Juan Padrón's daughter seeks to fulfill her father's dream in Cuba

The dream of the Cuban cartoonist Juan Padron (1947-2020), is that his work was digitized for universal access to anyone who wants to consult it, it is on its way to being fulfilled by his daughter Silvia.

"My dad always had the pain that his work was archived as he could have, so when he passed away (in 2020) I set the goal of rescuing at least most of it, which was already here in the house," he told WHICH Padrón's daughter.

Author of the famous character Elpidio Valdes, Padrón had his work stored in different formats, ranging from acetate, caricatures and drawings that Silvia is now trying to digitize "to make his work more visible."

The commission will have German cooperation. "Everything is going to be done here in Cuba. The only thing that is going to be brought from Germany are the devices and material necessary for the process," he assured. Vanessa Sanchez, Culture and Press attaché of the German embassy in Havana.

For this reason, the relationship between both parties has been frequent. They, together with Silvia, supervise the review process of all the material that will be digitized.

"We have no idea how many documents we have here. We are just doing the inventory to know what is there. We will organize it in a catalog and then we will digitize it," explained the daughter of the cartoonist from Matanzas.

Leader of the initiative known as "La Manigua", dedicated to promoting her father's work, Silvia affirms that this first phase should conclude in two months and the project in general has an end date for December of this year.

Once the process is finished, they intend to create an online platform "where all these documents will be so that specialists and those who want to study the work of Juan Padrón can consult."

Regarding the importance of this action, the German cultural manager insists that "Padrón's documentary archive is very worth rescuing and saving because not only is it an exceptional work of art, but it also has added value because it unites all the Cuban people regardless of age."

"If you talk to anyone about Elpidio Valdés they immediately know. It is part of the identity of a people," the diplomat acknowledges.

Last year, the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) announced the digitalization of all of Padrón's work, as part of a heritage rescue and conservation project.

Francisco Cordero Matienzo, director of development and heritage at ICAIC, explained that in total there are about 64 titles, filmed in the 35 millimeter format.

However, there has been no more information on this idea.

Juan Padrón was a caricaturist, cartoon director, illustrator, cartoonist, screenwriter and Cuban film director. Elpidio Valdés, his most famous character, appears for the first time in the magazine Pioneer, in 1970.

His first feature film was in 1979, Elpidio Valdes, and the second, Vampires in Havana, in 1985. He was also the creator of the cartoon series Filminuto, which first appeared in 1980. Starting in 1986, worked in collaboration with Quino to create another series that they called Cinemascope.