Perico: The Fabulous Burro

By Arnaldo Artiles Quintana

This dual- language (English - Spanish) book is a tribute to a much-loved animal - a donkey named Perico. He lived from 1914 to 1947 in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba. His fantastic stories will have you traveling to a past less complicated. Together with Perico you will walk the streets of his beloved Santa Clara, making you complicit in his incredible antics. This is a collection of stories based on real events. You will certainly laugh.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SusanasBooks LLC
• Release date: Jul 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463850503

Book preview

ARNALDO ARTILES QUINTANA

Translated by

Susana Jiménez-Mueller

Second Edition Copyright © 2019 Arnaldo Artiles Quintana

Spanish to English translator and collaborator: Susana Jiménez-Mueller

Cover and creative art by SusanasBooks

English Edition Editor: Rose Ann Froberg

Book published independently in Brandon, FL. by SusanasBooks Publishing Company

First Edition - Winner of the Concurso Nacional de Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba. Primera Mencion.

First Edition - Copyright under the Registro del Derecho del Autor de la Republica de Cuba. (CENDA)

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781086655629

DEDICATION

To all the children and those who carry a happy seed in their hearts. To Juan Ramón Jiménez, the great Spanish poet, and my grandmother, who taught me to feel honored when someone called me burro.

To my wife, Milagros. To my son Kalec. To my parents.

The good man should be called burro. The bad burro should be called man, ironically…

Juan Ramón Jiménez

i

CONTENTS

Perico – The Fabulous Burro – English

Acknowledgment

1 – I Swear on my Honor

2 - My Early Years

3 - An Ugly Black Owl Who Everyone Called a Truck

4 - My New Visits to Cerro Calvo

5 - Some of my Participations in Politics

6 -The Police Beating

7 - The Circus Mare

8 - When the Mayor Sent me to Prison

9 - Doña Milagros Niece’s Fright

10 - The Carnivals

11 - My Meeting with Americans

12 - The Day I Settled an Argument

13 - My Only Traffic Accident

14 - The Trial of the Kidnappers who Wanted to Turn me Into Donkey Jerky

15 – A Dangerous Spelling Error

16 – The Greatest Fright of my Life

17 - My Acting Career at the Caridad Theater

18 – My Burial

19 – When the Kid who grew up made a Sculpture for me

Photographs and Mementos

Perico - El Fabuloso Burro – Español

Reconocimiento

1 - Te Juro por mi Honor

2 - Mis Primeros Años

3 - Una Fea Lechuza a la que Todos Llamaron Camión

4 - Mis Nuevas Visitas a Cerro Calvo

5 - Algunas de mis Participaciones en la Política

6 - La Paliza de un Policía

7 -La Yegua del Circo

8 - Cuando el Alcalde me Mandó a Prisión

9 - El Susto de la Sobrina de Doña Milagros

10 - Los Carnavales

11 - Mi Encuentro con Norteamericanos

12 - El Día Que Decidí una Disputa

13 - Mi Único Accidente de Tráfico

14 - El Juicio a los Secuestradores que Querían Convertirme en Tasajo

15 – Una Falta de Ortografia Peligrosa

16 – El Susto mas Grande de mi Vida

17 - Mi Actuacion en el Teatro Caridad

18 – Mi Entierro

19 – Cuando el Niño que creció me hizo una Escultura

Autor

FOREWORD

In May of 2019, I visited the city of my birth, Santa Clara, Cuba, to meet family and visit the island for the first time in sixty years. There I met Arnaldo who is married to my cousin Milagros.

Over coffee, he told me about Perico, Santa Clara’s famous burro, and that he had written a book about him titled, El Fabuloso Burro Perico - Perico, The Fabulous Burro. Instantly, I fell in love with Perico and the idea of bringing these accounts to you – cuentos, if you will.

Many stories disappear en el Olvido – in forgetfulness, a place where old things are held in stasis. Stories similar to Perico’s vanished from our collective memories as our families dealt with the imminent needs of coping in exile. I was one of those children who didn’t learn about Perico.

With joy, after my visit to Cuba, Arnaldo and I introduce you to Perico, a folkloric icon of our dear hometown. We hope you enjoy Perico and share the cuentos with your children and grandchildren to keep his memory alive.

Susana Jiménez – Mueller

December 13, 2019.

Brandon, FL.

PREFACE

Once upon a time, there was a burro and a town that deeply loved each other…

Hans Cristian Andersen, the prince of children’s tales, which is worthy of mention when we speak about specific animals, said that certain stories, just like people, increase in beauty as years pass by.

The great writer wasn’t wrong. Perico’s life and death in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, is one of those fascinating stories that became more beautiful through the passing of time.

This narration is just a modest and obliged homage to an extraordinary animal that was a big toy and a living legend. An incredible little burro that even years after death, the metallic echo of his slow and firm walk is still the perfect music to every old cobblestone of my beloved city.

In his tireless pilgrimage day after day on the streets of Santa Clara, he left behind a trail of brilliant butterflies turned into a stream of fresh and new bird songs–renewed from neighborhood to neighborhood in the happy and never-ending pitter-patter of barefoot children.

After seven decades from his death, the butterflies he used to leave behind him still dance to renewed bird songs. The children who never got to know Perico, turned him into a forever Platero multiplied by thousand; Platero was poet Jiménez’ burro from the famous book, Platero y Yo – Platero and I.

I was one of those kids, enchanted by the magic of Perico’s stories, as told by my grandmother. Later on, I created the metallic sculpture for a city park in Santa Clara, Cuba. Today, remembering Platero multiplied by thousand, I write his beautiful story.

The enormous grief of a whole city paid tribute to him the day of his death, as well as the crowded funeral where the farewell words were made by a senator of the Republic of Cuba, a vital tribute only reserved for human beings. The senator came directly from Habana to Santa Clara, almost three-hundred kilometers away. Perico, not being a human, proved he had discovered the mysterious and secret way that leads to men’s hearts.

Perico was no more a common burro than those who carry a packsaddle, a harness, or pulls a carriage. Due to his unusual behavior, almost human, admired by everyone, he became the city’s loved and cared for pet.

His unique and original wit, his indispensable presence in the social and political life of a city that he took as a safe and gigantic stable, turned him into the most colorful icon any town in Cuba ever had.

If the inspired Spanish writers Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra and Juan Ramón Jiménez had met Perico, they surely would have fought over him to claim him by fair means.

Arnaldo Artiles Quintana

December 13, 2019.

Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Cuba.

ACKNOWLEGMENT

Thanks to our family for instilling values that have served to unite us, even across stretches of time and space – from the shores of Cuba to the beaches of exile countries. Many thanks to Rose Ann Froberg, Mona Posinoff, Patricia Regelsberger, Jon Mueller, and Betty Viamontes for helping us preview the dual language manuscript.

INTRODUCTION

The names of people, streets, and places depicted in this story are real, as well as the anecdotes of burro Perico. He lived from 1914 to 1947 in the city of Santa Clara, the capital of the former province of Las Villas, Cuba, with a population of sixty thousand at the time.

His grave is located on Eduardo Machado Street (also known as San Cristobal) between Unión and Maceo Streets in the backyard of house number 102, where Ricardo Pérez Caso, one of the sons of Perico’s owner, still lives.

Perico’s sculpture has a place in a park located in San Miguel and Unión Streets.

Reports about Perico’s life