Being the grandson of a Canarian immigrant and having grown up among the sounds of guitars and guajiro (countryside) songs, Rodrigo Rivera Hernandez, since he was a child, had a passion for the rhymed octosyllabic verses that make up the décima, and led him to publish his first book in November, “Soy un nieto de canario”, thanks to the literary magazine “Aquiescencia Editorial”, from Xalapa, in the Mexican state of Veracruz.
And as José Martí said, “The verses come as if pushed from within, and molded from within, and arranged, perched in an inner workshop,” he is already working on a second volume, in which he will emphasize Creole humor, Cuban daily life, love and family.
“I am a Canarian’s grandson”, with a prologue by the distinguished poet Víctor Domínguez Rodríguez, the book gathers 30 traditional décimas -selected among so many he has written over many years on various topics-, which are organized in three parts: philosophical intentions; feelings of love; as well as, the personal, the family and my city.
Rodrigo, who has a long career as a writer and declaimer of “décimas is grateful to Onelio Escalona (vice president of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, UNEAC), poet Victor Dominguez and Miroslava Perez, president of the Casa de la décima center of Velasco, for their cooperation in making this dream come true.
The title of the publication, “Soy un nieto de canario” (I am a Canarian’s grandson) -which names one of the works one of the works, pays homage to his maternal grandfather, Blas Hernandez, an immigrant from the Canary Islands, Spain, from whom he inherited that gift, which makes him so proud of; and affirms his Caribbean roots from his maternal grandfather, Tomás Rivera, a Puerto Rican from a rural area near the city of San Juan.
Both contributed to the values that Rodrigo inherited from his parents and passed on to his three children and an equal number of grandchildren, with the loving accompaniment of his wife, Julita Evangelita Parra Lahenz, who has dedicated 40 years of her life to the health sector.
The spiritual and poetic growth of this son of San Andres, town located about 20 kilometers from the city of Holguin, part of the homonymous municipality, began in elementary school and continued in the secondary school, when he read his first décimas, occasional, in school, rallies, events and other community activities.
Afterwards, at the Technical Institute of Holguín, where he graduated as an technician repairer of machineries went on writing and reciting. He did the same in the sugar cane camp, when he participated in the harvest of 1970. Then he joined the Young Communist league and was the secretary of the Municipal Bureau of the Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers in the municipality of Cacocum.
His décimas supported the activities while serving in the Army, and in the company where he later worked at, as head of the Maintenance Department.
Décima guajira, Poetry, Army, Raúl Castro, Eastern Army
And as the condition of poet is enriched when it is assumed with love and commitment, he made many declamations of his works during the 30 years he remained in the Revolutionary Armed Forces, FAR, where he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, combining his military duties with publications in the newspaper “Combatiente” and the magazine “Tierra y Roca”, of the Eastern Army; as well as participation in literary courses and contests.
Rodrigo’s participation in the international battle for the freedom of The Five was outstanding, particularly in the Colloquiums held in the city of Holguin, in which he read his décimas, in addition to doing so in other scenarios related to that mass movement, such as neighborhoods, the headquarters of the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), worl places and schools, while he corresponded with the Cuban Heroes, from whom he received 16 responses.
With good reason -this Creole poet, who has been a member of the Communist Party of Cuba since 1985, has worked as a professor, security and protection technician and currently works as director of the civil defense system at the University of Holguin-, has received several awards, recognitions and decorations approved by the Council of State, the FAR and the Ministry of the Interior (Minint).
As the muse of Rodrigo Rivera Hernandez -resident in this City of the Parks, Holguin- is plausible and remains awake, I dedicate him this Marti’s phrase, which constitutes a permanent challenge to those who submerge in that attractive art: “They make the poet the beautiful feeling and the beautiful form: he is poet, without a doubt, the one who unites in himself the two”.
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