Mi casa de la infancia la visitaban los más pintorescos personajes de este mundo. Un hombre loco: esquizofrenia diagnosticada, con un comportamiento controlado en mi hogar por las dosis de cariño que le prodigábamos nosotros.
My childhood home was visited by the most colorful characters in this world. A crazy man: diagnosed schizophrenia, with controlled behavior in my home due to the doses of affection that we lavished on him.
Una viejita sordomuda que desde que yo era muy pequeña me hacía muñecas de trapo con vestiditos de todos colores, trenzas y pañuelos. Dos hermanos, con un retraso mental avanzado que llegaron con su mamá. Todos venían en busca de un vaso de leche caliente, un poquito de café, unas libras de arroz o un poco de conversación para saciar su hambre material y espiritual.
A deaf-mute old lady who, since I was very little, made me rag dolls with little dresses of all colors, braids, and handkerchiefs. Two brothers, with advanced mental retardation who arrived with their mother. They all came looking for a glass of hot milk, a little coffee, a few pounds of rice or a little conversation to satisfy their material and spiritual hunger.
La lista sería interminable para nombrar cada uno que llegaba que por tanto afecto y consideración que recibían se quedaban como un miembro más de la familia. Un día llegué de la escuela a punto de mediodía y al frente a la orilla de la vereda, una yunta de bueyes con una carreta y en el comedor, arrellanado en un taburete en el horcón principal un raro señor.
The list would be endless to name each one that arrived who, due to so much affection and consideration that they received, remained as one more member of the family. One day I came home from school around noon and in front of the sidewalk, a team of oxen with a cart and in the dining room, sprawled on a stool at the main post, a strange gentleman.
Era canoso, de grandes bigotes, ropa ajada y olor a carbón. Tenía un tabaco en la mano pero hablaba tanto que no le daba chance a encenderlo. Lo cierto es que su voz fuerte y las palabras rebuscadas que usaba tenían controlada la audiencia de familiares y vecinos, en una especie de hipnosis.
He was gray-haired, with large mustaches, ragged clothes, and the smell of coal. He had a cigar in his hand but he talked so much that he didn't give her a chance to light it. The truth is that his strong voice and the far-fetched words he used controlled the audience of relatives and neighbors, in a kind of hypnosis.
Miguel Miranda,así dijo que se llamaba y que era gallero. Su oficio según él le había permitido cuidar los gallos a coroneles y generales de no sé que contienda bélica, pero que ahora se limitaba a repartir los huevos de una pollera a los diferentes centros comerciales del territorio.
Miguel Miranda, that's what he said his name was and that he was a gallero. According to him, his job had allowed him to take care of the roosters for colonels and generals of I don't know what war, but now he limited himself to distributing the eggs of a skirt to the different shopping centers in the territory.
Así comenzó la historia de Miranda en mi casa, medio día tras medio día, haciendo tiempo con sus historias para esperar el almuerzo que mis padres le servían por ser un pobre hombre solo y necesitado. Muchos eran sus cuentos en los que él era el protagonista. Un día andaba por Guane y se enroló en una pelea de gallos.
This is how Miranda's story began in my house, half a day after half a day, making time with her stories to wait for the lunch that my parents served her for being a poor, lonely and needy man. Many were the stories of him in which he was the protagonist. One day he was walking through Guane and got involved in a cockfight.
Llevaba bajo el brazo un gallito cresticolorado, bravo y genioso que parecía hijo de león, pero no, su padre era un perico que vino de Isla de Pino huyendo de un ciclón y se quedó en su carreta de bueyes y la madre una gallina fina de plumas negras brillantes y de gran porte.
He carried under his arm a red-crested, brave and genius rooster that looked like the son of a lion, but no, his father was a parakeet that came from Isla de Pino fleeing from a cyclone and stayed in his ox cart and his mother was a fine chicken of large, glossy black feathers.
Así que lo anotó para la tercera pelea y le apostó 100 monedas a su gallito. En el pesaje su contrincante era superior en 7 onzas pero a Miranda no le importó. Así comenzó la pelea, los dos blandieron sus espuelas como sables, saltaban y los picotazos iban directo a los ojos, parecía una lucha de toros.
So he booked him for the third fight and bet 100 coins on his cockerel. At the weigh-in, his opponent was 7 ounces higher, but Miranda didn't care. This is how the fight began, the two brandished their spurs like sabers, they jumped and the pecks went straight to the eyes, it looked like a bullfight.
Los dueños estaba muy preocupados eran muchas monedas en juego. De pronto el gallito más ligero sacó la casta de su padre, levantó el vuelo y aterrizó una pata sobre la garganta del contrario, miró a su dueño y le dijo: ¿Miranda lo mato? Y el dueño ante el auditorio enardecido le gritó: ¡ mátalo contra! Nadie en mi casa se atrevió a decir que era mentira.
The owners were very concerned there were a lot of coins at stake. Suddenly the lightest rooster took his father's breed out of him, took flight and landed a paw on the opponent's throat, looked at his owner and said: Did Miranda kill him? And the owner before the enraged audience yelled at him: kill him against! No one in my house dared to say that it was a lie.
Las imágenes del post son de mi propiedad tomadas con mi móvil Alcatel.
The images in the post are my property, taken with my Alcatel mobile