24가락의 사나이

37살의 쿠바사나이 Yoandri hernandez Garrido라는 이름은그의 24가락때문에 얻은 별명이란다. 그 이름 가운대 아마도 무슨 숫자가 있는듯하다.

 

그는 초등학교때 선생님이 손가락은 몇개냐고 묻자 12개라고 대답했다가 혼났다고 한다. 나중에 그의 손을본 선생님도 그를 칭찬했겠지만...

 

그는 지금 생계를 위해 야자나무에 기어올라 야자따는 일을 하고 있지만 그보다 그의 월수 $20이 문제가 아니라 관광객들하고 사진을 같이 찍어주면 한번에 $10을 번다고 하니 그는 그 자신 자기에게만 내려주신 신의 축복이라고 말하고 있다.

 

그는 또한 보통사람보다 더 갖고 태어난 여분의 손,발가락이 보물단지라고 말하고 있다.

 

 

 

Yoandri Hernandez Garrido's nickname comes from the six perfectly formed fingers on each of his hands and the six impeccable toes on each foot.

Hernandez is proud of his extra digits and calls them a blessing, saying they set him apart and enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs in this eastern Cuban city popular with tourists.

Extra digits: Yoandri Hernandez Garrido, 37, known as 'Twenty-Four' shows his 12 fingers in Baracoa, Guantanamo province, Cuba

One traveller paid $10 for a picture with him, Hernandez said, a bonanza in a country with an average salary of just $20 a month.

'It's thanks to my 24 digits that I'm able to make a living, because I have no fixed job,' Hernandez said.

 

Known as polydactyly, Hernandez's condition is relatively common, but it's rare for the extra digits to be so perfect.

Anyone who glanced quickly at his hands would be hard-pressed to notice anything different unless they paused and started counting.

Hernandez said that as a boy he was visited by a prominent Cuban orthopaedist who is also one of Fidel Castro's doctors, and he declared that in all his years of travel he had never seen such a case of well-formed polydactyly.

Proud: Hernandez calls his extra digits a blessing, saying they set him apart and enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs

Climbing: 'Twenty-Four' cuts coconuts from a palm tree in Cuba

'He was very impressed when he saw my fingers,' said Hernandez, who is the only one in his family to be born with extra digits.

In a part of the world where people's physical traits are often the basis for nicknames - even unflattering ones like 'fatty' or 'shorty' - 'veinticuatro' ('twenty-four' in English) is not an insult but rather a term of endearment, and Hernandez, now 37, said his uniqueness has made him a popular guy.

He has a 10-year-old son with a woman who now lives in Havana, and his current girlfriend is expecting his second child.

'Since I was young, I understood that it was a privilege to have 24 digits. Nobody has ever discriminated against me for that,' he said. 'On the contrary, people admire me and I am very proud. I have a million friends, I live well.'

Nevertheless, it occasionally caused confusion growing up.

Special: Known as polydactyly, Hernandez's condition is relatively common, but it's rare for the extra digits to be so perfect

'One day when I was in primary school, a teacher asked me how much was five plus five?' Hernandez recalled. 'I was very young, kind of shy, and I didn't say anything. She told me to count how many fingers I had, so I answered, '12!'

'The teacher was a little upset, but it was the truth,' he said.

Hernandez said he hopes he can be an example to children with polydactyly that there's nothing wrong with them.

'I think it's what God commanded,' he said. 'They shouldn't feel bad about anything, because I think it's one of the greatest blessings and they'll be happy in life.'