The actor Manuel Porto He asserts that he did not understand Fidel Castro much and points out that it may have been because the communist leader was too deep.
The actor’s statements are included in an interview submitted to the official CubaDebate portal, specifically in a question that refers to how he wants Cubans to remember him.
“ As a grateful Cuban, like the guy from the neighborhood, like the guy who tried to play the part that belonged to him in his day, I don’t know if I succeeded, but always say, that was a real Cuban, a man he understood his father and Fidel. Maybe I didn’t understand Fidel much because Fidel was too deep and too big, but yes, my dad and Fidel, ”he said. Manuel Porto
Porto recalled in the interview his beginnings as an actor at the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) and his roles in Cuban cinema in such films as’ La tierra y el cielo ‘,’ Se permuta ‘,’ Caravana ‘,’ José Martí: the eye of the canary ”,“ Wedding dress ”and“ Cuba Libre ”.
He also referred to his childhood and the figure of his father, a communist Galician, who came to Cuba alone and when he was very young.
My father was a revolutionary fighter who tortured Esteban Ventura; a communist, atheist, who didn’t even believe in his shadow. And my mother was of faith, she believed in God and all religions. But the two loved each other. The old woman was a maid and I had to hide in the basement of the millionaire’s house where she worked. That woman had dogs, monkeys, but no children, I will never forget, ”said Porto.
The actor shared anecdotes about his humble origins and stressed the importance of remembering the place where someone was born, as he believes it is ungrateful not to do so and that forgetfulness can twist the ways.
He also recounted episodes in Cuba’s recent history that he witnessed, such as the rebels’ entry into Havana, an experience he had at the age of 13 accompanied by his father.
‘We saw very little Fidel, far away there. I never forget that my father said to me, ‘Manolito, you see that man over there, the one with the pigeons on his shoulder, that is your future,’ said the actor. He added that at the age of 15 he took the train east to sign up as a soldier.
“One of the tasks was to climb the Pico Turquino five times. Before December 1960, I went to the Sierra Maestra, where we stayed for three months, to fulfill that mission. The brigades consisted of thousands of young people. All my dad asked me was if I went I couldn’t crack. It was voluntary. It was a physical and revolutionary test. Climb the Turquino as if we were Fidel’s rebel soldiers, well. There were a lot of cracks, but I, Manolito, couldn’t get hurt because when I got home it was going to be big. The Galicians did not understand that, ”says Porto.
In the interview, Porto recounted his transition from military training to the study of agronomy, sugar cane cutting, the change to study electricity, the turner trade, until he started selling vegetables at the age of 17, a job he caught up with was often.
After this arduous journey he started with the actor Rogelio Blaín, in the amateur artists movement of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and here he found his first job with the ICRT, in 1967.
The actor also referred to the separation of affective relationships in Cuba for political reasons. He told an anecdote about his first wife who left Cuba for the United States via Camarioca.
‘I had such a strange process in me that I can’t explain it to you. It was tremendous suffering, fear and despair, but I was not going to leave my father. I thought about all the years from ’59 to here. It was a lot of busy and mixed feelings inside, however I stayedThe actor said.
Manuel Porto believes that the function of art is to make people better people and therefore it plays a “very important role in the fight against envy, ambition”, but warns that it can also “disrupt and spoil people”.
The seventy-five-year-old actor noticed this sometimes it feels forgottenHe argued that starring roles are becoming less and less common for men his age.
It is not the first time that Porto has denounced the lack of representation of the elderly on Cuban television and film. In the program in 2018 With two who love each other that Amaury Pérez is driving, said that if Robert de Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, lived in Cuba, they would have a hard time working.
In January, it was learned that the new telenovela that the ICRT is preparing, under the title “Watch again, will be dedicated to reflecting the reality of third-age Cubans. The cast consists of nearly seventy actors and actresses, including Paula Alí, Rubén Breñas and Manuel Porto