?Have you ever won anything?

An open-ended question if I ever saw one! How to look at it? Literally? Philosophically? So many ways...

Trying not to be too extensive, I will start by saying that I won the lottery of birth, having been born six months after my country entered World War II and thus the Great Depression was receding; not only into a family with very loving parents, but also surrounded by very loving uncles, aunts and cousins who dotted on me.

I won the education lottery too, starting first grade at Colegio Mimó, a small private school founded in Havana in 1860, beginning to decline because its owner and director, Don Pablo Mimó -an old man who dressed as if he were in the XIX Century- was getting old and his two sons, Manuel a lawyer and Victor a physician, were not interested in continuing with the school.

Don Pablo took an interest in me, as apparently I was intelligent and well behaved; he advanced me to second grade for the second semester of my first year of school.

During the second year I had an excellent teacher, a redheaded young man of French extraction named Roche, who quickly noticed me and another pupil that became my best friend named Enrique Toraño Díaz, who although my same age had a disease they called "Premature Growth" and was twice as tall as me. He was studious, smart and artistic.

Teacher Roche divided the class in two groups, put Toraño in charge of one half and me in charge of the other half. I think it was the year, during all my education, that I put the most interest in learning everything I possibly could. Competitors and best friends, Toraño and I flourished and passed to fourth grade for the second semester as well, still under teacher Roche.

The third year at Colegio Mimó under a teacher named Roca, we began fifth grade with Toraño and I, as well as other friends like Domingo Abreu, Alfredo Labarrere-a black guy son of a Haitian diplomat- Francisco Pérez Cisneros -son of the Cuban ambassador to England and coauthor of the U.N. Human Rights declaration of 1947- Carlos García Castellanos and others, but during that year, when I was 8 years old, don't remember if during the first semester in the fifth grade or the second semester in the sixth grade, Toraño died of a heart attack, something I was told was expected due to his growth.

On to seventh, eight grades and Preparatory, I was just 11 years old at this point, too young to enter high school (bachillerato) since the minimum age was 12, but Don Pablo, who still had great influence with the Ministry of Education, obtained a waiver for me. Continued in Colegio Mimó during the first and second year of bachillerato, but Don Pablo's health was deteriorating, he finally retired.

I went then to Colegio Trelles, closer to my house, for third, fourth and fifth years of bachillerato, graduating in June 1958, just after turning age 16. Many close friends from those years remained so for the rest of my life, including Enrique Almagro Rodríguez, Raúl Fernández de Castro y Estrugo, Laureano Pequeño Velo, Roberto Pérez Padrón, Otto González Penichet y others, although now, as far as I know, I have survived them all.

Here my luck ended. The University of Havana was closed due to civil unrest, so I went to work at La Selecta, my father's furniture store.

Baseball was the Cuban national sport and I did play some, both during the Mimó y Trelles years, wasn't have bad until I began using glasses at age 12 or 13. What I did do many, many times was go to the professional baseball stadium with my godmother Elena to watch the four AAA teams, Habana, Almendares, Marianao and Cienfuegos play, while keeping score and statistics by hand of all the action. During those years when major league players did not earn fortunes and many Cubans played in the Major Leagues springs, summers and autumn, other non-Cuban players came to play in Cuba during the winter, a great opportunity to see them up close.

At age 13 I began to learn to be an equestrian, joined a team whose stables were in Rancho Boyeros, close to the airport. During the first or second year I won first place in a jumping competition, took my trophy and blue-ribbon home, but after passing to the next category, competing with experienced and grown-up riders, I never did win another blue ribbon.

I must say that in general, we in Cuba at that time, except some born to the sport I am sure, practiced sports more for enjoyment than to win, although of course, winning was preferable to losing. Learning discipline, team work and sportsmanship were the expected results, few had the dedication exercised in this country by high school and college athletes.

It is impossible to finish the answer to this question without relating that in 1957, when I was 15, I spent the entire summer vacation in Miami with my uncle Manuel Porto, also my godfather, with whom I always enjoyed a very close relationship. I returned to Havana on 4 September 1957 and quickly found out that my classmate Roberto Pérez Padrón had moved to a brand-new luxury condominium called FOCSA at 17 y M, Vedado, where he and his family lived at apartment 7E. He and other of my classmates told me how great it was and that there were many nice young people there, so obviously a few of us began visiting his apartment often, even when he wasn't present, but his mother Otilia was always very nice to me and allowed me to change into my bathing trunks so I could luxuriate in or by the excellent swimming pool.

Soon our group made friends with some of the young people of the building and the word got around that there was a party at apartment 20D, given by a 13-year-old girl called Miriam Torralbas Alfonso. I went to the party and was dancing with Sofía Jurado, a blonde friend and neighbor of her when we began arguing, don't remember about what, and she began crying.

I went out to the apartment's ample balcony and soon thereafter Miriam came to see me and started telling me off in no uncertain terms.

Sometime later my friend Otto González Penichet wanted to take that same girl, Sofía Jurado, to the movies but her mother could not chaperone them, so he asked me to invite Miriam so her mother would chaperon the four of us. I told him no without hesitation, told him Miriam had given me a very hard time during her party, but he begged and I finally agreed. The best decision of my life, better than winning the lotto.

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