DREAMS ARE HANDMADE AND WITHOUT PERMISSION

Fernando Javier González Longoria Carralero is hardly known by such a long name. If you ask around in Gibara after Longoria, which sounds like a nickname, they will tell you right away what new site he is restoring. Because this quiet man has not ceased to restore significant buildings in his home city, although he lives in Holguìn.

He is now at old Teatro Colonial, where the exceptional lumber it is made of begins to take on a life of its own, especially when this has been and still is the Museum of Art. He has been part of those who, inspired on María Chacón Pavon's efforts, director of the museum, made up the multidisciplinary team of technicians, engineers, and architects who have persevered to defend this heritage.

The arrangement of factors does not change the product: the same can be seen in Longoria's work at Centro Cultural El Colonial, at Gibara's library, in the display cabinets of the Natural History Museum and hotel La Arsenita, which was the old run-down house about to collapse on the most important corner of the town; as well as in the magnificence of the Casa de la Cultura, the hosting venue of the Festival Internacional de Cine and, for more than ten years, of the organizing committee of Cine Pobre run by Humberto Solás.

Longoria is a member, in his province, of Artesanos por la Vida group, that makes a systematic contribution to support foster homes, residential homes for the elderly, and the Oncological Ward of Hospital Pediátrico of Holguín. His works have been seen at Feria Internacional de Artesanía (Fiart) for four years, at Feriascuba-ecuador in Ambatos, and in Cancún, Mexico, and also systematically at Feria Ibero Arte in Holguín.

He is, too, one of those who are indispensable and fight for a lifetime.