Quizá la tragedia de los balseros sea la más absoluta metáfora de Cuba y, a la vez, de las utopías y frustraciones que han mareado el Atlántico. Iván de la Nuez, La balsa perpetua
Sunday, January 18, 2009
¿Balseros?
Hotel Nacional
This is the site of the 1946 Havana conference of mafiosos. All of the major bosses of the Sicilian mafia converged here to re-organize after cappo de tutti don Salvatore “Lucky” Luciano was deported. They met under the guise of a Frank Sinatra concert.
Viva Martí
For Martí, Cuba Libre meant “independence from Spain and the United States—untrammeled, unconditional, uncompromising national sovereignty. Indeed Martí directed almost as much energy toward combating the annexation of Cuba to the United States as he did promoting support for its independence from Spain. ‘To change masters,’ Martí repeatedly insisted, ‘is not to be free.’” Louis A. Pérez, Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution
CHE
Che prognosticated that with the Revolution there would surge a new man, “un nuevo hombre,” but this experiment, the Revolution’s aim at re-programming Cubans, had mixed results. It is well known that Cuba has an outstanding education system, but the best and brightest can make much more money prostituting themselves or working as taxistas than they can being doctors, engineers, or teachers. Now that prostitution has in many ways returned after years of its prohibition, Cuba can boast of “la más culta prostitución del mundo.” This brain drain from the professions most important to creating a new and better society is the biggest problem I see that faces Cuba. The good news is that most Cubans are educated enough to realize it as well.
¿Así es el verdadero paraíso?
With all of this revolutionary propaganda promising a better future, one must ask: When will this better future come? It’s like the signs that you see in bars telling customers that today there’s no credit but tomorrow there is: Hoy no fío, mañana sí. Is this a real paradise?
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