Cuba from Exile

Every time I see someone coming from Cuba, a poor “innocent” who insists that things will improve now, I don’t even know what to say anymore. To my dismay, I realize, time and again, the same thing I’ve been saying since I lived in Cuba: the Cuban problem is cultural. Or as Ortiz defined it, “the Creole misfortune” (This propensity to mock everything has relaxed the bonds of mutual respect among citizens and blurred the lines of separation that exist in all countries between the various social hierarchies),” pointed out Mario Guiral Moreno in 1914. 1 – For him, mockery was, like for Ortiz, “an innate quality of our people.”

As all Cuban intellectuals have said in one way or another from before the birth of the republic to the “revolutionary” catharsis, where poets like 2- Reinaldo Arenas were sentenced: “For Cuba is a country that produces scoundrels, delinquents, demagogues, and cowards in disproportionate relation to its population.” 3 – Or the maestro Lecuona who said: “I also wish that my burial take place in New York in case Fidel Castro or any other ruler of Cuba is a communist or represents any faction, group, or class that is governed, dominated, or inspired by foreign doctrines. On the other hand, in case Cuba is free at the time of my death, I wish to be buried there according to the aforementioned instructions.”

Personally, I fear there is no one who can fix it. You have to be completely alienated from objective and rational reality to believe that something good will come from a government that for over 6 decades has only effectively achieved something very concrete: looting, impoverishment, and the absolute decline of a nation that only thinks of emigrating as a way out of all its woes. The government has a ruthless method, and that is to prevent anyone from being powerful enough to challenge power; an individual with economic power is a free individual. Every time someone prospers too much on that island, they clip their wings. Even less can be expected from a people who applaud the show and choose to throw themselves into the abyss.

In summary, neither homeland nor freedom, or better yet, without a homeland, but yes, without a master.

References:
1 – Indagación de la chusmería
2 – Reinaldo Arenas
3 – Ernesto Lecuona in “Revolución”