14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 25 November 2021 — Several Cuban government organizations called this Thursday for a “Walk for Fidel” to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Castro’s death. The initiative, sponsored by Proyecto Nuestra América, has as its starting point, at 4:30 pm, at Quijote Park and plans to reach the Malecón in Havana.
Although the announcement insists that it is an action that has been repeated “every year” since 2016, the walk has awakened not a few misgivings because it is very similar to what Yunior García Aguilera intended to do on November 14, which State Security prevented.
It is not similar just because of the route, but because the organizations ask the protesters to wear “white shirts and a flower,” which is what the playwright wanted to do. Today he is in in Madrid, where he arrived unexpectedly on Wednesday the 17th.
During the activity, to which has been joined by the Asociación Hermanos Saíz and the Museo Orgánico de Romerillo, the participants will carry a “artisan Granma” boat, made in collaboration with the plastic artist Alexis Leiva Machado Kcho which they will throw into the sea.
In the face of the criticism that Proyecto Nuestra América received for the similarity with García Aguilera’s plan, the organization edited the invitation post by posting a link to a video that they claim is from the first march and another with photographs of others taken in other years.
Another commemorative action this Thursday was the placement, in some neighborhoods of Havana, of loudspeakers at full volume with the voice of the deceased giving speeches, accompanied by songs by Silvio Rodríguez and the entire musical repertoire that for years has accompanied the official acts of the regime.
Similarly, in several schools in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, teachers called on students to write the hashtage #YoSoyFidel with chalk on the ground, and to paint, draw or write texts “in homage to Fidel.”
The authorities waited for this November 25 for the inauguration of the Fidel Castro Ruz Center, destined “for the study and dissemination of the thought and work” of the former president, which is located at Paseo y 13th, in Havana’s Vedado district. They specify that “access will be by invitation” and will take place in the Turquino amphitheater, located in the same building, with an event in which the La Colmenita Children’s Theater Company will participate with a play “created especially for this occasion.”
Outside of these initiatives and the pages of the official press, where this November 25, as in the last five years, the face of Fidel Castro multiplies on the covers, Cuba’s streets show less enthusiasm each year to commemorate the death of the architect of the Cuban Revolution.
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