{"id":304954,"date":"2024-07-03T19:20:14","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T23:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=304954"},"modified":"2024-07-03T20:40:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T00:40:17","slug":"rainbow-warriors-are-not-afraid-of-the-truth-about-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/rainbow-warriors-are-not-afraid-of-the-truth-about-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow warriors are not afraid of the truth about themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou want me to hold it?\u201d <\/span>Cedric Leiba<\/b><\/a> asks and everyone laughs at the possibility of him holding the pocket recorder as if it were a microphone that he points at his mouth in search of confessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The phrase, which alludes to the familiarity of the artifact in the hands of two experienced artists, triumphs in the air of the cozy and cool Fangio Restaurant, of the Claxon Boutique Hotel, in El Vedado, an exclusivity of the thriving private initiative in Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cedric has plenty of grace. \u201cWait there, I have to call Biden and then I\u2019ll tell you\u201d\u00a0 he responds, taking his cell phone when asked his date of birth. \u201cThere is reason to hide it,\u201d he adds with throat clearing, grimaces, and muttered words preceding a raucous laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ancestors<\/b><\/p>\n

His humor is coded in his genetics. Puerto Rican, for more details. He was born in 1981 in Santurce, a neighborhood\/district of the municipality of San Juan renamed a century ago (Cangrejos was its original name due to the profusion of crustaceans) and whose population then was made up, for the most part, of blacks, browns, and mulattoes, all free.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad is from the Bronx and my mom was born in Puerto Rico, but she moved to Brooklyn when she was a child. After [the couple] they moved to Puerto Rico because they had money problems in New York,\u201d says the actor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cedric is an identity that reverberates behind his foul language. He seasons it with ethnic lucidity and an almost electroshock mimicry, like a character straight out of Pixar or a stand-up comedy comedian. And although the gags may have been seen in others, his authenticity renews them. There is talent.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the guarantees provided by his casualness make it possible to ask whatever you want and point blank.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born for the second time<\/b><\/h4>\n

Is it difficult to come out in the United States right now?<\/b><\/p>\n

We couldn\u2019t speak for the entire community. It\u2019s never going to be easy, it depends on a case-by-case basis, but I think it\u2019s difficult when people are religious, or when they come from communities that are not so progressive, but I have friends who were born in progressive places and it\u2019s still difficult. I always say it\u2019s like being born again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being freed!<\/b><\/p>\n

The world changes completely when you come out of the closet and it\u2019s not easy for anyone, because you have to navigate the world differently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deltona and the awareness of Puerto Ricanness<\/b><\/h4>\n

How many years did you live in Puerto Rico?<\/b><\/p>\n

Twelve years. In 1993 we moved to Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n

To what city?<\/b><\/p>\n

To Deltona. The joke is that that place is like a small Puerto Rico, because everyone who lives there, or the majority, is Puerto Rican.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you miss the island?<\/b><\/p>\n

When I lived there I always wanted to be American and asked why we lived there; I wanted to be in the United States; at Disney World; I want to appear on American television shows. I was not happy on the island, because in our house the atmosphere was very American. My own name Cedric, is Anglo-Saxon. (From Old English Cerdic, name of a Saxon king; the name is believed to have been invented by the writer Walter Scott in his 1819 novel, <\/span>Ivanhoe<\/span><\/i>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

And your parents, from a cultural perspective were.\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

My parents learned Spanish when they moved to Puerto Rico. Their mothers spoke Spanish with them, but in the United States, you have to improve your English to be able to improve and survive. And that\u2019s why they couldn\u2019t perfect and improve their Spanish. My environment was always strongly American.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, living in Deltona was a gift…<\/b><\/p>\n

It was curious, because when I moved to Florida I felt for the first time the pride of being Puerto Rican, because it was the first time I had an experience with racism and how Puerto Ricans all came together to support each other to survive in America. Now I feel very Puerto Rican, and looking back at my childhood, I remember that school teaches you to have a deep pride for the island and your ancestors.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tremendous pride. I remember when <\/span>Dayanara Torres<\/b><\/a> won the Miss Universe pageant. It was tremendous. The island closed completely. I lived in front of the airport and I gave my grandmother a treat, because I went to see Dayanara land and there was a big parade, and it was like that with everything that was Puerto Rican.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cedric Leiba Jr. (Santurce, Puerto Rico, 1981), in Havana. Photo: \u00c1ngel Marqu\u00e9s Dolz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBad hair\u201d<\/b><\/h4>\n

Tell me about your father.<\/b><\/p>\n

My father is Jamaican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican; but he grew up with his mother, who is Puerto Rican. My grandfather was Cuban and Jamaican. Dad is black-black, and I remember sometimes, when I was a child, that I didn\u2019t want him to be near me. One day I told him: \u201cOh, dad, I wish you had straight hair.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I wondered why I had a black father and saying all that now as an adult and especially after how I have been received in New York and the audiences for my work, how the industry forced me to take more pride in my blackness, to do activism. for my dad, for the ancestors, for my friends who suffer for being black, for having, as the phrase says, \u201cbad hair\u201d\u2026. All of this makes me feel super proud of my blackness and I identify as Afro-Puerto Rican, and I don\u2019t deny the Spanish and the indigenous blood that flows through my veins, but it\u2019s to give more focus to that black community that suffers so much throughout all of America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Curriculum vitae<\/b><\/p>\n

Cedric Leiba Jr. has never had it easy. Building a reputable career on the U.S. scene has been brick by brick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Theater, film and television actor, singer, poet, dancer, writer, producer and civil rights advocate, Cedric was nominated for the 2024 Tony Awards for Best Musical for his work as co-producer of <\/span>Hell\u2019s Kitchen<\/i><\/b><\/a>, about the singer, songwriter, music producer and actress Alicia Keys.<\/span><\/p>\n

The play received the most Tony nominations this year with 13, tied with the play <\/span>Stereophonic<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n