Translating Cuba

A Viewpoint Regarding Everyday Homophobia / Dora Leonor Mesa

The Motherland is joy for all, pain for all and heaven for all,
and nobody’s fiefdom or chaplaincy.
Jose Marti

In Cuba’s educator circles, the proper attention to the sexual orientation of students is lacking.

In my judgement we are a homophobic society whether in a conscious way or not. Matter of fact, some of the worst insults used against others are: “tortillera” (lesbian) or “pajaro” (gay). There were other times when other defiant expressions were “marimacha” for females, and “pato“, “flojo” or “loca” for males.

The few advances in the matter of sexual diversity that have occurred in the country are a function of several factors, some of them, inevitable. The population up to a point have gained some comprehension and interest regarding this matter, a change in postures towards homosexuality timidly comes forward.

It is not difficult for an experienced teacher to discern with much effectiveness the sexual orientation of pupils in an elementary school The attitude that teachers take, for lack of better strategies and training, swings between “alerting” the parents to “turning a blind eye,” in the event that the heterosexuality of the boy or the girl is not “properly defined”, only to be commented upon on later among the teachers themselves.

The theme of homosexuality has been taken up with more or less success by visual artists, film directors — the well received “Fresas y Chocolate” (“Strawberries and Chocolate“) is a good example — as well as intellectuals and writers. The climax arrived with Mariela Castro, director of CENESEX, The Cuban Center for Sex Education, and wide diffusion of her objectives. Other initiatives in favor of the rights of lesbians and gays gain strength. Among the most recognized is Observatorio Cubano de los Derechos LGBT (“Cuban Observatory for LGBT Rights”) directed by Leannes Imbert Acosta.

From my perspective on the matter, any citizen initiative in favor of minority human rights is valid. In the case of gays or lesbians it must pointed out that the suffering inflicted on them in the majority of classrooms is real. Any manifestation from an adolescent is to some extent emotive, but if the adolescent is gay or lesbian, it is qualified as exaggerated or indecent.

The cases of physical or psychological assault on both boys and girls in secondary and college preparatory education are not rare, coming from their classmates as much as from teachers. Some years ago I witnessed how the assistant principal of a secondary school humiliated a pupil on a daily basis while all of us fathers and mothers of students were almost convinced that the teacher was also gay. The attitude of the child’s family seemed inexplicable to me always. I learned later that the knowledge and courage required to come to the defense of someone has to wend its way through one’s own self-esteem and the laws or training related to conflict resolution.

Several transsexual weddings have been celebrated in Cuba. Mere drops in the ocean of ignorance and disgust with which the majority of the citizens look at them. The scant information about the topic, the prejudices of centuries, add even more fuel to the fire of the difficulties that accompany this part of our Youth.

The Education Ministry in Cuba and civil society along with other entities, state or not, have talented professionals, ready to take an interest in this matter, and create proper communication. All it needs is space to work in peace and trust.

The State needs more people interested in being teachers or collaborators within the teaching system; as such, it should show the indispensable concern and generosity to help many more of the ones who today – lesbians and gays – are students and who tomorrow, who knows, may be highly qualified citizens, ceaseless workers, renowned scientists. They are Cubans, they are worthy of the full enjoyment of their lives and successes. The right to be proud of their sexuality belongs to them.

Translated by: lapizcero

September 29 2011

Reactions / Rebeca Monzo

He who lives by the sword, perishes by the sword, this very old refrain, I’ve been hearing it said since I had use of reason. My grandmother used to apply it constantly to people who have taken on a life of delinquency and crimes, and who finally fall into the hands of justice.

The images (the few that go by briefly on the TV in my planet) certainly are horrendous, you see Ghadafi, shot, bloody, and shoved onto the rear part of a vehicle. Those that have an antenna have told me that those that have spread around the world are really raw, but they haven’t inspired pity, but in every case, horror. That is owing to the fact that, without a doubt, this tyrant was really cruel to his adversaries, in his more than 40 years of dictatorship. After all, in these last few months, since his people came out against him and, instead of resigning and leaving (like they proposed), he insisted on staying, clinging to power and massacred everyone who dared oppose him, without feeling the least of pity for his opponents. That’s why the awful death that destiny reserved for him, the same one that surprised him trying to flee, as do the cowards who send others to fight on their behalf, while they don’t reach the gunpowder of the battle. Finally, his cadaver, after being on display for several days, as is the custom in these cultures, was buried in an unknown location in the desert, turning the page on one of the bloodiest chapters in Libyan history. Again the popular Spanish refrain, becomes a fount of knowledge: He who lives by the sword, perishes by the sword.

Translated by: BW

October 28 2011

The New Legislation on Buying and Selling Property Has Been Published / Laritza Diversent

The Government has just published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba, the legislation that authorizes the purchase and sale of private property.

Download here.

Translated by Regina Anavy

November 3 2011

Pan American games: Cuba Will Have to Perform at its Best / Iván García

Photo: Reuters. The Cuban delegation during the inaugural parade of the Pan American Games 2011.

It’s almost a siege. Never before, since Cali 1971, when Cuba took second place by assault in the continent’s multi-sport games, moving Canada to third place, did the green caimán feel the breath of its opponents so close.

Then in Rio 2007, Brazil sent Cuba into water up to its neck. With a final push of athletics and combat sports, they made a killing in the shooting event in the land of samba and soccer. In a duel of power to power, Cuba won 59 gold medals to Brazil’s 54.

Now joining the effort are Canada and Mexico, the home of the Sixteenth Pan American Games, from October 14-30, in Guadalajara, with the participation of 5,996 athletes from 42 countries, including 442 Cubans. But Brazil feels it’s now time to take out the U.S., always the champion.

Brazil is very serious about sports. Today, Cuba excels in all team sports, except baseball. Even in combat events and athletics, which Cuba often sweeps, Brazil now is a rival to watch out for.

In the last world-wide judo contest, Brazil won more medals than Cuba. If their best male and female athletes go to Guadalajara, Cuba will have a hard time dominating the martial art.

Now boxing is not the flagship of yesteryear. Forget about winning nine or ten gold medals in the engagements of America. After a legion of fighters switched sides, they decided to sign as professionals, and the Cuban boxers have ceded territory.

It’s true that in the last World Cup held in Bakú, Cuba ranked second, with two gold medals and one silver. But Brazil made history with the gold obtained by the light welterweight Everton dos Santos, and the bronze of Esquiva Falcâo in the division of at least 75 kilos.

And it’s likely that Everton and Dodge will compete in Guadalajara. Moreover, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, Dominica and the United States have some individuals who might take away the gold medals from Cuban boxing.

To secure second place in these Pan American Games, Cuba is confident that the wrestlers will sweep in freestyle and Greco-Roman. And take between nine and eleven titles in athletics. The United States will get third and fourth, giving options to the island’s athletes.

Jamaica, a potential number one in sprinting, will compete with runners of low rank. But we know that number ten of the Jamaican team wins at short-distance runs.

If the United States doesn’t keep a commitment to swimming and uses kids who aren’t very fast, then there will be a golden opportunity for Brazil to take some medals out of the pool.

Mexico can also outstep Cuba in different disciplines. Like Venezuela, Argentina or Canada, who are not made of stone. Brazil ought to impose itself in several group sports.

In volleyball, either beach or court, and between women and men, the yellow-greens should sweep up. If Cuba can achieve a good result in cycling and boating, it will have more options to stay in second place. Anyway, with countries winning even second place, the number of gold medals for Cuba should not exceed 50.

Look, among the 361 sports events that award medals, Cuba withdrew from participating in 111. Among others, Cuba will not compete in wrestling, football and women’s weightlifting.

In swimming, the Creole presence will be symbolic. The task of the Indian will have to do with combat sports and athletics, with its best exponents participating, say Olympic champions Dayron Robles or Yargelis Savigne, valued in the triple jump, Yarelis Barrios in discus, Yipsi Moreno in hammer-throwing, the decathlete Leonel Suárez and the phenomenon of the pole-vault, Lázaro Borges.

Taking account, it’s likely that Cuba can beat Brazil by taking two or three medals. But surely the Brazilians will be close behind. Suffice it to say that after four years, the colossus of the South must displace the Greater Antilles in the continental games.

Meanwhile, the United States continues to sleep soundly. It is the most powerful nation in the sport of the Americas. Although it has had its scares: in 1951 Argentina ranked first in the Pan American Games held in Havana in 1991, Cuba relegated them to second place.

But it has rained enough. And Cuba has lost many points in athletics. For various reasons, from the systemic economic crisis that has ravaged the island for 21 years to the incessant defections of athletes.

Mexico will be a red dot on the lens of Cuban athletes. The United States is on the other side of the gate. And that will always be a temptation for those athletes who dream of competing as professionals and earning high salaries.

Of course, Mexico is burning. There have been 44,000 deaths in the last five years. A wave of violence that changes these Pan American Games into a high-risk event.

To neutralize any threat, Felipe Calderón placed 11,000 specialized policemen, manned airplanes and Blackhawk helicopters to clear the zone of the feared gunmen of the Sinaloa cartel and the paramilitary bands in the style of the Zetas.

The Mexican authorities have declared they have not detected any suspicious activity and security is guaranteed 100 percent in Guadalajara 2011. But in sports, the threat to Cuba is called Brazil.

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Translated by Regina Anavy

25 October 2011

My House’s Ants / Rosa María Rodríguez Torrado

Tambochas are carnivorous ants, feared for their venom, resembling a wingless wasp that has a green body and a red head. Their relatives, the termites, seized my home a while back.

My house was built from precious woods and had a solid structure and architectural design that stood out in the urban environment. Over the years, I have tried various methods to eradicate these destructive occupants, but the methods have been useless. Some beams have already given way to the constant piercing of the insects and of the passage of time. I ask for advice to remedy my case, while the property is in a state of deterioration, so much that I am afraid the breakdown is irreversible. I don’t know if the ones that dominate my floor, roof and walls, are of the neoptera or arthropod family, if they’re termites, tambochas, or a hybrid of both, but in any case I will continue combating them to see if I can at least neutralize the plague that has seized my house since 1959.

Translated by: Alicia Fremling, Josephine Larke

October 31 2011

My House’s Ants

Tambochas are carnivorous ants, feared for their venom, resembling a wingless wasp that has a green body and a red head. Their relatives, the termites, seized my home a while back.

Translated by: Alicia Fremling, Josephine Larke

October 31 2011

El Sexto’s Exposition / Miguel Iturria Savón

The opening of the exhibition of graffiti artist Danilo Machado Maldonado, aka El Sexto* (The Sixth), on Saturday October 29th at five in the afternoon in the apartment of Gorki Aguila, the leader of the rock band Porno para Ricardo was an event beyond its artistic connotation, a professional act of solidarity with the creator, who was detained, beaten and threatened days ago by agents of State Security.

More than sixty people, predominantly young, braved the rain to reach apartment 5 of the building at 4204 Calle 35, between 42 and 44, Playa, Havana, where El Sexto, Gorki and guest artists offered him the hand of brotherhood, at a display of faces, cartoons, strokes and drawings that make up a singular urban iconography, unorthodox and challenging.

Even the faces, on cardboard or canvas, have a scriptural stroke, belonging to the graffiti and caricature, a specialty of Maldonado, who mastered the craft and expressive synthesis. Integrated in the artistic work are some drawings on the walls, a police patrol, image compositions, the face of the creator with the rooster on his head the excellent poster presentation.

The music, the handshakes, chats with friends on the balcony and the signing T-shirts by El Sexto rounded out the event. The rest was in the atmosphere of the attendees, the youthful energy — “bomb” according to the boys — and the uninhibited discussion about the graffiti, the country and what happened to the creator, who showed the video filmed in Kcho’s house — a painter for the government — at whose residence he was taken to be indoctrinated by the same agents who kidnapped him days earlier.

I call your attention to several faces painted by El Sexto: naive, relaxed, scared, cocky; faces Unmotivated and Motivated, with a sign (“I lost my fear: kill me”; “I was-I am”). Or textual images: “If you take this piece of paper I am taking a picture from behind,” “To conquer me you need weapons, police, jails; to conquer you I only need spray paint and this paper.”

The works testify to the apparent lightness and critical and paradoxical message of the Cuban reality, in keeping with the mission of graffiti, marked by the need for expression and using urban space: the walls of public places. In El Sexto Truth, we read: “Apparently, graffiti is prohibited but not the lettering of “Con la guardia in alto” (Standing Guard) and “Vamos bien” (We’re Doing Fine), nor the repeated slogans of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Champion Industriales baseball team, and the Five Prisoners*… So it occurred to me to fill different places with the graffiti of the word Truth, to see how the State covers over or erases all those letters, which would mean a daily covering over of the Truth on the part of those up above…”

In addition to the graffiti artist being honored and Gorki Aguila, the evening was of Saturday, October 29, was shared with Charly Mucha Rima, Cuentas Claras, Maikel Extremo, Jimmy con Clase, BJW and other representatives of hip hot, as well as photographers, writers, independent journalists and alternative bloggers.

*Translator’s Note:
The name “El Sexto” — The Sixth — is a play on the so-called “Five Heroes” (or Five Prisoners) — men imprisoned in the United States for spying on behalf of Cuba and other crimes (one of whom has recently been paroled).

November 3 2011

Suspicions / Regina Coyula

I think a new epidemic of dengue fever is upon us. Numerous rains in the last few days and the health messages have already started: wash your hands well, don’t greet people with kisses, don’t stay in enclosed or poorly ventilated locations. The Public Health inspectors insist on reviewing even me; I don’t have spiritual vases, I don’t have tanks, I don’t have aquatic plants, the water tray on my refrigerator has a drain… The Family Doctor–on Sunday!–visited house by house and warned that if anyone became feverish, they should see him without fail. The fumigation, of which my dog and my husband’s cat are terrified, on alternate days for a week. All of this speaks to the preoccupation about health, but why don’t they clearly say it? The doctor was evasive, but he was working on his day of rest.

Furthermore (above all), the hygienic situation of the city, the one that counts on community service to run, is a disaster, the pockmarks left behind by poor paving, and the holes of the shoddy work done by Havana Water Department or the Sewers make ideal surroundings. The fight against dengue fever cannot be won by invading privacy. The terms of battle, war, and combat are fashionable. A task that, like everything else in this country, prioritizes the urgent over the important. A higher cost, we are used to it.

Translated by: Josephine Larke & Erico el Rojo

October 24 2011

New Law, Old Mentality / Regina Coyula

We were talking about the new law for the sale and transfer of vehicles, but what caught my attention was the reasoning of my interlocutor. As I and many others understand it, the law is inadequate, leaving many unknowns and maintaining inequalities in determining who can buy a new car, for instance. But what caught my attention, as I said, was the reasoning of my interlocutor. It seems alright to him that the law has been enacted, although with these defects, because we have been committing illegalities for fifty years and this resolves the transfer of vehicles. People will always find fault with it because people because people protest anything and it’s never good enough for them (these are his words).

You who already know me will know roughly what my thoughts were, but what stuck with me was not the joy of my interlocutor that he could legally own a motorbike in his own name that he’s had for a thousand years, it’s the satisfaction with which he accepted as food that after such a delay in legislating, they legislate badly.

I have understood that young graduates of Law School who are finishing their service in the Armed Forces are charged with preparing the body of law that will try to transform. Housing Law, Immigration Law, to name two of the most anticipated, are in the hands of the Army and not the Ministry of Justice or of competent and experienced lawyers. So I don’t believe I have false expectations of what will be legislated.

October 31 2011

Wings For Life / Rebeca Monzo

clip image0025 — The Plaza of the Doves, acrylic on canvas, Graciela Alvarez

Eight years ago, Dr. Alexis Cantero, an eminent surgeon at Fajardo Hospital, seeing the need women had after breast cancer surgery to refocus their lives, created a project where they would be grouped in an entirely voluntary way, in order to perform occupational therapy and cultural activities work, making their disease more bearable. In addition, he actively engaged their closest relatives in the talks and lectures given by other specialists, in order to achieve a greater understanding of this disease.

On the afternoon of October 19, World Day for the Fight Against Breast Cancer, the exhibition Yes to Life was opened in the site formerly occupied by the San Jose Funeral Home, located at Infanta and Carlos III, which was closed and abandoned many years ago. It has been refurbished recently prior to reopening it as a gallery with art exhibition rooms, as part of the Cultural Complex Quinta de los Moilinos.

clip image008 — Homage to Haiti, acrylic on canvas, Bertha Lemus Máscara, artisan of Estela Alfonso

The group, which started with only five women (according to what one of its founders, Mrs. Silvia Plá, who was operated on fifteen years ago told us), now has over two hundred, including some artists and artisans. They meet every two months and organize lectures, field trips, parties and exhibitions as now. Wings for Life is a nonprofit project coordinated by a physician who has made his profession a true priesthood, and who strives to further disseminate knowledge about this disease and every day to provide more support to those who suffer or survive it.

October 21 2011

The Time of “The Feathers” / Reinaldo Escobar

54…To confront racial, gender, religious belief, sexual orientation and other prejudices that can give rise to any form of discrimination or to limit the exercise of the rights of persons, among them those who occupy public office, of the masses and in defense of the Fatherland.
Taken from the base document of the First Cuban Communist Party Congress.

I have news that in this last half century they have denied no one the chance to be a member of the Communist Party, an official of the armed forces, or a member of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution for having a certain sex, race, or for being presumed to be homosexual. After the 4th Party Congress in 1991 the opening was extended to those with religious beliefs, such that Point 54 of the Base Document of the First Conference of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) has been edited obviously to permit, as of January 2012, for homosexuals, bisexuals and lesbians to join the PCC, hold responsible positions in government or to be leaders of some organization, without having to undergo the humiliation of hiding their preferences in the closet.

Other unmaskings will occur, as happened after the Fourth Congress with the believers who had disguised themselves as atheists in order to keep their red cards. But this time it will not be the crucifixes or the ikines of the god Orula that will be exposed to view, but the long-suppressed “feathers.” Then we will be able to ask Comrade Secretary General of our nucleus, even the captain of the tank squad, a question about his husband, or to comment to the union official, and also the Sector Chief of the National Revolutionary Police, how well he physically keeps his commitment.

What it does not, yet, get us, is the ability to found new parties, unless the reference to “and other” underlined in the citation from the document alludes to the prejudices and discrimination that we are subject to, those of us who do not share the ideology of the Communists. Perhaps we will no longer see our rights to participate in our own political organizations limited, and we will be able to defend the Fatherland from its true enemies?

2 November 2011

PEOPLE IN MEMORY: The Child and the Egg Bombardment / Mario Barosso

In vain I search my mind for the name of my favorite friend when we were in preschool and first grade, the passing of the years have totally erased it. He was the tallest child in the classroom and he sat in the desk that was next to mine, he happily shared with me his lunches and would sharpen my pencil when the tip broke. We laughed together during recess and we ran around each other while doing three-legged races. He was probably the best friend I had during those two years of childhood. The presence of my classmate every morning was an important part of my routine when I was a child and it made me feel fortunate, I would even say happy; in my infantile mind there wasn’t the slightest possibility that one day that child could disappear from my life, in a way that never again, to this day, I would ever see him again.

Sitting on the doorstep of my grandparent’s house who took care of me nights while my parents worked or studied, I saw a large group of people go down the street, shouting phrases and slogans as they went, much of what they said I am unable to remember at all, but the euphoric cries of: down with the worms, the lumpen, and the song of: down with Pin Pon, down with the worm farm, if I remember them correctly in my memory. They would walk down the streets with lit torches in their hands, frightening me tremendously without understanding what was happening and making me run into my grandparent’s house’s to hide from the strange parade; when the mob went by, I came out, still not understanding precisely the meaning of all that commotion.

Next day I went back to school and was surprised by the absence of my classmate, I remember this day as one of the saddest in my childhood. Between the events of the night before, the absence of my friend and the commentaries of those around me, I began to put together what was happening and only understood completely when I walked one afternoon by the boy’s house and saw it shut down, with a paper seal guarding the front door, the floor of the entryway littered with broken eggs and the green-painted masonry, splattered. I drew the sad conclusion that the family had left the country through the Mariel Boat Lift and that they had taken my dear friend away with them, but sadder still was to understand that the wild mob that had scared me so much had been targeting them, hurling all kinds of insults, rejecting them as if instead of human beings they had been vermin and throwing at them, like bombs, the innumerable eggs.

Years later, during the nineties, when the economic situation in Cuba collapsed, especially because of the collapse of the European socialist camp that practically supported our country, during the terrible periodo especial (Special Period) that dealt blows to all of us, we came to cry in the midst of our need for an egg to satisfy hunger in our ruined stomachs and it was later that these repudiated Cubans were welcomed like gods, it would be they who, with their remittances and family assistance and friends, would substitute in part for European Socialism in supporting our sickly economy. I have always wondered if my friend has been among all these Cubans in exile that have returned to the country to visit their loved ones whose memory must keep like a stigma the act of repudiation that el pueblo enardecido (the inflamed people) dealt them, in which people he may have known since he was born participated, the chants and slogans that I am sure in that moment he did not comprehend and the egg bombardment with which they committed aggression against his home.

Things haven’t changed that much, Cuban emigrants have multiplied since the time I reference until today, it being difficult to find a family in Cuba where at least one of its members doesn’t live outside of the country, it’s good that the times when they were repudiated through mass action have gone away. I just hope that in a not too distant future the acts of repudiation cease against other Cubans who have not decided to leave but rather to stay within our borders to confront the same regime that governs us since ’59, and that the people of Cuba in their totality roundly refuse to participate in these low and immoral acts, showing themselves to be a people that is coherent, dignified, truly respectful of differences, which is the only way possible to march together towards a tomorrow better than that yesterday and than this today all of us Cubans live.

Translated by: lapizcero

October 28 2011

A Song Honoring Laura Pollan, Lady in White

Lyrics by Jorge Luís Piloto; sung by Amaury Gutiérrez
(English translation follows)

Laura, Dama de Blanco,
te quisieron silenciar y hoy tu voz
suena más alto
por las calles de la Habana tu energía
acompaña a tus hermanas, tu familia
esas bravas heroínas
con gladiolos en las manos
defendiendo los derechos del cubano…

Laura, Dama Maestra
demostraste con tu ejemplo que el amor
es más fuerte que las rejas
la maldad de tu verdugo te hizo eterna
y la patria te agradece y te venera
hoy el mundo está mirando
y los complices callados
se avergüenzan y tu nombre lo respetan…

Laura Pollan,
llegaremos al dia y al final de este martirio
y en La Habana una marcha de gladiolos será un río
y llorando de rabia por los héroes que perdimos
Cuba entera caminará contigo…

======

Laura, Lady in White
they wanted to silence you and now your voice
rings out the loudest
through the streets of Havana your energy
accompanies your sisters,your family
these brave heroines
with gladioli in their hands
defending the rights of Cubans…

Laura, Lady Teacher
you showed with your example that love
is stronger than the prison bars
the evil of your executioner made you immortal
and the country thanks you and venerates you
today the world is watching
and the silent accomplices
are ashamed of themselves and respect your name…

Laura Pollan,
we will come to the day at the end of this martyrdom
and in Havana the march of the gladioli will be a river
and weeping with rage at the heroes we lost
all of Cuba will walk with you…

Cut Cut Cut (Irregular-Mimetic Verb) / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

We cut. We fell. We tear down. It’s called suburban development. It’s called for show, so nothing obscures the new paint of CUCs (Cuban convertible pesos) on our facade. It is called cyclone prevention, some or another expert must have said on camera that any tree is a mortal peril. It is called telephony and electricity without ecological interference. It is called sanitation against disease. It is called sunlight. It is called liberty on an island where that word is scarce. It is called power. What the fuck…? I cut it down because it is on my land and it was I who rented the saw…!

Nonetheless, to fell is an act of charity. At the base and in one fell swoop. Havana of the 21st century does not deserve these republican trees with more than fifty years of life.

But, unfortunately, the majority do not dispose of the resources required to hire a good executioner, be it private or state. Then the people of Cuba show off their studies in Elementary Botany. And they grab and barely peel the bark of the tree (even a child could do it at his height, so that he learns early the art of clearing ground).

It is enough with a few centimeters of wound all around. It is enough, according to the tele-lessons of Universidad Para Todos (University for All). The rest is only rings of dead wood. It’s just under the bark that the tree sends up and down nutrients and wastes. This is its vital sap, its blood, suddenly spilt for no apparent motive. As it turns out, with a little skinning we condemn them to a very slow death, a very virtuous one, like an irreversible hunger strike, even if we later regret being so cruel.

And the tree dies. It dries up. Mute agony of weeks and months. Down to the last drop of chlorophyll. But they don’t fall. They die on their feet. And they continue to be a danger and a terrible interference, but at least they are dead, those tricky bastards who almost destroy the house, beyond their attracting lightning. First, to the scaffold; then we will see. Maybe a small brigade of Comunales comes to turn them into splinters for the benefit of the neighborhood artisans. For the moment, we can breathe easy. Fewer leaves, less bird shit, less humidity for asthmatics and rheumatics, fewer pests in their roots, ever so ready to destroy sidewalks that without this much effort the Revolution was already destroying. Less olive green (that would be the only bad thing, but it is compensated by more and more official graffiti on the walls of our city).

Sometimes I think that it is part of a deferred vengeance against the government. A way of protesting against despotism (you coerce me, I cut you). By the time this resistance triumphs, we will live in a country without trees. We will have to reforest. Not through postures but with people. Nothing comes to mind that can grow and cut off spaces. We only pretend to open spaces around us. Watch the other from afar. Take things off our heads. We are more lonely in the planet. We may even be right. Let us, for God’s sake, mold in the dark our empty biographies. Enough troubles hang overhead for us not to execute our meager quota of death, maybe as training for the day when the dismal idea of the Transition arrives.

Translated by: lapizcero

October 26 2011

Another Look at the Grito de Yara* / Fernando Dámaso

Nobody can deny the foundational importance of October 10, 1868 for the Cuban nation. Though twenty years before Narciso Lopez had, for the first time, unfurled the national flag calling for combat against the oppressor, though his voice was not listened to then, the opposite occurred in Yara, when Cubans, conscious of their nationhood, responded to the call of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes.

This historic feat, praised and respected by all generations, is generally presented only from the point of view of the heroism and selflessness of its protagonists, ignoring the economic interests, which had a fundamental role and that should not be forgotten. Many of those who rose in arms that day, maybe most of them, were rich landowning Creoles who for some time had been conspiring against Spain, as their interests in expansion clashed with the restrictive policies it ordained, that constrained their development.

They, other than their national sentiment, which without a doubt they possessed, needed to throw off the Spanish yoke that smothered their businesses and, as a result, the garnering of profits, needled by what was happening further North, where the United States was rapidly becoming a world power, with a regime of liberty and rights, that constituted the example to follow.

It is not surprising then, that even Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, in the beginning, supported annexation to the American Union, though he soon gave up on that idea, focusing his efforts on obtaining Independence. It must also be pointed out, if we are to be one with historical truth, that the initial call for emancipation of the slaves included indemnity for their owners and their incorporation into the uprising’s army as condition of their liberty, something that was only eliminated months later in the Assembly of Guaimaro, where the total abolition of slavery was decreed.

As can be appreciated, historical facts are not simple and crystal-clear, as they are sometimes presented. They are influenced by interests of a different nature, material as well as moral, that far from diminishing their value, make them more real, and illuminate their protagonists not as gods of purity come down from Olympus, but as mere mortals, with light and shadow, that sometimes are right and sometimes are mistaken, but that are capable of imposing themselves over their difficulties and reaching their objectives.

On October 10, 1868 patriotic and economic interests conspired. The same has happened in other historical moments of the Cuban nation, up until our days. Today, the same as in 1868, the political and economic chains imposed by the model, hinder the development of citizen initiative and that of its the productive forces. To overcome this anachronistic situation is everybody’s obligation, so that the country can advance, eliminate the accumulated misery and take its rightful place among free nations, a place it once held thanks to the work of all her children and that, because of erroneous policies, it lost.

*Translator’s Note: The Cry of Yara.

Translated by: lapizcero

October 13 2011

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