Yanely de la Caridad Esquijarosa Abradelo by birth, from Sancti Spiritus, but love brought her definitively to the Cuban City of the Parks, and her accent does tell her roots, because, as she herself assures, “even in my speech I am from Holguin,” referring to the musicality and rigor with which we, the inhabitants of the north-eastern part of the island, speak.
Despite her training in a technical career, Automatic Control Engineering, Yanely had a clear liking for traditional arts since she was a child. Her first and most special toys, she recalls, were the rag dolls that her grandmother – and later she – made.
“My grandmother, I always say, taught me to sew. I couldn’t manage to sit on her machine to move the pedals, so I learned to sew standing up, while still a child. When I entered the ‘Ernesto Guevara’ Vocational School in Santa Clara, I joined a fine arts workshop, which I attended for six years of studies”, Yanely recalls about her early experiences in handicrafts.
Yanely Esquijarosa, like a spider weaver
A Sancti Spiritus woman in Holguin
In Cienfuegos, where she was placed after graduating from the University, she met a man from Holguín with whom she came to this city more than thirty years ago. “From the moment I arrived, Holguín captivated me with its charms,” says the experienced craftswoman, who considers it a “different” city, capable of making you fall in love with it and making you feel like one of its chilren, even if you were not born here.
Among the values that seduced her, Yanely underlines the broad cultural movement, which she followed closely without neglecting her career as an engineer, where needles always accompanied her. However, her life would take a complete turn towards art when she met Casa Editora Cuadernos Papiro, a unique publishing house that produces books from manufactured paper, illustrated by renowned artists.
As she describes her first contact with Papiro, her face lights up and the magic that led her to bet, definitively, on this place, which later became her family.
“When the doors of Cuadernos Papiro opened, I was literally trapped in a spider’s web, from which I don’t think I will ever be able to escape. The publishing house has forced me to make another career, I have had to study a lot because in the making of the books we use very old machines and typographies, from the XVIII and XIX centuries”, assures the also nicknamed “spider weaver”.
In this way, Papiro is also a museum of printing, since it has become a permanent exhibition space for machines that are practically non-existent today. This also justifies the small print runs and the incalculable value of each copy.
In the small publishing house, Yanely enjoys the whole process, from the making of the paper used to produce the books to the last stitch, which she usually does herself, but what she rejoices most, together with all her co-workers, is the finished product: “a child we have conceived, that we have given birth to with so much love, with so much passion, that we do not want to get rid of, because each copy is unique”.
Yanely Esquijarosa, like a weaver spider
Individual experiences
Yanely Esquijarosa has had the opportunity to participate in several group exhibitions, although she has also had personal exhibitions in which she has been able to “express herself” through fiber.
Yanely Esquijarosa, like a spider weaver
Although she has been an artisan for many years, she admits that she did not dare to show her creations, so she would weave and quickly put the pieces away. “It was thanks to the impulse and support of the Cuban Fund of Cultural Goods that I managed to put together an exhibition, which resulted in the Grand Award of the Iberoarte 2022 Crafts Fair, within the framework of the Ibero-American Culture Festival,” she explains.
Since then, she never stops dreaming of similar opportunities, which is why “October is expected to be a very busy month”, says the artist in reference to a personal exhibition that will be inaugurated at the emblematic Pernik Hotel, curated by Danilo Lopez.
In addition, there will be a collective exhibition of three artists of the Holguin fine arts: Dayami Pupo, Bertha Beltran and Yanely Esquijarosa, which will see the light during the thirtieth edition of the Ibero-American Culture Festival, an event that will bring back to Holguin the Encounter of Paper Masters sponsored by Cuadernos Papiro Publishing House.
By Aniel Santiesteban García
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