If a “pinareña” could control a hurricane

Hurricanes and cyclones make me feel the same as with my childhood memories, I do not know when the first one occurred, I do not have the exact idea of what my initial experience was like under the effects of such an “intense” climatic event.

Yes, for those who like the nomenclature, a hurricane might be a meteorological phenomenon of intense proportions that originates in the Caribbean Sea. It might also be a system of winds of extraordinary force that forms a vortex and moves round in great circles.

A hurricane is a HURRICANE for the “pinareños”. It does not have exact definitions and neither conceptual delimitations.

The perceptions, even, change with the age. In the early years, just being a frank infant, to say “cyclone” or “hurricane” meant “vacations”: days without going to school, playing at home in the hours of storm, doing roam in the neighborhood in the recuperation phase, eating a lot –almost everything from the refrigerator to avoid them from getting rotten due to the days without electric power-, playing hide-and-seek during the nights to come.

With the passing of the time, the dimensions changed. Then, a cyclone was to help the parents buy food; assure the windows with sticks and nylon; learn to cook the meat, so that it can be preserved for days submerged in fat; get practice in lighting “quinqués” and lamps invented with empty tins of soda and some kerosene; keep working a handcuff radio, older than grandmother’s rocking chair, in case the batteries are used off; become experts in playing domino in the nights, even with the light of a candle, when we have to wait for the electric power for more than five days.

Now, a cyclone is not the same thing. With the years and the maturity. We understand all the extensions of the dilemma. And a cyclone is house, family, friends, people, and country. We worry about our own material goods, but offer shelter to those who do not have a sure roof. We also offer food and money, though we do not have more than enough. We take care of the children of others.

Because a cyclone in Pinar del Rio is a disaster and an alliance as well. Perhaps in few occasions we feel human heat and solidarity in such a magnitude like in those moments when my hose is your house and my food is your food. I am your family.

And, when we reach this “divine elevation” in the scale of feelings and towards a coming cyclone-hurricane, we do not stop being astonished when these events get to no adapted zones to these sways. We get to think, even in a lapse of environmental sadomasochism: “It is better it passes through Pinar del Río.”

Because the “pinareños”, with the passing of the time, have become baseball players, tobacco growers, and mainly meteorologists. We believe we forecast the weather like Rubiera does, instruct like Rubiera, at times, we think we are better than Rubiera.

Rubiera says what the hurricane’s name is, which its course is, what time it will pass, what effects it will bring… But a “pinareño” can explain to you how to close the house better, how to avoid a box of air, how to assure the windows, where to find refuge inside the house in case of emergency, how to bolster and safeguard the roof, how to have a foreseen case for extreme instances (it cannot lack), how to keep the food, by which means we can be informed when the telephones fail… how to get quiet.

A “pinareño” in these instants cannot avoid thinking of the “guantanameros” friends, and all the friends from the eastern region, and all those who live there. Thinking of them is also suffering. Seeing the forecasts is just as if the hurricane came over us right now; sending very didactic and extensive mails to tell them what they can do; recharge the cell phone with the little monthly money that still lasts, to offer information once in a while, if the means of communication are working.

At this point, it looks like we are Masters in Social Sciences of Hurricanes. I imagine that those who have gray hair can defend a Doctorate in the topic.

We only feel sorry that, these days, grandmother is not alive to say those endless and relaxing prayers before a candle and the virgin, asking the curse waters and winds not to increase that much, and the “ill-bred one” stray from its course, and that no one die, that no many houses fall down, and that nothing very serious happen.

As if the “pinareños” could manage the hurricanes.

NOTES:

• Pinareño: Someone born in Pinar del Río Province, Cuba.
• Guantanamero: Someone born in Guantánamo Province, Cuba.
• Quinqué: Kerosene lamp.