Cuban exile makes a living as a living statue in Italy

A 65-year-old Cuban makes a living in Genoa, Italy, as a living statue and his story was told by a local Italian media.

Pedro, as this man is named, is a native of Holguín and poses as a chess player standing still between Plaza San Lorenzo and Porto Antico, a place known as the tourist city in Genoa.

He says that in Genoa a traffic police officer fined him twice because his mask hid his face and did not allow him to be identified.

He has been doing this way of making a living for 15 years, although he dreams of not doing it for much longer.

His dream, according to what he told the Italian mediaprimocanale.it, is to be able to obtain residency for humanitarian reasons and work as a welder.

Pedro managed to leave Cuba after 17 failed attempts. "To escape from Castro and Cuba and live in a free country I tried everything, seventeen times I tried to escape aboard boats that I had built myself, with branches and trunks found in the forest," he commented.

The times he was near the North American coast, he was returned to the island, until he tried to return to the Guantánamo Naval Base, where he was imprisoned and experienced the experience of North American prisons.

After there, he landed in Europe, passing through Hungary, then Spain and ending in Genoa, from where he continued in the fight to conquer his dream, although he seems like a person immobile to earn a living.