14ymedio.com

“Ah! From my father I learned” reads a very popular H. Upmann cigar commercial from the Republican era. Today we are proud to have children who don’t smoke, either because they saw us with a cigarette in our mouth, or because they witnessed our efforts to give up the vice, while they hid our cigarettes from us or dunked our packs in a bucket of water.

However, there are days when being a father is more difficult. Like on one of those afternoons when they come home full of ingenuity and recite a poem dedicated to Ernesto Guevara in which they assert that, “Two droplets of water fell on my feet and the mountains were crying because they killed Che.” The first reaction of any responsible father is to shout “No!” That they should not be like that Argentine with his stereotypical ideas and trigger-happiness, but every word spoken only sinks them into the abyss of ideological problems and social stigma.

Others will be more forgotten, Like Carlos Manuel Cespedes whom we call “the father of the nation” because when the Spanish proposed that he lay down his arms in exchange for the life of his son, whom they had taken prisoner, he made the dramatic decision to continue the struggle and his son was executed. This Sunday, Father’s Day, none of those who usurp the name of the “fatherland” have brought flowers to his statue in the Plaza de Armas in Old Havana.

Being a father in Cuba is very difficult. Because among all the dramatic dilemmas involved in paternity is placing them in a fragile boat to leave the country, or deciding that it is better to try to save the country for them and to involve them in the task. But while something like this is being decided, it happens that they are growing up and becoming parents, to begin to experience first hand how this hazardous and gratifying is the road that is having children.

No university offers a degree to improve parenting, no diploma certifies that we are good at achieving it.

Jorge Guillen, a resident of the village, said that Saul, Alejandro’s father, was living in the Bayate neighborhood in Candelaria until a little more than seven years ago when he settled in the United States. As for the son, “people remember him as a peaceful teenager. Some say that if he had not gone this tragedy would not have happened to him, but if he had stayed here he would have died of sadness.”

Yusleni Alonso has another memory of Alejandro. “I gave him lessons when he was in José Martí elementary school, here in Candelaria. Every day he was holding the hand of his grandmother Cusa. He was a boy who looked fragile, but everyone liked him. When I heard the news at first I did not realize who it was, only on seeing his face in the photos online did all the memories hit me.”

Alonso looked at that face on the screen and “saw the child who was my student. When Orquidea, his mother, who worked here in the Military Committee moved to Pinar del Rio, he was left in the care of his maternal grandmother. Then when it was time for him to go to high school his mother fetched him and we didn’t seem him any more.”

Yusleni continues, “The news arrived here because, being in the place where the events occurred, a message was sent to his partner in Orlando and this boy was the one who advised the family. No one understood anything, there was a lot of confusion. Suddenly here in Candelaria the whole world was hanging on the news of friends’ Facebook pages. It created a very rare phenomenon, everyone on the village wanted to know the details and the newspapers didn’t say anything.”

Yusleni’s neighbor, who lends his phone to people in the neighborhood who receive important calls, said that “Orquidea had been in the military but retired when her son left. The papers on the Cuban side came through instantly, a passport with permission from the Armed Forces to travel, the documents to reclaim the body and bring his remains. Everything. The American embassy also acted quickly, but we knew that his mom had been denied a visa before and now they gave her one in for five years… those are the things that happen. She is already in Miami.”

Everyone calls María Magdalena Puente, Cusa. The door to her house in Candelaria remains open all day.

She says she has received more visits this week than in her whole life. She shows a recent photo of her grandson. Alejandro is wearing the white uniform of a butcher, which was the first job he had. He has a cap and is smiling, with a shadow of a beard covering his chin. “This was the photo we put here in the living room on Saturday when we held the wake. His classmates came, his teachers, many people he didn’t even know.”

Magdalena retired a year and three months ago. She always worked as a teaching assistant at the same school where her grandson studied. Now she makes small crafts thanks to her skills with her hands. When Alexander could, he sent her some materials for her work. “But they were silly things,” she clarifies, “because he hadn’t even been in the United States two years. He had to leave that first job in the butchers because the temperature in the refrigerators was affecting his throat.”

She said he hadn’t passed his military service because he had health problems, “He was sleepwalking and had some epilepsy-like attacks.”

Magdalena does not yet seem convinced that she will never see Alejandro again. “On Friday we talked with him, he was happy because he got a new job in a china shop. He told us that that weekend he was going to celebrate at the disco. I told him not to go, you never know what could happen in those places. And he laughed. He said something that I can’t remember, but it meant he was going to go anyway.”

Ahmed explains that it is not obligatory to wear clothing typical of Arab countries, but prophets dressed in this way and so many do. The same applies to the beard and the custom of wearing a head covering. “Because we are Muslims, our religion accepts that we can have more than one wife, as long as the husband can support them and the first wife agrees.” But he clarifies that, respecting Cuban customs, they do not permit marriages involving minors.

Among the customs, in addition to the clothes and the beard, some carry a kind of toothbrush called a “siwak,” made from the branch of a tree that grows on the Arabian Peninsula. Besides having therapeutic qualities, its use is recommended during the days of Ramadan.

This year, 1437 of the Hegira, the month of Ramadan began on 6 June and starting at dawn Muslims fast every day. They do not ingest solids or liquids, nor do they smoke or have sexual relations. Contrasted to what might be defined as a stereotype of the ordinary Cuban, it seems difficult to adopt this religion. However, every day more people do so. Women have a space for themselves separated from that of the men, and children scamper on the carpet of the spacious lounge, where it is an understandable requirement to remove your shoes.

“This is like a hospital,” says Abdul Karim, a young man who earns a living as a self-employed bricklayer. “We all have something that we must heal and Allah only asks for our submission to offer us spiritual peace.” His affirmation is evident when a young man whom everyone indulges appears in the mosque. They call him “the Russian” and he says he was a prince in Great Britain, that he speaks 25 languages and that Islam “came to Cuba with Christopher Columbus who was Muslim.”

The Muslims gathering here identify as Sunnis. In the Lawton neighborhood there is another place where the Shias go. The differences don’t generate conflicts, although those in Old Havana don’t recognize as Muslims those in Lawton, and vice versa, but “the blood doesn’t reach the river.”

Staring at 7 in the evening, just before dark, the flow of the faithful becomes more intense. At one point the loudspeakers are heard reciting the Koran in Arabic. Everyone approaches the wall at the side of the building facing Mecca, and gathers in front of a picture where the name of Allah is inscribed. They sit there, alternately leaning over and standing as the ritual demands.

When the sun outside has hidden itself, some sit at the tables, other on the floor, and they begin to share a dinner. Rice with beans, salad, sweet potatoes and lamb meat. In addition there are bread, dates and canned soda. According to what this newspaper was told, the costs of this ceremony are borne by the Saudi Arabian embassy in Cuba, which also made the largest initial investment to convert what was once an old car museum into an air-conditioned and well-lit mosque, with carpets and tapestries.

Like everything that happens in Cuba, Islamic activities are observed with a mixture of respect and suspicion. Lazaro Fresneda, a opponent of the government who turned to Islam several years ago and who answers to the name Abdul Radman, feels that there are always men snooping around who have “a tint of being people associated with the apparatus.” He says that during President Obama’s visit to Havana the mosque was closed and adds that recently Rene Gonzalez appeared there, he is one of the five Cuban intelligence agents who were released from the sentences they were serving in the United States. “He said he prayed with the Muslims in prison, but I did not shake his hand.”

The graying beard of Mohamed Alzain gives the impression of having been with him a long time, but he says it has only been a year since he last shaved. In response to the observation that he keeps his mustache, he smiles and says, “sometimes I forget to cut it.” He recalls that he was an official in the Armed Forces when he started to feel a religious inclination. “At that time,” he recalls, “being in the military was not consistent with believing in God, but in the Congo, where I served an internationalist mission, the Muslims believe in Islam from birth, as did their most remote ancestors. I had never seen any part of such a pure religion.”

Shortly before ten at night the faithful begin to retire. Tuesday they will continue the fast, unless they are ill; pregnant women, children and those who are traveling for more than three days are also exempted. They are counting the days until 6 July, when Ramadan will conclude “Cuban-style” and then they will celebrate with a big party.