Missive #17: Christmas in Cuba

Today, January 6, is the real Cuban Christmas. December 24 is the family celebration, with the huge pork roast. December 25 was reinstated as a “Día de Fiesta” after the Pope’s visit, but other than saying “Feliz Navidad” and “Igualmente,” there wasn’t much else that took place on that day.

The fake little Christmas trees, nativity scenes, lights, wreaths, and sundry ornaments had already been brought out and heavily, overly decorated as of the first of the month. (When I asked one of the seminarians why they were decorating the chapel so early, she said, “Because Christmas is over so quickly, it only lasts a week; so this way we can enjoy it longer.”)

But today is the day when the children receive gifts, because it commemorates the Day of the Three Kings, also known as the Magi, and the Epiphany of the Christ Child. I just came back from the Calle del Medio, Matanzas Main Street, with all the stores, where I noticed a much larger line than usual crowd of shoppers, surrounding a single-woman vendor behind a small table, just outside the entrance to one of the larger department stores.

I asked the store attendant standing closest to the crowd, “Why are there so many people there? What are they selling?” And she gave me that same half-puzzled, half-bored look I get a lot, like wondering what my problem is and not really caring, and replied “Toys.” Like, ‘Duh, lady, don’t you know what day it is today?’

Then she pointed to another, even larger table and longer line inside the store, indicating that this crowd outside was just the preview. These large stores, which deal only in convertible pesos, all have a guarda bolsas, where shoppers have to leave all of their bags before entering the store.

Upon leaving the store, waiting in yet another line to give the key to the guarda bolsas man so he would return my purse, several women exchanged greetings and felicidades and kisses, and then took out all the little toys they had just managed to purchase for the niece or granddaughter who is about to come over after school this afternoon.

The date had to have been January 6, 1960, a few weeks before my fifth birthday. We were sitting in the room just off the enclosed balcony of our third-floor apartment, facing the street two blocks from the Malecón. A blue parakeet flew in through one of the windows! And I was delighted when my mother said it was a gift from the Three Kings.

Many years later, when I related this memory to my mother, she admitted that the little bird had probably escaped from a large cage that my grandmother kept somewhere between her patio and our apartment building. Nevertheless, I continue to treasure that magical memory as a symbol of love’s mysteries captured in flight.

With love from Cuba,

Elisa