The Cuban poet and improvisational artist Juan Carlos García Guridi published a triptych of sonnets on his Facebook profile titled "To the Charity of Copper", composed of "Devotion," "Faith," and "Supplication," in which he transforms devotion to the patroness of Cuba into a collective cry for health, freedom, and hope.
The publication was made on the eve of Tuesday the 8th, a day when Cubans celebrate the Virgin of Charity of Copper, amidst an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The triptych revisits the myth of the Three Juanes and transforms it into a metaphor for today's Cubans. In "Devotion," García Guridi writes: "Rowers who number almost eleven million / and cause the Virgin of Charity to dwell in every corner." The figure resonates with bitterness: Cuba's effective population fell to 9.43 million inhabitants by the end of 2025, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information.
The decline is primarily driven by an exodus that resulted in negative migration balances of 251,221 people in 2024 and another 245,264 in 2025
In "Fe," the poet presents a request to the Virgin that the regime has been unable to fulfill: "I will only ask for what is necessary: / Health and freedom! -never lineage-". The sonnet anchors the poem in the sacred geography of Cuban devotion—"In Nipe, I want to deposit my Faith -the one I have for you- just like in your Sanctuary."
The climax arrives in "Ruego," where the poetic voice departs from contemplation and raises an urgent plea: "Come with Los Tres Juanes to my shore, / my shore which is the same as out there... / Do not abandon the poor one who waits for you / with your Child, your cloak, and your small boat." Before the final verse, García Guridi writes: "Adrift, no... That’s not how I want you," an image that encapsulates the situation of a country where power outages exceed 20 hours daily in some areas and where 94% of the population lives in extreme poverty, according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights.
And for the climax, the poet channels the energy of a plea that reflects an entire island: "save us with your warrior spirit; Cuba needs you, Holy Virgin."
García Guridi has released a series of compositions addressing social issues throughout 2026. In July, he unveiled "PREGUNTO," featuring verses such as "What have they done to us? I ask / as we lose day by day / our dignity, our joy." At the end of August, a décima espinela with photographs documented the accumulation of garbage in Bejucal, Mayabeque, concluding with "that we have become / a country of garbage."
And the day before the Marian triptych, raised his voice in defense of the journalist José Gabriel Barrenechea, sentenced to six years in prison for participating in a cookware protest in Encrucijada, Villa Clara, a sentence that was upheld by the People's Supreme Court on July 28, 2026.
Born in Batabanó, Mayabeque, in 1968, García Guridi is a literary researcher with more than a dozen published books on décima and Cuban popular poetry. He is a member of UNEAC and part of the Grupo Ala Décima. In August, he shared the poem "Catarsis" with the line: "This thing of remaining silent / is not worthy of a medal: / A poet when silent / dies but of silence."
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