Perhaps one of the most interesting moments of my life occurred in the year 2000: My first trip to the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba (IPRC). Thirty-five visits later I had traveled nearly half the island and had made countless friends both inside and outside the church. I was also fortunate to have a Cuban mentor, someone who would guide me through the intricacies of language and culture. Her name is Pastora Mairolet Vega. I was also fortunate to have a US mentor who would subsidize my efforts to bring churches from the Presbyterian Church (USA) to meet congregations in Centro Presbytery in Cuba.
In 2010 a tragic event took place: the death of one of Centro's young and aspiring pastors in a horrific car crash. Then, via the Cuba Partners Network (CPN), I received a eulogy in Spanish from one of the deceased pastor's close friends; I translated the eulogy and posted it to the CPN web site, scarcely thinking of anything other than doing some small service to our Cuban and North American partners. However, not long after, I made it known that I wanted to work on communication between our denominations, specifically translation. And again, I was fortunate to meet the author of the fore-mentioned Spanish eulogy at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, Cuba, one Carlos R. Molina Rodriguez. Meeting Carlos was to be pivotal in the direction I had chosen. As a professor of church history at the seminary, he offered me a book entitled "La siembra infinita," (The Infinite Sowing) an account of the history of Cuban Protestantism, but it was much more than that. I was riveted and there and then decided to translate and publish it in English. That happened in 2015, and I still consider it to be the flagship of my translations.
My path was now set. In 2016 I published a translation of Rafael Cepeda's book "Time and Words...," followed shortly after by my memoir "16 Years in Cuba."
Since that time, I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Daniel Izquierdo, a Presbyterian pastor in Havana, who was interested in publishing hos book "The Great Message" in English. That was complete in early 2023.
People often ask, "Why dedicate all this time to obscure works? Invariably, my answer is: Cuba has a right to tell its own story, and we (the USA) has relegated Cuba to a "state sponsor of terrorism," a designation given to it largely by post cold was US politicians who benefit financially from maintaining a senseless embargo against Cuba, and especially its people.
If interested, there is more to come: R. Cepeda's "The Christian Ethic in the Works of Jose Marti," a fascinating redaction of the Cuban Apostle's voluminous writings on social justice, and Rene Castellanos' sonnets entitled "Toward you with you."
Stay tuned, and thanks for reading these signature works.
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