Iván García, Translator: Unstated
Viviana, 34, is a good example demonstrating that the Revolution of
Fidel Castro is losing force. She has never read any work of Marxist
theorists. Not even Das Kapital.
Neither does she need to. She is very clear. She needs to get the red
card of the party to rise. Improve her harsh living conditions and have
opportunities and benefits. That is her goal. And it works for her.
There exists in Cuba a new breed of the supposed Castro brothers
faithful with an amazing glaze of cynicism and opportunism. Forget
faith. To occupy a position within the ideological sector, they see a
spiral staircase to climb the ladder to the superstructure.
Their vocation us not Karl Marx, nor even Jose Marti. A little of Fidel
Castro and great desires to travel the world in the name of tropical
socialism.
They know the prerogatives of power. "Big Brother" is parsimonious. But
he rewards fidelity. You can spend the summer in a house on the beach.
Get foods and little things without spending money in State stores.
Dance reggaeton without paying in hard currency, though perhaps a few
pesos, at some disco in Havana.
And at the end of the road, if you pass through the trustworthiness
filter, first a car, and then an address, conveyed from one of the many
houses belonging to the "State reserve."
After arriving and kissing the saint, there are other chameleon tactics.
Being in the National Assembly is important. Rubbing shoulders with
generals and ministers is a wonderful gateway. A good cover letter.
Wildly applauding the speech of the boss. Discreetly, suggesting the
possibility of filing down certain sharp edges in the Creole Bible that
is the Guidelines of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the
Revolution. At that time, perhaps some old military leader of a
corporation or foreign firm has his eye on you and makes you the
expected offer
It is the dream of the new grandchildren of the Revolution. A visa. And
foreign currency in your wallet. Like pigs primed with three meals a
day. Never missing the three C's in the pantry: beef, shrimp and coffee
(Carne de res, Camarones and Cafe… in Spanish). And the coffee is not
mixed with peas. It's Brazilian or Colombian.
Genuflection and bigotry are a means to ascend. Progress in the name of
an old German philosopher or that hard Russian Bolshevik whom you have
never read, or read without paying attention, and, of course,
assimilating, or pretending to assimilate, Fidelismo, that religion that
emerged in 1959.
Any methods is good to show loyalty. From the beating of a peaceful
dissident, or screaming with your veins popping out at the Ladies in
White, "to the machete," or insulting and classifying independent
journalists as "mercenaries." In pursuit of reaching the goal, anything
goes.
October 12 2011
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