Juan Evangelista Valdés Veitía

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Distinguished barber, poet, journalist and revolutionary. In his honor, there exists in Cuba the Day of the Barber and Hairdresser, which is celebrated every December 27th –since 1947–, the birthday of this figure barely remembered by historiography. His name, like that of the 16th century barber-surgeon Juan Gómez, have been vindicated by the Artecorte Project, headed by barber Gilberto Valladares Reina (Ciudad de La Habana, 1969), Papito. This cultural project works on the rescue and dissemination of the history of barbering and hairdressing in Cuba.

In 1946, the date of the Day of the Barber and Hairdresser was legally implemented in our country. It was an initiative that was due to the poet and also senator Pastor del Río.

Juan Veitía was of very humble origin and with a sad childhood, having lost his mother when he was only five years old, he educated himself by learning the trades of barber and printer while cultivating poetry, interested in the nascent sport of baseball he was also one of the first to perform the functions of official scorer of games around 1889.

A man of great tenacity, by the early nineties of the nineteenth century he owned a premises on San Juan Bautista Street No. 4 (Luís Estévez) that served as a Barbershop and Printing Shop with the name "El Iris". The barbershop occupied two premises on Luís Estévez Street, it was a true literary gathering place where the talents of the time tested their abilities as orators, writers or poets, usually gathering there illustrious personalities of the locality such as Luís Estévez, Enrique Villuendas, Manuel Serafín Pichardo, Van Horne and others.

At one time it also served as a printing shop specialized in photoengraving (a novel technique for the time) the first one that existed in the city in 1893-1895, founded by José B. Cornide and handled by his son Pepe, Erasmo Álvarez and Juan E. Valdés himself, who cut and mounted them. It was a center of conspiracy during the 1895 conflict, in it friends who were leaving for the revolution used to say goodbye, Florentino especially remembers the farewell on a rainy morning of the violinist and composer of the Villaclara Hymn: Néstor Palma.

At the time Florentino refers to, the weekly "El Mosaico" was edited in the barbershop premises, of which Valdés was the editor and printer, with a quality comparable to those edited in Havana and other important cities of the world.

During the 1895 conflict, Veitía cooperated with the Club "Juan Bruno Zayas" with several donations and in the printing shop rebel and libertarian proclamations were produced, later he joined the board of the Club Martí which was distinguished by its close ties with Máximo Gómez.

Upon conclusion of the conflict, the said Club organizes in the Barbershop itself, under Valdés' proposal, the "Committee of Relics of the Homeland" that exhumed in the fields and brought to the cemetery the remains of more than 150 Cubans fallen in the struggle. Beginning their work with those of Néstor Palma on October 10, 1899 and concluding their activities in 1902 when they buried them in the Pantheon dedicated to the martyrs of independence.

In his cultural work our barber was a notable chronicler, he compiled the historical events of Villa Clara, exalting our glories, daily through the press he remembered martyrs, heroes and those who in some way had distinguished themselves in life. He was a writer, journalist and director of publications such as "La Unión" and "El Eco de Villaclara". He collaborated in "El Mosaico", "La Ristra", "La Revista Villaclareña", "La Esquila", "El Pueblo", "El Republicano", "El Comercio", "Blanco y Negro", "El Propagandista", "El Independiente", "La Semana", "La Publicidad", "El Demócrata" and many others. As a poet he frequently used the pseudonym J. de Selva.

He died in Santa Clara on October 19, 1918. By agreement of October 27, 1918, the City Council decided to replace the name of Palma Street with that of Juan E. Valdés, in honor of all his merits in favor of Santa Clara culture and national independence.

In honor of this distinguished personality, the "Day of the Cuban Barber" is celebrated on the day of his birth.