Niuris: Faith without Limits
By Yuset Puig Pupo   Photo: Norge Santiesteban Vidal 

Niuris Barceló Vázquez did not believe in the designs of fate. She was born with a congenital malformation that inhibits motor function of her right hand, but she is a girl like any other with the knowledge that the hardest part of having a disability is to accept that her body is different from the others. 

She confesses that she used to feel that other people were always staring at her and perhaps all she wanted to do was lower her head and somehow create her own space, where the differences didn’t matter, no broken dolls and laughter does not leave scars of shame. 

Maybe eventually she would find its wings… But for her it was just a matter of FAITH, which with unwavering courage knows no limits and always ends up driving her on. 

“I always knew, since I was little, that I would link up with art; an ambitious aspiration at that time given my physical condition. But immediately I started singing and dancing, initially for myself and then for those who stopped to watch me. And even today I continue to do so with the same pleasure as before. So I became a cultural promoter, to provide spaces in the community where talent can be promoted and each child can make their dream a reality”. 

She joined the Cuban Association for People with Disabilities,

(ACLIFIM), in 1998. Since then she has attended the area of Education and Culture. And, along with the music she has also taken up colouring, following the maxim that “the difficulties in life are just disguised opportunities”. In that way she took first place with her dance partner in the Eastern Zone Festival and the Popularity Award, to mention just two. 

“China”, as everyone knows her, is working in the Manatí Cultural Centre.

She continues as an amateur in the dancing and passes her days with a very special project, the municipal choir, called Harmony. She admits that it beats in her veins and reincarnates her passion for music. 

It is common to find her surrounded by children in the schoolhouse as part of her community program. There she teaches and also learns. Art has been her shield to go through life, to be a mother, wife and devoting herself a bit to music, dance, poetry, and women again..