CAMAGÜEY.- For the Adelante newspaper, each January marks twice the time of sunrise. We put goals into orbit for the small and unchanging cycle of the new year. In sight, the challenge of making a difference in the great trajectory of this medium. Achieving this will take effort and passion to tell the truth. It will also depend on the ability to surround ourselves with those who are better than us. Therefore, good company fills us with joy in the awakening of 2024, because our dawn already has a name. It's Nazario Salazar.

Plastic artist and endearing native of Camagüey. He wants to celebrate Adelante's 65 years with the personal exhibition Canto del viento, dedicated to nature as a source of inspiration for José Martí, and both nature and Martí in Nazario's motivation. He chose works from the Rostro de sol and Monte soy collections, of intervened digital photography, and also ceramic pieces.

Through his proposal in the alternative gallery space Nicolás Guillén we hear the symphony of the leaves, we feel the sensation of the breeze for the elves of each season converted into art. The sense of the ecological footprint connects us in a particular way because the makers of the pages of Adelante write about the memory of a body that was once a tree. This entails the unavoidable commitment to sow on paper to reap usefulness and virtue.

The exhibition allows us to celebrate the life of an artist without whom Adelante's stories could not be told. Nazario is everywhere. He has been a reader and collaborator. We have published his texts and he has been starring in beautiful and unique moments of the visual arts of Camagüey. He accompanies us in portentous moments for the soul such as the opening of this exhibition, but in a constant and silent way he has been sitting at our table to daily enhance each day's menu. In 1985 he made the first openwork and sgraffito murals. In case anyone doesn't know, the works that set the newspaper's dining room from the old headquarters in the Jayamá neighborhood polygraph are a gift from Nazario.

Therefore, Song of the Wind begins as an exhibition in the lobby but we will appreciate its magnitude if we undertake a journey through time in the newspaper spaces. The only condition is Martí's heartbeat. The imagination and courage with which he has fashioned himself broaden the motives of our affection. We take this opportunity to praise his 83 years of age, and aspire from Adelante's 65 years to be at least half as creative, original and authentic as him. We can stand out more, toast ourselves to celebrate the 15th of the Colibrí Project this month, but it is enough to thank the affection for making us feel that Adelante means the dawn for many people, that our newspaper can also be the dawn of Nazario whenever it wants.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez

 Photos: Courtesy of the interviewee