Translating Cuba

For the first time I feel like a target of attack by the State dictatorship in the Statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs published last Friday the 2nd of November.

I am a student, since a little less than a month ago, in a journalism course offered by the International University of Florida through the United States Interests Section in Havana.  The first thing I did on enrolling was to ask if there existed the possibility of studying the complete career of journalism or philosophy at a distance.  But the answer that the Cuban employee gave me was that the government of Cuban had cancelled that possibility.

I do not feel forced to give explanations, but to defend myself from the possible reprisals that the government — which evidently feels threatened by the exercise of the freedom of expression — might have in store for us from now on.

To respond the calumny that we are mercenaries of a foreign government would take this spiritual struggle to the level of speaking the language of our kidnappers and presumed assassins.  It is imperative that they prove that they can dialogue with us in the language of liberty without the excuse of pretending that the nation is a military encampment, faking paranoia.

In 53 years they have not dared to dialogue with the opposition, they lack the courage because they cannot sustain themselves before the citizens who oppose the tyranny “of the socialist morality” and its consequent “legality”: a species of dead language without image and that therefore cannot and does not have the will to express our human rights.

There is nothing easier to read and understand for the whole world than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because it is written in our image. But it is very difficult to follow the logic of thinking in the official Cuban discourse because it represents the interests of just a tiny collection of people in this country who have managed to buy and terrorize another so many people within the Island, and feed the misanthropic envy of the radical left in the world.

There is something I want to note, because it is the only note that is obvious in the text published in the newspaper Granma: “… the impossible task of converting its mercenaries into a credible movement of the internal opposition.”

We have to start from the fact that the Cuban State has been faking paranoia as an excuse to reprimand citizens who dare to express themselves in opposition to their government which is a complete fraud, including of course the electoral fraud covered by legal loopholes.

I won’t have to work too hard to explain that true paranoia is not aware of the reason for placing blame on another, but the Cuban State does know why it has chosen the United States as at fault in order to justify the attack against its own people: the Cuban State, absolute dictator over the existence of the souls under its jurisdiction, has never tolerated the political opposition and has rudely denied silencing them, first by firing squad or incarceration through the “revolutionary laws,” including Law 88 (the Gag Law), because they know they could not survive the full exercise of freedoms and the popular will consulted without coercion.

Again I suggest looking at the text of the judgment against Hubert Matos in 1959; there, in the words of then prime minister Fidel Castro, who served as the principal accusing witness (and who explicitly governed this Island until 2006, and seemed to continue through his whole life to impose his will), we see the beginning of the most ridiculous campaign in the legal history of Cuba where this witness creates the crime of being “counterrevolutionary.”

Decades later this modest housewife was surprised that something as natural as being against some political and social tendency that has committed so many criminal acts, that has drafted such tricky laws to incarcerate Cubans, that has never represented in its gigantic discourse the true size of a single human being, could be a crime.

It cannot be a crime to be against a government and to express it and to want to change it, not in a revolutionary way, that includes the use of arms, but in an embryonic democratic way: with the arms of opinion, including citizen protest. But the detail is that to prevent those rights, the Cuban State fakes madness, fakes paranoia and the target of the attacks is the United States, and this faked paranoia also serves as an ideological alibi to maintain persecution against its opponents.

The most dissident act, in a county of such political hypocrisy that it would make the “whitewashed tombs” that Jesus referred to in the Gospels pale by comparison, is to remember decency and to begin to be honest and objective toward the Cuban reality. It is easy to achieve credibility if we only remain true to the Christian and humane vocation that we all have, and exercise it on a scale larger than our selfishness.

In situations like this I can wait for my persecutors, without missing a single journalism class, reading the Bible first and foremost and especially the Gospels, and also remembering people like Martha Beatriz Toque, like Oscar Elias Biscet, like Elizardo Sanchez, so maligned, so persecuted, at times so long-suffering, so abandoned (by this people always disposed to exchange its rights for a pittance) and yet, like the ancient prophets, such victors in Christ and such towering figures.

November 5 2012

Santiago de Cuba is characterized by being one of the provinces than most supports the Castro government. Its citizens, its major, are loyalists. The native city of the Castros has been destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

Was Sandy the principal cause of the destruction and the deaths? And what did the government do?

Normally, when a Hurricane comes no matter how small, the measures taken in Havana are always unlimited. Trees are felled to avoid accidents as happened in the east of the country, where because of falling trees several perished and the electricity was cut off leaving the population without power.

The living conditions of the very poor consists of nothing more than wattle and daub houses, and the best have a tile roof — a material susceptible to wind. Then, did Civil Defense do its work 100%?

Thus is was that Cuban citizens perished in their houses because they collapsed and because trees that weren’t cut down fell on them.

October 29 2012

The boat sent by Venezuela for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the east of the country will not fulfill its objective. Most of the merchandise will be diverted to the hard currency stores to enrich the Cuban government.

It won’t be the first, or the last time that the government diverts some of the merchandise meant for the Cuban people sent by some foreign country. This is what some of the capital’s population say in the streets. “It’s nothing more than a benefit for the families of the military,” say the great majority.

We wait what will happen, but history has demonstrated that the products don’t get to the ordinary Cuban.

October 31 2012

In the past week it’s estimated that more than 35,000 Cubans have gone to the Cuban office of the mobile phone company, CUBACEL, to sign up.

The increase in the number of Cubans is due to the offering of this service known as the thirty-thirty. This type of of offering is for all those nationals who don’t have the initial money to choose this type of telephone.

The CUBACEL agencies were crowded the whole last week during all working hours. The scene was repeated all over the country, the images accompanying this post were taken at one of the agencies in the city of Santa Clara in the center of the country.

CUBACEL is the only agency of this kind in Cuba, and charges high fees for its use. Cuban citiznes who choose this service are obligated to pay in a currency that is worth 25 times the currency they ahre paid in. The only Cubans who can pay this much are elite members of the government.

October 22 2012

Friday, the Cuban press issued an aggressive statement from the Ministry of Foreign Relations, against the United States Interests Section in Havana (known as “SINA” from its initials in Spanish). A traditional verbal escalation toward our neighbor to the north, accompanied this time by a diatribe about an Internet room open to the public in its consular site.

The place has been there for a long time and is visited by dissimilar people. From students doing research, to independent journalists needing to publish their news, to families of exiles who want to contact them by email. In a country where access to cyberspace is a luxury enjoyed by few, the long lines to access SINA’s Internet center annoys the government.

But after reading the bombastic statement, one immediately questions: Why now? If these rooms with web access have operated for almost a decade, why this week do they appear on the cover of the newspaper Granma? The answer points to what will happen this coming Tuesday at the polls in the United States. This is obviously a play that anticipates the results of the American elections.

The margin between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is narrow, as Raul Castro’s government knows well. So for months it has begun to adjust its verbal missiles, as much against one candidate as the other. According to official propaganda the current U.S. president is a man who “has strengthened the imperial blockade,” while his Republican opponent represents “anti-Cuban politics. From bad to worse they warn us on all sides.

From the Island, we look with curiosity and expectations towards elections in our neighbor to the north. There is too much in play across the Florida Straits. The politics of the Plaza of the Revolution defines itself starting from opposition to Washington, which establishes a very peculiar kind of dependence.

Raul Castro launches a timid travel and immigration reform program, and explains he could not go further because we are besieged by the Empire. Permission to legalize other political parties cannot be granted because “Uncle Sam lurks.” While accessing the Internet has to be gradual and selective, so that we are not overly affected by “the Pentagon’s media war.”

If we analyze this perennial rivalry, we have to conclude that the fate of Cubans has never depended on the United States more than it does now. Our everyday life has never been so subject to the decisions of the occupant of the oval office.

The man who sells fish on a Havana corner hopes that Obama will be reelected, so his brother will be able to continue selling him the special food these colorful animals require. A former political prisoner, however, wants Romney to win because “things have to get much worse before people will react.” And the clueless teenager is more likely to recognize the face of the White House occupant than that of the gentleman in the checked shirt that appears on television as Fidel Castro. Everyone is attentive, apprehensive.

With its bitter anti-imperialist discourse the Cuban government has ended up shooting itself in the foot. For weeks the official medial has talked more about the U.S. elections than about our own elections for the People’s Power, going on at that same time.

Intent on bringing out the negative aspects of the presidential elections, the TV commentators have forgotten the maxim: “Nothing is more attractive than the forbidden.” And so every aggressive adjective, every joke, every diatribe against Obama and Romney, have increased the unusual excitement about the first Tuesday in November.

All this is also marked by the progressive loss of the importance of Cuba in U.S. politics. The marked irrelevance of this Island has become abundantly clear during the presidential campaign, which has devoted almost no attention to us.  That October of 1962, when nuclear missiles forced the whole world to pay attention to the largest of the Antilles, is in the distant past.

Now Obama’s gaze is directed towards other places and the victor will deepen this trend. Whoever is elected will first pay attention to the economic problems within the United States and try to stabilize its finances. The crisis in Europe will occupy a good part of his attention, as will the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and now Syria.

Raul Castro needs to regain prominence on the agenda of his eternal enemy, because he sees the power in it. His discourse, from Cuba and when he travels abroad, is based on that rivalry, he cannot exist without it. Thus, we see signs of an escalated diplomacy to force the American president to take a position.

The political language takes on a sharp edge, the insults are polished off, and little stabs of confrontation seek to force the next leader to react. These are times of trying to insert himself into the priorities of the neighbor to the north, regardless of the cost… but the strategy isn’t working.

5 November 2012

The cause that has kept me from this blog in recent days has been that I am the caretaker of my stepdaughter (younger than me, but not by much) who is recovering from surgery in my house.

But yesterday, having to go our midday, I got on the route 27 and inevitably overheard the dialog of a man and a woman, seated in front of me, as I rode standing up. The famous travel and immigration reform seems to be everywhere, entertaining even people who will never travel, but now they have the illusion that they might. It wasn’t these hopeful comments that impelled me to intervene in a dialog that wasn’t with me. The woman was already getting off when the man said something like, “It’s that sadly we’ve become accustomed to their giving us everything.”

After excusing myself for the interruption, in a voice not very loud but very clear, like that I used in the classroom to get the attention of the students, I expressed to the man my disagreement with his phrase. Said like that, it would seem that we Cubans have enjoyed the ability to decide our own lives, when in reality it is the government that takes the initiative, intervening in the public sphere and interfering in the private.

It was nice because the man tried to make amends with the argument that young people think they deserve everything, and he said it making a gesture towards a teenager with an emo haircut wearing the school uniform of a technical school. The young man, sensing himself alluded to, told him, “No, old man, no, the old lady is right.” Then he looked at me seriously, genuinely interested, “That shit is hot!”

I smiled at him and as my stop was coming, I said goodbye to the gentleman; we exchanged names and shook hands, and he said to the boy, like someone who reveals a key, something he will instantly forget or remember his whole life: “You are a citizen. Exercise this power, we have already left our fate in the hands of others for too long.”

November 2 2012

The dreaded Sandy arrived on our shores after having caused severe damage in Jamaica and Haiti. In her strong and organized path she left a trail of destruction and desolation in many eastern provinces, the most affected being Santiago de Cuba. After seeing the dreadful images of the damage caused, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the majority of the affected homes are in very precarious conditions, that many of them would have easily succumbed to a strong gust of wind. Some were simply turned into piles of rubble. Many roofs, ripped off of buildings, revealed their poor condition and fragility, the result of a decades-long history of neglect.

For the vast majority of the population it is almost impossible to maintain their homes, much less prepare for a climatic event of this type, principally because articles of hardware are sold in convertible currency and at very high prices. I also believe that I am not mistaken when I say that almost no one was able to protect his house in time because he did not have access to items needed to do so, such as hammers, nails, wooden stakes, plywood, candles, etc. Such items can only be purchased in hard-currency stores, and rarely with the other currency, which many people refer to as “throw-away pesos.”

The damage has been actually incalculable, the loss of human lives irreparable. Now, the only thing that remains to learn is the bitter lesson and to see the way that those of us who fortunately didn’t experience damage can share what we have with this part of our suffering population. For that the alternative blogosphere has provided homes for receiving help. In these we sort, pack up, and label the articles received, with the goal of facilitating their subsequent distribution. The help, logically, we extend in coordination with the church, being the most trustworthy and safe route.

From my point of view, Hurricane Sandy, has been with regards to Santiago, “The Matador,” — The Killer — who has come to give the final mortal blow to a bull already greatly injured by stabs and thrusts, received during these gray decades.

October 31 2012

In his book The Social Contract–one of the most influential works of political theory of the 18th century–the French writer, Jean Jacques Rousseau, proposed the following theory: The union of persons to protect their well-being emanates from a general will that transforms the parties to the contract into a collective political body. The exercise of this will confers power, which is referred to as sovereignty, and the party exercising it–the people–is sovereign. Based on this contract, the people choose officials to carry out the general will and temporarily invest them with a mandate to propose and effect laws, and to preserve citizens’ liberties.

From this work of philosophy and political theory it is possible to infer the vital importance of civil, political and economic rights constitutionally ratified through popular participation, including the ability to retract the mandate granted to these officials. It is this sovereign power that grants the parties to the contract the status of citizens.

Elections, like referendums, are two manifestations of popular sovereignty. Through them the sovereign chooses, from among nominated candidates, officials to hold public office and temporarily invests them with authority over certain areas and distinct functions. Through referendums the sovereign participates in decision making on different matters of common interest such as the approval or rejection of laws before they are promulgated. Both tools, although not comprehensive, make up an important and decisive aspect of popular sovereignty.

In Cuba the constitution of 1940 widened the rights and freedoms envisioned in the 1901 constitution. It ratified the division of powers, confirmed the sovereignty of the Cuban people from which the Assembly of People’s Power is derived, extended universal suffrage to women, and in article 40 provided adequate safeguards for the protection of individual rights which had previously been guaranteed. These legal precepts–guarantees of sovereignty held by citizens–provided the basis for the democratic electoral processes which took place between 1940 and 1948, and the civil and military resistance that led to the 1952 government overthrow.

Fidel Castro acknowledged the freedoms outlined in the 1940 constitution during his trial for the assault on the Moncada Barracks when he said, “I will tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a republic. It had its constitution, its laws, its freedoms. A President, Congress and its courts. Everyone could assemble, associate, speak and write with complete freedom. The government did not satisfy the people, but the people could change it, and it only took a few days to do so. Public opinion was respected and accepted, and all the problems of common interest were freely discussed. There were political parties, doctrinal hours on the radio, polemical programs on television, public demonstrations, and the public pulsed with enthusiasm.” He explained that, for these reasons, the first of the five laws to be proclaimed after the triumph of the revolution would return sovereignty to the people and proclaim the constitution of 1940 the supreme law of the land. This made clear that the revolutionary movement, as the temporary incarnation of this sovereignty, assumed all commensurate authority except the authority to modify the constitution itself.

On January 8, 1959, after assuming power, the revolutionary leader made assurances that elections would be held as soon as possible, which presumably implied the restoration of the constitution of 1940. Nevertheless, on February 7 of that year the Magna Carta was replaced with the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Cuba, violating one of the essential attributes of popular sovereignty–the ability to reform the supreme and fundamental law of the nation. Under provisions of the Fundamental Law, which was in effect until the passage of the constitution of 1970, the Council of Ministers assumed all legislative functions, thereby concentrating power and facilitating the turn towards totalitarianism.

Currently Cuban elections are governed by the Fundamental Law, promulgated in 1992, which stipulates that Cubans sixteen years or older can–through free, equal and secret balloting–elect or be elected to various positions in the assemblies of People’s Power, to the offices of President, Vice-President, and Secretary of these assemblies, and to the Council of State.

Under the Electoral Law the direct vote is limited to the election of delegates to municipal assemblies since the candidates for provincial assemblies and for the National Assembly of People’s Power, as well as for the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary and the other members of the Council of State are chosen by the Commission on Candidates. This body is in turn made up of the Center of Cuban Workers, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Federation of Cuban Women, the National Association of Small Farmers, the University Students’ Association and the Federation of Middle Education Students, all of which are members of the only political party permitted under the current constitution. As a result, in elections for provincial or national office, the candidates coming from municipal assemblies–those elected by direct vote–cannot exceed more than 50% of the total number of candidates. The other 50% are nominated directly by the above-mentioned commissions, which include individuals who have not been elected by direct popular vote, rendering popular sovereignty useless.

The constitution of 1976, revised in 1992 and 2002, ignores the rights and freedoms guaranteed under previous constitutions, while the Electoral Law now in force limits direct popular vote to municipal elections. This explains why in today’s Cuba there are Cubans but no citizens, as exemplified by the lack of interest in certain elections held in order to legitimize the status quo, but useless in bringing about changes that society demands.

Unequivocal proof of this lack of national interest is that these days Cubans talk about and discuss the elections in Venezuela or the United States, but no one except the news media talks about elections in Cuba. All this is an indication of the necessity to include, among other changes, a radical reform of the current electoral system so that popular sovereignty occupies the position it deserves.

Published in Diario de Cuba

October 29 2012

In his time, Marti wrote “arms are iron.” It is the iron I perceived confronting the agents of Section 21 — State Security — posted in the doorway of Lilia and Jose Alberto’s building at J and Calzada, this Thursday, November 1.

It has been a long time that the iron in Cuba, the iron to kill and the iron bars, the iron of the tribunals and the iron of repression, has belonged to the same people who flaunt authority; the only authority of iron.

It is not the iron Marti spoke of.

My plan this Thursday was to go by the home of Lilia and Jose Alberto with the intention of collecting the story of the raid they have suffered, very similar to that of Silva that I related in my last post.

Counting on a bowl of soup that would be my lunch, because for more than a week now Lilia and Jose Alberto have opened their house (which normally is a welcoming place to have a conversation while one awaits any kind of paperwork or service at the USIS) to offer those who come a bowl of soup, in a city where for a lot of reasons, from hygiene to economic issues, snacking or having lunch in the street isn’t recommended for the ordinary Cuban.

We’ve given it the name “Dissident Soup” and the way the cost of making the soup is dealt with is through the efforts and goodwill of many friends.

As I approached I was surprised to see opaque figures in the doorway: three men and two women personifying the iron talked about, stationed there to block the coming and going — State Security Agents.

I have the impression that it is essential not to fall into the trap of “familiarity” between hostages and kidnappers, however much the faces and names of our pursuers are already known. We must convey to those State Security agents, by all possible communication channels, from the attitude to the verb, that we are not equals, nor do we operate at the same level, there is no bond nor familiarity, because they are unable to talk in a natural way to the opponents of the power they represent.

A few minutes later Noralis arrived at the door (the 23-year-old Lady in White) and her husband. We couldn’t enter but we could tell them some truths to their face, among them not understanding what motivates them to violate the rights of citizens in the name of what? A political party? A group of leaders who will never again be credible because they can no longer fool anyone?

But the agents aren’t programmed to respond. We couldn’t even confirm that they heard and understood what we were saying to them.

After 3 hours, those who had been blocked from entering Lilia’s house, and unable to see her, should have walked again by her house. It was not possible to walk by and not ask about the wellbeing of our friends because to do that would have meant giving in, obeying the orders, and showing fear/intimidation. God does not let me fear anything but myself and my sins. I don’t know if others understand this, but I have Christ in my heart, hidden in the core of my soul, and he does not let me fear situations such as this one. So I joined those who decided to return to Lilia’s house.

(Once more I confirm our capacity to object to injustices even though we know there is no institution to protect persecuted civil servants from the abuses and arbitrations of the state. So we have no option but to challenge them and risk their reprisal from which only God can protect us, and to denounce the criminal character of those revolutionaries, defenders of something called socialism and everything else that makes no sense to a discerning mind. In this way, with the urgency for a new social, institutional, political, and business structure, we can start substituting the actual bandits that surround us. Defeat them without iron with our faith in what’s inside us that’s most sacred: the desire to do good and to practice justice, not with “grand ideals” but with the simple truths of our existence which is what’s most useful and meaningful.)

Now the street was full of agents and some uniformed police. This time we made it clear to them that we knew they we could not enter by force, but we were there to find out about our friends. We knew the answer they were going to give us, but the important thing was to be there, not the words.

I was again struck by the phenomenon that if I did not remember that there in one Declaration of Human Rights for all of humanity, that I would have thought they belonged to another humanity, the type of humanity their commander advocated. But no, even though I might regret it, while they are trained to repress and hate those who oppose the Castro brothers, and they act like robots, they are nothing else but humans and they have more rights than they themselves recognize.

The boss, who said his name was Erick, and was second in command of Section 21 (in one of the photos his index finger is pointing) used a threatening voice when I insisted on knowing what happened to my friends, and then walked away to make a call; then I repeated my request to one of the women: “I want to know what is the situation with Lilia and Jose Alberto” and I looked in her eyes for a sign of humanity, but she fixed her eyes on mine in the way she had been trained. I was only able to count 15 seconds and I concluded that it was not important to maintain the stare, that human eyes can only tolerate a locked stare for a fix amount of time, except in cases of Mystical Hindu practices or early Christianity. It was inhuman to maintain a locked stare indefinitely because anything superhuman, from Nietzsche (Zarathustra) to Castro, was useless robotics.

Long ago those wearing the olive green uniforms stopped being the good guys. Ever since January 1, 1959, but they were able to confuse a lot of people. Goodness, according to human nature, and similarly, happiness, wisdom, beauty, God are somewhere else, where there is no agreement or disagreement: they reside inside each one of us, and if we can express them we’ll be free knocking down the iron.

November 2 2012

This note has nothing to do with the famous adventure of “The Three Musketeers.” Nor with any of its characters.

For those of us who have opted at some moment in our lives for institutional learning. The mere fact of mentioning this phrase might bring back memories and spark all those stories, that we’ve told on more than one occasion.

“The Three Musketeers” is an infamous dish made famous in Cuba in the decade known as “the Special Period” if we can talk that way about one of the most difficult periods Cubans have ever lived through. The dish was made up of cooked white rice, porridge of peas, and a boiled egg.

In actuality this well-known dish has been forgotten by many Cubans, unless they’ve had medical reasons to pass through the maternal hospital in the city of Santa Clara during the last week.

The adventure is repeating itself and now this Villa Clara hospital is the chosen site for the staging of the scene. The sad case is that for many this dish, on this occasion, is enjoyed by women who are pregnant, nursing mothers and mothers who recently underwent caesarians.

Now a new product has been added to the plate, and that’s boiled green banana.

October 22 2012

Last Sunday we had to go out to attend to some matters, among them to collect a bit of money from the sale of some work. Another was to see a poster announcing a line of cosmetic products whose model is the daughter of a very dear friend of mine, and also one of my students.

This caused us to be a bit late, so we decided to have lunch at a very famous restaurant, which is located in the central commercial district on the lower floors of the Focsa building, where the posters we had gone to see were being displayed.Café TV is a large and comfortable place, whose decor has some something to do with television on my planet. Its walls are filled with photos of our most famous entertainers. Just past the entrance I noticed a sign that said taking photos was not allowed inside the restaurant, which I found strange considering that the people who go to these places, especially tourists, generally want to have some token remembrance of having been there.

A young man with the face of an angel came to wait on us. He very politely handed us the menus and a little while later came back to ask if he could take our order. He returned again and, with utmost pleasantness and perfect manners, brought us the beers we had ordered. We noticed that almost all the waiters were very young, possibly recent graduates new to this field.

The young man in question would then successively come and go, asking us if everything was alright, if we would like something else… in other words, everything one would expect from someone in his position. And always with his left arm behind his back, as they teach them in culinary school.

The food was excellent and reasonably price, too. Well-prepared and beautifully presented. Remember that these State-owned places, which charge in hard currency, now face strong competition from the private sector.

Finally satisfied, we decided to crown this very pleasant meal with the usual and indispensable cup of coffee. We motioned to the young man with the face of an angel, who immediately responded to our call. We expressed our satisfaction, declined the usual dessert, but asked if he could bring us two espressos and the check. Imagine our surprise when,in his very proper voice,he told us sadly, “I am very sorry, but the machine is fucked up.”

We left there stifling our laughter and noting that here was one of the differences between State-run restaurants and private ones. We also thought that the country itself is really a lot like the coffee machine.

November 2 2012

After a month of rehearsal, Il Gruppetto presented on August 31st at 5:00 pm, in the old Palacio de las Cariátides del Malecón de La Habana, their spectacular Showtime, the universe of musical theater,which reinvents our Broadway-styled musical and attempts to “offer the original creators’ point of view and fill them, transform it with our own while still being faithful to the fable, the characters, the scores, to the sublime duty of the interpreter to say the song, to tell the story through the musical notes”, according to David Guerra, scenic artistic director.

Besides David Guerra, also in charge of the selection, translation and adaptation of the shows; Ubaíl Zamora, musical director; Lynet Rivero in the choreography, Livan Albelo as assistant director and costume designer and art director, Marcel Mendez the lighting, Edwin Ramirez and Maikel Gonzalez makeup and hair design, and John C. Millán in photography and promotion, as well as Raul Coyula in sound and Alexey Sallet in the lights make up the creative team.

The audience that packed the Sala Loynaz room of the current Spanish American Culture Center (Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura) did not enjoy a common concert or theatrical performance with a logical order, but “scenes and moments drawn from some of the most relevant works of this specific kind of representation, … divided into pictures by theme or by composers, with profiles of various parts and the genre itself as the guiding thread”.

Among the artists that come out of the dressing room and blow magic dust over the eyelids of the viewers are the young people of Il Gruppetto, directed by the above-mentioned Ubaíl Zamora and composed of singer-actors of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba (Teatro Lírico Nacional de Cuba), including Laura D’Mare, Indira Echavarría, Olivia Méndez, Teresa J. Pérez, Cristina Rodríguez, Assari Sende, Laura Ulloa, Ernesto Cabrera, Javier Olanguren, Dayron Peralta, Edwin Ramírez, Ernesto Leyva and Leo Cuervo; who invited Marcel Méndez, from Teatro de la Luna, and Lesby A. Bautista, Ernesto Herrera and Frank Ledesma, singers from the Camerata Vocale Sine Nomine.

The program shaped by David Guerra favored the deployment of the concerns, energies and talents of young people who personalized the originating pieces of a genre that requires renovation among us, with the purpose of oxygenating the Cuban musical theater and betting on diversity, the differences and connection with other nurturing sources that will raise spirituality without forgetting that the theater is magic and fun.

This journey to the musical, of galloping rhythm, grace and unusual virtuosity, included in its program pieces like The Transgressors, Chicago, Cabaret, The Rocky Horror Show, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, Rent, Moulin Rouge and Les Miserables.

Despite the choreographic recreation surprises, the scenic displacements, the vocal virtuosity of various interpreters and the connection with the public, this show needs to be exhibited in September or October in rooms with better acoustics and more space, such as the Mella or the Trianón. For its quality, creative daring, and public reception, it would be worth another season in another location. Thousands of habaneros will be grateful. Successes!

Translated by: Billy Shyne (Boston College ’15)

September 13 2012