Havana, June 2.- Five years after his death, the convincing and versatile actor continues to be an endearing figure of national culture.
Whoever has seen the film The Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) cannot doubt that, in the success of that classic of Cuban cinematography, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, the masterful acting performance of its protagonist: Salvador Wood has considerable weight. .
In the face and gestures of Juanchín, the nephew in unequal combat against bureaucracy, there is everything: sadness, confusion, disbelief, fatigue, rage… While the comedy of absurdities happens, whoever sees experiences the anguish through the embarrassed look, the nervous hands, the hurried or hesitant speech.
After the premiere of the film, the newspaper El Mundo published a review in which Wood’s expertise was already praised: “…he carries the weight of the work, since it can be said that the moments in which he does not appear on the screen are very rare.” . And in that continuous presence there is not a moment that is faded or lacking meaning. “He always hits the required note, with absolute propriety in making full use of his very sharp comic vision.”
Such interpretive accuracy of Salvador Juan de la Cruz Wood Fonseca (Santiago de Cuba, 1928–Havana, 2019) was the result of talent cultivated with perseverance; “without school” actor, he confessed to having learned by observing and asking those who came from the academy.
Thus, from adolescence, he made his way in radio, theater, cinema and the small screen, faithful to his vocation: «What distinguishes a good professional is the love for what he does. In my profession I believe in one thing above all, and that is sincerity. An actor, with all the theory that he possesses, with all the great teachers that have taught him, if he does not have a concept of sincerity, the work has no meaning,” he believed.
Capable of being credible in the nearly 20 peasants he represented, as much as in the skin of Carlos J. Finlay, Salvador deserved, by virtue of his life’s work, the national Television and Radio awards.
Just as in his time as a trade unionist and in the fight against the Batista dictatorship, which cost him exile after the April 9 strike, the consequence was always accompanied by the Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba. “Rarely has there been such a perfect fusion in Cuban culture of the highest and most brilliant talent along with exemplary conduct as a citizen and truly admirable principles and values,” intellectual Abel Prieto said of him.
The essence of the man who was Salvador Wood is completed by his humble family father lineage, the one who in Cojímar wrote verses, like the ones he once dedicated to Yolanda Pujols, his usual wife: In your prisoner eyes / I have seen a dream of ermine / wrinkling your bodice / to play with you. / It would be better to confess: / I am dreaming of a child for you! /
Five years after his death, at 90, his endearing essence remains alive in the memory of the Island. (Text and photo: Granma)
