If, as José Martí said, “art is the form of the divine”, the young oral storyteller Daimarelys López Saavedra has the gift of carving in the hearts of each of her public presentations and classes she gives to children, who drink from her wisdom.
As a child she dreamed of being an artist and performed in the activities organized in the elementary schools, Enma Rosa Chuí, in Ramón Quintana neighborhood, and in Juan José Fornet Piña junior high school, where she was a soloist in the musical group ‘Vértice’.
Between music and theater she decided on the latter, passing then that school and later, combining work with study, she did a Master’s Degree in Social Communication, which she concluded with excellent grades.
This virtuoso from Holguin, who will be 37 years old next July, has been able to shine in life without losing the charms of her simplicity and sympathy, adding in her youth, her voluntary participation in protocol activities, artistic production and public relations in various events such as Holguin Culture Week, Romerías de mayo festival, Gibara International Film Festival, Full Moon Festival, Ibero-American Culture Festival and the Book Fairs, among others.
Activities that she continued supporting once graduated, because “you learn a lot in the relations with wonderful people from Holguin, Cuba and different parts of the world. That is appreciated and no one takes it away from me,” she said.
This January, when she will join the activities for the 171st anniversary of the birth of José Martí Pérez, she will also offer her art at Dositeo Aguilera Cultural Center, with a scenic oral narration of a story by poet and writer Luís Caissés Sánchez, entitled “El niño y la Flor” (The Boy and the Flower).
And on January 21 she will make another special presentation on the occasion of Cuban Theater Day, which is celebrated every January 22, in remembrance of the tragic event at the Villanueva Coliseum in Havana. (On that date in 1869, shortly after the beginning of the war for independence, Spanish volunteers responded aggressively against those present at that cultural center, after hearing an energetic ¡Viva Céspedes! pronounced by a popular guarachero, although the information is imprecise, it is known that, in that sad event 155 years ago, there were dead and wounded).
Every presentation of Daimarelys revitalizes her image, which is poetry. Wherever her presence is required, she will be there, especially in schools, communities, health centers, ICAP and even, after finishing her Master’s Degree, she answered the call to go to Venezuela, where she fulfilled a mission of collaboration in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
It was very comforting that mission, which I carried out in the populated community of Dolores, in the municipality of Rojas, where I was able to connect and share my art with the children of the high school, the school, the home for the elderly and the grandparents’ home. It was almost three years of great magic in that beautiful cultural exchange in which I showed them my art and also learned from them. It certainly helped me to grow spiritually and culturally, something wonderful”.
Back in Cuba
I married a man from Güines, Mayabeque province, and moved in with him; I worked in an elementary school that was a reference center, where I formed a children’s theater group. I also worked at the University of that province, founded in 1976, teaching art education, the language of theater and cinema, music and other subjects.
There I had the high honor of meeting Aleyda Guevara, Che’s daughter, whose specialty in Pediatrics also benefited the little ones there. They were very happy.
Then I returned to my beloved City of Holguin, where I worked as a communicator, in the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and again, to work with the little ones, which is what I am most passionate about and I created new theater groups. Currently I work at the Julio Grave de Peralta School and I remain in the field of art, as part of the Pico de Oro oral narration group, to which I belong, because storytelling, artistically, is very attractive to children.
Daimarelys shares her life between her family and art.
I cannot see my life without art and without eternal gratitude to my parents, for the love with which they raised me and my sister, who is a specialist in internal medicine. From them we inherited values that sustain our lives; they have always supported us in the realization of our dreams and, among the applause I receive in my main presentations, are theirs, who have always been my main critics¨. She also has a six-year-old son, whom she considers her best work.
With dozens of awards from agencies, organizations and institutions, including the condition ‘Youth for Life’, from the National Bureau of the UJC, for her contribution in the fight against Covid-19, Daimarelys, whose art is the expression of the divine, confesses that “for the opportunities I have had and the acceptance of my artistic proposals for so many years, I feel rewarded, proud, blessed and happy”.
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