The arrival of November predicts a perceptible change in temperatures with that mix of blizzard and light rain. For Cubans, these cold fronts mark the arrival of winter, for the people of Majagüa it is the beginning of a tradition. Those of us from this land to the southwest region of Ciego de Ávila raise our noses and say “Bandos celebration is already approaching”.

Moreover, it is that for two consecutive years the change in thermal sensation was far from the revelry, a fact that is intended to reverse this 2022 with the celebration of the XL Day of Majagüa Culture.

According to Ernesto Linares Ojeda, president of the Municipal Assembly of People's Power, “the people deserve to once again enjoy our most indigenous traditions. It is the culmination of an intense year of work, where Majagua hosted the activities for July 26 and this is the best gift for the work carried out”.

On this occasion, the festivities will have a shorter duration: from November 10 to 13, but this does not mean that the main events proposed each day by the Municipal Directorate of Culture are not dispensed with.

Foreigners and locals will be able to enjoy the “Arbelio Armas Consuegra” Parrandas Festival, “El Águila de la Trocha” and “La Muñeca Negra” contests, the pilgrimage to the pantheon where the remains of Pedro García Méndez —creator of the Bandos Rojo and Azul—, the Toque Folklorico de los Manrique, the presentation of the cast of the television program Palmas y Cañas, and the departure of the Comparsas Roja and Azul.

Through the director of Sports of the territory, Helen Pérez Agüero, we learned that sports events join cultural events. With the rivalry between the Blues and the Reds, there will be basketball games, soccer games and a peasant ring game tournament.

Many people question the reason for this celebration when the country is experiencing an unfavorable economic situation, but for Misleidy Abad Modey, first secretary of the Party in the municipality, and using the words of Fidel Castro: “in a Revolution the first thing what needs to be saved is culture”.

“In the midst of so many limitations, after a COVID-19 that left us with so many irreparable losses of human life, assuming the challenge of preserving Culture is an inalienable decision of the main government and political authorities of the territory. Majagua is a very cultural municipality rooted in its traditions. Every time the words Red and Blue are mentioned, people vibrate and get emotional, they forget their daily tragedies”.

Abad Modey adds that the challenge also lies in offering the family the best of our culture and traditions, but also the best of our gastronomy.

This November arrives again with its gray shades of winter, but in Majagua the houses, its people and even the air are colored Red and Blue.