Third Course of the Carucha Camejo Teaching Unit Begins in Matanzas

The closing of the season of Un invento superfirolítico by Teatro de Las Estaciones, in the 19th performance of the show premiered last May, became a propitious occasion to begin the third course of the Carucha Camejo Teaching Unit, with the dismantling of the work with which the troupe of the Moon and the Sun, under the direction of Rubén Darío Salazar Taquechel, celebrates the 70th anniversary of the national puppet, Pelusín del Monte.

«We have joined today three things that are important to me. The season closing of Un invento superfirolítico, which is the most recent premiere at Teatro de Las Estaciones, dedicated to the Cuban and Matanzas national puppet Pelusín del Monte Pérez del Corcho. It has been a beautiful, Cuban season, in tune with the circumstances, and it has been very lovely.

«Being able to dismantle it for the students entering the third course of the teaching unit for children’s theater and puppetry at the upper-middle level is also a unique possibility. It was marvelous to lay bare the show for people who are now beginning to be dazzled, to fall in love, and to learn about many things that this beautiful, so singular profession has — making theater, puppetry for children or for adults.»

During the dismantling, Salazar Taquechel, actor, professor, director of Teatro de Las Estaciones and National Theater Prize winner, referred to the technical elements of the staging, from the set design, the soundtrack that supports the story, the acting performance, and the literary base from which Un invento superfirolítico was born.

For the dozen students beginning in the universe of puppets, attending this academic exercise at one of the avant-garde puppet groups in the country is an unsurpassable opportunity for their learning.

«It is two years. We teach Universal History of Art, Universal History of Puppet Theater, body expression, animation, and contemporary social themes in the first year; in the second, Cuban Art History, History of Puppet Theater in Cuba, dramaturgy, design, artistic direction, singing, and animation continue.»

For two years, the young people entering the Carucha Camejo Teaching Unit will receive knowledge from theory and practice, the also researcher expands. «I never despair because we don’t give only theoretical classes. Those young people are going to be the protagonists of either EIRA, the International Open Altarpiece Encounter, or FESTITÍN, where they have free classes from great masters.

«It is not a school that develops in the classroom but, principally, in theaters, in the street, or in activities and flexible spaces where they will exchange with the public as they will when they are professionals. It is a school of theory and practice.»

The Carucha Camejo Teaching Unit, an endeavor that came to fruition in 2019, has yielded excellent fruits in Matanzas, with the graduation of young people from several provinces of the country, some of whom today make up Las Estaciones and other professional companies dedicated to theater for children and puppetry.

«We have had here professors and students of the school, students of previous courses. Seeing on stage the graduated students of the first course with gold title — Raúl, Ale, Iris — and knowing it is your fruit, what you created in 2019, and now, in 2026, they are in front, starring and obtaining prizes, recognitions, and enjoying the profession, is gratifying.

«It’s just that we don’t give classes; we don’t train to suffer; we train to give happiness, and to give happiness one must be happy and conscious of what one does.»

Continuing a training story begun by the Camejo brothers themselves and Pepe Carril, when they created between 1961 and 1963 the first guiñols in the former six provinces into which Cuba was divided, is one of the purposes of the Carucha Camejo Teaching Unit since its founding.

Likewise, it guarantees the creation of academic spaces in the East, Center, and West of the country, based on the active work of companies and personalities who are references in the specialty of theater for children and puppetry, 25 years after Corina Mestre dreamed of and fought for its materialization in Cuba.

«Twenty-six years later, it is a pity that Corina is not on the physical plane — she is always on the spiritual plane, because she was the one who pushed Ernesto Parra, Fife, and me, in different parts of the country, not only in Havana (in Havana there is a very good National Puppet School), so that there would also be a training movement in other places. I will always be grateful to her.»

The first course of the Carucha Camejo Teaching Unit in Matanzas began in 2019. Several of the graduates of this academic experience have been awarded the Adolfo Llauradó performance prizes and have represented Cuban puppet theater abroad.

This Monday, the new students received a lecture from Maestro René Fernández Santana, actor, researcher, and director of Teatro Papalote and National Theater Prize winner.