Recently I read two letters that caught my attention. The first, written by Rafael Hernández, a pro-government political scientist based in Cuba, under the title “Letter to a young man who leaves,” trying to undo this massive trend, arguing the supposed benefits of the existing system in the country, offering them as some splendid options faced with a cruel world, ruthless and full of injustice, as is the capitalist. In aid of this he waves (it couldn’t be otherwise) the worn flags and slogans of a failed experiment on the path to extinction, in which most Cubans no longer believe,that left only ruins and misery and a divided nation, physically (the older men here and the younger scattered all around the world) and emotionally (with divided families by absurd hatreds).
The second one, written by the young Iván López Monreal, based in Bulgaria, under the title “Letter from a young man who left,” respectfully with solid arguments dismantles one by one the ones used by the government official. Without unnecessary offenses,in a measured tone, the young Cuban exposes his contradictory feelings before leaving, and how leaving the country was a logical course given the impossibility of realizing a healthy life project; the sorrow faced with the failure of his parents who had believed and devoted their best efforts to the experiment, and his actual situation: free and master of his fate.
It would be suitable that many citizens may have free access to those two documents, in which two different visions: one static and stuck in the past, and one in movement with his feet in the present, address in a civilized manner, in a controversial dialog, rich in contributions that show about the reasons of both sides.
After reading both letters, it appears as a logical conclusion that the present socialism, still updated, has nothing more, neither material nor spiritual, to offer to the Cuban people than repeating to the point of boredom the rhetoric of the so-called glorious past, with conveniently manipulated facts and figures in the name of a noisy patriotism, far from the true patriotism based on the love and respect for the land where one comes to life, and but for so many absurdities, where one should spend it and also in the end have some rest.
Archive photo
Translated by @Hachhe
September 2 2012
