Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 June 2000 — Page 5

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HWDAY, JUNE 1g, 2000

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

Picasso family tree has roots in Cuba

J ¥ By DALIA ACOSTA -i|j< 3 1' HAVANA (IPS) — Pablo '-Pleasso died in 1973 never having 'Visited Cuba and without ever knowing that his grandfather had 'left him with relatives on the island ^ Afro-Cubans and mestizos — who were also unaware they were ^rfefated to the great Spanish painter, arii Picasso is said to have comfhented at one time, “a grandfather -lif mine ended up in Cuba.” Be- ' ^dnd that mention, however, for an ‘'etitire century, nothing was known "lot sure about Francisco Picasso 'Guardeo, the grandfather who, like Romany Spaniards of his era, emigrated to the Americas in search of his fortune and never returned to bis home country. r Meanwhile, on the island, it may have occurred to the Cuban Picassos there was some connection with the famed creator of ' Guernica, but the mere color of their skin led them to rule out such “Speculation. 4 'Juan Antonio Pascual Picasso "Perez, grandson of Francisco’s " fiftt-bom in Cuba, says with a good ' bit of humor, “Picasso in Black and "White,” as he contemplates his photo published alongside another i}f*his “famous uncle” in a Cuban Newspaper. iVr, “We had heard about the painter, ‘ bht really neither my father or I had "ariy interest in checking into the ramily ties my grandfather left behind in Spain when he came to G|ba,” he told IPS. •At age 71, Juan Antonio still provides technical assessment as a plasterer, loves jazz and dancing, believes that music keeps him alive llahd is proud of his grandchildren. (.One of them, Joan Picasso, 11, is Lstudying painting at an art school. , The truth about the Picasso family lilies came out late last year when 'Cuban historian and photographer r-Barbara Mejides announced she 'had found a family in Havana she believed was die only one with that Cdttet name in Cuba. LnaiWiS; now know “there i pay, be another family, white, but we have Vtotbeen able tbfmd them,” Mejides -told IPS. The discovery of other relatives ■would prompt new questions, but nwpuld not cloud what shines as a /passionate love story between the ^Spanish immigrant and Cristina * Sara, a free Black woman, during 'll time when slavery still existed on 0 the island. o< “ Mejides started her research in ,1998 at the request of the Pablo . Picasso Association of La Coma, a < province of the autonomous com- -• munity of Galicia in Spain, in order 1 to complete its biographical files 3'bbout the painter. “The search began at the center a of the island and ended in Havana, a just meters from my house. When !lf saw Juan Antonio, I had no doubt. > The likeness is incredible: the same < dyes, the same nose, the same face,” Says Mejides.. oil* According to the researcher, the ■ immigrant Francisco found work , at a sugar mill in the middle of the island. Once he had started his fam- > tfy, they settled in Sagua la Grande, , a town 330 kilometers from Hai vana that now has more than 60,000 < residents. . It is still not known what role he ' played or what his attitude was . toward the first war of indepen.,dence against his homeland, Spain, < which began the year he arrived, >1868, and lasted a decade. wi* “It was common in Cuba to find < a- Spaniard living with a Black woman,” said Mejides. “The completely unusual part of this case is ‘that Francisco founded a family with Cristina and gave his surname to the four children they had together.” 11 /Most of the time, their father 'vt^as working at the sugar mill, so lj}ie children grew up very close to >■ their mother, who is believed to have had some level of formal eduon because she was able to int her own children. “All of them knew how to read 'afcd write, the two brothers had a '^ofessional trade and the two sis^(jtyrs were well educated for their •ten. They were Catholic and in Iheir training there was a great mix Spanish and African culture,” said the researcher. Picasso’s father died of anemia in 1888 he was 63 years old and had in Cuba 20 years. XOf Francisco’s four children, both Juan Francisco Aurelio and

Arcadia de la Caridad had families. The son had children with an Afro-Cuban woman, while the daughter, like her mother, married a Spaniard. Apparently, his children never learned of Francisco’s family in Spain, but in their names, without their knowledge, the father reproduced his loved ones he had left behind in his native land. This detail now serves as proof in Mejides’s investigations. “Aurelia was a daughter of Francisco (in Spain) who died very young. When Picasso’s grandfa-

ther has his first son in Cuba, he makes his third name Aurelio,” she explained. Juan Francisco Aurelio had nine children, belonged to a Masonic sect and was known as “mmbero mayor,” a title given to the great dancers of the rumba, an AfroCuban rhythm closely linked to the traditions brought to the Caribbean from Africa. His eldest son, Juan Remigio, was founder of the Cultural Association of Plaster Workers in Havana and member of the first Communist Party that existed in Cuba.

In the 1920s, when we came to live in Havana, my father “broke all color barriers. It was a major event to see a Black plasterer in Havana, because that job normally belonged to Italians and Moroccans,” remembers Juan Antonio Pascual. Heir to his father’s trade, Juan Antonio says he is “very pleased” with the news, but, he adds, “so far there has been no indication that the Picassos of Spain want to meet us.”

- ATTENTION -

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