El actor cubano habla con People en Español sobre su experiencia en el reality show de Telemundo: "Yo no hubiera ganado La isla si no hubiera crecido en Cuba. Los cubanos crecemos con esa hambre de salir adelante".
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00:00I didn't want to enter the island, it's the truth, from day one, and I've always been very sincere, very unfiltered, and from day one I reneged on entering the island.
00:10I had never experienced fatigue due to lack of food, lack of sugar.
00:15There came a time when we looked like zombies trying to steal.
00:21We got to a point where we stole a little sugar.
00:24In fact, my dad told me yesterday, I thought they just put them there to record that they were having a bad time, and then they went to a hotel.
00:32If you knew what we went through there, it's very extreme.
00:37I want to have children, I'm 34 years old, I turned 34 years old inside the island.
00:42So I already want to have babies with my wife, Nuja.
00:46We are going to start looking for them.
00:48Growing up in Cuba, far from being an impediment, because you grow up in misery, you grow up with many shortcomings, helps you to be a warrior in the future.
00:58I wouldn't have won the island, or Reto Cuatro Elementos, or Dancing for a Dream.
01:03I wouldn't have won any of that if I hadn't grown up in Cuba.
01:06They have told me, and I know that he is one of my guardian angels, that he is always by my side.
01:13Possibly he is here by my side, in the spiritual plane.
01:17He is one of my warriors, who always fights the battles with me.
01:21The clairvoyant people have gone to my house and have said, I saw a lady leaving the bathroom.
01:26I saw a lady who was arranging the cushions, and she had a blue dress with flowers.
01:36He is the conqueror of the island. Extreme challenge in this first edition.
01:44He keeps the glory and the $200,000 prize.
01:49The truth is that it was a very intense experience, very difficult.
01:55I think it has been the most difficult thing I have experienced in my life.
02:00I had already done this type of program.
02:03I had won one that physically was much more demanding than the island.
02:08But the beautiful and interesting thing about the format of the Island of Extreme Challenge
02:14is that it exposes you mentally to many challenges.
02:20You travel through this wonderful country, which is Turkey.
02:25The journeys are very long.
02:27Sometimes it was 8 hours to change from one city to another.
02:31For me, what hit me the most, what hit me the most,
02:34was being far from my house, being far from my wife,
02:39not being able to talk to her for three and a half months.
02:43It was a challenge, really, more than anything, emotional and mental.
02:48The physical part was demanding, but we always did a lot of exercise.
02:55I love extreme activities.
02:57I didn't suffer that much, but it was intense.
03:02To this day, I'm still assimilating everything that happened.
03:06There are times when I still don't believe it.
03:08I say, wow, I won.
03:09Or it's over.
03:11Or you wake up in the morning and you wake up like,
03:14oh, I'm at home.
03:16So if the experience is a little traumatic,
03:22I think the days will pass and you will be able to assimilate it little by little.
03:29I didn't want to go to the island, it's the truth.
03:31From day one, I've always been very honest, very unfiltered.
03:35And from day one, I refused to go to the island.
03:39I was offered the project and I tried by all means not to go.
03:45There were two or three castings that we had done with my manager of some projects.
03:51One was no longer done.
03:53The other one, in the end, didn't happen.
03:55And everything pointed out that God wanted me to go to the island.
04:02I go to the island hating everything.
04:05Denying what I'm doing here.
04:07About two months later, I start to surrender to the process.
04:12I say, well, if I'm here with an angry face all the time,
04:15what if I surrender to the process?
04:17I start to surrender to the process and I start to see wonderful things.
04:21I start to find myself.
04:23And I start to learn things about life,
04:26about why I was there, that I needed to be there.
04:29And what I take with me is that life,
04:32the most important thing and the only thing that matters in the life of the family,
04:36is that the material is worth nothing,
04:39that the material comes and goes.
04:41And I only saw, when I closed my eyes, my mom, my dad, my sister and my wife,
04:47that love is the most important thing.
04:50I wanted to go back and tell them all the beautiful things,
04:54that maybe many times, taking it for granted,
04:57from day to day, everyday life,
05:00you don't know when it's going to be the last day you're going to be on this earth.
05:03So living the day, living today, living the moment is the most important thing.
05:08So I reinforced that.
05:10You always hear it in movies or you hear it on a TV show or whatever,
05:15but living it in your own flesh and getting out of there and saying,
05:18I know that this, for example, this device of the devil,
05:21has us there all the time.
05:24Let it go, turn it off, look in the eyes,
05:27to your partner, to your wife, to your man out there at home,
05:30to your parents, hug them.
05:32It made me more aware of being present.
05:36I was born in Cuba, I am Cuban, and in Cuba I was never hungry, it's the truth.
05:40And on the island I had a horrible hunger,
05:44to the point of almost fainting, that fatigue.
05:47I had never experienced fatigue due to lack of food, due to lack of sugar.
05:52There came a time when we looked like zombies,
05:55trying to steal.
05:58We got to a point where we stole a little bit of sugar.
06:01The production was always very far from us,
06:04and it had its own table where they had coffee,
06:06and the Turks always drink Turkish tea, they call it çay.
06:09So it was Turkish tea everywhere,
06:11and they always had their own bowl with their sugar cubes.
06:16And we almost tried to escape from interview to interview
06:21and pass by the side of the table,
06:23and somehow they took some sugar cubes,
06:26they caught me stealing sugar, the production scolded me,
06:31they said, if I see you stealing sugar again, we are going to punish you.
06:35At that level.
06:37People at home think that...
06:40In fact, my dad told me yesterday,
06:42I thought they were just recording them as if they were having a bad time,
06:46and then they were going to a hotel,
06:48and I don't know, if you knew what we went through there, it's very extreme.
06:53Thank God, the first week was the only one
06:56that we had to experience that.
06:58I mean, I had the opportunity to fall into a great, great team.
07:01I don't know who really thought of it,
07:04making the team of sharks,
07:06because I think it was a total abuse,
07:10with the other teams.
07:12No, a lot of people ask me that,
07:14and the truth is that for me, this is work,
07:17it's work, it's one more job, it's one more project.
07:20Just as I make novels, as I make series,
07:23as I have done several television programs,
07:27I have had the opportunity to win many of these.
07:30This is one more project,
07:32the money is always to help my family,
07:35which is the most important thing,
07:37to continue building,
07:39I want to have children, I am already 34 years old,
07:42I turned 34 years old inside the island.
07:45So, I already want to have babies,
07:47with my wife, Nuja,
07:49we are going to start looking for them.
07:52And well, nothing, I plan a family,
07:54I think I'm already in time,
07:56I don't want to be a very, very old dad,
07:58let's say,
08:00I tell my wife,
08:02how could I not find you before,
08:04without being able to, I started before,
08:06but God knows why he does things,
08:08and nothing, to keep going.
08:10Well, if I could have in front of the little boy
08:13who grew up in Cuba,
08:17I would tell him not to worry,
08:21that great things are coming for him,
08:23that his parents educated him well,
08:26that I was surrounded by wonderful people,
08:29with a lot of wisdom,
08:31that growing up in Cuba, far from being an impediment,
08:34because you grow up in misery,
08:36you grow up with many shortcomings,
08:38helps you to be a warrior in the future.
08:41I wouldn't have won the island,
08:43or Reto Cuatro Elementos,
08:45or Dancing for a Dream,
08:46I wouldn't have won any of that,
08:47if I hadn't grown up in Cuba.
08:49I think Cubans grow up with that hunger
08:54to move forward,
08:56like all Latinos,
08:57but I speak specifically of Cubans,
09:00because I have had friends from other nationalities,
09:04and when they go to Cuba and leave, they say,
09:06I understand you,
09:07I know why you are the way you are,
09:09I know where it all comes from.
09:11I am very proud to have been born on that small island,
09:15because if I hadn't been born there,
09:17I don't think I would have been.
09:19I don't want to cry here,
09:21but my grandmother has always been and will be my inspiration.
09:27Being a woman,
09:29her first daughter dies at the age of six,
09:32with leukemia in the blood,
09:33then she has three boys,
09:34one of them, my father, who is here,
09:37a woman who was born before the triumph of the revolution,
09:40she was illiterate,
09:41she didn't know how to read or write,
09:42but she was brilliant,
09:44she worked the field,
09:46she had rocks in her hands,
09:48my grandfather abandoned her,
09:49she went with another woman,
09:50and she alone, a single mother,
09:51gave birth to three children,
09:53a great example to follow as a woman,
09:55as a very strong woman,
09:57and then she had cancer,
09:59she battled cancer for years,
10:01and she won the battle against cancer,
10:03she didn't die of cancer,
10:05a great example for me,
10:06the teachings of my grandmother
10:08are what I carry with me
10:10to all the things and problems I face in life,
10:13they have told me,
10:14and I know that she is one of my guardian angels,
10:19that is always by my side,
10:20possibly she is here by my side,
10:22in the spiritual plane,
10:24she is one of my warriors,
10:26that always fights battles with me,
10:28and I won the island,
10:30and when I won the island,
10:32my mother, from home,
10:34I wrote to my wife,
10:36I told her,
10:37tell her that her grandmother Josefina is with him,
10:39tell her to do it for her,
10:40she is always with me,
10:42so I am very happy to know
10:45that people,
10:47even blind people,
10:49have gone to my house,
10:50and they have said,
10:51I saw a woman,
10:52leaving the bathroom,
10:53I saw a woman who was moving the cushions,
10:57and she had a blue dress,
10:59with white flowers,
11:00and my grandmother,
11:01I have a photo of my grandmother,
11:03next to the bed,
11:05she has white flowers on her dress,
11:07so these are things that,
11:09believe it or not,
11:10people who are out there,
11:11I do believe,
11:12and I know that my grandmother is always with me.