Yunior García Aguilera

Yunior García Aguilera is an actor and playwright who has been able to deliver a valid theatrical repertoire. His critical perspective toward Cuban theater makes him an eternal inquirer of new ways of speaking and creating, in order to imbue his works with a seal of originality. He started writing for people like himself, but has also wanted to pass on to future generations knowledge of current Cuban reality.

Professional Trajectory
In fourth grade he began to act and write. Along with two classmates he created his own group, called Arroz con pollo, with which they conceived fundamentally humorous performances.

Since he began doing theater in Holguín, he joined the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS), which gave him the opportunity to participate in workshops, share experience with other creators, attend meetings and publish his works.

For a time he assumed the artistic direction of the theatrical company Alas Buenas, a group with a repertoire for both children and adults. This is how works emerged such as Todos los hombres son iguales and Sangre, the latter winning seven awards at the National Festival of Small Format Theater in Santa Clara.

At age 17, Yunior passed the entrance exams to the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) in acting. It was there that he learned to see theater not as a game but as a profession.

Alas Buenas prepared him to later participate in the creation of Trébol Teatro, a project founded in 2003 by young actors graduated from the ENA, which emerged from the need to create their own discourse, to say what interested them as young artists, creating a space that gave freedom to innovate, not only from a thematic point of view, but also aesthetic.

He graduated as an actor with the Teatro de la Luna group in 2003, with La boda, a piece by Virgilio Piñera with honors in his dramaturgy studies at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA). He completed his studies at the ISA.

He participated in a workshop for playwrights offered by the Royal Court Theatre in La Habana. Subsequently they held a competition and he was selected, being invited to participate in writing a play that they planned to premiere in London during the 2012 Olympic Games.

He has had the opportunity to share with writers from other countries (Dominican Republic, Colombia, Mexico and United Kingdom, Brazil, United States and Nigeria).

He has written screenplays for television. Among the series he has written is SOS, academia, directed by Rubén Consuegra. Also for film: Ni pocos ni locos, Cerdo (Fiction short film made in 2018) presented at the 40th edition of the International Festival of Latin American Cinema.

He works as an artistic director, playwright and filmmaker. He has participated in editions of the Young Film Showcase. He presents at the 18th edition of the Showcase with the fiction work Fuga.

He participated in the demonstration of young artists that took place on November 27, 2020 at the doors of the Ministerio de Cultura (MINCULT).

In an interview granted to OnCubaNews, Yunior recounts:

I was a Jehovah's Witness for five years and that period marked me in many ways. On one hand, I immersed myself in the fascinating world of biblical stories, something that opened my appetite for other readings. I learned about brotherhood and fraternity. I assumed, perhaps too early, responsibilities before a group of people who saw me as a leader and who approached me, a beardless moth, seeking advice.

I recognize that I developed skills in oratory and trained myself for debate, although I must admit that it was all for proselytizing purposes. However, and here comes another dark side of the story, belonging to this religion prevented me from having the right to a good career upon finishing my basic secondary studies.

Despite having one of the highest academic grades, having gone each year to field schools, being disciplined to the extreme, the teachers decided that I did not meet the conditions of a comprehensive "young revolutionary." It was useless that I cited the Constitution of the Republic or that my classmates voted in my favor. The faculty did not give up. They took advantage of the fact that I got chickenpox around that time, they met with the students without my presence and warned them that if I were endorsed, I would steal from them the opportunity to get a good university degree.

Later I found out that the discussion was not simple, but the argument that convinced the majority was that they would be doing me a favor. After all, my goals were to go around from house to house, with the Bible under my arm. Surely I would not withstand the rigors of university. So, upon recovering from chickenpox, I discovered that the only career I was entitled to was masonry, at a trade school.

My parents, who were neither religious nor totally in agreement with my beliefs, managed to convince an education official to grant me a better opportunity for studies. And so it was. I studied Civil Construction for two years at a polytechnic in my native Holguín.

But adolescence was already in process and doubts and crises of conscience began. At age 16, I was expelled for apostasy. I took to discussing a directive from the religious leadership, they held a trial with several elders for seven days, and warned me that I could never greet another Jehovah's Witness again.

I think that's when my mustache came in. The entire universe I had created over the last five years came crashing down.

I had to quickly build another one. Three months later, I moved to La Habana and entered the Escuela Nacional de Arte to study Acting.

A good part of who I am and how I write is there: myth and liturgy, heresy and punishment, lost paradise and denial of hell. But above all… free will. I have never been able to trace a closed destiny for any of my characters. They decide for themselves on each page. They never do or say what I imagined of them when I conceived them.

Yunior participated in the July 11 demonstrations in Ciudad de La Habana. He was part of a group of young people who positioned themselves in front of the building of the Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión to request permission to speak for 15 minutes on one of the national radio stations.