Potrerillo

A bridge over the Caunao River leads into Potrerillo. The town buzzes with activity. In the dead center of town, where four streets ride over each other, stands the Casa de Cultura—the Luis Dagoberto Sanchez Aguila Casa de Cultura, to be precise, named after a son of Potrerillo who made his national and international name popularizing traditional Mexican ranchera music throughout central Cuba, despite having to do so from a wheelchair after an accident paralyzed him from the waist down. A few kilometers south of Potrerillo is the Casa de Tejas, the house where Antonio Maceo and his lieutenants planned the attack on Mal Tiempo. Estaban was on the grounds nearby with other members of the army. La Casa de Tejas was the center of the universe for Maceo, Gomez, Esteban and the other men thinking of Mal Tiempo as perhaps the last place where they would breathe Cuban air.