# Raúl Castillo, renowned Cuban fashion designer, is in La Habana with amputation of both legs

**Date:** 05/13/2021

Radio broadcaster and entertainment presenter Rolando Zaldívar requested help from Miami through social media for Cuban designer Raúl Castillo, who has been recovering for some time from an amputation of both lower limbs as a complication of diabetes mellitus and who has been away from professional activity on the Island.

In a post on Facebook, Zaldívar, known for presenting shows and entertainment on Cuban television, updated on the health status of the fashion designer, who is in a complex situation.

"This is an urgent message for all my Facebook friends. This is an urgent message for all Cubans scattered around the world. This is an urgent message for the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel. Let us help designer Raúl Castillo with whatever we can. From Miami I am grateful for all the medical care that they provide him in my country, but good nutrition is necessary," wrote the broadcaster.

Zaldívar also provided information about the phone number for all those who wish to contribute to improving the emotional and material situation of the renowned Cuban fashion designer.

Born in 1958, Raúl Castillo has been one of the most recognized Cuban fashion designers in recent decades. In 1983, at just 24 years old, he created the fashion group Avances "in order to express and promote the interests of fashion among Cuban youth." Since then, his work always received extensive coverage in the Island's media.

"I was born in Vedado in 1958, in a tenement on 3rd and B. My mother was of very humble origins, she was a domestic employee, and my father was a pharmacy messenger. They were very humble people but they taught me to persevere. (…) As a child I drew designs for my cousins, who followed me in this madness using my first models. They were very chic: when it came to fashion they loved having the latest. Among my classmates and their mothers I had my first clients," the fashion designer confessed to Radio Rebelde in 2015.

In more than three decades of work, Raúl Castillo presented fashion shows at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, at the Hotel Comodoro, at the Hotel Riviera, at the Son de la Madrugada complex (by ARTEX), among others. His runways also were part of entertainment shows in nightclubs on the Island.

Castillo ventured into cinema, working as a costume designer on films such as Amor vertical (1997) and Las profecías de Amanda (1999).