Pleasant surprises in a day's work

Greetings friends of this beautiful community, where we can talk about the experiences we live on the weekends. I want to tell you a very interesting story that happened to me at work. First I must remind you that I am a professor at the University of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, in the Career of Sociocultural Management for Development. I have been teaching at this institution for 18 years. I work from Monday to Friday with students of the regular day course and on Saturday with students of the course for workers.

This Saturday I was particularly tired and wanted to stay home, but the students were waiting for me, they came from far away and it's not fair to waste their time. So I went to my classes and you will see, it was the best decision I have made in a long time. In the conversation with my students, looking for the motivations that led them to study at the university, many reasons came up.

One of my students told me: teacher I study because my husband is an artist, I congratulated her and continued with the round of questions to the others, until I asked her again about her husband's specialty. She told me my husband is: Miguel Angel Couret. On the spot I was surprised by the naturalness and modesty of my student. Her husband is one of the best painters in Cuba, with numerous awards and recognitions, even at international level. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in the 80's of the previous century.

That intervention of my student changed all the plans of the class, which from that moment on revolved around the painter and his work. The woman told us some general information about her husband's artistic life, especially about his last exhibition in Mexico. She also invited us to visit her house to talk with the artist, who kindly agreed.

There we went. I want to tell you that happiness is priceless and it appears suddenly, without one looking for it. You need very little to be happy. We walked a little, Vivían, that is my student's name, with her companion Keyla, took us to a large colonial house which is the home of Miguel Angel Couret. Don't you think it is a privilege to be a professor at the university? The painter received us cordially.

The house, obviously, is a small gallery with works from his different creative periods. There are also diplomas and awards received throughout his artistic career. Briefly, I will tell you that the artist uses surrealism to express his stories. Common objects, or symbolically constructed ones, are intertwined with animals, stars, plants, people, and they show the artist's Cuban identity.

Each of his pieces encloses a reflective universe. I especially liked the engravings where he represents chairs, for me, in frank reminiscence to Wilfredo Lam's La silla, roosters of different sizes and colors, the moon. All of them show the deep knowledge of the artistic techniques used and the cosmogony of the artist in the construction of stories, realities and dreams.

It was truly a feast of colors and words. Little by little the master and his wife showed us folders as a kind of archive of several of his paintings. They themselves were astonished to find works that in their time had a lot of recognition, others with special meaning for their personal life. They took the opportunity to remove the dust and humidity that clings to his pieces.

There they found works that illustrated a book by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Spanish-speaking poetess of international renown. I considered it a wonderful opportunity and a recognition of the merits of that artist who nobly let his works speak for him. My work activity gave me a moment of fine satisfaction.

The greatest ecstasy was when they asked me to select an engraving, among so many of great artistic finish, to give it to me as a gift. I was so happy that joy clouded my conscience and I almost chose at random. The master placed a dedication on the back of the image. Keyla also had that opportunity. Several ideas emerged from the conversation: to take Couret to the university to exchange research ideas with the students, for Vivian's final thesis on the socio-cultural promotion of her work.

We ended the visit with the promise to come back another time. I can tell you that it was a very happy day. One of those in which I am deeply grateful to life for working at the University. My gratitude to Vivían and Miguel Angel Couret for the joy and hospitality with which they received us in their home.

I wish I had many days of work like this. Happiness is made of small moments, it comes suddenly without expecting it, on any given day, and it is priceless. In my work I am often very happy. I leave my poetry in tenths to the master and his wife:

About an afternoon of engravings
Couret caught the moon
in his grandmother's chair,
with it he painted a trail
of roosters and a fortune
of flowers, but he had a
beautiful, erotic evening,
gallivanting, flaunting
a woman with a hat
engraved on his chest the worker
of the brush and it still burns.

The images used in the publication are my property taken with my mobile Xiaomi Redmi 12C. English translation by Deepl Translate. You can find me on my social network Facebook.