Category: Juan Carlos Fernandez

I decided to undertake the project on my own and in August of last year the digital weekly Fire and Dynamics was born. It is a Christian themed newspaper whose goal is to reach Cubans living on the island and supply the need for information that we all suffer from. We show the facts objectively but through a Biblical lens. All you need to do to subscribe is to send an email to maifd.revistadigital@nauta.cu

JCF. Have you suffered any kind of censorship for publishing this weekly?

RFI. Yes, I was working as a pastor for Bethel Pentecostal Church, on a mission in the municipality of San Luis. Last December, the pastor of the Pinar del Río region urged me, in front of the leaders of the capital municipality, to abandon the project. Faced with my refusal, the assembled leaders voted to expel me from the leadership.

It was something I saw coming, because of the fear that many people feel when they do something that could be interpreted as a confrontation with the State or supportive of any renegade expression. Although the weekly is not explicitly political, it addresses those issues directly and openly.

JCF. Working as an editor at this publication, directed by Pastor Bernardo de Quesada, have you realized ​​a long-standing professional dream?

RFI. I studied for a while for a degree in social communication, because I dreamed of becoming a journalist, but the college used the old trick of pressuring me to renounce that. In the end, I’ve managed to do what I like.

JCF. The fears of any independent publication, that keep officialdom up at night, seem to be centered in this case in the suspicions towards the Apostolic Church of which you are a part. Does the church continue to not be legally recognized?

RFI. We do not have the option to legalize our Church, first because they are not about to pass a law of association and religion; and also because we do not go along with the way that other churches, which are part of the Council of Churches of Cuba, are subject to manipulation in exchange for some “privileges” which should be rights for everyone.

JCF. Yet, the Cuban authorities claim that the country has religious freedom. Is that so?

RFI. According to the Cuban constitution the State is declared separate from the Church and there is no favoritism, but in reality they are trying to crush any voice that cries out for freedom and doesn’t submit to their designs. Freedom is respect.

A descendant from immigrants who came from the Canary Islands, Justo Garcia Hernandez hasn’t quit working, even at 73. He moves between the plantations and the tobacco house where the women of the family are busy hanging the leaves. In the five acres this farmer has leased under usufruct, he experiences the failed harvest with special intensity.

This year “the climate is a disaster,” complains Justo. The continuous rains in recent weeks have ruined countless fields like his. “The current weather conditions favor the appearance of fungi, bacteria, viruses and other diseases,” declared the provincial director of Plant Protection, Ariel Castillo Rodriguez.

The land that Justo and his family work belongs to the Carlos Hidalgo Credit and Services Cooperative, at Kilometer 5 on the San Juan Highway. The space allows him to plant up to 80,000 tobacco plants, but this year many of the plants will have died “having barely emerged from the ground,” says the farmer.

Still, he says he feels fortunate because his land “has not been affected by black shank or blue mold,” thanks to his having fumigated. The situation has been most difficult for the farmers in Vueltabajo region of Pinar del Rio, particularly in the towns of Con­solación del Sur, Pinar del Río, San Juan y Martínez and San Luis.

The problems started right at the beginning of the harvest. Virginio Morales, acting director of the Provincial Tobacco Group, reported to the local press last week that the combination of high temperatures and the excessive rainfall associated with the El Niño phenomenon, has caused the loss of “83,500 seedling beds, and another 27,000 have been affected.”

The constant rains have greatly affected Justo’s plantings. “It’s the greatest damage my harvest has had, the tobacco is drunk, the plants remain tiny, it doesn’t grow because of the excessive rain.” More than 40% of the harvest has been lost for this reason and the only solution is “replant, even though it is not the season.”

The optimum time for planting is already over, but hundreds of producers are going to plant tobacco, even to the end of March, to make up for the damage the rain has caused to the crop. The bad news is that it is still raining and the new shoots are also starting to be damaged.

The downpours “leave the leaves without their natural fatness,” comments Justo, a man who has lived his whole life around the tobacco fields. As an example, he tells how he has harvested tobacco from very early in the morning, and “it’s four in the afternoon and I have clean hands, if the tobacco was good, I would have had to wash my hands ten times.”

Justo, like many tobacco growers in the area, does not believe that the crop insurance will repay for what was damaged. Last year he lost 16,000 plantings and they only paid him 2,200 Cuban pesos (less than $100 US).

In the Hoyo de Monterrey in San Juan y Martinez, a place where many say the best tobacco in the world is grown, Luis Brito Ajete concludes, “The tobacco is bad.” In the five acres he cultivates with his son, “the plants have leaves like tissue paper,” he complains.

The same thing is happening in Rio Feo, in the town of San Luis. William Delgado Rodriguez plants tobacco on 7 acres and, although he says he’s had a “good harvest” in other years, this one “is bad, bad.” On his land he planted 100,000 sets. “But between the water and the black shank disease, it’s making me crazy.”

To demonstrate the situation, William pulls up a fragile-looking plant and shows the damage caused by the disease on the lower stem. In the area where his farm is nestled, in the Ormani Arenado Cooperative, the plantings have stood up a little better, but in other areas “the farmers have had to pull up the entire harvest for replanting.”

The young man noted that, right now, he has very little tobacco in the drying house and knows cases of other peasants whose tobacco has rotted after harvesting because of the dampness, so he is not expecting big profits from the current harvest. “For a 220 pounds, we are paid 1,950 Cuban pesos, and the quality of the leaf here will be very low,” he predicts.

From a small battery-powered radio comes the contagious rhythm of Bob Marley singing “No Woman No Cry” and the farmer takes advantage of it to say, “well, this is the harvest of tears.”

“Planting tabacco soothes my soul, I learned it from my father as far back as I can remember, and I like it,” says Muñoz. Despire his advanced age, he still has the energy not only for cultivating, but also for cutting firewood, cooking and even making the odd joke when someone passes by his humble home.

“I was born here and I grew up working with my father, my uncles and two brothers, in the same place,” he says. However, at the end of the seventies State Planning decided to use his to grow citrus. “They forbade us to plant tobacco,” he says with regret, but affirms, “They couldn’t take it all from me and they left me 2.5 acres.”

Losing what had been the center of life as he knew it, Muñoz working in the citrus plant located in the road to La Coloma, but, he says, “I wasn’t born to spend eight hours in a factory, so I asked to be released and went back to the fields.” On his only remaining land he raised chickens, pigs and even grew a little tobacco. “They couldn’t prevent me because it was my land,” he says, with a wild glint in his eyes.

“It was a long time until they again allowed the widespread cultivation of tobacco, because the citrus never paid off; after that they approved the usufruct arrangements and I asked for the 12 acres we had always planted with tobacco,” and, he stressed, indicating the land around his house, “all of this we’d had forever, since I was tiny.”

With the adoption in 2008 of Decree Law 259, replaced by Decree Law 300 in 2012, the government of Raul Castro permitted “the delivery in usufruct [leasing] the benefits of state property to natural or legal persons.” Those interested could, from that time, request a maximum of 33 acres for a period of up to ten years, renewable for additional ten-year periods.

That’s how Muñoz as an old man returned to working the fields that had been his family’s. Now, he plants rice, corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and fruits, especially for his own consumption. “Life is hard, and the land does not produce like before,” he says, while straining a little coffee on his wood stove.

Electricity has not officially come to the house of Muñoz or the 15 other farmers who live nearby. An illegal line provides them the service, but not without setbacks. “That has brought me problems, inspectors have come to threaten us with fines.” The low voltage only allows turning on “one light bulb,” and so he hasn’t bought a refrigerator or television, “because it would just go to waste.”

This year the drought has taken its toll on the octogenarian’s fields. “All the seedlings the Fructuoso Rodriguez Agricultural Production Cooperative gave me have gone to waste. Now the land is bare, completely bare” and he has to “buy seedlings privately,” he explains.

The problems he experiences are shared by most of his neighbors. The land leasing arrangement has not worked in the region as expected and by the end of 2015 the local press reported that it 3,504 individuals in Pinar del Rio who had taken advantage of this arrangement had lost their land. According to the official version, irregularities were found, such as “the abandonment of an area for more than six months and not dedicating the land to the purposes for which it was granted.

Muñoz sees the situation very differently. Although he has been able to continue to work his piece of land, he says that most of the time he cannot get fertilizer, the tractors are broken and there is no fuel. “This year the seeds didn’t sprout,” and he complains that he can’t rely on crop insurance against natural disasters. “Three years ago my tobacco harvest was diseased, and I applied for the insurance but I am still waiting.”

Across the province 116,000 acres remain available to be leased, especially in the districts of Sandino, Mantua, Consolacion del Sur and Los Palacios. However the land is difficult to farm and infested with the invasive and very hard to get rid of marabou weed, so even the boldest decline to apply for it.

Despite the few advantages that the stubborn farmer has been found in leasing his land, he says he appreciates “tranquility” of labor in the tobacco fields. This calm, however, could be about to end. “They came to me and told me that this year if I don’t fulfill my plan they’re going to cancel the contract.” It would be the second time they took away his land.

The authors readjusted the schedule and decided to inaugurate the installation this 26 November, Pinar del Rio’s Day of Dignity. In the construction and placement of the piece collaborators include the Music Center, the Cuban Writers and Artists Union (UNEAC), the Provincial Department of Culture, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), the Communist Party and the local government, and so El Negro Hernandez declares that “this is not an invention,” with the pride of someone who has done something authorized “from above.”

With regards to the similarity of the piece with a tank, the artist states, “What else is life but a tank?”

“It comes from our commander;s campaign cap,” says El Negro Hernandez, noting that he has been inspired by this object that “sustains a thought that generates peace, dignity and progress.”

Both creators cherish the idea of making a gift of the tank with their artistic intervention to the person honored, but did not explain how they would move the massive piece to Fidel Castro’s residence in Havana.

Installing of the piece in such a central place has aroused great controversy, which is whispered, without anyone daring to publically express any criticism of the mass of metal. Only Pipo, a sympathetic character who wanders here and there, has dared to say out loud that “in reality, it’s junk, nothing more.”

For now, given its volume, in the wee hoursThe Visionary provides relief for the lack of public toilets.

Hospitals have reinforced their services to deal with cases of dengue fever, especially Leon Cuervo Rubio Hospital and Abel Santamaría General Teaching Hospital, which has one room only for pregnant women. It has also set up a room at the Simon Boliver Health Polytechnic and another for infants in the Turcios Lima polyclinic, while in the Pepe Portilla Pediatric Hospital the avalanche of fever cases has required them to place beds in the corridors, with mosquito nets to prevent transmission.

Although health authorities spread the word about the increase of cases in the region they have not yet provided data on infections. Dr. Mérida Morales Lugo, head of the International Sanitary Control Program, simply explained last Friday in a statement to the local newspaper Guerrilla that conditions are favorable for “accelerated vector reproduction,” referring to the Aedes aegypti mosquito. However, the specialist said, so far there are no cases of hemorrhagic dengue fever, the most feared form of the disease.

There are confirmed cases of dengue fever in the four health areas of the Pinar del Rio capital and in eight of its People’s Councils, an area that has a population of about 122,000. The disease has also reached the municipalities of San Luis, San Juan y Martinez and Consolacion del Sur, near the provincial capital.

Health authorities have urged people to go to the doctor at the least sign of fever symptoms. Medical students, staff in all the family medicine offices and public health administrative workers have been mobilized along with other workplace employees to search house to house, looking for people with symptoms of the disease.

It is likely that the American president is anxious to change the direction of American policy toward Cuba. But he never would have succeeded if he had not had the support of a considerable number of legislators, both Republicans and those of his own party. So this political move represents the culmination of a strategy gestated before his arrival at the White House, and one whose principal protagonists were the so-called “pressure groups.”

Among what are also called “lobbies,” the powerful group representing commercial interests in the agricultural sector has led several initiatives of rapprochement toward the island. It has also promoted lifting the embargo and normalizing relations with the Cuban government. The reasons for this push in the direction of normalization are economic, but also political.

On the commercial side, American businesses are at a fundamental disadvantage with the restrictions against Cuba. Meanwhile, on the political side they argue that US influence in the region has declined considerably, thanks in large part to the conflict with Cuba’s communist government, and China has stepped in.

A portion of US civil society has also exerted pressure to take the path of diplomatic normalization. Involved in this crusade has been the radical left, as well as unions, cultural organizations, NGOs, religious groups and academics.

Barack Obama, however, is the person responsible for the political insight to take advantage of the hemispheric situation, with Venezuela in a free fall, and serious internal problems in Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil. Meanwhile, inside the island a profound economic crisis seems to have no end, there are grave social problems, and Fidel Castro is practically out of the political game.

Beyond that ability, Obama also responded to a demand from his people, represented by civil society pressure groups. To ignore them would represent political suicide for the next Democratic candidate. Surveys have proved him right, with more than 60% of Americans looking favorably on the initiative he has promoted with respect to Cuba.

Moreover, to accuse Obama of treason will not change what happened last 17 December and lays on him a responsibility that belongs to thousands of people. On the other hand, the fact that the Cuban leaders now shake hands with their neighbor to the north does not give them carte blanch to do whatever they want. This they know very well in the Plaza of the Revolution.

Entire families talk via Skype with their family members abroad. Students download information they can use in their next course, young people recently released onto the World Wide Web create their Facebook profiles, and hundreds of people, read, search and flit from one page to another. No one wants to be without their kilobytes. The tricks to it are shared outloud and if someone finds a way to optimize the connection time, the news travels from mouth to mouth.

A commotion, a jolt or a social phenomenon, the fact is that everyone agrees this city is not the same since the first of July. The park where as recently as two weeks ago only drunks and vagrants spent the night has been taken over by whole families gathered around a screen.

The park where as recently as two weeks ago only drunks and vagrants spent the night has been taken over by whole families gathered around a screen

The reduction in hourly connection costs, although still out of reach relative to wages, has motivated many to try this thing called the “interned.” (sic) Now, at two convertible pesos an hour*, residents of Pinar del Rio have been added to the many Cubans who have taken to the places where 35 WiFi points have just been unveiled throughout the country.

A month before the service was turned on in Pinar del Rio, the antennas were installed for the connection and, barely two weeks beforehand, the bandwidth was tested with 120 people connected at the same time. Last weekend the phenomenon was launched and threatens to revolutionize the entire city.

Alejandro, a young college student who has already tested the service a couple of times, told 14ymedio, “This is the best vacation gift you could imagine, this is my best summer.” With a tablet in hand, he navigates the social networks like Twitter, and watches videos on YouTube, while checking his email and looking for information on topics that interest him. The appetite for information is huge.

Like love, the Internet has no age and Leopoldina, 60, is almost crying with joy as she sees again via videoconference an emigrant son she hadn’t seen in ten years. “My son, how beautiful you are and how pretty your house is. The whole neighborhood sends you greetings and kisses,” the lady repeats, still a little surprised that this “box with keys” had returned her “little boy” to her.

Nearby a group of young girls looks for friends on Facebook. The complicit laughter and the whispers into each other’s ears complete the picture. A few yards away another girl, sitting in a doorway, chats her cellphone. “For us, who have nothing, this is very good,” explains the young woman without taking her eyes off the screen. “The price is high and many people can’t afford the equivalent of 50 Cuban pesos per hour, but I hope they’ll lower it later,” she says with enthusiasm.

Leopoldina, 60, is almost crying with joy as she sees again via videoconference an emigrant son she hadn’t seen in ten years

In Independence Park the connectivity is quite a spectacle. Loudspeakers play reggaeton every hour, while hundreds of young people are everywhere, some connected to the web, others dancing.

Baseball lovers, in Rock Forest Park now consult the web for the latest results of the Cubans playing in the major leagues. The minute they hear of the recent high level leaks against the United States their comments contrast with the silence of the government press on these matters. “They don’t have to say anything now, explain anything to us. Now we already have the news of the day,” a fan shouts loudly.

People, despite the costs, bite the bullet and live the experience of access to a vast diversity of information. “It is a sensation of freedom that I’ve never experienced before, ‘brother’,” Geddy Carlos enthuses. Seated next to eight young people who share an application through which they are all linked through a single account and so save money.

“Cubans always look for ways to overcome obstacles,” points out Andy, one of those connected to the peculiar network formed by all these guys stuck to their laptops. A young couple, next to them, jumps from El Nuevo Herald to el Diario de las Americas, and before they disconnect they take a look at El Pais. The bright flashes of the red LED on the USB memory shows they are making copies of everything they read.

“Look at what Antonio Castro is saying in Turkey!” a surprised young man murmurs, and an flood of friends come over to look at the page appearing on the screen. Midnight is approaching and the parks are still full. It seems that Pinar del Rio doesn’t want to go to sleep.

*Translator’s note: 2 convertible pesos is more than $2 US, the equivalent of two days wages or more for many workers.

The State markets are located very close to the polling stations. “Killing two birds with one stone,” as they say. Vote and from there go to the market to buy potatoes.

A gentleman of seventy said, before placing his ballot in the ballot box, “I’m going to finish with this delegate quickly, I don’t know who he is and I don’t care,” to immediately add, “I’m going to get in the potato line, there are a lot of people and they close at noon today.” With a certain tone of electoral authority, he concluded, “The potato won these elections, my friend.”

If from the mood of the inhabitants of the city of Pinar del Río it was clear that something had changed, it was because they were celebrating the victory of the absolute winner of these unforgettable elections which took place on the market stands and which had as the only candidate a food that appears very sporadically in these markets.

Meanwhile, in the balloting there was a notable boredom among the poll tenders, anxious for closing time to arrive. Indifference and apathy surrounded the process to select “the most capable.” “It’s tedious and nobody takes it seriously,” said a commentator at the Parque del Bosque Peña de Pelota in the city center.

On this “historic election day,” the potato had no rival candidate and carried the day with a resounding victory.

When in January 2007, Monsignor José Siro González Bacallao made official Serpa’s assumption of the Diocese, a new chapter began in the pastoral, religious and social life of the local church.

The appointment coincided with a rapprochement between the authorities and part of the Catholic hierarchy, led by the Archbishop of Havana, Jaime Ortega y Alamino. This improvement in relations culminated in the visit to Cuba of Benedict XVI, in March 2012, and the release from prison of a large group of political prisoners of the 2003 Black Spring.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba also paved the way to understanding. The two bishops most uncomfortable for the Government were about to retire for reasons of age. In Santiago de Cuba, Pedro Meurice, old and sick ceded his episcopate to his disciple, Dionisio García. At the other end of the island, José Siro retired to Mantua and left the way open for the pact.

Since the inauguration of the new bishop in Pinar del Rio, it took just three months to begin the dismantling of all the works that were considered an obstacle to improving relations with the government.

It took just three months to begin the dismantling of all the works that were considered an obstacle to improving relations with the government

The members of the editorial board of the Church magazine Vitral were forced out, and the training center and publisher were dismantled. They also dissolved the Brotherhood of Assistance to Prisoners and Their Families, the Youth Ministry, the Catholic Commission for Culture and the Diocesan Council of Laity. Thus, the lay members left the structure of the Pinar del Rio Church.

When Monsignor Serpa took over, after 20 years serving in the Bogota Archdiocese, the Pinar del Rio Diocese had only 17 priests, fewer than 30 nuns, and a large group of committed lay people. The churches were deteriorated and the difficulties in obtaining permission for restoration were notable.

Now, for the first time in more than fifty years, all the parishes have priests, the number of members by religious congregation has grown, and the entry and establishment of other orders, among them the Brigidine Sisters, have been extended from Havana.

Management has been allowed, in addition to restoring the Cathedral, to enlarge the parish house and the construction of a complex of classrooms for catechisms and meetings. The Church has been able to buy a site for Caritas located in the center of the city, less than a block from the provincial headquarters of the Communist Party.

In addition, in just eight years Sandino is the first captive people to have a temple, one of the greatest diplomatic achievements in the last 25 years of the authorities insistently denying Siro permission. The return of the religious processions in all the dioceses is also a noted achievement of Serpa.

But the negative consequences of his mandate have also been felt. The bishop complains of a lack of motivation and commitment among the faithful, including to make donations. On the other hand, the social commitment is almost zero and the pastoral is ecclesial – more severe than the so-called clerical. Except for the Bishop, there is no presence of Church members in any social environment.

“The loss of moral authority is not achieved overnight,” whispers a Pinar del Rio Catholic. “Rebuilding costs far more than any new temple,” says the layman.

The legacy the current bishop will leave when he retires, at age 75, will be a magnificent architectural infrastructure that will not need to be touched for a while. The challenge will be re-form, articulate and prepare the Church formed by laymen which was dismantled.