Omar Quintero Pays a Vow by Walking from Havana to Santiago de Cuba

February 3, 2022

When science threw up its hands and every medical report offered no hope, Omar Quintero Montes de Oca ran to a corner of Havana's cancer hospital to ask for a miracle. It was 14 days of an unequal struggle with death. And now 10 years have passed.

"My vow to walk from Havana to El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba is for the health of my little son—he tells those he encounters by the cart and even those who call his cell phone to encourage him—. If she saved him I would go and here I am. Surviving a mediastinal tumor, after they operated on him, they couldn't do anything else and today the tumor is in the same place, without metastasizing, I think that's uncommon."

He left his house in Marianao at 5:50 in the morning on January 15 with the blessing of his mother and the embraces of two brothers and a neighbor. They saw him leave with the white cart on four wheels and a red roof, where he protects the image made of tin of the Patron Saint of Cuba, his companion for more than 20 years.

"I adore her. I wake up and sleep with my little Virgin. Also, I carry Yemayá in my heart."

Not a day has gone by that he hasn't prayed to her. And since he began his journey she has guided him. From time to time, he holds on to photos of his 36-year-old son Lázaro Quintero Bermúdez, which he keeps on his cell phone. His physical changes and the damned scar in the middle of his chest redouble his strength to continue in search of his spiritual roots.

"My little son was a strong, beautiful boy. He liked to exercise and one day he started having pain. We thought it was from those activities. When they took an X-ray they found the tumor. And that's when it all began.

"He can barely walk because he gets very tired. He sleeps sitting up. It hurts me to talk with him because I know he feels bad. He coughs and the phlegm is constant. Sometimes he needs to go to the clinic for oxygen and he goes, according to shifts, to the hospital. He's continued receiving radiation, but not chemotherapy. Also, he has his own saints that help him.

"He calls me constantly to find out where I am and how I'm doing. I'm already 56 years old, I'm hypertensive and I suffer from a herniated disc that hasn't even noticed my walking. My preparation to face this journey is only psychological. The strength is there, so much so that I've been smoking since I was 14 and now I realize I'm intact. I climbed the hills of Matanzas like it was nothing. Of course, I know that much of that is my faith."

Sancti Spíritus Has No Comparison

It was enough to be seen under the sun or huddled at some stop or doorway, avoiding the cold of the nights, for the alarm to go viral on social networks: "A man is walking to El Cobre for his son!", "If you see the Promise Payer, help him"… are some of the phrases that made Omar Quintero's pilgrimage newsworthy.

As he passes along the Central Highway he receives the solidarity of the people. Photo: Taken from Facebook.

"Since San José I've received a lot of help. I promised not to sleep in any private house, but outside them, and since both my Little Virgin of Charity and Yemayá are of water, I can only bathe in the rivers, even if I have to break the ice of their waters.

"But what I experienced from Placetas to Sancti Spíritus has been unimaginable. I'm taking from here a stone of affections, because this is truly a town of real Cubans. I left with faith, but the faith perceived in escorting me gives me much more to arrive."

He speaks of the reception in yayabera land. Almost 12 hours passed from Guayos to the provincial capital. Along the edge of the Central Highway a human sea awaited him. Some with food gifts, money, offerings and others to take photos and tell him they support him. More than 20 motorcycles and citizens on foot followed him for long stretches until he found a safe shelter to rest for a few hours at the Delio Luna Echemendía Fairground, thanks to solidarity efforts by members of the Facebook group Te aviso. Aquí hay.

"There was a moment when I almost fainted and my blood pressure went up, because there were so many people surrounding me and the horns and music from the motorcycles. My head went: boom!

In the city of Sancti Spíritus a human sea welcomed him. Photo: Taken from Facebook.

"I have no words to thank them. They gave me so many things that I can't carry because the weight of my cart impedes my march. I will share what I don't need with those who do. When I return to Havana, I want to use the leftover money to buy toys and donate them to children with cancer. This has been a brotherhood. I hope that in the rest of the towns it doesn't happen like here, because then it will be much harder for me to continue.

"Sancti Spíritus has no comparison. The immense blessing of my Virgin stays here, because of the greatness of her people."

There have also been constant calls. Those who met him on his way still follow him and even those who discover him in photos want to join the popular support.

"I've had to turn off my cell phone to move forward, because people from Santiago de Cuba have already told me they're waiting for me. There was a two-year-old boy from Colón, Matanzas that brought tears to my eyes. I'm a humble Cuban, a worker for 14 years in a food processing center, a lover of this country. I even have a letter from my boss attesting that they know and support this decision."

Road of Hope

Omar Quintero Montes de Oca has no idea what day he will be facing the steps of the Basilica National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre. He clings to his most native beliefs to continue his journey along a road that still hasn't completed half the journey.

"I will arrive. I don't know if on my knees, with my hands, but I will do it for my son and for all cancer patients in the world. You have to live through it to know the cruelty of a disease that can affect anyone."

After fulfilling his vow, he hopes to return to his house in Marianao by some means of transportation and with his cart, his only support on this atypical trip, not only to protect the image of the Virgin, but to carry his few belongings and whatever those he encounters along the Central Highway give him.

It is the pilgrimage of a man to one of the corners of the island where the purest of Cubanness prevails. He is moved by love for his son and, above all, by faith.