Cuba and the cry: a cry of despair and lamentations that were not heard

It seems very possible that everything that has happened in Cuba since Sunday, July 11, has been encouraged by a greater or lesser number of opponents of the system, or even paid some of them, with the intention of destabilizing the country and cause a situation of chaos and insecurity. It is also true that later, as often happens in these events, opportunistic and regrettable acts of vandalism occurred. But I think that Neither evidence removes an iota of reason from the cry we have heard. A cry which is also the result of the despair of a society which is going through not only a long economic crisis and a one-off health crisis, but also a crisis of confidence and a loss of expectations..

To this desperate demand, the Cuban authorities should not respond with the usual slogans, repeated for years, and with the answers these authorities want to hear. Not even with explanations, however convincing and necessary they may be. What is imposed are the solutions that many citizens expect or ask for, some demonstrating in the street, others giving their opinion on social networks and expressing their disappointment or dissatisfaction, many counting the few devalued pesos they have in their impoverished pockets and many, many more, doing in resigned silence Queues of several hours in the sun or rain, including a pandemic, queues in markets to buy food, queues at pharmacies to buy drugs, queues of expectation to reach our daily bread and for all that is imaginable and necessary.

I think that no one with a minimum of sense of belonging, with a sense of sovereignty, with civic responsibility can want (or even believe) that the solution to these problems comes from any kind of foreign intervention, again. less of a military nature, like those who have come to ask for it, and this, it is also true, represents a threat which is still a possible scenario.

I also believe that every Cuban inside or outside the island knows that the blockade or the American trade and financial embargo, whatever the name one gives it, is real and has internationalized. and intensified in recent years and that it constitutes too heavy a burden on the Cuban economy (as it would be for any other economy). Those who live outside the island and today want to help their loved ones in the midst of a critical situation, have been able to verify that it exists and how much it exists by seeing each other practically unable to send a shipment to their loved ones, just to name a situation that affects a lot of them. It is an old policy that moreover (sometimes some forget it) practically everyone has condemned for many years in successive United Nations assemblies.

And I think no one can deny that a media campaign has also been unleashed in which, even in the crudest manner, false information has been disseminated which, at the beginning and at the end, only serves to diminish the credibility of its leaders.

But I believe, with all of the above, that Cubans need to regain hope and have a possible picture of their future. If hope is lost, the meaning of any humanist social project is lost. And hope is not taken back by force. It is saved and nourished by these solutions and changes and social dialogues, which, not to happen, have caused, among many other devastating effects, the migratory anxieties of so many Cubans and have now provoked the cry of despair. of people among whom there were surely paid people and opportunistic criminals, even though I refuse to believe that in my country, at this point, there can be so many people, so many people born and educated among us who are selling themselves or commit crimes. Because if it were, it would be the result of the society that fed them.

The spontaneous way, without being linked to any direction, without receiving anything in return or stealing anything along the way, with which a notable number of people have also demonstrated in the streets and on the networks, must be a warning and I think that is an alarming example of the distances that have opened up between major political spheres and the street (and this was recognized even by Cuban leaders). And it is only in this way that we explain that what happened happened, especially in a country where almost everything is known when we want to be known, as we all know too.

To convince and calm the desperate, the method cannot be the solutions of force and darkness., how to impose the digital blackout which cut the communications of many for days, but which nevertheless did not hamper the connections of those who want to say something, for or against.

The violent response can even less be used as a convincing argument, especially against non-violent people. And we already know that violence can be not only physical. Much seems to be at stake today. Maybe even if calm returns after the storm. Perhaps extremists and fundamentalists will not be able to impose their extremist and fundamentalist solutions, and a dangerous state of hatred that has grown in recent years will not take hold.

But anyway, Solutions must arrive, responses which must be not only of a material nature but also of a political nature., and thus an inclusive and better Cuba can respond to the reasons for this cry of despair and loss of hope that, silently but with force, since before July 11, many of our compatriots had uttered these lamentations which were not heard. this sludge appeared.

As a Cuban who lives in Cuba and works and creates in Cuba, I guess it’s my right to think and express my opinion about the country where I live, work and believe. I know that in times like this and when trying to express an opinion, it often happens that “You are always reactionary for someone and red for someone”, as Claudio Sánchez Albornoz once said. . I also take this risk, as a man who claims to be free, who hopes to be more and more free.

In Mantille, July 15, 2021.

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