““It would be better to sink into the sea rather than betray the glory that has been experienced.”. The song of Pablo Milanés It is from 1988, prior to his profound disenchantment. He then communicated common sense in the speeches of Fidel Castro of that year when the so-called socialist camp began to collapse: if the Soviet Union fell and everything around it fell apart, death would be preferable to surrender. Almost four decades later, the collapse was not Soviet, but Venezuelan, and a lackluster heir of the Castro name, President Miguel Díaz-Canel, evoked the commander of those days to communicate the determination of the elite of “resist” the measures adopted by the Administration of Donald Trump of oil suffocation that have only painfully aggravated the internal situation.
The repetition of the same calls for resilience in unknown conditions seems to portend complete failure. The Cuban society of the present is not that of years ago. Before the Soviet bloc collapsed, there was relative economic stability: schools and hospitals were functioning, scenes of extreme poverty and begging were unknown, there were no power outages or garbage accumulated in the streets. Neither beggars. Transportation was a problem, and so was the institutional structure, with its single party, the communist. Productivity was low but Moscow was always at the service of avoiding chaos.
In 1991 Fidel’s prediction was confirmed: the USSR ceased to exist. Its leader urged them to pass the test of hard times and invoked the Baraguá Protest, when a small group of Cubans represented by Antonio Maceo, expressed their rejection of the terms of peace between Spain and the United States after the war at the end of the 19th century because it did not include the independence of the island that had motivated the insurrection of 1868. “If we have to relive the years of ’68, We will live the years of ’68 again! If we have to live through the years of ’95, we will live through the years of ’95 again!; If we have to relive the years of the Sierra Maestra, we will relive the years of the Sierra Maestra!”. In absolute adversity “we will look for ways, we will invent ways, we will look for resources”. Because “without honor, without decorum, without independence and without dignity a people is nothing, the life of a people does not matter.” Therefore, “If all of us on the Central Committee have to die, we will all die!” and we will not be weaker for it!” And then the Castro regime appealed to three convergent measures that began to break social homogeneity: on the one hand, the commitment to foreign tourism accelerated and the use of the dollar. On the other hand, the call began “special period in times of peace”a decade of enormous restrictions.
The number of misfortune
The call came from Fidel’s mouth “option zero”a hypothetical scenario in which society had to organize itself based on the lack of essential supplies for its functioning. Díaz-Canel brought up That number and the new generations froze in the Caribbean. Zero is related to extreme rationing, carts, horses and donkeys, charcoal for cooking and massive use of bicycles.
During the “special period” Cuba had blackouts of up to 16 hours. It lost a third of its GDP between 1991 and 1994 alone. Cubans not only lost weight due to lack of calories. Confidence in the happy future promised in 1959 was shattered. That year, a protest of proportions, “El maleconazo” and Fidel himself took charge of the measures to neutralize it. They were devastating days. Optic neuropathy appeared, affecting thousands of people who did not receive vitamin B. The black market and a mafia associated with sectors of the State flourished. A decade later, the island had recovered part of its previous appearance thanks to the oil supply from Venezuela. The eldest of the Castros recalled that those 90 had tested the mettle of a people and emerged victorious.
Impossible repetition
“We will live in difficult times“, recognized the current president. The Cuban GDP has fallen 15 points between 2020 and 2025, due to a combination of factors: the terrible economic decisions made by the Government and the harassment from Washington. The “almost zero” has already become a reality. Empty hotels and streets. An empty airport. You empty your hopes and your stomachs. And what is coming is more desperate for the descendants of those who went through the “special period.” and they no longer have anything in common with parents and grandparents who called each other “comrades.” They don’t sing that Milanés song either. Their anger is not yet expressed in the streets for fear of the repression that marked the outbreak of 2021. They do it through their phones and social networks. The fury is the inverted mirror of the official press where the call is to put in the body once again and trust in an unpopular leadership.
The food emergency and new blackouts, lack of mobility and growing urban insecuritylead to an alley where the only exit that a sector of the dissatisfied or fed up sees has the orange hair color of Donald Trump, the boastful prophet of the “fall.” A part of the men and women educated in the intransigent tradition find it difficult to accept this reality: they no longer care about a possible revenge of anti-Castro Florida on them. The digital magazine La tizza realized this crossroads. The defense of the Nation is the main thing and other disagreements must be put aside. “These days the differences between patriots are worth nothing. To insist on them today, “with the beast in front, it is a crime against the country”.
“Free Cuba”
The present suffocation comes hand in hand with a depreciation of the local currency, the increase in prices of essential products and economic illegalities, picaresque and crime. Credibility in the authorities is as scarce as food. There is a shared feeling that the bureaucracy and its families do not suffer the same shortcomings. A 21-year-old influencer, Anna Sofía Benítez, known as Anna Bensi, Take advantage of the hours of light to express a shared restlessness. She is evangelical and, at this point, anti-communist. He has no shame. He doesn’t have them either. Sandro Castronieto good-natured of the extinct “commander”. In one of his recurring appearances on social networks he is seen in a bar. At the bar they offer him a beer. But he wants a “Cuba Libre.” The waiter says he doesn’t have Coca-Cola to prepare the drink. “When you have Coca-Cola, let me know.” And when leaving the premises, he concludes: “Better times will come, gentleman”.
Subscribe to continue reading
