Cuba: Flavor and disappointments of the island after Fidel – 07/22/2018

"The death of Fidel is over (communist)," the furious anti-Castro activists in Miami said on November 25, 2016, but history told them no: Cuban socialism is still there after the the death of Comandante, on this island located a few hundred kilometers from the United States, which gave exquisite writers and a unique social and political experience in Latin America. In search of an answer to the Cuban enigma, the journalist Gabriela Esquivada traveled, asked and wrote for five years and the decision of this effort is her remarkable book Ya tú sabes ( Debate), an extensive and meticulous chronicle, written with surgical precision prose. The survey revisits the past of the Revolution, brimming with its present under the presidency of Miguel Díaz Canel, badyzes the impact of the relationship with the Soviet Union for three decades or the gravitation of exiles in Miami , among other topics. It traces a mosaic where one can feel the flavor of the tropics and the problems that rule a society that has been harbaded by the rigors of the North American trade blockade, the state bureaucracy itself and the dismantling from the socialist camp since the 90s.

– There is a heartbreaking phrase in his book: "If something is democratic in Cuba, it is poverty" Did you perceive asymmetries between the lives of leaders and those of ordinary people? ?

-Yes, not only have I detected them, but I mention in the book some Cuban economists, who talk about what are already non-socialist social relations in Cuba. They have more general data, so I can say what I saw in a restaurant or in the streets. They refer to an income from the inequality of the great crisis that occurs with the fall of the Soviet Union, the "snow transfusion", which is as we have said to the ## 147 ## 39, Soviet financial support, and then generate a double currency and a series of economic phenomena after various measures and successes, and especially errors. Because you had to improvise in a critical situation, in which people were hungry, and then there was a more unequal society.

When the Soviet Union fell, it was necessary to improvise in a critical situation, in which people were hungry "

Gabriela Esquivada

-A before and after the Soviet Union …

-If before there was what these economists call "poverty with shelter" Suddenly, Cuba began to look more like other places in Latin America, we are used to poverty in Latin America, where there is no supply book like in Cuba, and even if the notebook is kept, it is much smaller In the 80s, people did not give him so much money because they did not need it, they ate food because they were there, because it was less, now it's something they have need to make ends meet. from you Very nice restaurant, which is said to be the son of Colomé Ibarra, who is the former minister of the interior, a powerful man and a hero of the Revolution, and to ride that it takes to have some capital. There are detectable situations of privilege, that is, non-socialist relations, but perhaps laughable in comparison with the percentage of rich people in the world who in 2030 will have two-thirds of the world's wealth.

– Material Shortage – What in Cuban Jargon Is Called "Work of Pbadage" – Undermined Confidence in the Historical Achievements of the Revolution in Health and Education?

– There is a huge dissatisfaction with the economy, because no one likes to be poor having split families, because children have better opportunities outside. Because until recently, going to the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act was very easy, but no one likes to see their grandchildren on the phone screen cellular. But there are also cases of Cubans who emigrated to North America and if they have a health problem, they go to Havana for treatment. Because health insurance in the United States is very expensive and if you do not take care of yourself in centers of excellence, your health is in danger. People prefer to take the plane and in forty minutes is there and, as they are Cuban citizens, nothing comes out. They trust in Cuban health. Education is a different matter: the public school is not as good as it was, while the university maintains its quality, so it 's not the same. dissatisfaction is mixed, and there are some things that are defended and others that are not.

– What were the main mistakes and successes of the process from Castro? [19659005] -The book is made of the voices of others, because I am a stranger. I have the impression that my place is a privilege, to be able to tell this story without the pbadions that are aroused in the discussions around the subject of Cuba. I look from the outside, with an ignorance that allows me to go check the data in the books, but I dare not say "it's okay" or "it's wrong". In a very general way, as a human being who could live in Cuba, it seems to me that the more freedom people have, the more wealthy the country will be. And with "freedom" I'm not just talking politics, because I do not believe that a poor boy from an Argentinean village is free. On the other hand, at a time when we accept the triumph of capitalism, essentially because no one has been left on the other side, there is a loss of rights: part of the rights of A human being is having a decent life, health, education, the possibility that your children live in a safe environment and that they do not kill you for a sneaker. These are all important things that the Cuban Revolution has guaranteed.

– How will Fidel Castro be remembered? As a charismatic and authoritarian leader or as a hero who has dignified the people by confronting imperialism?

– The legacy of Fidel is already there. With his death everything was closed. His end was expected, because he was an old man and that he was sick. For Cubans, it will always be a chance to be magical, double faced. Some will see it as a huge and redemptive figure, and others as a huge evil figure. He is remarkable, because he has ceased to be a normal human being and has become a mythological being, having also been a legend in life.

Part of the rights of a human being is to have a decent life, that his children live in a safe environment and do not get killed by a sneaker. These are all things that the Cuban Revolution has guaranteed. "

Gabriela Esquivada

-Divides the Cubans?

-Cause a lot of division: she is not very different from other big names like Mandela, or San Martín, who did not he told the Spaniards "They leave, please." All the great men and women are dividing, and in Cuba, it will always be a hard thing to watch: like a superhero or a super-supervisor. can see as a political leader who led a revolution at a historical moment where it seemed possible, he did not write much, he does not leave a theoretical work, he looks from the outside, everything starts and ends with him Cuba, transformed by the great crisis, in the future I think that what began in 1959 ended

Buenos Aires, 1967.

She is a journalist, translator and publisher of non-fiction books He has published "Noticias de los montoneros. The story of the newspaper that could not announce the revolution "(2009) and short texts included in anthologies such as" Sam is not my uncle. Twenty-four chronicles of migrants and an American dream (2012).

He also published reports and reports on La Nación, Rolling Stone, Black Label, Gatopardo, El País and Crítica, among other media. Currently being written at Infobae.