Category: Eliecer Avila

Rafael Hernández makes innumerable references to the “enemy” without it being clear to me exactly what or who he means

In the interview Rafael Hernández makes innumerable references to the “enemy” without it being clear to me exactly what or who he means. I do not know if I myself, or my friends, many of my neighbors or my fellow students, who think differently from the Government of Cuba, are part of Rafael’s “enemy.” I hope not.

On the other hand, when he encourages us to “tell the truth, period,” it is also not clear to me to whom he is directing his message. Honestly, I do not believe that those who resist telling these truths are journalists. I know many of them personally, and by reference many more, and I am sure that they one hundred percent share this vision of the dignified and independent role that should be played by the press anywhere in the world. So who or what then prevents them from telling the unvarnished truths? The custom of not speaking them? Or is it that, in front of the cameras, everyone defends this “necessary sincerity” but in the spaces where it is truly decided what will be aired and what will not, no one is willing to assume the costs of telling the truth?

Are journalists the ones who decide what is published in Cuba? Is it perhaps the directors of the media? I think that as a example of what he himself demands, Rafael Hernandez could begin to say “the truth, period” recognizing that it is a tiny group of bureaucrats at the exclusive service of the Communist Party who decide every letter, voice or image that Cubans throughout the island see, hear or read.

I liked his defense in favor or a political and public debate in the national media. Like what more or less happens in the public space he leads. I clarify this saying “more or less,” because indeed it is true that normally no one is denied entry to these events, but it is also true that the panel does not usually represent the colors of the political spectrum of any nation in the world. Only in the audience can this diversity be seen from time to time. It is also the case that some dissidents speak. But they have only three minutes to do so and then the panel can dismantle everything they want, without the ongoing right to respond.

In the spaces where it is truly decided what will be aired and what will not, no one is willing to assume the costs of telling the truth

A debate, technically, is something else. In a debate, people who defend different points of view can count on a fair and reasonable time not just to defend their position but to question the proposals of their counterparts in a sequence that makes it possible to plumb the depths of each topic. For this, you have to have good intentions, and select exponents of similar intellectual levels, or at least those who enjoy public recognition in the sphere they defend.

Following this logic one could have a debate between Rafael Hernandez, on the one side, and Reinaldo Escobar n the other, about “journalism and truth in Cuba,” for example. Would the director of Temas accept this debate? Would he feature it in his magazine? I am sure that if he did it would break audience records and the results would be very useful.

I believe that when certain authorized intellectuals or thinkers talk about the necessary existence of public debate or of public spaces, they don’t always take into account that none of these things exist in Cuba.

Neither the Party nor the Government nor the intransigent Communists have anything against debate itself, what they can’t bear are the consequences. Because four good televised debates on crucial issues, no holds barred, in a framework of respect and civility, would collapse the entire house of cards.

I invite the director of Temas with regards to what he seriously proposes to be the promoter of the first public political debates in Cuba, similar to those held in other latitudes, involving communists, liberals, greens and other visions, all essential.

Guillermo Toledo: Together with the members of United Cubans of Puerto Rico, our Puerto Rican sisters and brothers have contributed their talents and hard work to this endeavor. Our Cuban sisters and brothers have also opened their wallets in order to make an event of this magnitude a reality. These are the same people who in a future free and democratic Cuba will help with their investments to further the material development of our people. Our profound gratitude to all of them.

Ávila: Have other gatherings like this taken place before?

Guillermo Toledo: Cuban Exiles have held some great events, but as far as I know there hasn’t ever been a meeting with the character and nature of the Cuban National Conference. I don’t know of any other event that brought together so many organizations and pro-democracy activists from inside and outside of Cuba, regardless of their beliefs.

Ávila: Who will be participating?

Guillermo Toledo: Our leadership has decided not to name names until we get closer to the event. The central figures of the democratic opposition from inside and outside Cuba will be there, although there are a lot of people we couldn’t invite for lack of funds. I don’t like political labels, but I can say that we’ve invited the democratic center, the democratic right, and the democratic left.

Ávila: Regardless of their position regarding the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States?

Guillermo Toledo: It doesn’t matter if they’re in favor or against the policies towards Cuba of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. This can’t and shouldn’t be for us a new source of division. If we’re going to be a democratic people, we should respect everyone’s opinions. That’s our meeting’s golden rule.

Ávila: What are the event’s objectives?

Guillermo Toledo: Reaching a consensus on unity of action in diversity, through the appropriate mechanism to lead us to a free, prosperous, fair, and democratic Cuba. We’ll also be conducting workshops focused on identifying strategies, tactics, and peaceful methods that will help us reach our shared objective. We want to send a message of unity to the Cuban people and the international community.

Ávila: Why choose Puerto Rico as the location for this meeting?

Guillermo Toledo: Both peoples share a common historical bond. The Cuban Revolutionary Party founded by José Martí had a division dedicated to helping Puerto Rico gain its independence from Spain. It’s also about being in a neutral place, where the understandable passions of exiles residing in Miami aren’t vented so strongly. We also don’t want State Security, or “Castro’s Gestapo,” operating in Puerto Rico as it does in Miami, working as hard here to sow internal divisions as it does there.

Ávila: Will Cuban émigrés play a major role in Cuba’s shift towards democracy?

Guillermo Toledo: Cuba’s independence could never have come about without the support of émigrés and exiles. The War of 1895 [Cuba’s second and final war of independence] had its roots in the key role José Martí played outside of Cuba, although all the actual battles took place on the island. Both shores played a decisive role when Spanish despotic colonialism came to an end. Nowadays we’re trying to do away with a totalitarian dictatorship. Cuba’s problems can’t be solved without its exiles.

Ávila: Once it was known that the date for your gathering in Puerto Rico would coincide with the reopening of the United States embassy in Cuba, and given the historical importance of the latter, have you thought about moving the date?

Guillermo Toledo: United Cubans of Puerto Rico chose August 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th of the current year, long before December 17, 2014, when the new United States policy towards Cuba was made public. Maybe we should ask the Americans if it’s just coincidence that they chose August 14^th to hold the events at their embassy.

Our gathering can’t be cancelled or postponed because the international community is already aware of it, and the financial losses would be enormous. We also don’t believe there’s a valid reason to postpone it since our meeting is a thoroughly Cuban event where we’ll be discussing and reaching agreements regarding Cuba. The embassy is an American matter, as it should be.

Ávila: Do you have a dream that still hasn’t come true?

Guillermo Toledo: To return to Cuba in a dignified manner, and help create a new country where its people can enjoy freedom, and material and spiritual development.

Translated by José Badué

Some organizations have already advanced efforts to have their representatives received by the pontiff. More than a few of us have never understood what the criteria are, established from outside, for choosing those who deserve the vote of legitimacy awarded by a handshake with figures universally seen as prominent.

I suppose that the impossibility of doing internal surveys or seeing some reflection of people’s opinions of our society’s political and social actors, forces many advosors to lean toward the most picturesque, whether positive or negative, because in any case that is who stands out.

We have never understood what the criteri are for choosing who deserve the vote of legitimacy awarded by a handshake with figures universally seen as prominent

This, coupled with some external gestures by those who have mastered well the techniques more for devils than for old men and who have the contacts, results in the same impassable and sacred media ghetto.

From my point of view, the Civil Society Open Forum is an ideal forum to coordinate the plural and inclusive message that Pope Francis should receive, given the high confluence of civil society and actors and organizations among its ranks.

The ideal would be to choose a representative capable of carrying out the mission with the seriousness, elegance, education and professionalism to send a unified message from all the Cubans who make up a part of this seed of democracy, of this free and independent island that beats within the country.

Hopefully we can begin to undertake good democratic exercises for this and other similar situations. The time is now to practice at home what we propose for the country.

Dominoes also had their space. Ladies and gentlemen who seemed to be about 90 – some of them complete with cigar, guayabera, ring and hat – delighted in the slapping down their tiles to the beat of the legendary Macorina played by a band.

It might be better if they keep the memories that are etched in their minds of the Cuba they left

Others tried to locate the neighborhood where they lived on a giant map was printed on the floor.

Amid all the activity, a man walking hand-in-hand with his wife says to me, “This is good guajiro. But I’m pissed off.” “Why,” I ask him. “Chico, you come here to have an enjoyable time, and the first thing you come across is them offering you a coffin and the whole funeral service as if it were beer they were selling. What’s wrong with these people? I am not going to die just yet, so it’s going to be a while before they get a hold of my cash,” and he lets out a cackle that reminds me of some of my uncles.

Suddenly we hear the sounds of a danzon and my interlocutors say goodbye to join in the dancing. Few spectacles please me as much as seeing elderly couples moving to the sounds of Island rhythm. While I watch them, I imagine what their impression would be if they returned to Cuba and visited the villages and cities they left behind half a century ago.

I think it might be better if they keep the memories that are etched in their minds of the Cuba they left, I don’t know. What I am sure of is that these people have maintained their traditions with pride, their Cubanness, and their love for their country every day of their existence. To all of them, my affection and respect.

Mima went down on her knees on the ground and began to pray, which made Carlitos and me more nervous. The gaps in the thatched roof let all the water through and we had to seek out each drip with a candle and put pots, jugs, cups and whatever receptacle we had to protect the little display cabinet, the Caribe television and the mattress.

The worst of it was that not only water fell from the roof. Scorpions, spiders, cockroaches and ants, feeling threatened by the thunder and rain, slipped out of the walls, rushed under the doors or fell on our chests as we were trying to get back to sleep.

At five in the morning, after a sleepless night, Mima would try to light some damp coconut shells to brew coffee over a wood fire, whose ashes we used on our toothbrushes many times instead of toothpaste, which was a luxury at one time…

How many grandmothers watch over their sleeping grandchildren while it rains, trying to hold up the walls with their faith

Under these conditions, Mima raised us two grandsons, having also raised as good people our parents, working like a mule, although ill, for 110 Cuban pesos (roughly US$5.50) a month. No one is going to convince me today that my grandmother is not a true heroine.

Today she continues to live under these conditions, after a lifetime devoted to family, work and the Revolution. After a year of efforts at every level at the Ministry of Agriculture to approve the paperwork that would allow us to start building a small room on the ground where she has been living for more than 60 years, through her own efforts, we carried on without authorization. And they say that delay…

I think of my grandmother when I hear the news of building collapses in Havana. How many like her will watch over their sleeping grandchildren while trying to hold up the walls with their faith.

While floods ravage Havana, those directly responsible for the misery that prevents so many families from repairing their houses; the creators of a system that slowly demolishes every trace of beauty, comfort and dignity, it doesn’t even occur to them to appear on TV lamenting the loss of three Cuban lives that are added to so many others. On the contrary, with their harangues, and the excitement of the celebration, they show their lack of respect for the pain of the families who are mourning today.

Those directly responsible for the misery don’t even think of even appearing on television to lament the loss of three Cuban lives

The official press barely mentions the names of the deceased, as if they were potatoes, at the end of the newscast. In all honesty, they dedicate more broadcast time to potatoes.

Nothing can tarnish the brilliance of the parade, one old woman more or less. What matters is that the world sees Cubans making fools of themselves disguised as a victory that breaks all the Guinness Records for the absurd.

The State announced that it was calling into service more than 3,200 buses for the parade, including 78 damaged by the rains that were repaired in one day for the occasion. It seems that not a single journalist in Cuban has investigated the costs of these events and of how much progress could be made in repairing homes and building infrastructure with those resources.

Surely those interested in organizing the May Day celebrations don’t have to worry about their families, their homes, or many other things missing from our national daily life that have already been forgotten as the decades pass.

I just hope that this time, the General didn’t ask for the earth to tremble.

“He gives me everything, it’s true that he has this character; he won’t let me go out, if I say what I think he punishes me, he won’t let me work, he says what he gives me is enough. If I talk with the neighbor – the man in the big beautiful house – he shouts at me and beats me, but I know deep down he loves me, and he does take care of me.”

The classic symptoms of the victim of domestic violence are also seen in the relationship of people with their governments when, for more than half a century, they have been the tough masters of the house.

Everyone spends their life lamenting the “untenable situation,” the streets, the trash, wages, water, bread, Internet, prices, bureaucracy, censorship… But deep down, no one, or to be fair, few, dare to upset Dad.

And so it explains a thousand and one times that, on a day like today, people come out to participate in an absolutely useless exercise, such as district elections in Cuba.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much the struggles for democracy resemble those that were fought for gender equality or against discrimination. In all of them, the most difficult thing is getting the victims to change their attitude to life, to cease playing a passive role and become protagonists of their own history.

But that does not make us tire of telling the people, like we continue to tell abused women: you don’t depend on anyone, it’s all in your mind. You have the courage to break free, not only will you be better off, you will also discover that through your own efforts you can be happy.

Arias criticized governments for generally “remaining silent” about what happens in Cuba and Venezuela “for fear of upsetting their respective Lefts.”

Addressing the Venezuelans, he asked them about the status of unity of the democratic forces and the personalities engaged in the struggle. José Javier Martínez, member of the Vente Venezuela movement, responded that, “Although there are some differences between the main opposition leaders, they disappear on the issue of respect for human rights.”

“It is on this point, above all, and in its defense that we are firmly united,” Martinez reaffirmed. The young man also took advantage of the occasion, to ask the former president for support for a motion that several MPs from different parties are trying to push through the Costa Rican legislature. The objective of the motion is to have the ambassador of this nation propose to the Organization of American States (OAS) that it discuss the situation of Venezuela in its main plenary session.

Arias also asked about the course of relations with the United States and what might be expected in this respect. Kirenia Yalit, Coordinator of the Roundtable of Cuban Youth, explained the different visions and postures of Cuban civil society toward this process and pointed out that, “We young people are not opposed to the opportunities that this these changes could bring to the benefit the people, but we will continue in our struggle to achieve the rights that we need to exercise, whether or not there is trade with the United States.”

Arias then speculated about the possibility of a Cuban Deng Xiaoping, who would reform the Cuban system from within the Communist Party, as happened in China.

To this Eliecer Avila, leader of Somos+ (We Are More) and a member of the Roundtable, responded that, “There is always that possibility, but we Cuban democrats do not see in China an applicable or desirable framework for our country.” The young man emphasized that, “We are able to build a much better model, one that in addition to economic growth also ensures the full exercise of civil and political freedoms, the only guarantees for a national reconciliation and lasting stability.”

The former President thanked the young people for the visit and reiterated his commitment to the democratic cause of both peoples. Which, he said, “Would always be addressed in my upcoming conferences, because I say what I think and do not speak just to get along with anyone.”

Anyone who knows how these mechanisms operate is aware that these opinion matrices are not injected for fun, but rather in pursuit of creating an adequate framework for other moves that can range from preventing some people from leaving Cuba to organizing acts of repudiation and their other usual activities in their actions in Panama.

Still fresh in our memories are the spectacles orchestrated by the Cuban embassies on Yoani Sanchez’s first tour, especially in Latin America. Also, more recently, in Guadalajara as a part of the cultural summit in which the sympathizers of the Cuban government grabbed the microphones, spit and offended those who, with much effort, were trying to speak in a civilized manner.

Why so afraid of words? Should America forever endure the rudeness of a government that believes itself superior, divine and unquestionable?

Why so afraid of words? Should America forever endure the rudeness of a government that believes itself superior, divine and unquestionable?

This time, in addition to the external shock troops, they will bring their own civil society. Civil because they will not be put in uniform, civil although they have cars with official plates, official budgets, official sites and, best of all, a discourse more official than that of the government itself.

But none of this matters if the hosts manage to create a decent and safe space for all voices to be heard. Hopefully, a little bit of political decency will surprise us. It’s high time.