Fernando Damaso, 6 December 2017 — We have always considered Carlos Manuel de Céspedes as the Father of the Nation and José Martí as the Apostle. Recently a Mother of the Nation has been imposed on us. It would not be unreasonable to assume that soon they will also impose a female Apostle. Along that absurd path, grandparents and grandmothers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters and even male and female cousins “of the Nation” could also appear.
Recently that indigestible Cuban Television program ’The Roundtable’ decided to address the subject, with the theme: “The Granma … is the Nation.” [Ed. note: This “Granma” is not a grandmother but rather the name of the yacht that the Castro brothers and their compatriots sailed from Mexico to Cuba, to launch the guerrilla actions that ultimately triumphed as the Revolution. The previous owner of the yacht had named it after his grandmother, and so it remained, ultimately giving its name to a Cuban province and the Communist Party’s daily paper.] Thus, if we follow this idea, even a soccer ball could be the nation, regardless of being kicked by everyone. The same could be said about a baseball.
When the sacred symbols are manipulated so festively and disrespectfully, we must seriously concern ourselves as citizens. It is something that should not be allowed or accepted, no matter who it comes from.