The Berlin Wall Never Existed

Germans attack the Berlin Wall, 1989 (CC)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Yoani Sanchez, Generation Y, Havana, 9 November 2019 — For the official Cuban press the Berlin Wall has not fallen, it still stands or it never existed. A brief search on the digital sites and the printed versions of the country’s main newspaper is enough confirm that mentions of this scar which, for years, divided Germany, Europe and the world, barely appear because it is still a topic that is denied and hidden by the ideologues of the “journalism” that is cooked up in the newsrooms controlled by the Communist Party.

This Saturday, the 9th of November, marks 30 years since Berliners began to tear down that absurd barrier and that the Socialist camp in eastern Europe began to fall apart like a house of cards. It is also an anniversary of that 1989 in Cuba, when a generation looked with hope on the changes that shook our “fellow travelers” and the Plaza of the Revolution tightened the screws of its political control to avoid reformists or ‘perestroikans’ from gaining ground.

This November, as they did three decades ago, Cuban officials again hide from us the fall of the Berlin Wall… but we have already learned of, already seen, the images of those hammers and chisels tearing down that wall. On our retina, despite the censorship, there is a young man, a child, a family, a village… that knocks down that strict limit once imposed on them.

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