Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera, humor for a nation five years after his physical departure

July 4, 2020

Upon his departure, his smile could not have faded. Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera is one of those essential figures in Cuban culture who leaves a deep debt of gratitude in our souls. Like few others, he was able to show us his firm conviction in the belief that there is no greater happiness than doing good to others, and for that reason he chose the art of humor to deliver it as spiritual nourishment that contributes to making the human condition more beautiful and noble.

This prestigious intellectual made us look inward at details that characterize our realities from ingenious perspectives. It was no accident at all that those witty monologues about La Guagua and La Jaba remain as classic repositories of customs of these times. Only a person with the cultural mastery that distinguished him could make us laugh out loud with the monologue about El Camello, and then move us with that other one dedicated to a tin can, in which a sun shines that is born from its interior, and finally make us think about the advice of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to endorse life in all its fullness.

Continuing the demanding Chaplinesque precepts of how to tackle the creation of a work that would relax the receiver spiritually, for this National Prize for Humor, the value of each person's innate talent is one thing, but another is that he considered, as a rigorous professional obligation, the study and practice that were necessary to consolidate the staging of a scene. That is why none of his proposals show the cracks of improvisation and bad taste.

Five years after his journey to immortality, this July 3rd, the name of Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera is in the memory of those of us who know that he gave everything to Cuba to preserve the splendor in the smile of a nation.