Amid the drowsiness and misfortune, the day of Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s wake, the sky opened above the town of Banes. Just dusk and clouds settled themselves to soak the humble neighborhood located next to the cemetery La Guira.
A patakín (legend) of the Yoruba religion says that the orichas gave humans a gift. This time it rained on the Banes, Holguin and Cuban night. Eyes filled with tears because of the helplessness and pain for the brother who was leaving, but still, the next day, when the first birds sang at dawn a constant downpour cleaned the streets of Banes. It was the first rain in months.
The dead began to leave the cauldrons of Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger to accompany the body of black Zapata to the old cemetery of La Guira. In other parts of eastern Cuba it began to rain very early.
When it stopped raining about mid-morning, Cuba had a different face.
Zapata was leaving with the enfumbis (the dead) to run along the trails that he cleared as a child.
Translated by: MRZ
Crossing the Barbed Wire 