Translating Cuba

In December 2009, Cuban State Security detained without charges the USAID subcontractor Alan Gross, for bringing satellite connection equipment to the island. At the end of March 2010, the Department of Technical Investigations (DTI) which serves the “section of evils” (prostitution), arrested an Italian man addicted to sex with young girls, according to the record No 92 of the People’s Popular Court of Las Tunas, from February 25 of this year.

The two foreigners faced different outcomes. The American was sentenced to 15 years in prison for actions against the independence and territorial integrity of the island. The Italian was simply expelled, despite having, since 2005, sought sex with minors.

In June 2010, the United States reaffirmed Cuban as a country where there is human trafficking. The American government, since 2003, has included Cuba on the blacklist for “not complying with the minimum measures to eliminate human trafficking and not making significant efforts in this area,” according to its report.

According to one of those implicated in the case, who preferred anonymity, the Italian was expelled. After the prosecutor and an attorney took his declaration that was used in the trial against the 7 from Las Tunas accused of pimping. According to the court of justice, before leaving the island he confessed that one of those implicated had been involved with “more than thirty young people with whom he had sexual relations and that he paid them between fifty and one hundred convertible pesos.

The court stated that the foreigner also gave the girls presents, bought them clothes, and once he had returned to his country he sent them money. According to the record, the foreigner visited the houses or knew the families of most of them.

The court did not specify the exact date on which the events occurred, despite that fact that Cuban authorities through the Department of Immigration and Foreigners, maintains strict control over the entry into and departure from the country of both Cubans and foreigners.

An official from the Department of Technical Investigations , a reference witness at the trial, “testified that he was aware of the first information about the arrival of the foreigner in Las Tunas province, until he began to be of operative interest.”

The island is “principally a source of children subject to trafficking in persons, above all to exploit them commercially within the country.” The United States is concerned because prostitution continues being legal for minors age 16 and 17. The criminal legislation only applies special protection to minors age 14 and under, against pimping and human trafficking.

In August 2006 the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women recommended the Cuban State modify “the legislation relative to the age for contracting a marriage with a view to eliminating the exceptions that allow 14-year-old girls and 16-year-old boys to marry.” The Convention on the Rights of the Child understands a child to be any human being under 18.

For Revolutionary Justice, high tech equipment that improves access to information within the island is more dangerous than unscrupulous tourists who come to the country looking for underage children and cheap sex. Is it more important to protect political interests than the adequate development of children and youth? There’s no doubt, we know which way the balance leans.

April 8 2011

Watching the last chapter aired (and re-aired at the request of viewers) of the serial In Silence, in this new season called The Reasons Of…, I noticed that our authorities are so convinced of the total control they have over minds of citizens, they are unable to accept that someone, without orders or monetary compensation from anyone, can think with their own heads and have opinions, much less express them publicly.

According to the official scheme, anyone who does not think as designed, is a mercenary, an employee of the Empire (once again the happy Empire!), a lackey and many other atrocities. So accustomed are they to one thought (totalitarian principle), which they demand and require of their followers (absolute unconditionality), they can not understand the diversity of it as something inherent to the individual freedom of every human being.

With the litany of evidence to prove their truths, many taken out of context and others fabricated, they pursue the sole objective of discrediting and denigrating those whom they can’t conquer with arguments, using the absolute dominion they exercise over the national media, to which those they discredit and denigrate don’t have access. These others can only defend themselves on the Internet, utilizing dissimilar methods, more for foreign opinion than domestic, because it’s prohibited to Cubans.

Goebbels, the great Nazi propagandist, said that a lie repeated often enough becomes truth. During the existence of that regime he served it well. However, he and it disappeared at the same time, surfacing the truth that had been hidden for years. The same thing happened in all former socialist countries led by the former Soviet Union. The truth, sooner or later, comes out. It is happening today in many Arab countries where, one after another, their people are unmasking the fetishes created and maintained during years of lies.

Here, although in some speeches there was talk of considering different opinions, so far it seems more rhetorical than practical. The most absurd orthodoxy still applies, despite its failure having been demonstrated, and it’s a long way between words and actions. It’s a shame! In a healthy environment of pluralism of thought, much more would move forward without painful traumas that continue to divide and confront Cubans and, at the same time, delay necessary solutions.

To continue looking at every different opinion as the hand of the enemy, is an act of political blindness. Stigmatizing decent citizens is unjust, as well as contemptible, only explicable by the exercise of absolute power for too long.

Everything changes and everything that is born one day perishes: it is a law of nature and nothing escapes it. To understand and facilitate development is intelligent and responsible. To oppose it, in the end it can only lead to more tragedy and pain.

Nobody knows what will happen in the coming days and weeks, nor if there will be more chapters of the old serial. Abraham Lincoln said: You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

It would be desirable for the whole nation if sanity prevailed and if the demonstrations of force ceased. The citizenry, tired of so many political and economic tensions, as well as those inherent in our precarious daily survival, still maintain their civic indifference. Nothing guarantees this will go on forever. Respectful dialogue and not exacerbating passions is what can save us from greater evils.

March 24 2011

Lately on my planet, whenever friends get together the conversation revolves around the past. Why is this? Nothing pleasant is ever said in the present tense. We must always conjugate the imperfect indicative form of the verb, ending in “aba” or “ía,” i.e. comía, bebía, salía, bailaba, ganaba, viajaba, disfrutaba, etc. (used to eat, used to drink, used to go out, used to dance, used to earn, used to travel, used to enjoy…)

Especially when speaking about common acquaintances, we try very hard to avoid hurt feelings, since in many cases we don’t know whether we have lost touch because they have simply left our planet or they have gone far away.

If the talk turns to food, things really get ugly. You can’t give anyone recipes anymore. You have to say: if you have this, you put it in, or you substitute this for something else; all in all it has gotten extremely difficult to follow the book made so popular by Nitza Villapol — the cooking show hostess from the ’50s.

Even I, with my love of cooking, find myself having to constantly come up with solutions and substitute ingredients, or incorporate new ones instead of the usual ones. Thankfully my mom was a dietician and taught me a host of kitchen tricks. She suffered greatly seeing our gastronomy, an essential part of our identity, slowly disappear and in its place atrocities pop up, such as “orange steak” — a dish made by boiling orange peel to resemble meat — or “ground beef” made from ground-up plantain peel.

But our yearning gets the better of us when we begin to remember those spectacular Havana restaurants, each with its own wonderful specialties. Or when we would hit the road and all of a sudden someone would say, “Let’s go to the ‘Congo’, and eat sausage!” or, “Why don’t we get ourselves over to ‘La Dominicana,’ eat some delicious croquettes, and keep driving?” Then maybe we would stop by the “Rincón Criollo” or “Rancho Luna” and really get our fill.

Let’s see now, with the new paladares — private restaurants — popping up, whether they will be able to keep themselves stocked and regain, in part, our once-respected cuisine, which has nothing to do with caldosa (stew), and those croquettes whose ingredients are strictly secret and are commonly known as “aviators” because of the way they stick to the roof of your mouth. Hopefully soon we will be able to conjugate verbs in all their forms and tenses and not only the past imperfect.

March 30 2011

Juan Juan – My good friend Cepillo, Don Joel Casamayor. Your sports career began in Cuba and continues in the United States. You own all the titles that exist in the amateur and professional boxing. To whom do you owe so many laurels?

Joel Casamayor – Look, brother; I owe that to many. I was born in Guantanamo and live in the US. In Cuba I have my mother, family members, friends, and followers who are always in my prayers, my grandmother died there. Here too I have family, children, friendships. That which I am I owe to my strength, to those who work with me, and those who trust in me, in my family, in the friends who follow me, and to God.

JJ – You invited me to your fight in Las Vegas, and I saw you win. What is your next step?

JC – The next step is to rest, and after a week return to training, to boxing, to knocking out.

JJ – Would you like to go to Cuba sometime to fight?

JC – Sometime? You’re crazy, not only would I like it, I would love to fight in my country for my people. For those people who follow me, who listen to me by hidden radio, who watch me by illegal antennas. I want to take care of my brother, I want to kiss my mother, I want to invite my friends. But when a sportsman decides to leave Cuba, the government punishes him and has to pay for that. It’s something I don’t understand, nor anyone. We have to finish this old fight which is holding us all prisoner. That would be the knockout victory that every Cuban is hoping for.

People can believe that when you’re world champion, your problems are over. But it isn’t that way; my brother is sick in Cuba, he needs me like I need him, why do I have to ask for a permit to enter the house I was born in?

JJ – I’m with you 100%. We can’t respect an entry or exit visa imposed with the objective of stealing and robbing.

Cepillo, what do you think of so many people who laugh about how a boxer speaks?

JC – A boxer? I don’t understand … ahhhh, yes. I think that boxers came to the world to box, writers to write, and those who talk … tell me, Juan, does anyone gain respect by poking fun?

Shoemaker, stick to thy last.

We’ll see each other at my next fight.

March 30 2011

A few hours after former President Carted ended his visit to Cuba, one of those controversies developed that can rightfully claim to be a dialog of the deaf. On one side are those who criticized Carter for having come to visit our leaders without media conditions, while he met with “persons critical of the government” with the condition of no photographs and and a discretionary clause regarding the content of the conversation.

On the other side were those who understood it as a positive thing to be heard by one of the few personalities that enjoyed the rare privilege of being received by the highest leaders of Cuba and the United States and who, by the way, is well regarded by international public opinion.

The dialog was deaf not only because both opponents resisted listening to the arguments of the other, but because the real issue that beat in the background was not mentioned: that of legitimacy.

I would like to specify that legitimacy is achieved both by strict legal grounds, and moral reasons. Whether we like it or not, Cuba’s leaders have managed to legitimize themselves through laws they themselves have dictated and by virtue of diplomatic recognition from most of the countries around the world. Whether those same leaders like it or not, the actors of civil society and the opposition have gained increasing legitimacy from an unquestionable moral reason: the invocation and defense of human rights, taken as inalienable by the vast majority of the countries of the world.

What happens is that the government absolutely and stubbornly denies even the slightest semblance of legitimacy to those whom it considers despicable mercenaries of imperialism, although a good share of those demonized recognize the legitimacy of the government, albeit reluctantly, when they carry an identity card issued by those authorities or when they go to an office to process any kind of paperwork.

Taking it a step further, those who decide, with every right, to live outside the country, also recognize this same legitimacy when they go to consulates and embassies to update their passports or take any other action.

Mr. Carter had to perform a balancing act to meet with “the critics” — which implied his recognition of their legitimacy — without offending his legitimate host: the government.

The later, for its part, was forced at least to not delegitimize the meeting, which it showed by not sending a detachment of professional insulters, and granting accredited foreign journalists permission to cover the event.

Certainly this permission did not extend to anyone who dared to bring up the topic during the former president’s press conference, but we all know how the game is played and yet we still recognize the legitimacy of the foreign press.

I have perhaps left it too long to express myself on the matter, despite having been one of those present with Carter on that morning in the Hotel Santa Isabel salon, but I had no intention of participating in a debate in which I seemed to be defending myself. I insist on using these spaces to talk about matters of substance, or at least I try to.

From Diario de Cuba, 7 April 2011

Let It Be…, originally uploaded by orlandoluispardolazo.

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,

speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,

speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,

there will be an answer, let it be.

For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,

there will be an answer, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me,

shine until tomorrow, let it be.

I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,

speaking words of wisdom, let it be…

April 6 2011

The poem wasn’t written, it was drawn in front of my terrace. Behind the battered, uneven and ugly TV antennas, the unpainted neighborhood houses, the roofs turned into storage rooms, and the hanging electrical wires, nature’s fine brushes gave us a relic of the night, a sleepy moon standing out as a white spot surrounded by moisture in the pale blue of the dawn.

It could be an image that is repeated at times; but after much struggling on the ground, I often forget to raise my eyes to the heavens, so I did not realize the singular beauty that the lazy moon can bring to a new day. Am I becoming a lunatic?

April 4 2011

The echos of the shouts reach my balcony, in a rhythm marked initially by feet accompanied by throats. It’s less than two weeks to the huge parade planned for for the Plaza of the Revolution and residents for miles around are worn out by all the preparations. Closed streets, police blocking traffic and squads making the avenues and sidewalks shudder, where there should be cars, people and baby strollers.

I climb to the roof to see the choreography of war in its entirety. Things will go badly if the Cuban Communist Party Congress starts with a procession of bayonets. If they really wanted to project an image of reforms, it would not be these olive-green uniforms on exhibit on Saturday, April 16. How much do we wish this day would be a peregrination of results, not of fear! That they would show a long line of what we could accomplish, not the overwhelming demonstration of a military might we don’t even have! Can you imagine? A parade along the Paseo and its environs where the dreams we dreamed of are sheltered, not the cold metal and threatening triggers of AK rifles?

This could be a procession of the things we miss, a festival of joy in which no one would be forced to participate. No principals recruiting schoolchildren to pass under the sun waving at the platform and the workers knowing that their absence would not result in a black mark in their personnel file. A true popular parade, not the wasting on one day of an entire month’s worth of the Nation’s resources. Better to let it sprout spontaneously, smiling people taking to the streets, rather than this sense of anguish that today’s syncopated cries provoke in us.

I think I’m writing more in the Matanzans’ blog than in my own. Even better, now they’re accusing me of writing for the government.

Greetings. For the Pearl of Regina, referring to his comment in “Freedom of the press, a utopia II.”

Regina, thank you for your opinions on the article, showing you’ve done your homework, checked all the sources, but the article only mentions some issues and you pass over others, not delving into the causes and conditions, and what’s more continuing to use the same slogans already repeated over and over, but I hope that this topic isn’t exhausted, because it is so critical to improve the Cuban press, and to prepare ourselves to coexist with that other press that you don’t dare mention in your comment.

regards

No way, Peralo! We’ve barely touched the issue of freedom of expression. I don’t want my comment to be longer than the post, but having put my toe in the water… About this, I will say that I can’t check any sources other than my own memory. But I’m not afraid of the issue, so here I go.

Freedom of the press is far from a reality in Cuba. Elsewhere in the world a press that is critical of the government is nothing more than that: a press critical of the government. I use the example of the United States because it’s looked at very closely in the Cuban press. Reading Granma I wonder why our press does look inward with the same sharpness with which it looks at the problems of our neighbor to the North.

The Huffington Post, during the Bush era, could not have been more scathing about the presidential administration, and no one in the government demonized it. Michael Moore has been provocative in his criticisms, and I use the word provocative deliberately, and no one censors his documentaries, although he does have more than a few enemies in the circle of power.

The justification of an imperialist threat and the blockade don’t work for me. I can see that you consider what the officials say enough to judge, but they say many things without offering any evidence and take things out of context. If independent journalists receive “guidance,” and their reports are based on falsehoods, or they recycle news and themes already exhausted by the official press, then the independent journalists won’t have anything to report, why comment.

Can you say the problems are fabricated? I refer to the first few paragraphs including the quotes you cite. I don’t have to read the massive propaganda designed to sow doubts, the simple perception of reality makes me aware of the serious problems in our society. You say they the receiver doesn’t verify and has no interest in verifying, which is a statement that also applies to the official press.

The more informed people are, the harder they are to manipulate. We are an educated people, no? So why is access to in Cuba so difficult? Why can’t each person consume the information they consider pertinent? It is to prevent everyone thinking with their own heads. But I believe I understand what you have written that it seems right to you to control information as an attribute of power.

It’s odd; your post, taken from the other side, would be exactly the same as changing the subject. If you’ve read The Prince you will remember the warning about the importance of an external enemy (The Empire, in our case) to better govern within. The blockade has been the highlight. It is the fault of the blockade that we are in a profound crisis of the economy and of values? It’s a rhetorical question, don’t answer in the affirmative, please. If you notice, in the Guidelines for Economic and Social Policies, the proposals to resolve the problems, they do not take into account the lifting of the commercial embargo for so that the country will move forward.

You can’t complain, I didn’t let any of your points go by without a comment, it’s too bad that my exchange is on a weekly basis, but there are issues that don’t become out-dated as is the case with this one. If Bad Handwriting has become a visited blog, it is precisely because there is space for discussion. I have been confronting you, but I judge from my experience. I await your comments.

April 2 2011

Agent of the Empire? Me!? Of the Empire of truth, justice and rights; but most of all, agent of the empire of my freedom of conscience!

April 4 2011