By Silvio Rodríguez on July 22, 2022 at the Superior Institute of Art in Havana
2011, Tin Cremata and La Colmenita in NYC Central Park. photo: Bill Hackwell
The truth is that when Carlos Alberto Cremata asked me to say these words I got a kind of fright. The same thing happened to me on the other two occasions when I did it -incidentally, in this same institution-, first when the Honoris Causa was awarded to Sir George Martin, producer and arranger of the British group The Beatles, and not long ago when the distinguished Cuban maestro Salomon Mikowsky received it. And it is difficult not to be too obvious to those who have great merits and, of course, deserve the highest praise.
Carlos Alberto Cremata, whom we all know as Tin Cremata, has toured many stages and countries with so much success that in some places he is asked to found La Colmenita like the famous one from here who act, sing, dance, think and feel for the world, and from a very young age they begin to be human beings with more consequent than many of the so-called elders. For his part, Tin is so generous that he cannot resist the impulse to blame others for his merits. But what he has created is an essential expression of his caring, neighborly nature, a vocation that becomes a true wonder when that neighbor is none other than childhood.
In his introduction to The Golden Age, Martí told children that “to write well about something you have to know a lot about it”. This reminds me that, before I was lucky enough to get close to La Colmenita, I wondered how Tin could make himself so well understood by the little ones. Later I had the privilege of peeking into the back room of amazement and I found that the communication Tin establishes with the children is not occasional but constant. It is such a harmonious and contagious flow that even those of us who are old and curious can easily place ourselves in an extraordinary context.
That naturalness, that magnetism, that ease of contagion had to come from somewhere. Then I remembered that in his posthumous work “The Dark Side of Infinity”, Carlos Castaneda said that Don Juan, the Yaqui sorcerer he investigated for his anthropology work, told him that all children are born with a shining layer of consciousness that envelops them completely. And he said that we were losing that shiny layer as we grew up, because some invisible people -whom Don Juan called “flyers”- were devouring it. That is why, as that layer diminishes, we human beings lose our qualities, and when we grow old we only have a small area of light that barely covers our toes. Just enough to keep us alive.
According to Don Juan, the planet Earth is nothing more than an old field that these cosmic predators sowed with human beings to feed themselves. These extraterrestrials are our lords and masters, and they have known how to make us docile and defenseless by eating our shiny layer of consciousness. This loss causes us that, if we want to protest, we are prevented from doing so. If we want to act independently, it prevents us from doing so. That is why, for predators, children are appetizing luminous balls covered with energy and therefore their most precious victims.
The only way to combat the loss of the shining layer is to form beautiful spirits, teaching virtues and values. The few who are capable of such a feat are greatly hated by those dark beings, because they deprive them of nourishment.
It always seemed impossible to me that an older person could manage to pretend to be a child. That’s why the first few times I wondered how he could still look like one.
Later I came to the conclusion that for some reason, perhaps the useful lives of his parents, Carlos Alberto Cremata, our Tin, managed to keep his shiny layer of conscience, which has allowed him to become a kind of child in the guise of an old person.
But it was not enough for Tin to be a miracle and he has dedicated his existence to keep safe the original luminosity of the children within his reach. I am sure that many parents, who have been victims of predators and only retain a little hood just above their toes, although unaware of this secret history, perceive the extraordinary and bring their children to Tin, to save them from the sinister soul-eaters who sneak among us unseen.
That is why the children that surround Tin are from all neighborhoods, of all colors, of the most dissimilar possibilities, aptitudes and characteristics. They have in common love, intelligence, the layer of bright conscience preserved as only goodness, culture and commitment can achieve, subjects of which our Tin Cremata is the best of the Masters.
Therefore, thank you for your light, which you give us, and for that which you save in us, dear Tin.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English