Hilario Davila's Dream

Hilario Dávila went to the house of Ifá and Orunmila made osode for him. Orula told him that he was a very romantic person; he had to be careful whenever he had feelings for a woman because she could manipulate him, just like the female dove could hurt the male dove. And it was in his nature to prosper in business, but people would always get envious of him, forcing him to move. Therefore, he would always wander, just like Asojuano, and it's not a coincidence that when ever you move Asojuano, you have to sing to him: O foro foro / Asojano o foro foro / Mina Yawe / Mina Yawe / Mina Yawe. It was really important that Hilario Dávila get close to Asojuano. He didn't know it yet, but his whole future was wrapped up with this beautiful old man.

Later, the orishas told Hilario Dávila many things. Obatalá was his ultimate authority, but Shangó would always overcome his enemies, no matter what. Oyá
would would keep him on the straight and narrow laid out by his itá.

One night, Juan Gutierrez Boza came to Hilario Dávila in a dream. Contrary to Juan's virtuosity as a singer and teacher in life, he was now silent. He held up a painting to Hilario Dávila and looked at him with the most sincere expression on his leathery face, as if to say, "this one here is going to help you, but you also have to help him." In life, Juan had been important to Hilario Dávila. Juan was the Mokongo of a famous Abakuá lodge and, not coincidentally, was a son of Shangó and Siete Rayos.

For days, Hilario Dávila racked his brains to reproduce the painting from the dream. He came up with an approximation; not bad. For years it cast its reflection through a goblet of water on a beautiful white table.

One day, Eleguá took out a sign for Hilario Dávila that had a lot to do with illness, journeys, and healing. It was here that Obatalá set out to another land to visit and cure the Anai people. It was here that the Lucumí kicked Asojuano out of their kingdom and he had to make the journey to the neighboring Arará country, where he would be crowned king. The Lucumí mocked him, saying that he never paid them what he owed them. "I'll tell you what," he replied, "I've already given all of you payback, because I'm leaving you full of illness." And then he started out. Appropriately enough, Eshú Afrá, Asojuano's companion, is born in the sign Eleguá took out for Hilario Dávila and his job was to fight all of the witches who would make his movement difficult. One of the things Hilario Dávila always remembered about Asojuano's journey was that Shangó looked out for the old man, now a pilgrim. Shangó took Ogún's dogs and gave them to Asojuano to give him comfort on his way to the Arará country. Hilario Dávila knew a little about the Arará, but Eleguá told him on this day that among his most important allies would be people from the Arará country. Hilario Dávila started to feel like Asojuano's journey was a little like his own.

Over time, Hilario Dávila learned a few things about the man in the painting Juan Gutierrez Boza had shown him in the dream. The man would enable Hilario Dávila to help people and to help himself. He wasn't always around, but when it was important, he would give Hilario Dávila just the right ebó to fix a situation. For example, the man permitted Hilario Dávila to tell a besieged woman that she had to have Oshosi at her door to protect her from the criminals in the house across the street.

Pretty soon, Hilario Dávila learned that the man would show him the truth, the way things really were and were meant to be. He would tell him what needed to be done. No one else could see these things, but the man was very generous and let Hilario Dávila see things he would never have seen on his own.

One day, a son of Asojuano from the Arará country took Hilario Dávila to an old house just as Asojuano was about to begin some important ceremonies. The room was big and everything about Asojuano was so beautiful, because there he was, a king on his throne. Hilario Dávila made moforibale to Asojuano, touching his head to the feet of the king. Boom. It was like a soft but powerful explosion and it blew Hilario Dávila out of the house and onto the porch. He fell asleep for a long time and for a while he didn't really know where he was.

Hilario Dávila wanted to stay close to Asojuano. He knew there was something important about touching his head to Asojuano, but he was a little bit scared that the same thing would happen again that happened in the old house. So he thought about it and he remembered something impressive that he witnessed one time when the Arará people let him see the ceremonies of a man being consecrated to Asojuano. But it took the man in the painting put it all together for Hilario Dávila, including something that Hilario Dávila's godfather had always said about the power of otí, a strong rum that invigorates the head and that Asojuano likes a lot.

Hilario Dávila prayed hard to Asojuano, naming as many of his ancestors as came into his head. There were so many that the moyuba prayer lasted more than twenty minutes. Then the man told Hilario Dávila to kneel very close to Asojuano with his head right over Asojuano's pot and pour a bottle of otí over his head so that the strong cane rum fell directly onto Asojuano. Hilario Dávila quivered from head to toe. It lasted a long time and then everything became very tranquil. Hilario Dávila wasn't knocked out of the house. Instead, it was just like a movie.

A well traveled dirt road curved up around a cul-de-sac like a big floppy 'U'. The cul-de-sac sat on a hill and on the hill was a palace with a veranda. The earth was very red, but it was moist and it crumbled when someone went by. On the veranda of the palace was a throne and on the throne sat Shangó. He was resplendent in his dyed and beaded robes, which were beautiful against his dark skin, which bore not a wrinkle. He was ageless and his face was beaming. Hilario Dávila wanted to know what he should do, but Shangó was silent. He didn't say anything. He just made Hilario Dávila feel like he was under the protection of this great presence and nothing would ever go wrong.

Just then an old man passed by. He was dressed in earthy clothes and had a shock of gray hair. It was funny. Here was Shangó's palace that looked like it was in Africa and here was this mulato who looked like an old campesino from the farmlands in the middle of Cuba. And as old as he was, he had a spring in his step and moved with such forward determination. Hilario Dávila looked at the old man and then looked at Shangó. Shangó still didn't say anything, but he was smiling incandescently.

All of a suddent the man in the painting reminded Hilario Dávila all about the odu Oshe Bara. "You can have a long life if you purify." In order to realize your creativity, intelligence, and grace, control your tongue and exert discretion; respect your elders; remember who and where you are; stay focused; put down all of that heavy ancestral baggage; keep moving forward; and so much more.

The tongue is the body's whip.
He who talks a lot makes a lot of mistakes.
A difficult child is like a thorny forest.
The drunk thinks one thing and the bartender another.
Sweep out what doesn't work.
The needle carries the thread.

There was so much to remember and so much to do.

Without even thinking Hilario Dávila knew for sure who the man on the road was. His name was Jose Franco Trinidad Menocal. He knew him intimately as if they were blood. Born in 1846 to a freed mulato landholder, he went to Havana when he was only eighteen, but by the time he breezed by Shangó's palace, he was already seventy-seven years old. He was a priest of Towosí, the Arará deity who is compared to Yewá, the Lucumí goddess of the fosa within the cemetery.

As inspired as he was by Jose Franco Trinidad, Hilario Dávila began to worry. One day, Jose was so tired that the spring in his step had given out and he faltered, so much so that Asojuano had to carry him. But Asojuano, as old as he was himself, was also getting tired.

Hilario Dávila looked desperately to Shangó, but he offered no spoken answer. Still, the wise king reached behind his throne and took out an osain. He placed it on the ground and gave it a little push forward, as one nudges a toy sailboat out onto the water. It came to Hilario Dávila that the king wanted to be reforzado and to have an osain made for him so that Jose Franco Trinidad Menocal could at least walk again. But Shangó himself knew that Hilario Dávila was going to have to do some really strong work to get Jose Franco Trinidad moving again.

Soon it got dark. Hilario Dávila's heart nearly sunk when Asojuano opened a creaky old wood door and, in the candle light, there was Jose Franco Trinidad Menocal bound to a wood chair with thick leather straps. He couldn't move. It seemed hopeless.

For the first time, Hilario Dávila saw Shangó's face grow concerned. Even Shangó needed help. Shangó called out for his old rival Ogún, a great warrior. But Ogún was far away, deep in the monte. Shangó motíoned to Hilario Dávila, bringing his hand up to his mouth as if he wanted to eat; he reminded Hilario Dávila of the odu in which Shangó and Ogún eat akukó together. A ha!, thought Hilario Dávila. Ogún will certainly come out of the monte if he can eat together with Shangó. Satisfied that Hilario Dávila understood exactly what he had to do, he gave Hilario Dávila the "thumbs up" sign. So, there was a solution after all.

Hilario Dávila fed akukó meyi pupuá to Shangó and Ogún and consecrated the refuerzo of Shangó.

Soon, Jose Franco Trinidad Menocal was back on the road, with a spring in his step, moving along like never before. He whistled a tune: O foro foro / Asojano o foro foro / Mina Yawe / Mina Yawe / Mina Yawe.

Before Hilario Dávila knew it, December sixteenth was upon him once again. It was the eve of Asojuano's feast day, when everyone went to the ilé, a throne of cundiamor was built, and a big awan was made to clean everyone.

Only ten days before, the old man in the painting had revealed to Hilario Dávila that he had been a Congo in life and that he needed a prenda of Siete Rayos in order to work, just as Hilario Dávila was told years before in the itá of his santo. For the first time, the man told Hilario Dávila that his name was Moises Samuel Fernández Brito, that he was born in 1897 and that he died in 1967. Hilario Dávila hoped that Moises Samuel would be present at the awan and tell him what he had to do.

At the ceremony Asojuano talked long into the night to everyone and offered great comfort to Hilario Dávila. Asojuano hugged him for a long time and rubbed his heart. Asojuano knew all about the suffering that Oshún had told Hilario Dávila about many years before when she spoke in his itá of santo. Then, a flood of ideas and images came into his head. Hilario Dávila quickly got a pen and paper and began writing as fast as he could right there on the terracotta tile floor. By the time he finished, he knew almost everything there was to know about the prenda, including all of its ingredients, how it was to be painted, and how the firma looked. Moises Samuel wasn't the unassuming man in the painting any longer. He showed himself dressed in full regalia, with a machete in his belt, a painted fajín around his waist, and crosses drawn in chalk on his chest, hands, and feet. He danced endlessly while holding a kiyumba on his head.

Still, Hilario Dávila was new to all this. He had a pocket full of shiny coins but didn't know how to spend them. His ilé was soon going to give a misa, but Hilario Dávila couldn't make it. He lamented that he might not learn how to make the prenda that Moises Samuel wanted.

It was a Saturday afternoon and the misa had already started. But Hilario Dávila had to work. A car pulled up and some people came into his botanica. They saluted the santos and just like that one of the people told him that he was a tata of Regla de Congo. Hilario Dávila respectfully asked the tata if he would teach him how to mount the prenda and enact the pacto espiritual that Moises Samuel told him he would have to make. Hilario Dávila had spent the week asking everyone he trusted about the task before him, but each person had strong opinions; indeed, he felt that even though these were people he trusted, they all wanted him to do it their way. This tata was different. He looked at Hilario Dávila and then slowly and patiently explained everything he would have to do, including how he had to make the pacto espiritual. On the very day he had to miss the misa, Hilario Dávila got all the information he needed. The tata even promised to come and help him. Hilario Dávila didn't go to the misa; the misa had come to him.

The succeeding weeks were a swirl of activity. Hilario Dávila went to the crossroads, the monte, the cemetery, the hill, the river, and the ocean, collecting everything he needed. He got it all together faster than Moises Samuel himself could have way back then, because Hilario Dávila was able to find so many things on the internet.

Hilario Dávila made Siete Rayos a beautiful red and white pot and built him his own little house in the back yard. Every time he found something else he needed, he put it in the shed, which he locked up tight.

As soon as he can get the fresh plants he needs, Hilario Dávila is going to enact the pacto espiritual and build the prenda so that Siete Rayos, along with all of his other allies, will help him keep moving forward.

The prenda is not yet finished, but just today, Hilario Dávila realized perhaps the most important thing, something his itá of santo had already told him. An egun would come to him and tell him how to build his prenda espiritual. Jose Franco Trinidad Menocal was Hilario Dávila's sign of his own forward movement on his path and Asojuano his enabler, giving Hilario Dávila access to revelation. Juan Gutierrez Boza's Shangó loved Hilario Dávila so much that when he appeared in the dream, he bequeathed to Hilario Dávila Juan's own personal muerto in order to help him. When Moises Samuel comes to Hilario Dávila, he knows things he could never know otherwise. Finally Moises Samuel will have his own house and his prenda. Hilario Dávila hopes that Moises Samuel Fernández Brito will be with him for a long time.

O foro foro / Asojano o foro foro / Mina Yawe / Mina Yawe / Mina Yawe.