My name is Ángel Martínez and my dream was to become a cameraman. I always thought about photography. Just like you, my friends made fun of me, but I was stubborn and I started to work as a television assistant in 1954. I got to know the best of the culture of that time. At work, I was the first one in and the last one out. That’s how I climbed up the ladder till I earned the title of cameraman (…)
Many years later in the middle of the Special Period [the early 1990s], they retired me. They explained that they were concerned about me making a mistake behind the cameras, and that I was of retirement age. They gave me this bicycle, which helps me get around and sell my goods [on the bike are paper cones filled with peanuts]. It’s not a lot of money but it’s some. At least enough to pay taxes and keep a little over 260 pesos, which is my pension. They convinced me, but I swear that even now that the equipment is more modern, as long as I’m mentally fit, I will keep on dreaming.
Translated by Maite Arias, Tamara Belmeni and Jorge Caceres
