A CUBAN AFTERNOON IN OKINAWA

Nice afternoon, yesterday, at JICA in Maeda, Urasoe. Tsuyako Kinjo, my dear friend owner of Sudaka (the Argentinian restaurant in Sakaemachi market) and her friends organized the annual Cuban event that every year gathers the passionate lovers of the revolutionary island. There were not a single Cuban person, as in Okinawa they don't grow on the trees. Anyway, we had fun and it has been a very peculiar moment in the everyday life here around.

I have been helped by the always-nice Tatsu Mabuya-san and by a new Italian buddy in Okinawa, Goya-san, directly from Bulàgna. We organized a little table for charity for the stray cats in Naha and some people signed my petition against the gas chamber in Ōzato (where every day stray cats and dogs are killed with gas).

We watched a nice, short documentary on the ‘Isla Grande’, then I held a slideshow on ‘my’ Cuba. I made it as short as possible, I know well the soporific power of slideshows (Mabuya was sleeping after three minutes; he’s a night dance party guy, so I understand his tireness). I wore an almost-Cuban guyabera shirt (actually from Belize, but I didn’t tell to anybody, so keep it for yourself, ok?). Then other nice shows, even if not 100% Cuban, followed.

A funny Japanese magician involved Goya-san in a cards game. Besides: white doves, swords and fire, all the typical ingredients of magical shows. Leandro Moreno, a friendly karate sensei from Cordoba (Argentina), who lived in Cuba for a year and a half, talked about the influence of the Cuban Revolución on the whole Latin America, especially on the sanitary and educational system in Argentina. He stressed the positive, human side of it, and dropped a tear while talking of Camilo Cienfuegos, the ‘very human guy’ of the Cuban Revolution.

More shows: two young women from Jamaica gave a hot dance show, teaching how to dance in the Jamaican way. At the end I asked them why they didn’t dance the daggering (please, check on YouTube, adults only), and they were almost shocked by the fact the a Bolognese knew about that stuff.

The last show was a drum+claves duo music show. At the drum Midori-san, a Brazilian friend, at the claves a very good singer that sang some Cuban songs. She also taught how to sing and the participants followed her. Plus: a salsa dance moment, a photo exhibition on Okinawans that visited the Japanese community in Cuba, plus sweets, drinks and some yummy empanada offered by Sudaka.

All nice and happy!

Let’s do it again, next year.