Translating Cuba

“If I loved you before, it was for your hair,
now that you’re bald, I no longer love you.”

Children’s song

She woke up at six to meticulously untangle her hair with a broken toothbrush with the toughest bristles. Her hair reached almost to her waist, but now she was giving it a final straightening, a goodbye touch. Before the end of the year she turned her wavy mane into money to celebrate Christmas. “We buy hair,” could be read on the door of the narrow hallway where she went in, without dwelling on it. Two hairdressers assessed her mane based on the number of inches it exhibited, how copious it was, and especially on how well cared for. She arrived early with a long bun and left after noon with barely a bit of fuzz behind her ears. In exchange, she obtained an interesting sum in convertible pesos with which she bought pork, cider and tomatoes, and helped her mother repair her dentures. “It will grow,” she consoled her boyfriend when he saw her for the first time after the scalping. “I cut it because there was a plague of lice”… she fibbed.

The market for hair is gaining strength in a nation that oscillates between the imperatives of coquetry and material difficulties. Late in the Havana night, a good part of the bold hairstyles seen on the streets are achieved thanks to extensions and additions. Buyers with more money look for tresses that haven’t been dyed and particularly those from young women. Some of these traders travel to small towns, knowing that they will find the goods there at cheaper prices from more desperate sellers. In the hands of the stylists, what are also called “mechas” are glued, strand by strand, to the head of a new host in a process that takes hours. Although synthetic locks are also used, those of natural origin are in great demand and fetch a higher price. They are imported from Florida, Ecuador, Mexico and are a recurring order to relatives who travel abroad.

Right now, the only economic capital many women in this country have stems from their scalps. If the going gets tough, there will always be someone interested in buying their mane, an exchange of scissors for money.

In December Evaristo Calero always felt better than in the remaining months of the year. From childhood it was so. As soon as December came in, with its northerlies, the Christmas spirit took hold of him and didn’t leave until early January. Starting from a year when, by decree, Christmas and its accompanying festivities were eliminated, Evaristo tried to ignore them, but as soon as December, appeared something inside of him transformed: it seems that the force of custom was stronger than of the decrees.

This year was no different. With the first day of the month, Evaristo looked more cheerful and, as some said, more youthful. He got up very early and missed a walk, trying to lengthen the time as much as possible and take in all the seconds of every minute. Women were more beautiful, the colors of the flowers stronger, their fragrances more pleasant. In the city, dirty, dilapidated and noisy throughout the year, certain tenderness emanated from the people and gave the impression that love had been reborn.

Although carols were not played on television and radio, nor were the streets decorated, nor were Christmas messages sent, and everything had been replaced by ridiculous posters and slogans that included only the perpetrators, within Evaristo bells sounded and Easter flowers grew. So he walked the streets and approached the windows of the former department stores, which looked as if they were embarrassed, wanting to show something festive, some authorized traditional ornaments  and ignoring others, in an absurd alchemy that meant nothing.

Evaristo had never understood: either yes or no. He didn’t like half-measures. At night he liked to sit near the sea, the castle of La Punta, and from there to observe the extensive necklace of lights — some off — extending along the Malecón, listening to the rhythmic crashing of the waves against the reefs.

Absorbed in it, he paid no attention to the sleigh, pulled by four reindeer, breaking the water as it was coming and ringing bells. When he came to notice it, he found it within him and it glided swiftly by in a starry sky, having at his feet the dimly lit city. He left wrapped in a cloud and disappeared. They say those who knew and loved him, that he returns each December smiling over the sad and dark city.

December 25 2011

Several months ago, in one of my online classes at the University of Texas El Paso, I had to choose a leader whom I greatly admired. At that time I chose Václav Havel and my selection and drew criticism from one of the students in the class for not choosing a Cuban. I was far from imagining that one day I would make public my opinion, much less on account of his death.

Cuba, like many other countries, has famous leaders. I could mention Laura Pollan, then living, and other Cuban leaders who are still alive and whom I deeply admire; but I explained in the course to avoid creating misunderstandings and being unfair. Actually, I do not consider my opinion important, but just in case … I chose silence. Now that the Czech president went to another dimension, that of the Titans, I am going to say the real reason for my choice.

Whoever has read the book “The Power of the Powerless” will find a sincere man. Many called him naive. I’m no expert in the biography of Havel, but I know some of his speeches, lectures and books. I believe he deserves to be revered as one of the people who best understood the suffering of the Cuban people and in particular of the patriots, who are called “dissidents.”

The sacrificed Cuba, had in Mr. Havel a true counselor and guide. He always recommended not focusing only on overthrowing Castro. Either way, he would go, he would say. The important thing, he repeated, is to prepare for when he is no longer. The news of Havel’s death reached us Cubans with the departure of another kind of champion, those who delight in injustice and abuse, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Paradoxes of life? Maybe …

I am honored to have chosen Mr. Havel as one of my most admired leaders and add an aside. We had a picture of him, Gandhi and Martin Luther King stuck to the refrigerator of the house. The color faded so one day so I had to remove it. I will leave you with the words of another giant of the great leaders.

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent” Eleanor Roosevelt.

The phrase, printed on a small note, is well placed in my kitchen. Lest I forget.

Cuba has always been extremely proud to have the unconditional love of the Generalissimo, the Dominican Maximo Gomez, nevertheless there were times when we did not understand him. With Václav Havel something similar happens. It gives me the impression of not understanding very well. I hope one day we Cubans will return to him. Seeing is believing.

January 3 2012

Autocrats are clones of the same litter. They’re not separated by ideologies, what joins them is an unhealthy ambition for power. Each and every one of modern dictators consider themselves enlightened. Types essential on the national map. Founding Fathers. Irreplaceable. They could not be more narcissistic. Egos more than enough. The nation is their private estate.

They arise in periods of bad governance, economic crises, wars of decolonization and political instability. They usually have a foolproof formula under their arm to catapult the country forward. When in the embryonic state they are very popular. Humans need icons. Heroes. Heavy-handed leaders.

Then the despots come through the back door. In this 21st century, with Internet, social networking and digitization, and there are few left. You can count them on your fingers. In Equatorial Guinea, an unpresentable man named Teodoro Obiang has all the makings of a dictator.

The monarchies of the Middle East and Morocco are another variation of dictatorships. Natural dynasties. By blood, the throne belongs to a family. And there is nothing, or little, you can do about it. Already in the 18th century in Europe there were monarchies, but after the French Revolution republican forms arose and the kings and princes were mere decorative objects. Dedicated to works of charity or creating foundations. Certainly one of them, the son of King Juan Carlos, Iñaki Urdangarin, is embroiled in a corruption scandal.

There are people who consider themselves superior intellectually to lead the destiny of a nation. It may be a gene to be discovered.

The guy with ways of a dictator knows the league. He does not like to be out of power. Neither stands. They make up laws, such as Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega, for indefinite re-election. The reckless one of Barina went to the executive for votes. Those same votes would put him back in the house.

Fidel Castro and Kim Il Sung took over the throne by bullets. Castro overthrew the illegal and tyrannical government of Fulgencio Batista. Sung was boosted by Moscow. Military preparations in the USSR. A golden age for Stalin after World War II where the map began to change colors and the Red Army imposed Marxist socialism by force of their T-34 tanks.

It has always intrigued me whether these two Third World autocrats had among their purposes to remain in power. Perhaps they move, for a time, fair ideals to build a decent way of life for its citizens. But betting on the wrong horse.

The communism of Marx has been inefficient everywhere in the world where it has been established. Never mind that the country has wealth or not. Within a few years, the economy and the nation go adrift. It is, no doubt, an unnatural system. That goes against the human soul. A slapstick.

An autocrat never acknowledges he’s wrong. Right there is where their pathological cases are slated to be part of medical studies. Castro, for example, is never wrong. Others are wrong.

Kim Il Sung was the only God allowed in North Korea. He turned the nation into a cult. His ego was so overwhelmed that he invented a new philosophy, Juche.

Yes, because some dictators want to go down in history as thinkers and righteous men. Gaddafi, the jackal of Tripoli, between cocaine and sexual abuse of the young, gave birth to a pamphlet called The Green Book.

Fidel Castro wasn’t given to outline a new social philosophy. But he dipped his oar into all fields. He is the most knowledgeable about cattle, sugarcane, bananas, dams, cyclones … And baseball: the preparation of the Cuban team to play against the Baltimore Orioles in 1999 was designed by the commander. He was master of everything and the student of nothing.

Kim Il Sung idiot of the unhappy Koreans with a cult of personality more potent than a narcotic. Statues everywhere and him dressed in grey with the stamp of a leader on the lapel. After these autocrats a change doesn’t necessarily come.

In North Korea Kim Jong Il, the son of Sung. Another madman. North Korean media said, in two years he wrote 6 operas and read 180,000 books. He used to play 11 holes of golf on one drive. His writings were released daily by the state radio. It is said that such was his passion for film, he kept 20,000 films under lock and key, and later, maybe in his cups, he ordered the kidnap of a couple of directors of South Korea to make a personal film.

He liked to eat lobster with silver chopsticks while his people starved and fell like flies on the streets of Pyongyang. A rotten collection.

He ordered the kidnapping of Japanese citizens. Downed planes in flight. And to prove he was a tough guy when he came to the throne in 1993 he ordered a terrorist act in Rangoon that cost the lives of 17 South Koreans.

Not content with his mischief, he produced half a dozen nuclear bombs. He made North Korea a rogue state. After his death on December 17, he’d hand-picked its favorite son Kim Jong Un to continue the communist dynasty. The child knows little: 28 years, fat, and fan of the NBA.

The parallels between Castro and Kim are remarkable at the time of passing power to his family. In Cuba, now, General Raul Castro (another hobby of autocrats is to get many stars on the epaulet), rides to the rescue and attempts to repair the damage to the economy.

But Castro II, 80, is as old as his brother, 85. On the island, the average age of life for men is 76 years. Both are past it. The question is whether in these parts after the two die, their offspring and hand-picked relatives will touch the presidential chair.

We must wait. Meanwhile, Cuba was among the few countries that declared three days of national mourning for the death “of Comrade Kim Jong Il.” Autocrats are part of a club. They play in another league.

Video: 1986. Fidel Castro visits the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. At the foot of the stairs of the plane he is received by Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il’s father and the grandfather of Kim Jong Un.

January 5 2012

I dread the hospitals on my planet! At least those I’m entitled to go to. I told a doctor friend who works in a clinic in my neighborhood, a recent graduate who is still rotating between different health centers to acquire practice.

She not only told me I was right, but told me the great state of unhealthiness she found in most of the centers where she rotated. The doctors, she tells me, denounce these situations, but their complaints fall into the void. According to what else she said, the Gonzalez Coro Maternity Hospital, formerly the Sacred Heart Clinic, is in a deplorable state with regard to hygiene.

She adds that they often accumulate bloody gauze, and debris of all kinds used in healing, at the end of a dark corridor, overflowing, with no one taking them out and burning them, as is required.

That’s a great deal of bacteria, Staphylococcus, and all kinds of germs, which are filtered into the rooms of the sick, so close to this deposit, where hygiene is not optimal. Likewise, the holes for the electrical outlets are eaten away, leaving room for small cockroaches, already so typical of our hospitals. In the same bad condition are the door frames, detached in part from the masonry which they should seal.

The same is true in the clinic where she’s now rotating, they don’t collect the waste with sufficient regularity: disposable gloves, syringes and other items used with the patients, and far from the incinerators which have been established in order to avoid contamination, they throw them in the trash container right at the entrance of the emergency room.

I told her of my shock and dismay when I took my sister to the Angiology Institute, which is nothing more than an old pavilion of the once famous Covadonga clinic, which is what everyone keeps calling it, even though that is no longer its name.

There, while waiting for them to heal some leg ulcers on a patient, I watched with horror as a nurse applied the medicine with her right hand, while holding a piece of pizza in her left, which she ate with impunity in front of the patient. That is just one of the facilities, that like so many of its kind, were once the pride of our country. From this, you understand, was born my nosocomofobia.

November 26 2011

I’m not treading on thin ice if I argue that the legalization of self-employment — which never should have been outlawed — has been well received by most citizens and, for many, has become a significant form of subsistence for their families, despite the high taxes, the bureaucracy and the inspectors and other complications.

However, in the legalization, I want to call attention to a group of professionals who have been discriminated against because they have not been authorized to practice their professions on their one. I’m referring to doctors, dentists, professors, architects, engineers, lawyers and others. These, if they work for themselves, cannot exercise the professions for which they studied and gained work experience — but may work in other occupations such as parking attendants, taxi drivers, restaurant owners or workers, or repairers of eyeglasses, lighters or shoes, and so on, none of which they prepared for or have experience in. When a country can afford to ignore its professionals in this way, it is either because there is a surplus or because something isn’t working. I think its the latter.

The argument for such a prohibition is that if they are authorized to work in their professions, the State would be without a great number of them, due to the miserable salaries they receive and their poor working conditions. I don’t doubt it because it’s very easy to check, but the solution is not to continue banning something that might come to pass in excess.

I think different possible solutions can be analyzed. I’ll limit myself to two: the first, which could be difficult to apply in this time of economic crisis, would be to raise their salaries to make them competitive with what they would receive working for themselves, and to improve working conditions. The second, which could be a transition phase, would be to limit them to working part of the day for the State — with the associated wages — and part for themselves, at their own risk.

This would satisfy both interests: the State’s and the individual’s, with one as important as the other. It’s nothing new: in the years of the Republic it worked this way in different sectors, such as health, education and others.

One or the other of these possible solutions, or some other approach, should be tried sooner rather than later, the full legalization of work, and every citizen engaged in whatever suits him, for which he is prepared, when he desires, without absurd prohibitions, within the framework of free competition.

This would result in economic improvement, bettering the services and developing the nation. What’s more, we would not experience the bitter originality of having doctors driving cabs, architects making pizzas, or lawyers serving food. It’s true that no decent work is a disgrace, but please, each one in his place. Good is good but not too much.

January 3 2012

An ant, shivering and sobbing, asks his friend the elephant, “Have you read today’s Granma newspaper?”

“No,” he replies, “What does it say?”

“They are going to sacrifice, starting this month, all the large animals to be able to feel the people,” answers the ant.

“What does this have to do with you? The one who should be afraid is me.”

“Yes!” answers the ant, “but the thing is the paper is always wrong!”

“We must do away with the old dogmatic mentality, we can not keep making mistakes,” Raul said at the recently ended National Assembly of Popular Power.

Hence the concern of the ant.

But I wonder: To what old dogmatic mentality is Raul referring to, if for fifty-two years they all formed a part of the same government?

“The migration and travel restrictions will change gradually, little by little, we are thinking about it a lot,” he said later.

Now this case seems to be an allusion to the elephant.

On the other hand, Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Assembly, calling for a unanimous vote, ruled on the demand the release of The Cuban Five. And I go back to question:

Is this perhaps the only problem in my beloved planet? What about the rest of the eleven million who live in captivity?

January 3 2012

www.change.org/petitions/yoani-sanchez-no-brasil

Save us from ridicule before the world.

Sign here for freedom to travel for Yoani Sanchez and all Cubans within and outside the Island…

Enough of this barbarity.

Open up now!

January 4 2012

Helping hands sent me these words that made me think. Is this speech still valid. Will its author be accused of being a counterrevolutionary? For having demanded exactly those rights thousands of Cubans were treated as such, we were punished and stigmatized, over the 50 years that followed. Let’s see:

*Fragments of a speech delivered by Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz, in the Plaza of the City of Camagüey, January 4, 1959.

“… There is freedom of the press now, because everyone in the world knows what as long as there is one revolutionary standing there will be freedom of the press in Cuba (Applause). Whomever says freedom of the press, says freedom of assembly; whomever says freedom of assembly, says freedom to freely choose their own leaders (Applause). When we speak of the right to freely choose, we are referring not only to the president and other officials, but also to the directors; the right of workers to choose their own directors (Applause). When we speak of a right after the triumph of the Revolution, we are talking about all rights; rights are rights because they cannot be taken away, because the people have secured them in advance.

When a leader acts honestly, when a leader is inspired by good intentions, he does not have to fear any freedom…” (Applause)

“… I am sure that Cubans are not content simply to be free in their homeland. I am sure that Cubans also want to enjoy their homeland. I am sure they want to partake of bread and also of the wealth produced in their homeland.

How are we going to say, “this is our homeland” if, of that homeland, we have nothing, “my homeland,” but my homeland gives me nothing, in my homeland I am dying of hunger. This is not a homeland! It will be a homeland for a few, but it will not be a homeland for the people (Applause.) Homeland cannot mean only a place where one can shout, talk, and walk without being killed; homeland is a place where one can live, homeland is a place where one can work and earn an honest living, and what’s more, make what is a fair wage for their word (Applause). Homeland is a place where citizens are not exploited, because to exploit the citizenry, to take what belongs to them, to rob them of what they have, that is not homeland.

It is precisely the tragedy of our people that we have not had a homeland. And the best proof, the best evidence we have that we do not have a homeland is that tens of thousands of the children of this country leave for other country, to be able to live, because they don’t have a homeland. And they are not all those who want to leave, they are all those who can leave. And that’s the truth and you know it. (Shouts)

Thus, we have to fix the Republic. There is something wrong here or everything is wrong (Shouts of “Everything!”) but we need to fix the Republic, you and us (Shouts), and we have to start somewhere…”

End of quotation.

Could the Comandante have been mistaken to give this speech? At what point did he deny giving that speech during the advance of the Rebel Army on the capital? When and why did he abandon that path? Then everything seemed possible. These words were directed to a people who only aspired to be assured to honest work to feed their children, to be allowed to live decently, to leave behind the material and spiritual poverty with the fruit of their labor; who wished to be represented by political leaders and not to betray their authentic working class interests; to have a home, however humble, to ensure a minimum level of comfort and security to their family; to enjoy the wealth generated by them without petty prohibitions humiliating them at the doors of hotels denied to them; to count on an ethical press, uncensored, that didn’t remain silent before any ignominy by divine decree of any party; to stop living in fear and lies; to conquer a Rule of Law that guaranteed that there was no power above the Law that could trample ordinary citizens with impunity, and to be able to live in dignity in their homeland without being forced to beg for their prosperity in other countries in the world.

January 4 2012

To Harold for his work on intellectuals.

The intellectuals, understood well beyond artistic creation, have been isolated from early on and isolated they remain, as I see it. I would like to dwell on the artistic intelligentsia for the weight, the social influence involved, and because the innate condition of the artist is criticism, at the end of the day, to be critics is the reality of their work (the quotation is yours).

The famous phrase “words to the intellectuals” — the title of Fidel’s 1961 speech — put a straitjacket on intellectual creation. That and later experiences: The ostracism of important creators like Lezama and Piñera, parametración and the UMAP camps, the powerful alias Leopoldo Avila from the magazine “Olive Green,” the frictions with the artist movement in the eighties.

Still more recently in an unusual episode known as “the little war of the emails,” was the government’s decision to terminate that feverish exchange that went off the rails to take up questions of cultural policy. I’m sure that examples in film and other manifestations escape me.

In Cuba, the art is subsidized by the state, so that the artist feels protected, and this imposes a subjective commitment, but a commitment to the end, not to bite the hand that feeds you. On the other hand, the artist who leaves that position is seen as a traitor or “confused.” Independent artistic projects are viewed with suspicion a priori, often their creators have taken the path of exile, others abjure their projects and in other cases become harmless, having been assimilated by the official culture.

That the politicians don’t use think tanks, talk of divorce and suspicion, besides the incompetence it brings to fill positions based on political loyalty rather than ability.

The artist and intellectual are viewed with reservation by the functionaries because most do not understand them; belittling them is the way to hide one’s ignorance.

October 19 2011