Bárbaro Velazco: five decades of dedication to literature and teaching.
It is impossible to admit that the renowned poet and publisher Bárbaro Velazco Valderrama is retiring from the literary world. For that reason the collective of Ediciones Matanzas, where he developed for decades the publishing profession, pays tribute to him with the promise that he will continue collaborating with the enthusiasm that characterizes him.
The motivating occasion was the announcement of his retirement and then at the Casa de las Letras Digdora Alonso began the acknowledgements to his consecrated work, which has deserved the praise of writers of great value, who put in his hands the improvement of their works.
Both the director of Ediciones Matanzas, Alfredo Zaldívar Muñoa, winner of the National Publishing Award, and Efrahím Pérez Izquierdo, director of the Provincial Center of Books and Literature, expressed their admiration for the disciplined and constant work of this creator.
In a lively interview with Maylan Alvarez, the fervent Martiano, who never ceases to quote the Apostle in each of his speeches, said that his attachment to José Martí was born since childhood and accompanies him both in his writing and in his work as a teacher of several generations.
Numerous colleagues expressed their gratitude to Velazco for the lessons he offered them in the difficult exercise of editing, in addition to praising his teaching in numerous educational centers.
To this media he declared that the most exciting part of his career has been when the editorial work, with relevant personalities of our literary field, allowed him to star in the «birth» of his first books.
«Facing retirement I experience a mixture of mixed feelings, because although I know it is a logical process, work has always been a major force and driving force in my life. That is why I will continue to teach and to collaborate wherever I can be useful and my health permits.
«I am overwhelmed by the satisfaction of having fulfilled my duty and the immense joy of having received and receiving the recognition of those who know how to be grateful. I have never worried about those who do not know how to do so, and even less so now.
«In my memory live my students and not a few colleagues, as well as the applause of the public to whom I recited a poem or presented a book in various scenarios. Also cultural projects such as the programs for grandparents at the José White Hall or at the Bonifacio Byrne Cultural Center, the Peña that I organized and conducted at the Dr. Ismael Triana Sanatorium Center for HIV positive people, my work for years with the Library Extension department of Gener and Del Monte.
«To all, my gratitude, especially to those who helped me to be better and even to those who, from positions of leadership or banal elevations frustrated some projects, to all go my gratitude because they helped me to better glimpse the masks behind which hypocrisy, envy and vanity usually hide».
And he said: «I reiterate my willingness to continue collaborating with any task that may contribute to the cultural welfare of this city to which, paraphrasing our Carilda, I owe my life and I will owe my death».
In the ceremony he was given the Commemorative Stamp Anniversary 45th Anniversary of Matanzas Editions, a drawing of the painter Adrián Gómez Sancho was given to him and gifts from his colleagues in this kind of farewell that is the beginning of a new facet of his life.
Written by María Elena Bayón.
