What did you learn from your parents?
From my parents, godmother Elena, godfather Manolo and cousin Pepe I learn everything. Steadfast morals, close family ties, good work ethics, manners, spirituality, persistence.
My father and mother complemented each other, she was the disciplinarian, he was the softie. I still remember the only time I got really drunk in my life, it was a day of rather cool weather when my schoolmates Uti and Arce and I met at the Havana Yacht Club, took at out Uti's outboard motor boat with a bottle of rum; Uti was aft with the motor, Arce in the middle seat and I was sitting on the bow with the bottle of rum; I got really drunk and they took me home, I went to sleep. The next morning my mother got me up and made me go to school, as I was in High School; I did not even comb my hair which was rather long and full of sand; somewhere in class I really woke up, during recess people asked me what had happened, I was ashamed mostly when the girls in my class asked, Uti tried to help me, but the shock of that event was so that I never got that drunk again in my life.
My parents, Manolo and Elena bought me everything I desired as a child and teenager, while Pepe always bought me books, I still remember a beautiful edition of La Edad de Oro of José Martà that I left in Cuba. He also got me a real driver's license, with my picture, when I was ten or eleven and he worked in that department.
Finally, with my father I learned to play cubilete and dominoes. He was very good at both and every Saturday at noon, when I accompanied him to work and after the accountant Alonso distributed the payroll, (in cash as always), he, Manolo, Benjamin and Cucho, an employee, went to the Bodega Benigno in Calle Dolores and 14th Street, a block from the factory, to play cubilete for a glass of beer and some tapas.
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