I had to do quite a tap dance to find this magician, even though I\u2019m not the Tin Man and he wasn\u2019t hiding. It was like a trick: I always see him in the Plaza Vieja wearing his black hat, which makes me think of a gunman; suddenly, when I need him, he\u2019s not there. There he goes, crossing the plaza, his gray beard hiding its owner\u2019s 63 years. He can\u2019t even talk without doing magic.<\/p>\n
When I was 20, I visited the home of Miguel Alfonso Pozo, better known as Clavelito, the famous musician of healing verses: Focus your mind on me\/ and right away you\u2019ll see\/ the power of my thinking\/ will make your life a blessing. I asked him to teach me the trade and he refused. So I turned my back on him and before I left, I told him, \u201cWhether or not you teach me, I\u2019m going to be a magician. Good, bad, or average, but I\u2019m going to be one, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be a very good one.\u201d I was very serious and upset. Before I went out the door, he called to me and showed me some sleights of hand that he asked me to repeat back to him. That\u2019s how I started in this business.<\/p>\n
He asks me to open up my hands and he places a ball in each one. He gave his first performance at a neighborhood block party in the 1970s, together with the clowns known as Los Chorizos. Magic is like medicine: you never stop studying, learning. I open up my hands; one of the little balls has moved. Now one of my hands is empty. A magician who doesn\u2019t stand in front of a mirror for many, many hours will never be a professional; he will remain mediocre. Bzzz, bzzz, another sleight of hand. I\u2019m not sure how many balls I have\u2026 in my hand. I open them up. Now I have three blue balls in the palm of my hand. Behind his thick moustache, a mischievous grin reveals his squirrel-like teeth.<\/p>\n
His name is Armando Jim\u00e9nez Mart\u00ednez\u2014the name of a mogul. Now he is shuffling his cards, and he is very fast, just like he is with words. Magic is universal. I don\u2019t know a single human being who dislikes magic. It\u2019s the only way people like to be tricked. They know that what they\u2019re seeing is not true, but they still enjoy the moment. He looks like he\u2019s swallowing some cards. He winks. Curious onlookers have crowded around us. What they say about magicians hiding things in their sleeves is a myth. They do their tricks with their hands, not their forearms. Suddenly, a row of cards sprouts out of his mouth.<\/p>\n
He knew Juan Tamarid Martell, one of the best conjurers in the world in close-up magic. They shared some tricks and Martell told him that he was good. And if someone who has won five international magic championships tells him that he\u2019s good, he believes it. I pick a card. You\u2019ve let it out of your sight, he tells me. The next generation is guaranteed by his 22-year-old grandson, a circus school graduate who is a magician, acrobat, juggler and clown. Everyone\u2019s laughing at me. I raise my eyes and my card is in his mouth. He grasps the wrist of one of the onlookers and shakes it a bit. Scarcity makes Cuban magicians successful, because it forces them to improvise, to be more creative. He shows the guy who got shaken his watch. Laughter all around. A real magician does not become a criminal, because his heart beats magic, magic, magic… I\u2019m about to leave and two beers appear, real ones. There\u2019s no trick, but it is magical to feel the heat of the afternoon melt away. We shake hands. I\u2019m as happy as the Tin Man when I leave, even though Willard isn\u2019t the Wizard of Oz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
His name is Armando Jim\u00e9nez Mart\u00ednez\u2014the name of a mogul. Now he is shuffling his cards, and he is very fast, just like he is with words. Magic is universal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,43],"tags":[401],"ppma_author":[33559],"class_list":["post-9317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cubans","category-magazine-articles","tag-magic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n