CubaPLUS Magazine

Many Baracoa residents believe that any plan or idea that does not achieve success in the prime town, as Baracoa is called, is the work of the curse of "Pelú", a character who arrived there in the last decade of the 19th century and who according to legend cursed the village forever.

According to the story, Vicente Rodríguez, born in La Coruña, Spain, was a wealthy merchant based in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba but, although it is not known how it happened, his business fell apart and he was left, as many say with “one hand in front and another behind”.

What is known is that during the time he was in Baracoa he lived as a beggar practically in rags, his hair disheveled, without a plate of food to put in his mouth and wandering the streets of that city. He was seen at night, walking barefoot here and there and there was always the occasional Baracoa man who took pity of him and fed him.

However, many began to fear him and rumored stories that the "Pelú", as he was nicknamed because of his scruffy appearance, brought bad luck. The residents, not all, but most of them humiliated him, threw stones at him and protested Rodríguez's presence in the city.

So, faced with this situation, the local authorities decided to expel him forever. On the day of his departure, before boarding the boat that would transfer him to a new port, "Pelú" said: "Many good plans will be made in Baracoa, many good ideas will be generated, but they will all fall apart, nothing will be fulfilled."

That sentence has passed from generation to generation and the "Pelú" is remembered every day by a statue erected to that character who, despite considering him cursed, is one of the attractions of the city. It can be affirmed  there is no national or foreign tourist who arrives in Baracoa and does not visit the "Pelú", because more than a villain, it has become a tradition, like many others in the city.