Journal “The Caribbean Cyclone”
Havana, October 1, 2001
LAST MINUTE NEWS: ENGRAVER FROM CIENFUEGOS ALTERS THE PEACE OF HEAVEN
"Cienfuegos. From our correspondent. Urgent. Certain versions reached this correspondent referring to the arrival to the blue canopy of the skies of a multitude of headless angels, dressed in colorful garments who are said to come from Cienfuegos, Cuba. This strange visit has altered the peace of its Highness, who would have sent his complain through a retinue of Cardinals who are still debating how to handle this inusual situation that could eventually derive in a dispute between terrestrial beings and divine spirits- Although this is still to be confirmed, some sources who regularly observe the skies and the shape of clouds, assert that they saw about twenty headless angels flying out of a window from that city, shaking their rattly feather wings in their effort to ascend to the last confines of the space. The local police, adverted by a terrified neighbor, ordered the house to be surrounded, the nearby streets closed and dispersed incense from the height of the roofs to prevent infections, tremors and other possible repercussions derived from the artistic endeavors of a gentle local engraver, by the name of Rafael. Some observers have mentioned that the aforementioned engraver (who they compare to the Quixote, also known as the Knight of the Woeful Countenance) immersed in his own world of dreams and his creations, has completely lost his sense of reality, judgment and prudence by surrounding himself with imaginary beings coming from the deepest circumvolutions of his brain, like the headless angels of the passengers of the red buses. As a result, he has started to confuse the living with the dead and the real with the unreal. The same observers have noted a clear similarity between the engraver and the knight errant Don Quixote particularly as described in the following paragraph: ...”he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise, and his days from dawn to dark, poring over them; and what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits. His fancy grew full of what he used to read about in his books, enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, agonies, and all sorts of impossible nonsense; and it so possessed his mind that the whole fabric of invention and fancy he read of was true, that to him no history in the world had more reality in it”. By now, everybody in Cienfuegos is convinced that the Cervantes character has been reincarnated into a local engraver. To confirm their conclusion they remark that the word Miguel rhymes with Rafael. That the name Cervantes starts with a C, the same as in Cáceres. And both names have the same odd number of letters. Last but not least, in the name Saavedra the mysterious letter V is found hidden – which is also in Valladares – the same as the letters A, S and D. Based on such irrefutable evidence, valid testimonies and the existence of presumptive evidence, the major of the city has convened a neighborhood council meeting to analyze the case, hear the complaint of the Cardinals and, eventually, resolve to send back the engraver to the past, to the time where he belongs and his immediate exclusion from the twentieth century where no somnolences, inventions or fantasies are allowed. Therefore, it is very probable that in the next hours this situation that has kept the whole population of Cienfuegos on tenterhooks and gravely disturbed the Kindgom of Heaven, will finally be resolved. Meanwhile, it is believed that the angels will be returned by his Highness so that they return to their cardboards and stay within their frames, avoiding any further disruption to the Divine Order. With respect to the red buses, they will probable be sent back to a city like Buenos Aires at a good distance from the Pearl of the Caribbean. Finally our naive engraver who caused so many disorders with his foolishnesses, an appropriate place is being prepared in La Mancha on a beautiful hill where several windmills turn their arms and sheep graze with their little lamb – at the beginning of the seventeenth century as required by his vocation and inclinations as an artista. This newspaper with his photographers and writers is ready to give full coverage to all the events that will certainly take place as soon as the neighbors’ council meeting is called off, the return of the angels is decided and the remittance of the Quixote from Cienfuegos to the year 1600 is performed - a time where he should had never left at all.