Though one of the most successful contemporary artists in Cuba, his home/studio by design is modest and like a small museum filled with artworks by himself and other Cuban artists and artisans. He is an open and generous man, and very focused about his art,  commitment to Cuban culture, and how he can help younger artists. Unlike other accomplished Cuban men we've met, he is very low-key. He holds Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara as folk heros and is clear that their legacies will be eternal. During the course of our conversation he points out that perhaps we've already noticed that throughout Cuba are many statues memorializing military heros (Maceo, de Cespedes, Ché) and revolutionary thinkers such as poet Jose Marti, however, there are no statues of Castro. He shares that this was by decree, which helps Castro maintain a public persona as a man of the people; not better or worse.

When Lescay won the commission to build the Maceo monument in Santiago de Cuba, it came with a substantial cash award. He declined the prize money, asking instead that the government fund a foundation — Foundacion Caguayo para Las Artes Monumentales y Aplicadas (Caguayo Foundation for Monumental and Applied Arts) — he had dreamed of creating to pass along skills he developed. When he began the project in the 1980s, there was only one artist who knew the techniques needed to create such vast quantities of bronze, and he was over 80 at the time. That's when Lescay realized that to create the Maceo monument, Cuba needed to create a school as many of the earlier generation of artists were dying off, and fewer young Cubans were being groomed to take their places. The monument took nine years and a team of almost 100 additional artists. They melted over 100 tons of bronze.

Additionally, Lescay creates bold abstract paintings, and helped establish and continues to support the Galeria Rene Valdes, a space for artists to exhibit works and interact as part of the city's vibrant cultural community. ​

One more stop before  heading to the Hotel Meliá Santiago is to a war memorial commemorating the 1898 victory known as the Spanish-American War. The monument acknowledges and celebrates the decisive support given to Cuba by the U.S. Army.

This afternoon we head back to Santiago de Cuba for some very interesting and stimulating culture . . . stay tuned!

​which we are told were a major base of Castro’s guerrilla army. Our 4 hour journey to Bayamo takes us through more agricultural and ranching areas, and through the small cities and villages. We also see the Sierra Crital and Sierra Purial mountains that contain a wilderness mountain rainforest — too bad we won’t be spending time in the mountains!

Our first visit is to Casa de la Nacionalidad Cubana (House of Cuban Nationality — CNC), which was founded in 1991 as a research center on the historical, social and cultural roots of of the country. The Center was founded by Onoria Céspedes Argote, who was also the first woman designated as a city historian in Cuba.

​We meet with and learn more about the history of Cuba with a local historian who shares that education was conceived as the fulcrum around which the Cuban Revolution’s economic, political, social and cultural programs would turn. On January 1, 1961, a National Literacy Campaign was launched sending 235,000 volunteers throughout the country. In just one-year they reduced the country’s illiteracy rate from 25% to 3.9%. Wanting to capitalize upon this wave of popular mobilization and eduction, Fidel and Ché launched the idea for art schools that would serve Cubans as a center for the education of artists and instructors and from which cultural literacy could be disseminated. Because of Ché’s international interests, the program drew students from Africa, Asia and Latin America in service of the creation of a “new culture” for the “new man.” In this way, the art schools would have the political objective to educate those artists who give socialism in both Cuba and the Third World its aesthetic representation.. They would also be experimental centers for intercultural educate and exchange.

Here, we also are treated to the beautiful voices of a local choir that has performed throughout Cuba and abroad.

​Enroute, we stop at El Cobre, the most important shrine for Cubans and most famous church in the country. The spectacular triple-domed church with the mouthful name of El Sanctuario de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre was built in 1927. It rises on Maboa hill in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra near old copper mines that give it its name.

The faithful come from across Cuba on pilgrimages to pay their respects to, and ask for protection from, a black Madonna — the Virgen de la Caridad (Virgin of Charity). She is nothing less than the protectress of Cuba, and her image, cloaked in a glittering gold robe can be seen throughout the country. According to legend, Cuba's patron saint was rescued bobbing in the Bay of Nipe in 1611 by three young fishermen (or miners, depending on who's telling the story) about to capsize in a storm. The Madonna wore a sign that read: "Yo soy la Virgen de la Caridad"  (I am the Virgin of Charity). With the wooden statue in their grasp, they miraculously made it to shore. Pilgrims, who often make the last section of the trek on their knees, pray to her image and place mementos (votos) and offerings of thanks for her miracles; among them are small boats and prayers for those who have tried to make it to Florida on rafts. Ernest Hemingway, whose fisherman in The Old Man and the Sea made a promise to visit the shrine if he could only land his marlin, donated his Nobel Prize for Literature to the shrine, but it was stolen (and later recovered, but never again exhibited here). 

Her parallel figure in Afro-Cuban worship is Ochún, goddess of love and femininity, who is also dark-skinned and dressed in bright yellow garments. In 1998 the Pope visited and blessed the shrine, calling the Virgin "La Reina de los Cubanos" (Queen of Cubans), and donated a rosary and crown.

The Virgen sits on the second floor, up the back stairs, encased in glass. When Mass is said, the push of a button turns the Virgin around to face the congregation. The annual pilgrimage is September 12, and the patron saint's feast day is July 25.