Chamaquili represents all Cuban children

May 10, 2021

Chamaquili, "the one with worries," walks thoughtfully from one corner to another. He calls Doctor Durán to find out if there is medicine against the pandemic of indiscipline. If he feels a bit feverish, he knows he should get a CDR ¡code! a PCR.

Chamaquili asks Mapá many questions about that "critter" that has the little ones stuck at home and wearing masks. "Chamaquili is Chamaquili. He is inspired by all the boys and girls. He is synonymous with a small child, clever, inquisitive," says Alexis Díaz-Pimienta, the author dad of 22 Chamaquili books and who, "in one go," wrote Chamaquili and the Pandemic, which is being brought to television by a team from La Colmenita.

The idea for this new text was born —recalls Carlos Alberto (Tin) Cremata— "from a hunch by Muma (Claudia Alvariño Díaz), a current teacher and former La Colmenita child, who from La Colmena TV became the artistic co-director of our honey bunch."

Lucas, Claudia Alvariño's five-year-old son, "is overflowing with very likeable reactions," so she asked that popular improviser, poet and writer to write a Chamaquili for her son.

Muma's request was for Alexis "an impulse." When the first poem saw the light, he never thought that what would follow would be 50 pages full of delicious verses that awaken the Chamaquili that we all carry inside. "I couldn't stop! It's the longest Chamaquili book of all. I wrote it on my cell phone, that same night. I went to bed around five in the morning. The next day I transferred it to the computer, corrected it, and sent it to him.

Cremata "went crazy." They decided they would do it for television. No sooner said than done! Cuban TV immediately opened its doors, arms and heart to the project." Tin, who had "the muses on vacation," fell into a "creative enlightenment" when reading the poems. That afternoon he returned home dreaming, "immensely happy," about bringing those "wonders" to the screen.

For her part, Muma had been a dedicated student of Ángel Alderete, Roly Peña and Danylo Sirio. In her La Colmena TV experience she learned "by watching those masters work." Precisely, for Tin the main satisfaction has been "the discovery of Muma, who does almost everything!, she is the director of photography, cameraman, editor, lighting technician, sound assistant, set designer and co-general director of this journey, and all of that with a 'crazy little one' and a baby girl who take up a lot of her time."

Although the coronavirus limited "the contacts, travel and the honeyed warmth" they are accustomed to, the Colmenita members did not yield to the challenge of doing everything practically inside their homes. "Along with our sound director Janet Rodríguez del Sol, first the voice is recorded, which is the most complex, then the images are filmed and then Muma edits. Immediately her husband, the excellent musician René Baños, director of Vocal Sampling, equalizes and composes the music, and a team made up of Liuba Reyes, Claudia Garlobo (our props master) and a couple of magical designers, Annelis and Hanssel, from La Colmenita's Communication Group, add subtitles and the opening and closing frames, from their homes," Tin details.

Also, "without the support of Cuban Television the Chamaquilis would be gathering dust. As soon as they met our protagonist they became, enchanted, his uncles and aunts and grandparents." La Colmenita creates among its members a kind of family that transcends the rehearsal space and the stage. United by that contagious warmth of honey, among René, Muma and their two children and Tin, his wife Liset and little Damiancito, who inspired a poem by Alexis, more than 90% of all the production of these episodes is carried out, which pause household activities to bring together different generations from each Cuban home in front of the small screen.

Without a doubt, the production of Chamaquili and the Pandemic is being a constant learning experience for those creators who knock on the doors of our imagination, bringing us, in a magical and well-thought-out way, a message that urgently needs to be heeded not only by the youngest. "The chamaquilian messages are from the children, but not exclusively for them, but rather, and especially for adults, who are the ones who have the most to do to ensure that responsibility prevails."

Although the episodes of Chamaquili and the Pandemic last as long as a poem, several popular guests among Cubans have contributed to this troop to spread their message. "The idea is for the most beautiful of Cuba's soul to interact with Chamaquili. We exclude no one, what is important is that they are Cuban, that everyone knows how much they love Cuba and how much Cuba loves them."

Tin recounts that this audiovisual adventure has become a bridge to one of La Colmenita's greatest dreams. Next summer, when epidemiological conditions permit, production will begin on a series of three-minute television shorts, "that will tell —as deeply as we can—, how we feel and love Cuba and all its heroes. There Lucas is not going to be Chamaquili, because Chamaquili is all the children, but his character will be called by his own name, and he will have two little friends: Pepito, the one from the stories, and María del Carmen, the one from La Colmena tv, with texts that Llanisca Lugo is writing, the author of the show Abracadabra."

For his part, Alexis Díaz-Pimienta —"happy, moved, exultant, reborn"— has continued writing. "I hope that when Cuban children grow up and see the pandemic as a distant nightmare, at least they remember with a smile that, in that time, Chamaquili was born, 'the one with worries,' the one who said '¿Coronavirus with me? They don't know me, Mapá!'".