Friday, July 3, 2015

The Embassy Wall Fell

The Embassy Wall Fell
YOANI SÁNCHEZ, Madrid | Julio 02, 2015

In a few days they will change the letterhead, replace the name plaque,
and hoist the flag. This building with its green-tinted windows by the
sea will cease to be called the Untied States Interests Section and
become the United States Embassy in Havana. A transformation that
transcends the question of a name, one with political, symbolic and even
linguistic connotations.

The date chosen for the reopening, between the United States'
Independence Day and the anniversary of the assault on the Moncada
Barracks, will enter the history books and mark a new anniversary to
remember. However, only practice will have the last word on how the site
will transform or expand its functions. For now, the questions are many.

Will national television stop broadcasting those programs denigrating
Cuban dissidents where they use images of them entering the Interests
Section, now the embassy? Will the police no longer wait outside for
independent reporters to confiscate their technologies or the diplomas
they received from the journalism courses held there? Will they return
to us that piece of sidewalk facing the sea, where today the police
block pedestrians because of its proximity to the gate of the diplomatic
site?

Freedom of movement for American embassy officials should also be
guaranteed, along with respect for their pouches and mailboxes. The
ability to contact, visit and meet with civil society will have to stop
being stigmatized. Now the diplomats of that country will be guests at
commemorations and public acts. We might even see their faces in the
Plaza of the Revolution during the May Day parade.

Hopefully, with the new diplomatic site we will also free ourselves from
the enormous masts that disfigure the face of our city in front of the
building's façade, with which the Cuban government once wanted to cover
the electronic ticker that displayed news items. Those times already
seem long gone. The "anti-imperialist plaza" itself has lost a reason
for being in a country whose president has smilingly shaken hands with
the occupant of the White House.

The embassy will promote events, thematic film festivals, conferences
with institutions, and concerts, as do those of other countries such as
Canada, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. Then we will see the stars and
stripes on posters, flyers and invitations to cultural activities. Those
who wear hats and dark glasses when they approach the place or contact
its officials, now will arrive with uncovered faces and chins raised.

However, one of the most significant changes that will occur is in the
language. People will stop the use of subterfuges to refer to the place
and call it, directly, "the embassy." Without nicknames, without
specifying the country or detailing the ownership. It will be enough to
say "the embassy" for all of us to know they mean this site, by the sea,
with the green-tinted windows which has ceased to be "the enemy."

Source: The Embassy Wall Fell -
http://www.14ymedio.com/englishedition/The-Embassy-Wall-Fell_0_1808219179.html

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