alberto Morales, \u201cAjubel\u201d (Cuba), Wilfredo Torres (Cuba), Ernesto Olmedo (Cuba). During the International Exhibition on External Debt, Dedet\u00e9, Havana, 1985. Courtesy of the interviewee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>I mentioned to you the <\/i><\/b><b>DDT<\/b><b><i> dream team. I would like you to characterize each of these artists, for me the vanguard of the collective, and tell me what you think their individual contribution to the publication was: Manuel, Carlucho, Tomy and Ajubel.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a luxury to have four artists of this quality in the supplement. Each one with a perception and style of touching on different topics. Incredibly, everything clicked. It was never difficult to make an edit. There was plenty quality material.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Manuel<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was the genius of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I couldn\u2019t say otherwise. He had the talent to demystify topics that were taboo in the Cuban press at the time. He paved the way for all who have come after. He introduced, at least in Cuba, the use of world-historical facts to criticize national problems. Genius of shapes and contrasts. His particular line gave him an indisputable grace, but at the same time, it provoked the desired reaction in the reader to the seriousness of the subject. A humble and tireless guy, aware of his great talent, but without the need to show it off. Always ready to work with the collective. My admiration and appreciation for him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Carlucho<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was a genius of the so-called white humor. He had the ability to make a joke from different perspectives, without losing its grace and its graphic value. The lack of supporting texts for the joke forced him to develop spectacular compositions.\u00a0 A master of space. Watching him draw on gigantic scales was like taking drawing and composition classes. His sense of life gave him the power to touch on subjects that were forbidden to other cartoonists. He was an essential balance in the development of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. His training and improvement as an artist occurred already working on the publication. His development was dizzying, and his personality made him somewhat mysterious. He did not draw in the publication. He did his works at home and brought them to the newsroom. Always punctual and with supreme quality. He was essential for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I met <\/span><b>Tomy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in 1970, he was already an established artist, despite his youth. In addition to his graphic skills, he was a great organizer. I believe that, together with Virgilio Mart\u00ednez, he was one of the people with the most technological knowledge of how a publication works. His drawings looked like architectural works, and his particular line totally matched his personality. Obsessive with perfection, he always worked until the last minute on his work. From him, I learned to work the films in the final layout of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to enrich the number in progress. His frank personality, but serious and given to saying his criteria, brought us both several discussions. He was that demanding. Today I am grateful to have been able to work with him. He was Jiminy Cricket. A funny and serious guy. Demanding, that\u2019s how this other <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> genius was, who died at the wrong time. I miss him every time I have to find a solution to my graphics problems. Rest in peace, my brother.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ajubel<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> came to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the mid to late 1970s. He came from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mela\u00edto<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a humorous publication in Santa Clara. His drawing was already excellent and contained great humor. Refreshing and carefree. In the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> he acquired the universality that his work lacked. His anthological cartoons, full of philosophy and subliminal messages, quickly revealed his great quality. Also, he fed the essence of the publication quickly. He is another essential genius to understand the role and value of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of those years. His controversial personality and work made him an artist to be respected. His drawing went from one stage to another in the blink of an eye. Defender of the supplement at all costs, he has my admiration and that of all readers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ninety-nine percent of the magazine\u2019s covers during that stage were distributed among these big four creators. Each cover defined the profile of that edition. Hence the variety in design. It was always very comfortable working with all of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I began to design the number that would go to print, we had a world of fun and most of the time the best ideas came from there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>It was evident that you had a lot of fun making the publication.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> became a paradise for all of us. Each issue was made under a festive atmosphere. Of course, within the joking around there was an inviolable principle: to guarantee the quality of each delivery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work was sacred to us, and so it was in good times and hard times. Carrying out the publication in an artisanal and face-to-face way became a festive act. Today, with the use of the Internet, publications have lost that part of the freshness that gives everyone permanence at all times. That attitude also conferred a share of responsibility on all of us equally. There is an anecdote about when Ajubel made the cover with the caricature of Fidel, and together we decided to sign it as \u201cEl Colectivo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today I wake up, already a few years older, and I think how happy I would be if I could go back to work in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with my colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think those of us in that team who still live think the same way. They are the best moments I have spent in the company of such a talented group of friends, different and united at the same time. Working with them was a luxury that life gave me.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268947\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268947\" style=\"width: 1299px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268947\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1299\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro.jpg 1299w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro-693x1024.jpg 693w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro-768x1135.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro-1039x1536.jpg 1039w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro-750x1109.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/portada-dedete-fidel-castro-1140x1685.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1299px) 100vw, 1299px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text: Humor of opinion, for the sake of redundancy.<br \/>Cover signed by \u201cEl Colectivo.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>We know that politicians generally don\u2019t have a very good sense of humor. Can you remember for us any edition that has been particularly controversial? Did <\/i><\/b><b>DDT<\/b><b><i> ever stop coming out because of censorship?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At a high-ranking meeting of the Cuban political class in the 1970s, someone said that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> seemed to be made in Miami. It reached our ears through the director of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juventud Rebelde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who participated in that meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In particular, I no longer support any political party or ideologies, dogmas or religion. I\u2019ve become a little acid regarding that. In all societies there is censorship, and if we talk about humor, much more. Total freedom of expression is a fallacy. An issuer of ideas always has someone higher up who decides what goes and what doesn\u2019t. That is not in dispute.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were many editions of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that were conflicting. Problems with ministries, ministers, politicians&#8230;. It was a daily occurrence and several numbers were censored and burned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember an issue that we dedicated to gastronomy in Havana, and it consisted of a wake. The wake and burial of Inocente Blandito Conforme. That was the name of the deceased, who represented the death of gastronomy in the capital. We built a funeral chapel, a coffin and decorated the premises with chairs, just like a real funeral home. Osmani Simanca was introduced into the coffin and photos were taken and caricatures made. The cover was a full-page photo of the wake, with a text that strengthened the idea and mentioned the name of the deceased. Everything was going wonderfully, but the day the edition came out, Agostino Neto, president of Angola, died. That was the sentence of that issue of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The relationship that could be established between one dead person and another was very evident.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Ajubel\u2019s caricature of Fidel appeared on the cover, everything went well until it reached \u201cabove.\u201d It only circulated in some parts of Havana. The rest of the edition was incinerated. That case was scandalous for us, but luckily it didn\u2019t go beyond that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-268948\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1329\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete.jpg 1329w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete-300x149.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete-1024x509.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete-768x381.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete-360x180.jpg 360w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete-750x372.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caricaturas-dedete-1140x566.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1329px) 100vw, 1329px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In one edition, Manuel and I put a caption on an image that subliminally alluded to a character. The issue came out and after a while the director of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juventud Rebelde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> called us and Carlucho, as director at that time. We met and he informed us that we had two options: face a lawsuit because of that caption in the photo, with legal consequences, or burn the entire edition and between the three of us pay for the print run in full. That included layout, printing, shipping, etc. I don\u2019t remember the total amount anymore, but that was the option we chose. The three of us had been paying for that prank for more than two years. But we really had a laugh and those risks are part of the job of a publication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would like to argue my opinion that the closure of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as a publication was a vendetta. We were already doomed, and the Special Period was used to shut us down. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Palante<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> continued with an edition with less circulation, it is true, but it did not disappear. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mela\u00edto<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> continued coming out in Villa Clara&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who to blame? The authorities of the newspaper, who did nothing to defend the publication. On the other hand, my sense of smell leads me to Carlos Aldana. It was an abuse to disintegrate a team of artists that had won the admiration of readers, with a large number of international and national awards obtained by its members, including the prize awarded in 1985 to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as the best publication of its kind in the world. Award given in Forte Dei Marmi, Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268949\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268949\" style=\"width: 1785px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268949\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1785\" height=\"1512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983.jpg 1785w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983-300x254.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983-1024x867.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983-768x651.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983-1536x1301.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983-750x635.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/ajubel-dedete-1983-1140x966.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1785px) 100vw, 1785px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268949\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drawing by Ajubel published in \u201cDedet\u00e9\u201d in 1983.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>What was the most difficult thing about doing humor in Cuba at the time?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is always difficult to make humor, and it was not only difficult in the Cuba of those years. Making caricatures alone has a commitment, but when it is inserted into a publication, this commitment increases. In those years, making humor was complex, but we had gained a lot of experience and we overcame an infinite number of problems. I think that sometimes we were brave, and in others, luck had an influence. There have always been censors and red priests (so said Samuel Feij\u00f3o). We also had people who defended us, and that was very important. Today most of the editions of the 1970s and 1980s would be seditious. The same would happen with the ICAIC Newscasts that were dedicated to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. By the way, ICAIC made a documentary on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that was never shown. We didn\u2019t even see the final edit. What happened? I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s a bad memory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We never asked permission to touch on a subject, but, of course, we knew we had to be serious, and we handled ourselves with that criteria. We learned to review the edition before the final printout, and in this way many things were able to happen. A publication has many rough aspects, and knowing how to exploit them became a weapon to avoid censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They withdrew many things from us (they were for that) and approved others (those that interested us). It wasn\u2019t always like that, of course, and it cost us tremendous rows. Those were incredible times, and today I am still amazed at the many things we were able to do. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dedet\u00e9<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> did several unique things for a humor publication of its kind. One was when we signed the famous caricature of Fidel made by Ajubel as \u201cEl Colectivo.\u201d The signature was as strong as the caricature. It was a cry of protest against censorship and in favor of the freedom to publish compromised humor. The author was also protected, of course, but I think it was a very brave attitude from the whole team. I have not seen any other publication in the world that has done something like this. Remembering today is fun, but they were actions that were very committed to our work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Caricaturists in Cuba are in worse conditions than us, although I must say that I know of the high quality they have.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268950\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268950\" style=\"width: 1188px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268950\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1188\" height=\"1149\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin.jpg 1188w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin-300x290.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin-1024x990.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin-768x743.jpg 768w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin-750x725.jpg 750w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/caronte-y-su-violin-1140x1103.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1188px) 100vw, 1188px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cCaronte y su viol\u00edn,\u201d by Wilfredo Torres.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>How did you start in ceramics?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started in the world of ceramics as a hobby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the end of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I ended up as chief designer of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juventud Rebelde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but that was torture for me. It was precisely then that I found ceramics. In those early days of working on my new expression, Leonardo Padura and Luc\u00eda L\u00f3pez Coll, his wife, visited me weekly. They arrived on their Chinese bicycles and made a stop to drink water, coffee, and smoke a cigarette. There we laughed at my pieces. I remember Padura saying that my vases did not look like vases or ashtrays. That they made no sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luckily, I had friends who helped me during those early days. Oscar Cepero and F\u00faster were my mentors, and I will always thank them for what I learned. For a while, I was not well. The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDT<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> shutdown made me depressed, and I didn\u2019t know what to do; I felt terrible. I started building my ceramics workshop and was able to make my first kiln. The one who gave me the click of the path to follow was Salvador Gonz\u00e1lez, engraver, painter and designer; he was the one who told me that I should transfer my concept of graphics-humor to ceramics, and from there I began to unravel my life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Converting two-dimensional concepts and perceptions to three-dimensional ones was an arduous and difficult task.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember that Alejandro Alonso, director of the Museum of Ceramics in Cuba, now deceased, invited me to exhibit some work at the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, in the city of Havana, during a Plastic Arts Biennial, and it happened that a Dominican gallery owner invited me and Fuster to exhibit in Santo Domingo. I even remember the name of the exhibition, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guajiros y m\u00e1quinas<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Fuster exhibited paintings and I ceramics. It was my acid test. An epic journey that opened many doors for me. The rest was a lot of work.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268951\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268951\" style=\"width: 656px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Maquina-de-escribir.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268951\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Maquina-de-escribir.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"656\" height=\"644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Maquina-de-escribir.jpg 656w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Maquina-de-escribir-300x295.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Maquina-de-escribir-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 656px) 100vw, 656px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268951\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Typewriter \/ New York, by Wilfredo Torres. Year 2017. Terracotta, ceramic glass.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>Do you feel particularly identified with any present current of artistic ceramics? How would you define your style? What are the recurring themes that emerge in your work?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have always said that I am a designer who makes ceramics. My ability to see two-dimensional what will later be a three-dimensional work has helped me a lot in my work. Also, the fact of knowing how to draw allows me to develop ideas on paper before dabbling in clay. I use ceramic support to promote my graphic-satirical vision of the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I try to carry out series of the same idea, and most of the time I have to cook the piece several times. The fact of working and living outside of Cuba has allowed me to collide with cutting-edge technologies in the ceramic world, although I confess that having trained in Cuba has always given me an advantage. I know how to build my materials and tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is no secret that in Cuba it is extremely difficult to obtain any material. That is critical and discouraging, but those who manage to overcome those pitfalls are true potters. Being an artist is something else. You have to see the world from a personal perception and be imaginative. Technological knowledge is not enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I really like an American artist, from San Francisco, Robert Arneson. His work is in the same structure as mine. I have never sought perfection in my work. I try that the communication with the receiver is above something perfectionist. I have been criticized for that, but it is my way of seeing the world, with its defects and virtues. Arneson is similar. His work often appears to be unfinished, but it is something that is an intrinsic part of his thinking as a creator.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_268952\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-268952\" style=\"width: 498px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pez-volador.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-268952\" src=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pez-volador.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"981\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pez-volador.jpg 498w, https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/pez-volador-152x300.jpg 152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-268952\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cPez volador,\u201d by Wilfredo Torres. Year 2005. Terracotta, ceramic glass.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former art director still wakes up thinking how happy he would be if he could go back to work with his colleagues from that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3770,"featured_media":268942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,14135],"tags":[6224,24384],"ppma_author":[34037],"class_list":["post-268940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion","tag-cuban-humorist","tag-humor-in-cuba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wilfredo Torres: \u201cMost of the editions of Dedet\u00e9 in the 1970s and 1980s would be seditious today\u201d | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta 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