Alicia and the Drainpipe

Alicia and the Drainpipe

Ballet audiences around the world from New York to Monte Carlo to Havana love her as Cuba's prima ballerina, but I love her for her love of animals. And Alicia Alonso Martínez deserves all the love she gets for whatever reasons. She has lived and danced in many places, winning fame and fortune as she stirred ballet audiences. For the animals, she has been a friend and supporter of Havana's Aniplant, the country's only recognized animal protection organization. This is a story of her love for animals.
Alicia, in her role as director of the National Ballet had charge of the National Museum of the Dance, an impressive mansion on Havana's spectacular Avenida de los Presidentes. The museum had its cat mascots, and one had had a litter of kittens. One adventurous kit explored too far and disappeared falling from a gutter into a drainpipe. When the museum staff discovered one kitten was missing, they called Aniplant for help. Everyone scrambled to find the kit, and eventually someone heard the soft calls from inside the drainpipe. The kitty was stuck at a turn in the pipe. Firemen were called, but they were reluctant to cut open the pipe on the historic old house.
Alicia, never uncertain about helping animals, gave the order: "Cut whatever you have to to save the kitty." And cut they did to find the kitten unharmed and safe. The firemen who first spotted the little creature had to pull the cat out by its tail, squawking and scratching.
All this was years ago, but the little cat went on to become the museum's mascot, and Nora, Aniplant's President, says that cat still lives there in the mansion on Vedado's most beautiful street.
This story reminds me that we think we know famous people from their public performances and their publicity, but we really don't. They all have private lives, some just as interesting as their public lives. In another example of her love for animals, Alicia was recuperating from an eye operation when she ignored her doctors' orders not to move around and took her dogs for a walk. Surely she deserves her being named a "Person of Culture" by Cuba, and not just for her dancing.
Les Inglis