THE PLACE THEY LIKE THE BEST

This is what it means the sports area of San Rafael and Hospital St., for the teenagers who live in Cayo Hueso, a little neighborhood in the center 0f Havana. has become for them.


By Alicia Centelles

Every afternoon, after two o´clock, the corner of San Rafael and Hospital St., in Cayo Hueso, is full of shouts and laughter with the presence of children and teenagers who practice sports in that area of the capital of Cuba.


Thanks to the initiative of Jose Luis Bos Rodriguez, professor of Physical Education in Salvador Cisneros Betancourt Elementary School, that place has become the center of the c
 ommunitarian project entitled “Defending my community”, by means of which children between six and fifteen years old not only play baseball and soccer, but they are also interested in their surroundings.


Always headed by their enthusiastic professor, students from Republic of Bolivia, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, Pepito Mendoza and Maria Diaz Bersón schools integrate a combative sport club, up to date the only one of his kind in Cuba, named after of the young martyr Paquito González Cueto.

Those teenagers have worked in the remodeling of the emblematic park of the locality, named Quintín Banderas, and participate in the celebration of the birthdays of the grandpas in the community. At this moment, the members of the sports club make a research about the monuments in their territory dedicated to famous athletes.

Odelkis Tapia Quintana, president of the enthusiastic group, and Lisbel Arrastía Branches, its vice-president, say: We not only practice soccer and baseball. The girls prefer the kikinbol, that is played with a soccer ball of soccer but following the baseball rules. We have helped in the cleaning of the Trillo Park, and we put flowers before monuments and statues. In addition, we integrated ourselves to the cheering commission in the Latin American Stadium, to support to the Industrial team, and gave trophies made by ourselves to outstanding baseball players.

Then, Daniel Escalona Robles, the vivacious historian of the club, explains that its objective is to unite students from quarter to ninth degrees so that they dedicate his leisure time to sports and healthy ways of recreation. He adds that they also have a chess club, named Jesús Rodríguez González: We made the first teenagers encounter massive in the district, with the participation of three teachers of that discipline.

The activity displayed by the communitarian project headed by professor José Luis extends all over Cayo Hueso and other districts of the neighborhood. As much Odelkis as Lisbel and Daniel think that thus it must be: Even, it is an initiative that should be practiced in other schools of the country, because all of us, as Cuban children, have duties and rights as well. For us, this is the place we like the best in our district.