Per iniziarsi alla religione bisogna essere vestito di bianco per almeno un anno, dal cappello alle scarpe, persino all’ombrello, che impedisce di prendere il sole. Occorre un anno di purificazione prima di abbracciare la Santeria; passeggiare per Cuba e vedere queste persone “candide” è molto suggestivo.

Ritorniamo a quella signora, sui sessanta, truccata in un modo così esagerato da essere persino gradevole, con le unghie così lunghe da non permettergli di usare comodamente il telefono. Per ringraziarmi dell’aiuto mi invita a sedermi sulla poltrona vuota per chiacchierare, in attesa della fine della pioggia; io le faccio vedere un mio video e lei un libro di un fotografo russo nel quale appare in tre foto, mi dice anche di essere stata inclusa in un documentario di National Geographic e nel film Fast & Furios, che il suo lavoro era di farsi fotografare dai turisti, ma anche di leggere il futuro delle persone.

Mentre chiacchieravo una coppia francese le ha pagato 1 € per farsi immortalare al suo lato, chiedendomi la cortesia di scattare un paio di foto.

La pioggia era finita, ma l’interesse verso quella signora, così diversa da me, continuava, quindi la conversazione è continuata per un altro quarto d’ora. Se ne raccontano di cose in 15 minuti!

Arrivato il momento di salutarci e di augurarci buona fortuna, mi chiede di fotografarla, visto che lo facevano tutti, io me lo ero meritato. Mi chiede di essere inserita nel mio album e nel mio blog. Oggi mantengo la promessa.

It was my last day in Cuba and I had decided to walk around Havana, discovering some not tourist spaces, when it starts to rain, to fall water dramatically; one of those short but intense rains, which force me to seek shelter under a gallery.

I was drying the camera when I noticed that on the opposite corner of the gallery a street artist was moving the tools so as not to make them wet; instinctively I approached and helped her. They were not normal tools: there were two small armchairs, a table with knick-knacks and tarot and pendulums and holy pictures; he was not a normal street artist, on the contrary, he was not at all: he was a “Santéra”. In Cuba there is a religion, the Santeria, which has been imported by African slaves, and which consists in attributing to a saint special, positive and negative powers; people turn to the Santére to ask for the healing of loved ones or infirmities of hated people, so they, with ad hoc rituals, ask a saint to provide.

To start with religion you must be dressed in white for at least a year, from hat to shoes, even to the umbrella, which prevents you from sunbathing. A year of purification is needed before embracing the Santeria; walking around Cuba and seeing these "white" people is very suggestive.

Let's go back to that lady, about sixty, made up in a way so exaggerated as to be even pleasant, with nails so long as not to allow him to use the phone comfortably. To thank me for the help, she invites me to sit down in the empty armchair to chat, waiting for the end of the rain; I show her my video and she is a book by a Russian photographer in which she appears in three photos, she also tells me that she was included in a National Geographic documentary and in the film Fast & Furious, that her job was to be photographed from tourists, but also to read the future of people.

While we are chatting, a French couple paid her € 1 to be immortalized on her side, asking me the courtesy to take a couple of photos.

The rain was over, but the interest in that lady, so different from me, continues, so the conversation continues for another quarter of an hour. How many thing can be told in 15 minutes!

When the time came to say goodbye and to wish us good luck, she ask me to photograph it, as everyone did it, I deserved it. She asks me to be included in my album and in my blog. Today I keep my promise.