Cuba on the Move: Argelio Fernandez, the best known hydraulic engineer in Cuba
The Cuba on the move team proposes the story of the director of Hydrology and Hydro-geology of the National Institute of Hydraulic resources of Cuba. Our correspondent Fabiola Lopez with the details. teleSUR
Transcript
00:00 For those who want to know how the art of Caboera will be related to water, the Cuba
00:20 on the Move team proposes a story of the director of hydrology and hydrology of the National
00:26 Institute of Hydraulic Resources of Cuba, our correspondent Fabiola Lopez with the details.
00:31 They say he's the best known hydraulic engineer in Cuba today. They call him the water man. The
00:39 truth is that his image is irregular on Cuba's newscast. The master of science,
00:43 Angelio Fernandez, usually updates the country's hydrological situation.
00:47 His presence on TV was an accident. He never forgets his first time on screen.
00:54 That first time was the only time I felt comfortable. I thought it was a game,
00:57 but they told me, "Let's do a test, and if it goes well, you stay." That phrase gave me the
01:02 impetus to stay. Every time people posed me a challenge, I did well, and in all modesty,
01:07 that day I was spectacular. I felt nervous every time a little bit in the second, third week.
01:12 I must admit, reporting on TV has changed my life. When I go out on the street, I'm aware of having
01:17 an audience. At the onset, people did not know anything about what I reported because it was
01:22 a new subject, a new discipline. But now people know. Now people manage what I report. They ask
01:28 me questions. Angelio is famous in Cuba. Everyone knows he's an expert on rainfall runoff filling
01:35 up reservoirs and groundwater, but very few know his fondness for capoeira.
01:39 Capoeira is in your blood. Thus, it is in your insight to the dead.
01:45 Before capoeira, I didn't even sing in the shower. Practitioners of dance fighting have
01:57 to sing, have to compose a song, a sub point. Capoeira's practitioners are not dancers,
02:01 but dance. They're not acrobats, but do acrobatics. They are not martial artists,
02:05 but they fight. Loving dance fighting or capoeira is just so a way of being, a life philosophy.
02:12 Angelio has always been fond of martial arts. He did karate and taekwondo, but in the latest years,
02:16 he wanted to do something else closer to Cuban ideas and classic,
02:19 closer to the Afro-Cubans' typical joy and he found so by the time he went to Brazil.
02:23 There, he was captivated by the sound of a berimbau that led him to a capoeira circle.
02:29 Cubans, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Basilian cultural practices are much alike.
02:40 We are very close. Cubans are 100% rhythm. Cubans are 100% joy.
02:45 Cubans are fighters. Cubans are warriors. And those features have to do with capoeira.
02:52 He explains there are stigmas and biases against capoeira. People often attach it
03:00 to occultism, but his wish is dance fighting have more practitioners in Cuba.
03:04 We are willing that practitioners of dance fighting gain further recognition,
03:08 that is to remove current stigma and biases against capoeira. And most of all,
03:12 current practitioners must contribute to remove those negative opinions. When people see me,
03:16 they think if Angelio, who is a public figure, an official, a professional, an engineer,
03:21 a scientist, practices capoeira, it has to be a good sport. And particularly by the time they
03:26 visit the dance fighting circle, people will notice capoeira's cultural baggage.
03:32 Angelio likes debating. He warns race and racial biases should be further discussed.
03:38 In a certain way, I'm far from the stereotype of the black criminal, the black dancer,
03:45 the folklore black. I'm far from the current stereotype of practitioners of dance fighting
03:50 existing in half the world, which is the black man with dreadlocks and no shirt.
03:54 I'm far from all stereotypes. So many people sometimes say, "You speak very good." And no,
04:00 I speak as good as many people, but as I am black, I am more noticeable. I say I'm proud
04:06 of being black. I mean, I've been practicing a black martial art for 16 years. I've been
04:11 practicing a black religion for 25 years. And I've been black for 51 years. Hence,
04:17 the subject of race captivates me along everything it comprises.
04:20 Angelio is an engineer, a television presenter, a practitioner of dance fighting,
04:27 and a religious man who practices the ocean faculties but reinvents himself every day.
04:32 He says he enjoys having plenty of projects, among them inserting the Havana aqueduct in the world
04:37 network of water museums and contributing to the spread of dance fighting or capoeira in Cuba.
04:42 Fabiola Lopez, Tele Sur, Havana.
04:45 (upbeat music)