The Umbilical Cord / Rebeca Monzo

Rebeca Monzo, 25 July 2015 — The majority of Cuban emigrants, those of the last three decades, seem to leave with the remains of their umbilical cords hanging from their bodies.

They barely arrive, be it as wet foots or dry, by raft or by plane, and just start settling in, but that they start asking their families who stayed on the island for medicines, Vita Nova tomato sauce, dry wine and other silly things. They don’t seem to realize they’ve arrived in another country, which they themselves chose to start a new life, and they try to continue depending on their families and friends with scant resources, those they left behind.

Nor have they given any thought to the first emigrants from the sixties and seventies, who were forced to put their whole lives into one suitcase, and start from zero to open the way, alone, without any contact with those they left behind, an era when it was absolutely prohibited to have any kind of contact with those who decided to live in a country where they spoke another language.

Emigrants of today seem to forget that medicine is scarce here and, in addition, if you can find it you have to pay in CUC on the black market where it’s available, or acquire it for hard currency in the few pharmacies that exist in the city at astronomical prices. I think it would be very convenient for everyone to assume with responsibility and bravey the decisions made, and to detach themselves from the remains of this appendage to which they are still attached, that limits their growth.