Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Dec 14 (EFE) .- The theatrical monologue ‘La Indiana’, by the actress and author Saida Santana, was premiered worldwide on ‘streaming’ this Sunday in the American city of New York, within the activities of the XIX Annual Congress of the Cuban Cultural Center of New York: Spain in Cuba.
In the monologue, he highlighted the strong ties between canaries and Cubans through the emigration story of ‘La Indiana’, Saida Santana’s great-grandmother who emigrated to Cuba in 1905 and returned a decade later a widow and with five children, marketing to his return to the Canary Islands the radish seed.
As the author explained in a statement this Monday, the public has been grateful and excited to “recover the voice of the Canarian emigrants”, a story with which “they have been able to feel identified with migrating, leaving their land to go to another ”, as well as with“ the strong bond to the family and to the land ”.
The session lasted an hour and a half and it recounted the life of Saida Santana’s great-grandmother, Antonia Alemán Navarro, ‘La Indiana’, “a free and upright woman”, a Canarian peasant who emigrated to Cuba in search of a better future and returned to her island broken with pain, with five children and no husband.
She claimed her independence and freedom as a peasant in a man’s world, and raised her more than three bushels of land, cattle ranching and her children.
In addition, thanks to the commercialization and distribution in the Canary Islands of the radish seed, it helped many families to get out of poverty, thus earning the respect of the farmers of the time, who nicknamed it, ‘Antoñita La Indiana’.
Throughout 65 minutes, Santana makes an emotional and spatial journey through the key moments in the life of ‘La Indiana’, from “a heartbreaking farewell to her parents in Puerto de la Luz, the joy and flirtation with her beloved Juan in the shirtless millo, funny conversations with his brother in the land of Hoya de Parrado where they were born, or the train trip from Havana to a town near Jagüey Grande, in Cuba, ”Santana said.
The theatrical project combines “luminous moments and other darker ones such as the death of her husband and a return trip in third class alone and with five children on the Balmes steamship, the reunion with her parents marked by time and her struggle to be respected as a farmer and rancher in a man’s world.
In the documentation process Santana has had her memories of ‘La Indiana’, who died when she was 6 years old, and the direct testimonies of her father, Juan Santana Alemán, along with experiences and documents, files and an exercise in family memory .
‘La Indiana’ was screened in ‘streaming’ this December 13 within the activities of the XIX Annual Congress of the Cuban Cultural Center of New York: ‘Spain in Cuba- a coming and going’ co-sponsored by Instituto Cervantes, Centro de Estudios Canarias-América from Hunter College and Forum on Migration at Barnard College and the Institute of Latin American Studies and the Greater Caribbean Center of Columbia University.
A recording will be screened whose technical direction, editing and music are provided by his artistic partner, Vicente Sanz de León.
In the writing process Saida Santana has had the dramaturgical supervision of Fernando Calzadilla.
For this project Saida Santana obtained in 2018 a research residency at the Center for Canarian-American Studies of the Hunter College of the City University of New York and the Cuban Cultural Center of New York and was tutored by Dr. María Hernández, Co-founder of CECA, Santana interviewed several Cuban descendants of Canaries.
La Indiana will make its world premiere in person at the Casa de Colón in Gran Canaria.
Saida Santana is a native of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and her career highlights film work in Rolando Díaz’s film ‘Life according to Ofelia’, ‘La Llorona’ by Sara Mazkiaran, ‘De Bares’, ‘Con Esperanza’ shot in The Angels; and on television the series, ‘Cosita Linda’, ‘Todos ah hundred’, or ‘El Juramento de Puntabrava’.
Santana has recently been awarded an Emmy for Best Foreign Language Series, Telemundo NBC’s ‘La Reina del Sur 2’, in which she stars as Umut. EFE
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