Category: Translator: Norma Whiting

In the people’s collection of sayings, there is a well-known refrain that goes as follows: “Justice takes its time, but it will get here”. Judging from the more than 50 years’ of dictatorship expertise of Cubans, the syntax of the phrase could be changed to come up with a result that is more representative: “Justice will get there, but it’s taking its time!” Nothing could have predicted that 54 years after power was snatched in Cuba, and 24 years after that house of cards that was socialism in Eastern Europe fell, the chameleon-like Castro regime would not only have survived, but that Cuba would become the virtual metropolis of a huge oil country. continue reading

Another year is ending and in a few days 2013 will begin. For me, 2012 has been like a whirlwind, so much has been happening and I’ve been so busy! Since for me a year is much more than time intervals that limit one from another every 365 days, I like to think of them by proper names according to what they mean to me, what I plan to achieve in their course or what events take place in each one.

It may seem crazy, and perhaps it is, but personalizing the years helps me to get a hold of them and to live them more intensely. I make better use of time when I assume, with empathy, those periods I claim to fulfill options and realize dreams. Not only does it work for me, but I can deal with adversity more optimistically.

It was not always so. Just over a decade ago I felt the year’s passage as a weak-willed segment between Christmases. Waiting for December was the illusion, the mainstay of the soul to achieve what I considered the best of each year –parties, overindulging, revelry, parades of friends we hadn’t seen since last year … – with the additional childish expectation of thinking that perhaps the new year would be the one to make a difference: who’d know if perhaps we would be lucky enough to dawn in a better Cuba one of those days. Thus, the hidden sign behind the lights on the Christmas tree and behind the greetings and the toasts was always the longing, the quiet feeling of undigested and poorly assumed deprivation, frustration and dissatisfaction. If I didn’t succumb back then to the national epidemic that I am in the habit of calling “the zombie effect” it was simply miraculous, by chance, or perhaps because my testy nature always refuses to accept resignation as a destination (or to accept fate with resignation, as a good Christian friend would say).

The truth is that at one point I caught a glimpse of that light in all of us and came out of the quagmire. Ever since that day, though December continues to be a happy, joyful and festive month for me, far from being a goal, it’s a pretext for invoking both my best angels and to exorcise my worse demons. Each December is a watchtower to view the horizon ahead of me, and to choose my own path towards it. 2000 was, if memory serves me, the first year I named in the millennium: I named it Awakening because that was what my spirit felt, and since then, each New Year’s eve I celebrate the christening of the coming year.

I wanted to share with you these memories to wish you success and prosperity in the New Year and so that, together, we make them ours. I wish you much health and lots of the good energy to achieve our personal goals. Recently, I choose the name of my 2013: it will be called Hope. I hope that my readers will understand why. A big hug to everyone,

Eva-Miriam Celaya

Translated by Norma Whiting

December 28 2012

My readers must forgive this long and abrupt absence. After so much talk about the Cuban health system, I ended up getting sick. Luckily, it was not cholera or dengue fever, but I just had the most aggressive flu that I can ever remember, and it kept me home for many days without even having a chance to play with the computer keyboard, since I had an acute case of conjunctivitis as a complication. Not for nothing, but they “threw everything at me”, but they haven’t been able to do away with me… at least for now.

Although a lot has happened during these days and, of course, there are many things to comment on, today I just want to announce that I’m back and to thank everyone for the many e-mail messages, asking about my health. I also would like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest appreciation to everyone who, all through this long and difficult 2012, have shown their solidarity in the most diverse ways. You have really helped me, and the medications that you sent me on occasion came in handy on this critical juncture. I also want to thank you for your PayPal donations that allowed me to buy internet connection time in Havana hotels when I can’t get on line through more friendly venues; the numerous times you have made possible my cell phone recharges, which allow for immediate communication with my “fellow travelers” and protect me against any potential adverse circumstance with the boys of the repressive forces; text messages that quickly inform me from the outside about events not published in the press within Cuba, and finally, all the words of encouragement that inspire me to return to this blog to meet with you in the ongoing effort to push down the wall together.

Without you, I’m sure the road would be a thousand times harsher. Thank you with all my heart. We will, once again, meet here next week.

Translated by Norma Whiting

December 14 2012

I originally published the article that follows on the website Penúltimos Días last November 26th. Since there are several and conflicting opinions about the post, I will submit it to the regular readers of this blog for their consideration. I just want to make a preliminary clarification: what some may consider inadequate demands of the Spanish government, which, according to them I should also make of the Cuban government, I will remind that my words are based on words of the Consul of that country in relation to Cubans who have obtained Spanish citizenship, which includes me, and which gives me the right to review the decisions and actions of that government’s policies. On the other hand, readers have witnessed my habit of demanding the rights that are due me as a Cuban.

Here goes:

Ravings of a Cuban-Spaniard

A few days ago, I read a note published by the editors of Cubaencuentro, dated in Madrid on October 30th under the title “Spanish Consul in Havana asks Island Hispanic societies to welcome new Cuban-Spaniards”, which seemed a bit perplexing to me. Besides offering some interesting facts, the article deserves careful reading: often, the essence is in the details, especially when it is a diplomatic discourse, full of omissions and half-truths.

The issue of the Cubans who have crowded the headquarters of the Spanish Consulate in Havana in order to qualify for the nationality of their ancestors under the Law of Historical Memory is an eloquent sign of how depreciated the condition of native-born Cubans is. Suffice it to check the figures to get an approximate idea of the mobilization unleashed by hundreds of thousands of Spanish descendants who in the last three years have sought to restore the citizenship of their grandparents.

According to that note, admissions by the Consul General of Spain himself, Tomás Rodríguez Pantoja, at the end of 2011, 65,000 new Spanish citizenships have been granted, and 70,000 have been obtained to date, while 140,000 requests still remain. If we add to that the 28,000 Spanish nationals who were living in Cuba before the application of that law, you can easily conclude that the number of citizens of this country (i.e. neo-Spanish Caribbeans) that have emerged in a few years almost exceeds the total Spanish immigrants who arrived in Cuba in the first third of the last century. These figures do not include the tens of thousands of Cubans of Spanish descent who, for various reasons, have been unable to obtain the necessary documentation required for requesting Spanish citizenship -as, for example, the grandparents’ birth certificates- and, consequently, have not even submitted their applications to the Consulate.

In a meeting held with the leaders of Spanish associations in Cuba, the Spanish Consul stated that “one of the biggest challenges we have, and I ask you to take this with the deepest affection, is to integrate into our societies the vast number of new or old renovated Spaniards, Spanish-Cubans who, through the Law of Historical Memory, will recover their ancestors’ nationality” and he asked that the Spanish communities assume “the responsibility of integrating them into the spirit of Spain” since some of the nationalized [Spanish] Cubans “can’t even tell the difference between communities”. He had previously stated, in another instance, that these people “don’t yet have the Spanish sense (…), don’t feel for our country or are united onto our reality, though they are as Spanish as we are”.

As a recent Spanish-Cuban, I must admit that, to a certain extent, the Consul is right: around here, we don’t even have the vaguest idea of how “having a Spanish sense” might feel, at least not in the same way as the diplomat might regard it. We are, simply, and purely, Cubans, regardless of the number and variety of citizenships or passports that we might come to cherish if we could. It is no secret, even to the consul, that the overwhelming majority of those who have benefited from Spanish citizenship has done so in the hope of emigrating, and, by the way, a Spanish passport is not in as much high demand as an American visa.

And at this point I want to emphasize that I am the exception to the rule: I have no interest in escaping from Cuba, or settling in Spain (or any other country) and if I decided to take my grandfather’s citizenship, a Basque born in Busturia, is because I have the right, and if one day I have the possibility of visiting Spain, it would be better to do so as a citizen of that country, with a passport that would open the doors that my Cuban passport closes for me. I’m definitely an incurable addict when it comes to rights. I’m not interested in “asking for help” to be a parasite on the public purse sustained on the taxes of the Spanish, to which they contribute with their work and effort. I have neither a lazy nor a beggar’s soul.

Personally, I have no idea what the consul means by “a Spanish sense” I don’t think that a nationalist feeling is necessary to experience deep emotion in the presence of the Spanish history and culture. The great masters of the art of Spain, her artists and the numerous geniuses of her literature, especially her poetry, with Antonio Machado as my favorite, the force and uniqueness of her music and dance, the richness and variety of her traditions, the fascination of her rich history, full of light and shadow, which largely holds the key to the very course of the history of my country, Cuba, and also explains the idiosyncrasies of my own nation and identity, are sufficient elements to understand the singular empathy between Cubans and Spaniards.

Spain is closer to me, in addition, since a reverse migration began to take place: decades of dictatorship have contributed to the displacement of thousands of Cubans who have made Spain their adopted country. Many of them do not have Spanish citizenship, and a considerable portion hasn’t even obtained legal residence, but they do their best to survive from a disadvantaged position in the midst of a prolonged and severe economic crisis. I love Spain more since it has become home to so many of my countrymen, and since, for the past five years, I have received the support and affection of Spaniards who write to me and follow my digital blog, because, though this may not be important to Mr. Consul, I understand that the Spanish government might not have made a good investment when it gave me my citizenship: I am an unrepentant dissident, and I oppose any authority abridging my rights. As a Cuban, I oppose the Cuban government, and as a Spaniard, condescending speeches aside, I would love for the Consul, representative in Cuba of my other nation’s government, to clarify some of my doubts.

I would be interested to know, let’s say, how the Consulate is going to help those Cubans who are recovering the nationality of their ancestors “have a sense for the country (Spain)” or “join” the Spanish state of affairs. Let’s say, for instance, that the Spanish diplomatic seat in Havana could start by introducing practices that recognize the rights of Cuban-Spanish as the same ones of Spanish-born citizens, since, so far, treatment given to the former and the latter is markedly different, as evidenced by the detail that native-born Spanish need only present their passports or their Spanish identity cards to gain access to the embassy, while Cuban-Spanish are required to use their Cuban identity card to do so, though they have Spanish passports. Are we second-class citizens without pedigree, amateur Spanish?

The passport is another fundamental point. It is almost as cumbersome to obtain a Spanish passport as to get a Cuban one. In my case, I was given notice of having been granted my citizenship in October, 2011, and over one year later, I have yet to procure a passport, and I don’t know why. A lot of Cubans who got their citizenship after I did already have theirs. For lack of answers, I have applied several times, without success. I am registered in the Havana consulate, but I am an “undocumented Spaniard”, without knowing what bureaucratic ineptitude (if only that were the case!) prevents me from accessing the document that identifies me as a citizen of Spain. Could it be that the Spanish passport is as selective as its Cuban counterpart and certain people have no right to it?

I know of no new Spanish-Cuban who has been invited to the Columbus Day celebrations held each October 12th, and haven’t heard any news that the consulate has given any attention to this sector of its “nationals”. For example, despite the known limitations of Cubans to access the Internet, all consular procedures require prior appointments to be requested by e-mail, however, the consulate has not seen fit to enable a location with access to the web, even for the use of Cubans who have already obtained their documentation as Spanish citizens. The service is likewise not offered in cultural Spanish associations. Wouldn’t this be an effective way for the Madrid government to demonstrate its good will and a way for the new Spanish citizens to be better informed about their adopted nation? Aren’t the new computer and informational technologies the most expeditious means to the free cultural exchange in the so-called global village?

Nor do I know of Spanish-Cubans who are freely contracted and considered as such by Spanish companies that have invested capital in Cuba. What prevents them to be hired as overseas Spaniards and enjoy the same benefits and labor rights? Similar exclusions extend to those who have decided to become independent from the official employer –the Cuban government- after obtaining their Spanish citizenship. I know of Cuban cases that, while they were contracted through an official Cuban employment purse, they could practice their profession in Spain without the need to be re-qualified in that country, however, when they tried to get employed as Spanish citizens doing the same work, now they demand Spanish education credentials. Could it be that there is an agreement with the Cuban government to limit the rights of Spanish abroad? How can the “Spanish feeling” be consolidated this way? How would the consul explain such discrimination and how does he suppose these neo-Spaniards will be able to “penetrate” the economy of their companies when in principle they are marginalized?

I don’t think Mr. Consul is very clear in that integration cannot be sustained only on “trade and cultural activities.” That is, tambourines, castanets and bagpipes seem all well and good, but as “rights”, they are insufficient. Spain’s government could do much more for the Spaniards on this Island and also for its own nation if it conceived effective policies that stimulated them [Cuban-Spanish] to remain in Cuba while benefitting the Spanish economy. In fact, that is just what men like my Basque grandfather and hundreds of thousands of Spaniards did. Like him, they arrived on this Island hopeful to work, prosper, and help their relatives in the distant homeland. We are not talking about offering handouts, but drawing mutually beneficial strategies. If only Spanish policy makers in Cuba today were so determined, creative and authentic as those immigrants, who long ago left their beaches to make landfall on ours!

Translated by Norma Whiting

November 30 2012

The picture illustrating this post, which I downloaded from an official site, relates to one of many that exist on the intervention of Cuban doctors in Haiti after the earthquake that struck that country in 2010, and also about the cholera epidemic. Interestingly, on this December 3rd, Latin American Medicine Day, I failed to find any photograph of our doctors caring for victims of cholera in Cuba.

Of course, some might say that you cannot photograph what does not exist. Judging by the official press, and in the absence of convincing medical reports, it appears that what is circulating in Cuba -especially in the eastern region of the Island- is not cholera, but an outbreak of acute diarrhea. Another euphemistic phrase that a few months ago defined cholera in the official media was intestinal infection from water contamination, which in turn was also reported as being under control and eliminated.

Today we woke up with a phony media celebration. The TV morning news was pleased with the doctors’ day, and once again listed the countless achievements and sacrifices of health professionals, while Cubans on the Island continue to be exposed to the dangers of cholera and dengue fever, two epidemics that have already claimed many lives and remain hidden, concealed under the government triumphalist speeches and the accomplice silence of health authorities.

There is nothing to be celebrated this December 3rd. In actuality, we should be mourning the lack of freedom that keeps Calixto Ramón locked up in a government prison. He is the freelance journalist who first made mention of the presence of cholera in the province of Granma and other regions of Cuba, who has been on a hunger strike for 22 days, so far. We should be mourning the loss of human lives due to the criminal lack of responsibility of the government and healthcare officials. We should be mourning the helplessness of the people against the rampant lack of hygiene and the death of medical ethics.

What good is so much professional talent, so many hours sacrificed, working in appalling conditions, or the internationalists’ absence from country and family, if our doctors are unable to comply with the ethical obligation to disclose the risk faced by the population? When did the sacred duty of those who once swore to protect us become subordinate to the commitment of political ideology?

At present, only a few doctors dare to overcome their fear and compromise their personal and professional interests to alert patients about epidemics silenced by government policies. Most remain silent.

This December 3rd reminds us that there are very few doctors with dignity in this country, once such an example of medical care, that for so long had such a great primary care health system. So far, the silent docility of those who one day took the Hippocratic Oath constitutes a desecration to the memory of the illustrious Cuban doctor, Carlos Juan Finlay, born on this day in long ago 1833.

Translated by Norma Whiting

December 3 2012

At first glance, it would seem that nothing changes in Cuba. The system seems to gently continue down its inexorable march toward a crash that, nevertheless, doesn’t seem to ever arrive, just like the future promised by the defunct revolution. People continue to do everything related to the three national occupations of the highest priority: subsistence, illegal activities and emigration, mired in a riverbed of static appearance in which each side is trying to achieve its own goals, as if they were independent of each other… As if they actually were.

During the past four years the Cuban government has established the methodology of making up time by wasting it. Perhaps this has been the only political contribution of the General-President: a formula that is based on the accumulation of experiments emanating from a group of reforms and counter-reforms designed to create the expectation of economic changes without essentially changing anything, while time passes and circumstances continue to deteriorate.

The closest thing to a government program in recent decades was endorsed in a few guidelines few had faith in and that no one seems to remember (including General R. Castro himself), whose “implementation” has turned into some incomplete and inadequate aberrations, such as the distribution of leasehold land to agricultural producers, the granting of licenses to the self-employed, the approval of sales or the donation of private homes and cars, and the expansion of the use of cellular phones, among other stunts. The most recent and spectacular official scripted act has been, without a doubt, the so-called “migration reform”, a kind of myth that has taken hold over large sectors of the Cuban population, eager to emigrate, a trick whereby the government passed the ball to the opposing field: starting January, 2013, ordinary Cubans who behave will be able to travel without requiring the humiliating exit permit. Instead, they will just have to apply for an extremely expensive passport. After that, it will all depend on the overseas destination conditionally extending a visa. Skill and ineptness combined into yet another perverse hand at a balancing act without giving up control.

The giddiness that such a wealth of “change” should generate in a country whose characteristic permanent hallmark has been its resistance to change had barely a brief effect. While some journalists and foreign visitors think they see a sign of progress for Cubans in the official measures and the numerous street kiosks and carts, or an opening leading to the Island’s democratization, the fact is that there have been no real changes resulting in the improvement of life, the increase of the people’s capacity for consumption, or in palpable economic growth, not to mention the rights issue. The brief bubble of hope of early kiosk entrepreneurs has faded in the face of reality: prosperity is a crime in Cuba.

This is reflected, for example, in the fact that agricultural production is still insufficient because of the many obstacles imposed on the peasants (including defaults on contracts by government entities, or the continuing delays in the same, bureaucratic obstacles, lack of guarantees to growers, the shortage of materials, etc..), while the proliferation of self-employed sellers engaged in the marketing of these products, far from bringing about a decline in prices of agricultural products — as would occur in a in a healthy and normal market — has caused a disproportionate rise in prices, shrinking the people’s purchasing power, especially of those in the lower income brackets. The formula is quite simple: about the same amount of goods and consumers, plus an increase in the number of sellers, results in an out-of-control rise in prices in a country where the State is unable to even meet the most minimum requirements of the more fragile and dependent sector of the population, while wages and pensions are purely symbolic.

The issue of house sales is one of the more sensitive, due to the critical state of the housing market, as hundreds of thousands of families do not own their own homes. While it’s true that now those who own property may sell their homes, the difficulty consists in that few Cubans who do not have a roof over their heads have the means to acquire even the most modest apartment, though, compared with home prices in other countries, Cubans may, for the most part, be considered “moderate”.

A similar picture is presented in the rest of the “liberated” activities in virtue of the so-called government reforms. In fact, each “liberalization” brings with it the implicit increase in the cost of living and extends the schism between the nouveau riche and the dispossessed, which is proof that the problem of Cuba lies in the very core of the system. Nothing will change as long as they don’t change the principles underpinning the regime. Consequently, the government won’t be the one that will promote changes that the country needs, because changing what needs to be changed would mean the downfall of the regime.

Though this is a simple enough principle to explain, both the failure of the so-called Cuban socialism, strengthening of state capitalism established by the same class and the same “communist” subjects, architects of the national aberration for over half century, as well as the continuing and deepening socio-economic crisis, there is a kind of delicate sustained equilibrium in certain key factors that have prevented a social explosion, among which the following are significant: the state of permanent poverty which glaringly limits the expectation of great masses, who prefer escapism or survival rather than taking the risk of confronting the regime or of –- at least — not making things easier for the government; the lack of civic culture of the population; the still lack of development of independent civil society groups and their limited –- though growing– social influence; the use of repressive forces to harass any manifestation of freedom, and the monopoly of the media and communication by the government.

Nevertheless, such equilibrium in an existence of supersaturated frustrations could tumble at any given moment. Sufficient for one component to exceed its limits for the landscape to be transformed, especially considering that the discontent is growing and the long contained frustrations are a depth charge in a society biased by fractures and inequalities. It is not only the steady growth of internal dissent and of other sectors that criticize the government. Migration, corruption, illegal activity and all expressions of escapism — including apathy and pretense — are all forms of dissent that now dominate almost the entire Cuban population, a fact that the government is aware of and seeks to control by applying the precision of the repressors: political persecution to civic activists by the minions of the so-called Section 21; economic persecution of producers and traders through corrupt inspectors of the Comptroller.

The growing frustration on the Island is the seven-headed Hydra lurking between dark crevices of a structure that stands on miraculous static, and whose balancing should, right now, be the General’s utmost concern.

Note to readers: As you may have noticed, I am making changes to this page little by little. I hope you forgive some slips due to my faulty connectivity (which slows down the process of updating the image in the new template), compounded by my lack of mastery of the technology. Anyway, I’ll keep updating the posts at least once a week … Don’t give up on me. Thanks.. Hugs.

Eva-Miriam

Translated by Norma Whiting

November 19 2012

Since the evening of Wednesday, November 7th, independent civil society activist Antonio Rodiles has been detained at the police station on Acosta Avenue, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre. It was reported that he was beaten in the face and other parts of the body, and has been without food or water demanding his freedom. One of the henchmen threatened him by raking his gun against Rodiles’s head… not surprising, given the rich Latin American dictatorial tradition of the impeccable military uniforms. Of thirty-some arrests that took place last week, only Rodiles is still locked up. It is said that the authorities are accusing him of contempt, resisting arrest, and, more recently, it is presumed that they seek to prosecute him for a more serious crime: assault. The intention is clear: we must imprison the leader of the idea that is causing the generalship to lose sleep.

Those of us who know Antonio Rodiles and are committed to his civic cause know that so much official cynicism is the effect of the Cuban government’s fears of the claims of peaceful opponents. The campaign Por Otra Cuba — For Another Cuba — which collects signatures of hundreds of Cubans demanding the ratification of the Covenants for Rights signed by the authorities February 2008, is a threat to the immunity of a totalitarianism that has dominated Cuba for more than five decades. The moral force of dissent and the experiences of hundreds of decent Cuban over the years, seem to filter down to the spirit of resistance that has hatched among broad sectors of society and is taking shape in the consolidation of citizen projects such as the Estado de SATS, the Cuban Juridical Association, the bloggers’ platform Voces Cubanas, the Razones Ciudadanas project, the group OMNI Zona Franca and many others of different tendencies but with a common goal: a democratic Cuba.

The oppressors’ fear is so great that the police station where Rodiles continues to be confined is protected by a strong operation to prevent the development of groups to demand the prisoner’s release. They know that he is not alone; dozens of his traveling companions are waiting for him and keep a constant demand for his release. It should also be noted that it is not necessary that we plant ourselves before a den of thugs to continue our peaceful struggle. The Demand is being signed, reluctantly, by other Cubans who are becoming more aware. The people’s yearning for freedom cannot be contained, that is why repression is achieving the opposite effect when it attempts to quell the rebellion by means of terror.

We should strongly oppose the conspiracy. Freedom for Antonio Rodiles. The Covenants of Rights must be ratified.

Translated by Norma Whiting

November 12 2012

The results of the ballots –the so-called “elections”- in Cuba this past October 21st were reported in the official media as a demonstration of the people’s loyalty to the Revolution, which is to say, an example of allegiance to the government. Nothing new in that discourse. Every two and a half years, there is a repetition of the choreography in which government and “voters” play their role in the comedy, pretending to do their part: the former, holding elections, the latter, making choices.

Although this time the process featured more apathy than usual on the part of the voters, and the authorities were less irksome with propaganda, and even stopped the usual practice of niggling voters by sending Pioneers to insistently knock on doors of the most unlikely to go out and cast their votes, attendance figures again placed above 90%, as befits any self-respecting totalitarian regime. However, even if we gave credence to the official data, the number of dissenters was clearly endorsed at 1,161,431 Cubans of voting age who did not go to the polls, invalidated their ballots, or left them blank, three sufficiently clear ways to at least protest the lack of confidence in the system by a significant number of the population.

At any rate, the fear of retaliation and the zombie effect continue to be the norm in the population. A few days after the elections, I decided to make inquiries among voters in some neighborhoods of three of the more densely populated municipalities in the capital: Cerro, Diez de Octubre, and Centro Habana. Knowing how impossible it would be to organize a formal and complete survey, I thought it more expeditious to assume the position of a fellow citizen innocently seeking information needed for a personal matter, and to improvise, according to the situation. My objective was to confirm what we all know, including voters who vote in an effective manner, that is, those individuals whose ballots are valid upon scrutiny, because they vote for only one of the candidates for delegate districts, they do so automatically. Even so, most of those who consider themselves party to the system ignore even the most basic information of their “elected”.

Thus, I showed up randomly in 46 different blocks of said municipalities, sometimes knocking on doors where an always rickety sign declared it to be the headquarters for the CDR; others, I would turn to any civilian strolling around the area or simply taking in the sights on his doorstep. In total, my questions were very basic, and, as I said before, I modified them whenever appropriate:

1. Do you know who the district delegate is, his name, address, how I can get in touch with him and his schedule to meet with his constituents?
2. Did you vote for the elected delegate?
3. How do you get in touch with the delegate?

Only one housewife could give me a half-answer for the first question, because the delegate lived in her building, though she didn’t know where or when he held office hours. The rest, people would tell me they did vote –except in one case, when an individual answered, with some suspicion, that he was away on that day, and he wasn’t very communicative- though nobody could tell me with any certainty the name of their delegate, let alone his address or how to get in touch with him. Only three individuals told me that the candidate they voted for had been elected, but couldn’t quite remember his information (last names, address, etc.) “I think his name was Juan Luis or something like that”, “I think he lives in the green building around the corner” were some of the most accurate information I found. Other descriptions were even ambiguous: “He is military, bald-headed”, “Yes, of course, he’s a mulatto who hobbles a bit when he walks, but I don’t remember his name or where he lives.” As can be seen, people have a high political sense and a close bond with their representatives, as proclaimed in the official media.

As far as my many relatives and friends, close or not-so-close, the pattern was of similar behavior, though, of course, no one was reluctant to answer. Only one person admits voting for a delegate (a valid ballot), though he has no idea of his name or who the guy is. The rest voided their ballot with “D” or crossed it out. A smaller group and I did not go to the polls.

Certainly, my little “survey” is not worth any official purpose, but I invite any Cuban to verify for himself the truth in what I say. One does not have to be very sharp in his questionnaire. Any question about what led an individual to vote for one or another of the candidates, or about the nature of his expectations will immediately raise suspicions on the part of the surveyed and will only produce evasive answers. We have had over 5 decades of fear, and a lot of people still seem to sense a guardian dog of the regime behind any other Cuban. But they will be able to see without doubt that the official discourse stands on a scaffold so fragile that it would not withstand even the simplest poll of any agency qualified for such purposes.

Of course, a makeshift Cuban pollster would also run the risk of approaching the wrong person. He could stumble onto the most zealous “combatant” on the block, the one who sees “the enemy” behind the most innocuous question, and then the person conducting the survey might spend a night in a dungeon and get out after signing a “memorandum of warning “as punishment. I must confess that I’ve been lucky, or maybe the snitches and the Talibans are waning. I don’t know. That would be another kind of survey, that, I have to admit, I still don’t dare to perform.

Translated by Norma Whiting

November 5 2012

These last few days a deep feeling of guilt keeps gnawing at me. Caesar, my oldest grandson, told me, in a strong tone of accusation, that I had lied to him. He said, and I quote, “Grandma, you lied to me, school is not at all as you said it would be”. The worst part of it is that he is right: I unwittingly shortchanged him when I set out to prepare him for his initiation into the world of school. Let me share this with you.

Cesar is 5, and he started preschool this year in a Sevillano Development school, municipality of Diez de Octubre in Havana. Members of the family around him had begun to prepare him during the summer months for this new phase of his life where whole days of play and cartoons at home in the company of his mother would soon become a thing of his past, as he would start to spend long hours sitting in a classroom, subjected to the discipline that learning and the socialization process would entail, surrounded by classmates of very diverse personalities. We had also all contributed to his complete school wardrobe and materials.

The school would be -we told him- a wonderful learning experience and he would learn new games, make new friends, the teacher would instruct him in very interesting things, and he would learn new songs which he would sing along with the other children. He would make clay figures and build houses, ships and rockets with the construction games in class. We wanted, with the best of intentions, for our kid to sail smoothly and devoid of trauma through this necessary rite of passage that is crucial in a life of a child. I, especially, have great influence on him and tell him many stories he always listens to, spellbound, of my own happy childhood and that of his father. I described the school in a world of color still alive in my imagination, immune to the destruction and sham of the system.

I didn’t lie to my grandson when I spoke to him about the school universe I discovered when I was four years old in September, 1963. Back then, my father worked at the sulfo-metals plant in Santa Lucia, Pinar del Rio, where I attended the first of my 11 elementary schools throughout most of Cuba. My preschool teacher, Nela, is truly an unforgettable character to this date. In that small town’s classroom there was a real piano played by the same teacher to accompany the many songs I still remember in all their details. There were balls, toys, puppets, modeling clay and coloring pencils. We learned with little effort, singing and playing, under the guidance of that sweet kind lady whom we all loved and respected.

I didn’t lie to Cesar when I told him about the school his father, my oldest son, attended. I was more excited than he was when he started school in September of 1984. We lived in Old Havana, my home town, and though his preschool classroom also had an old upright piano, the teacher was not able to play it (by then teachers did not know how to play) and there were not as many toys as in my classroom 20 years before, but at least there was the traditional modeling clay, construction games, and children learned through song. In addition, Hildita was a loving teacher whose small frame was full of tenderness and patience, and whose warmth and imagination replaced, to some extent, some of the material shortages at the school. I know my son remembers Hildita with the same appreciation and affection as I remember Nela.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the night before the start of school Cesar was not able to get to sleep at his regular time. He would recheck his backpack to see that nothing was missing, he would put on and take off his uniform until his mother had to put it away so it would not get dirty, and he would keep asking how long before morning would arrive. At 6:30 AM he was already up, nervous and excited, and earlier than 8 o’clock he was already at the school yard with many of other preschoolers who were as happy and proud as he was.

That was two months ago, and Cesar’s teacher has been in the classroom for a total of one week. They say that she “has personal problems”, “a diabetic sister in Camaguey”, or “an elderly mother”. This may all be true, but it does not excuse the school administrators for not having sought a substitute teacher. Instead, a teaching assistant tries to keep up appearances, putting the kids through one task and then another. It’s the only way to report officially that the school curriculum is being met, and that all children are getting an education in Cuba.

In the meantime, however, Cesar’s preschool is far from the expectations I planted. No games and songs, no modeling clay or toys. No one can say with certainty when the teacher will return, or how long she will be in class before once again she has personal problems that are more important than her job. Teachers are an endangered species in a country that has seen the destruction of a long educational tradition dating back to colonial times. The ethics of a profession, beautiful by its very nature, has been lost.

So my grandson Caesar no longer wants to go to school, and holds against me what he considers my lies. I explained to him that everything I told him before was true, so he has proposed a solution: “look, grandma, you’d better take me to your school and have your teacher teach me”. I thought about Nela, who by now is probably dead, since she was already no youngster in 1963. Her memory may have made clear the idea that surfaced: “I’d better teach you right here, at home”. It’s not as crazy as it sounds, because my first profession was teaching. So for a time now Cesar wastes his time at school Monday through Fridays, and on weekends I teach him the alphabet, numbers, we review the colors, draw, play with modeling clay, cut out geometric shapes and recite and sing my old preschool songs. We also have storytelling sessions so he will soon become interested in learning to read, and we put aside an afternoon to take relaxing walks. This way, I make sure that he’s learning, and at the same time, I will try to overcome my terrible feelings of guilt.

Note: All names and situations referred to in the text are strictly real.

Translated by Norma Whiting

November 2 2012

Last Friday evening, October 19th, a new concert in support for Demanda Ciudadana por Otra Cuba (Citizen Demand for Another Cuba) was held in the usual venue for the Estado de SATS Project in Havana. This time, the young rappers of Ruta 11 and Estudiantes sin Semillas (Seedless Students) were in charge of the performance, which took place in that usual lively and peaceful place.

In addition to the enthusiasm and sincerity of these young amateurs and audience and their overall responsiveness, there were two distinctive notes: 1) The all too usual arrests of several people who had planned on attending, intercepted on the street, some of them first taken to a criminal investigation center in the municipality of Playa, and later confined to the dungeons of the stations at Santiago de Las Vegas (Boyeros Municipality) and Infanta and Manglar (Cerro) overnight; and 2) The panic that was unleashed by the mobilization of operative’s vehicles in the streets near the venue of the concert, where musicians and audience loudly chanted the chorus of the show’s final song: “Freedom , freedom, freedom! … “. Obviously, the wolf pack [the authorities] was afraid we would pour into the streets with such a dangerous clamor, so they rushed to cover the exits to block us. There are no words as subversive to the servile slave’s mind as that of FREEDOM.

Each concert, as well as the growing consensus the Demanda Ciudadana wins over across different social sectors, causes confusion among repression forces, and that evidently frightens the dictatorship. Is the system so fragile that it gets afraid in the face of what an esteemed Cuban intellectual termed “the vast minority”? Do the aging leaders feel so weak that they send out their bigwigs to try to boycott the budding spirit of freedom? It’s all in vain. That other Cuba is already underway.

October 22 2012

Last Tuesday, September 4th, the Cuban media aired a video in which Rodrigo Londoño (alias Timochenko), Commander of the General Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared the armed group’s interest in participating in a peace and reconciliation dialogue, with the participation of all Colombians.

Mauricio Jaramillo, FARC commander, confirmed at a press conference held at Havana’s Palacio de Convenciones that the empirical meetings mediated by the Cuban government since February 23, 2012 at the Cuban capital had come to a close, and that a negotiation table with the government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos had begun.

Needless to say, the peace process in Colombia must be viewed very positively, since it could bring to a close the long decades of armed conflict in that country, at a high human and economic cost, with all the implications this has for the region.

Nevertheless, the time seems propitious for a pause, primarily addressed to Cubans on the island, who today get their  information as a fait accompli, with most of them having no clue of the nature of the process, the conflict, its evolution and the reasons their government, incapable of having a dialogue with its own people or of solving the acute internal problems, and lacking any political will to drive the necessary changes, turns out to be the mediator and guarantor of a dialogue between the Colombian narco-guerrillas and the president of that country.

Many Cubans are unaware that an armed FARC emerged decades ago inspired by the ideas of a Castro-style chimeric Latin-American Marxist revolution, that this army was trained, supported and financed by the Cuban government, and that, after the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, it became focused on terrorism, a nest of kidnappers and extortionists, and an armed institution of Colombian drug trafficking,  spreading violence and insecurity in Colombia and the region, the remains of a failed strategy. From Marxists to leaders of the Colombian cartel.  From trafficking in communist ideology to trafficking in cocaine. Nothing short of that.

Those Cubans who wonder about the basis of the government mediation in the Colombian conflict probably ignore the close historical ties that link it with the narco-guerrillas, and that the so-called Colombian guerrilla is the last remaining shred of the exportation of the Cuban revolution in this hemisphere, launched by Fidel Castro in his golden years.

That is to say, Cuban mediation in the Colombia-FARC issue, far from being a novelty, is long-standing: the Cuban government is not mediator for prestige, but for its complicity and responsibility in the conflict. And though even now the function of the Cuban authorities in this case is quite different, and now the olive-green dome dresses as the dove of peace, we must not forget that it was the supporter of the violence in Colombia and many other Latin American nations in the past.

Throughout these years, Cuba has also been a safe haven for many narco-guerrillas who have been forced to leave their country before the onslaught of the Colombian constitutional army under President Álvaro Uribe, who had the crucial support of the U.S. government, and whose actions dealt crushing blows to the FARC, narrowing its parameters. Each whack delivered to FARC has also meant an effective blow against the influence of the Cuban revolution in Latin America.

It becomes clear that the Cuban government had sufficient means of communication with the FARC leaders to now act as a negotiator of the conflicting parties. Naturally, in the official media in charge of disinformation in Cuba, the government -historical ally of the narco-guerrillas -is mediator, while the U.S. government –collaborator of the constitutional government of Colombia- is interventionist. In Cuba, that same media has always presented the FARC, and not the governments of Colombia, as the legitimate representative of the aspirations to social justice of the Colombian people

Yesterday, instigators; today, peacemakers. The Cuban dictatorship’s imitative capacity seems endless. Many interests must hide behind this move by the cunning and long-lived revolutionary caste, but there’s no question that, when the last page of the history of the FARC is turned, another piece of the black history of the Castro revolution will be entombed, the one that encouraged violence and death in order to perpetuate the megalomania of a failed messiah, who today has definitely disappeared from the scene.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Originally appeared in Diario de Cuba, 10 September 2012

Someone said that necessity is the mother of invention, a phrase that could explain the proverbial fame of Cuban “inventors”, always having excess necessities. However, to establish itself as a source of well-being and progress, the invention process requires certain material resources and civil freedoms beyond imagination, intelligence or the desire to do something, otherwise it becomes a backwards move.

Thus, the noted Cuban inventiveness — at least for the last half-century – has manifested itself primarily in the philosophy of misery, where each invention is not based on creating something truly new and revolutionary (and here the term refers to the technical side) but on the repairing or patching up of old equipment previously invented or — as we usually say — in the discovery of warm water, which consists in changing what was a novelty in the XIX century and applying it as a good thing in our current everyday indigence. Examples abound, but the newspaper Granma (Wednesday, September 12, 2012, page 3) (Wednesday September 12, 2012, p. 3) recently presented to us one of the countless cases which, in addition, are offered as paradigms of efficiency in the official press.

“Biogas in a bag obtained in Pinar del Río”, is the headline of a half-page long article which informs us, in a tone full of optimism, that they have already been successful at packaging biogas in plastic bags in Pinar del Rio” something new, even if it’s just an “isolated” experience, but one that “could transcend into a greatly useful innovation.”

It is known that biogas is highly flammable, so the editor is quick to reassure us: this is about –- the architect of the initiative stated — a safe process, because the biogas can be collected in the same plastic bags used at The Conchita Cannery for storing tomato pulp, which are “hermetically sealed, very resilient and able to withstand high temperatures.” He adds: “there is no need to compress the gas when using them, therefore, the process becomes much easier and efficient.” The process is that easy, since each device (bag) takes about 30 minutes to fill and “enough biogas is provided for food preparation for two days for a family of three.”

Though the use of biogas is not a recent discovery or anything of the sort, and we are familiar with numerous non-industrial applications in various regions of the globe, the report takes great pleasure in reporting the benefits of this fuel. Among them, the reporter reminds us that it is a renewable energy source, benefitting the environment by taking advantage of a gas that otherwise would end up in the atmosphere, increasing CO2 pollution, and helping families economize by reducing electricity consumption. The idea is to replace the consumption of electricity used in cooking food, because the latter is usually used “in most Cuban homes” thanks to that so-called energy revolution (remember?) promoted a few years ago by the unmentionable (remember him too?).

But, fundamentally, the article promotes the innovation of packaging biogas in plastic bags, a process so simple that it will allow the expansion the operations by excluding ducts to bring biogas from places where it’s collected to the kitchens of the homes, and, at the same time, this system avoids possible sanitary complications of such facilities.

To wrap it up, a small box appears that illustrates the indisputable benefits of the invention, generated by the creativity of an innovative Cuban to solve a local problem and that the official press presents as a palliative to the energy crisis that hundreds of thousands of Cuban homes are enduring, not to mention what awaits us. The Box reads:

It is estimated that one cubic meter of unburned biogas released into the atmosphere equals one ton of CO2.

In contrast, its usage will allow cooking three meals for five people, or generate the energy equivalent to 0.5 liters of diesel, 0.6 liters of kerosene, or 1.6 KW-hour of electricity. In order to accomplish this, the researched bibliography indicated that it’s just processing of one day’s worth of the excretions of three cows, four horses, nine pigs, ten sheep or one hundred thirty chickens.

Here, my friends, lays the crux of the equation… or, rather, the essence of Cuban innovation. It turns out that the invention is really economical, it only requires that the would-be consumer of biogas somehow find a way to get some plastic bags at his neighborhood cannery, which may not be so difficult if he knows some potential supplier who works there, if the manager is a friend of his –- in which case he could make use of State resources — or if he would accept selling them at a reasonable price, if in Cuba any price can qualify as such. That minor inconvenience solved, all he would have left is the tiny problem of availing himself of three cows, four horses, nine pigs, ten sheep or one hundred thirty chickens whose fecal matter would guarantee the cooking of three family meals, as long as the family consists of only five members.

In other words, poop would be the most expeditious route to food on the table. All that’s left is to pray, so no uninvited guest shows up who may alter the scrupulous planning of the family biogas bag. Though, on second thought, there is always the recourse of making a quick collection of raw material for this fuel with the voluntary contribution of family members and neighbors, taking into consideration the equally proverbial generosity of Cubans. I have only one concern, and that is the appearance of another innovator who will discover a way to make this resource more productive and effective with the use of some laxative…Good riddance!!

Translated by Norma Whiting

September 14 2012

Recently, the official media made public the Cuban government’s mediation in the dialogue process between the Colombian narco-trafficking guerrillas known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government of that nation.

It would really be desirable that, at last, a dialogue process restored peace in Colombia after decades of guerrilla violence and organized drug trafficking from a guerrilla army that transitioned from Marxism to the control of the cocaine cartel. I suppose that some day a book will have to be written about the strange mutations of Marxism in the postmodern era.

At any rate, it is not coincidental that the Cuban government, unable to talk with Cuban civil society, has undergone a year of secret meetings as an intermediary of the FARC, an armed force it trained, supported, and supplied with weapons over the years, since that time when F. Castro was a champion of American freedom and sought to export his communist revolution throughout the region. The Cuban government’s share of the responsibility in the decades of violence that Colombia has endured brands it a creditor of that nation’s peace.

This mediation has most likely not been very spontaneous. For sure, it is not the way out once conceived by the guerrilla sponsors, but it is also certain that the Cuban leadership will have redirected its interests in this matter … as in all cases. There is some secret official agenda, no doubt about that.

It is clear that the weakening of FARC, thanks to actions initiated and developed under President Alvaro Uribe, with the support of the U.S. government, has forced it to appeal to talks with the government of Juan Manuel Santos, even when actions against the narco-guerrillas have remained strong, and devastating blows have been scored in sympathy with the President’s clear statement that “There will be no ceasefire of any kind, and we won’t have anything until we arrive at a final agreement, let’s make that very clear…”

Thus, although the Cuban media aired a video showing the FARC Central Control Commander boasting: “we said we were going to win and we will win”, the truth is that they are being defeated by the Colombian regular army and police. In the face of this, it is possible that, in the short or medium term, the expansion of the last Castro bastion in this hemisphere will disappear, and with it, another one of the messianic hallucinations of F. Castro will have ended and be deemed a failure. In a few years, the last shreds of the communist revolution that the Orate of Birán dreamed up will be gone, and Colombia will have overcome the last traces of so much violence.

It won’t be so in Cuba, where Cubans who aspire to democratic changes lack the political will of the government to negotiate and establish an end to the national crisis. As for the rest, it is clear that the olive green command is not interested in talking with pacifists but with narco-traffickers. Things of my country.

Translated by Norma Whiting

September 7 2012

This week, the official press published a lengthy press release that stated that the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) considered what they referred to as “the outbreak of intestinal infection caused by water pollution” had ended. It lasted for two months in eastern Cuba, leaving three dead and fewer than 500 patients, according to official data. Judging by the media, the cholera came and left the island without further damage. Indeed, it seems that — gone or not — what could have been an epidemic of devastating dimensions in a country where the lack of hygiene is widespread has been relatively controlled.

However, what the MINSAP’s note does not include is the intensification of a real epidemic that is gaining ground: dengue fever. The press has not made any statement about the proportions of the current dengue epidemic hitting most of the country. In the capital, an anti-vector campaign remains in place, managed directly by the military, including mobilization of medical personnel and paramedics who work seven days a week with extended hours.

Even with all these measures, there has been no progress in controlling the dengue. One element that undermines the population’s perception of the risk is precisely the lack of information. At the same time, the rainy season this year has been severe, even before the most recent rainfall throughout the Island brought on by Tropical Storm Isaac, which added to the poor state of water networks, the proliferation of vacant lots, the accumulation of trash, and the schools, closed for summer vacation, and not properly inspected by those in charge, has all led to the increased outbreaks of the mosquito that transmits the disease.

An example: just in the area around to the Van Troi polyclinic (at the corner of Carlos III and Hospital, Centro Habana), four to five new cases of dengue fever are reported every day. There are three quarantine hospitals in the capital dedicated to the admission of the more delicate cases, while those who get the classical, less severe case of dengue fever, are treated at home by doctors in their health area, a system that reduces hospital load, but increases the risk of infection at the community level.

Meanwhile, the dengue appears to be another state secret. The authorities are more interested in maintaining the flow of foreign tourists to the Island than in safeguarding the health of the population. Maybe one day this situation will reverse itself, but, meanwhile, ordinary Cubans are footing the bill.

Translator: Norma Whiting

August 31 2012

Lately, the Cuban dictatorship has stepped up the persecution and harassment of internal dissidents and of activists of peaceful projects who lay claim to rights that belong to all of us.

Arrests, searches and mobs that are egged on against those Cubans devoted to civil resistance have become daily events throughout the Island. As an additional way to harass and extinguish the claims, members of the police force have been confiscating digital media belonging to the activists (computers, memory drives, cell phones, printers, etc.) in a desperate attempt to stop the dissemination of the Human Right Covenants and the collection of signatures for Citizen Demand for Another Cuba.

At this dangerous time, the voices raised in our support are the solidarity that demonstrates the good will of many Cubans in and out of Cuba, in an effort to build a better Cuba for everyone. I want to personally give thanks for the feeling of unity that comes from afar through Cubans whom we feel very close to, the promoters of the Appeal for a Better and Possible Cuba, a document which I have also signed. I append a copy of its context below which was sent to me and which encourages me to continue in this struggle.

In the Defense of the Promoters of Citizen Demands

In keeping with the feelings of a large number of signatories of the Appeal for a Better and Possible Cuba — many of whom had previously signed the other Citizen Demand for Another Cuba, calling for ratification of international human rights covenants — denounce the brutal aggression against the rights that allow Cuban citizens to express their views and make political demands. Since last Thursday, August 16th, the Cuban government has launched its repressive force against the promoters of the Citizen Demand, attacking DiosbelSuárez, Idalberto Acuña and Santiago Cardoso with pepper spray and beatings in the Havana county of Marianao. The three were handing out copies of the document, and were later arrested. Other violent and repressive acts are currently being reported.

We call on all decent people of Cuban or of any other nationality to mobilize immediately in order to denounce, in every possible forum, these repressive actions, and to also protect these brave peace activists.

Marlene Azor
Juan Antonio Blanco
Manuel Castro
Armando Chaguaceda
Haroldo Dilla
Ariel Hidalgo
Oscar Peña

Promoters of The Appeal for a Better and Possible Cuba.

Translated by Norma Whiting

August 24 2012