Haydée Arteaga or the Lady of Stories

March 2, 2020

Many years ago Haydeé was a tireless cultural creator and promoter of Cuba. More than a storyteller or promoter, she is a Cuban cultural animator of Latin American significance. She was always admired as a leading figure in oral narration, a teacher who became a living legend.

Not long ago the book "Haydeé Arteaga, Always Living Roots" was published by the Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad. Ediciones Boloña 2018, a treasure that gathers in the voice of the protagonist and her only daughter and dear friends, an unparalleled testimony of the life and work of this exemplary Cuban woman.

"The Lady of Stories," as she has been called over the years, with generosity, simplicity and culture, converses with the reader, who enchanted by her life stories enters the pages with the enjoyment of a friend who accompanies and savors her.

The first section of the text is filled by Haydée herself, with her narrative ability, making her life a story and giving us the opportunity to participate in her open and supportive soul. From her Sagua la Grande, we feel her, her grandmother Leoncia, that Fiesta del Carmen, Olallala sister of Juana, her mother, Quiro, Bruno and so many other memories.

After Sagua, to Havana, school, home, the Hurricane of '26, her adolescence, El Encanto, her Youth, her Children's Cultural Talks, Raúl her partner and her daughter Xiomara.

An intense life kept surprising her, when after the Revolution triumphed, the new plans, the radio, the trips, Old Havana, the health problems of her beloved husband, Xiomara and Eusebio Leal, the Casa de la Obrapía and that Haydée's Group and the Children created in 1980. They fill her with work and sleepless nights.

How was this woman able to maneuver through so many new challenges and serious adversities that her existence presented to her!

Her life results in a collection of anecdotes, passages of wisdom, ranging from what she herself refers to as "the crazy little Black girl to the Lady of Stories."

Other perspectives and anecdotes about Haydée nuance the book with fine literary gleams.

People who admired her, worked with her, formed within the love of the arts, wrote beautiful pages, from her Teacher and School Director, Albertina Pumariega; passing through the Maitre and choreographer, Armando Yuvero, the actress unfortunately deceased, Asseneth Rodríguez; the narrator Elvia Pérez Nápoles; the editor Esteban Llorach; the narrator and President of the Iberoamerican Chair of Scenic Narration, Francisco Garzón Céspedes; the playwright Gerardo Fulleda León; the oral narrator Mayra Navarro who called Haydée an "illuminated visionary," to many other cultural personalities who have known how to leave with their words a beautiful proof of friendship and love.

The work is completed with Appendices, Haydée's Mini-stories, Orders and Distinctions that she has been worthy of and a valuable Graphic Material, specially selected for this volume.

The prologue of the book, by journalist and literary critic, Fernando Rodríguez Sosa.

This biography of a centenarian woman was published in 2018, compiled by Xiomara Calderón Arteaga, her daughter, actress and Artistic and General Director of the Grupo Espacio Abierto, and by Alejandro L. Fernández Calderón, Doctor in Historical Sciences from the Universidad de la Habana and Researcher on issues of racism and race.

It closes with the final words of Miguel Barnet, in a text that the renowned Cuban writer dedicates to the Lady of Stories: "It is good that this book be published because a life like hers deserves it. Perhaps she will surprise us with a hundred more years of life. She is capable."