I WAS ABOUT SEVEN, and my brother four, when we started attending the Christian Science Sunday School in our own home. When I was thirteen, I went to live in La Habana with my grandmother. Because she had been healed of cancer through prayer alone, she loved Christian Science very much, and we breathed it day and night in the home, that is, she always spoke of the beautiful things she was learning in her study of it, and her activities revolved around the church.
I continued living with my grandmother until I was twenty, when I received a scholarship to an art school, where I boarded for four years. We had required activities in the school every Sunday, and I couldn't go to church. But I read my books, the Bible and Science and Health, and maintained constant telephone contact with Señora Blesilda Pérez, who was the only Christian Science practitioner on the island of Cuba. She had been my last Sunday School teacher, and we were great friends.
When I graduated from art school, I got a job in Bayamo, where by that time the Christian Science group didn't exist anymore. I returned to La Habana. In those days, workers had very few days off. For this reason, I was a little disconnected from the church and attended it very little. Also, I visited spiritualists, card readers, Santería, Hindu adepts, and many other places to find out about other religions. I knew that as a member of a Christian Science church I shouldn't do these things; therefore, I did not join until I was sure it truly was the best.
