Photo: Aslam Castellón
Text: Cuba News 360 letter
Luis Silva’s baseball craze began earlier, long before he found fame at the FEU amateur artist festivals, impersonating sports commentator Héctor Rodríguez; even before he created the figure of Pánfilo Epifanio, that picturesque old man who is already part of the national identity. Silva’s idyll with the ball is lifelong.
This is what the mathematician by trade and daring humorist has confessed in hundreds of interviews in which he described his ideal scene: being at home with his family and watching a ball game.
And not only do you enjoy watching the game from the comfort of your home or from the stands of the Latin American Stadium. Luis Silva takes the risk of hitting and fielding, in true Carlos Tabares style.
Proof of this is that a decade ago the Center for the Promotion of Humor invited him to play as part of the Comedians team, and every time they visited a province, the ball game became a show. “We even played at night, the stadiums were lit for us,” Silva himself told the press. And they got even more cast than the National Series, although that’s unfortunate.
“I’m a baseball player on the field, I put my clothes on and I think I’m the crazy guy with the ball. I live this moment, it relaxes me. If they call me to do a show on a day I have a ball game, I don’t take the job. I have to play, be on the field, hit, run, catch balls, throw myself. For me, baseball is a necessity.”
Awaiting the development of his Team Industriales in each National Series and Cuba as soon as a foreign event takes place, the young comedian has managed to turn his iconic character into an ardent defender of Cuban baseball as well, although he does not become fanatical about Ruperto, who goes to the Koma fell after being hit in the head by a ball.
Knowing of his obsession with baseball and because Pánfilo has become an opinion leader for Cubans wherever they are, his millions of followers on social media are awaiting Silva’s reaction to the V World Classic.
Ball is mentioned in the rehearsals of Vivir del Cuento
In one of his most recent posts, published on March 16 on his digital platforms, there is a 1.5 minute video in which Silva plays ball together with Mario Sardiñas (Chequera), Wilber Gutiérrez (Chacón) and Luis Enrique Carreres (Voltímetro). in the patio of the house where Vivir del Cuento is being rehearsed.
In the video, they break the broom they borrowed from the neighbor to use as a bat. The scene is short, but it shows the euphoria felt by the artists ahead of the classification of the so-called Team Asere for the semifinals that would be played in the city of Miami. “This team is another story, another story,” they sing at the end.
On Facebook alone, the video has already garnered more than 55,000 reactions and around 1,000 comments, including some asking the actor to update his statements about Cuba’s loss to the United States or about the team’s performance, which some have described it is historic, not so much for finishing fourth, but for being there for the first time with a united team.
The dialogues of the new season of Vivir del Cuento, currently in production, will certainly be peppered with these and other themes, a space that has accustomed Cubans to reflecting on their conflicts and daily worries and who do not miss the opportunity will address the island’s controversial participation in the Classic of Classics.
They’ll have to wait for the next few chapters to come out, but Luis Silva was upfront: “Even in the middle of rehearsals, we couldn’t stop talking about baseball.”