Zoom in

Zoom in

Zoom in

Zoom in

Zoom in

There is actually no mortal who can cover the whole event of Romerías de Mayo. So, I can only give testimony of what I witnessed, sometimes in passing, among a thousand things happening at the same time.
If the starting ambition was great and the foundational period, in the tough late nineties, managed to crystallize an event of events, now it is difficult to find a qualifier to describe the 24th Romerías. Maybe cultural carnival defines it best.
You come across in an alley, next to the flourishing Plaza de La Marqueta, either with a concert by Gerardo Alfonso, late into the night, or with the Holguín Symphonic Orchestra playing Los Van Van standards on the boulevard, with arrangements of and conducted by Joaquín Betancourt.
You also get surprised in the squares by theatrical performances. To my memory comes Albio Paz playing Rocinante, a figure of Quijote himself, promoting street theater in Cuba. As an actor, a playwright and director, he believed in the Romerías and used them to expand his crusade for this theatrical genre.
The Romerías are a big space for conversations where, thanks to this great meeting, projects are cradled, new generations of Cuban artists and intellectuals are known, friendships are reunited and dreams are renewed.
Alexis Triana fulfilled a dream. He crossed the city in all directions and founded a tradition that the people of Holguin cannot do without today. The Romerías reveal how Holguín has created, over time and significantly in the last thirty years, a complex and autonomous cultural center, challenging that rule of underdevelopment to concentrate everything in the capital cities.
There is no mortal, not even Alexis, who can cover the whole Romerías, but the dream has already come true and is lived by all on the streets.