Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
Days and weeks rush by while people keep waiting on a miracle. The
Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba is entranced before the
mirror. Their makeup has to be perfect; 52 years of wrinkles are not
easy to hide.
The show has begun, the audience begins to cheer at the top of their
lungs, but the main actress still does not appear on stage. The
falsettos from rehearsal remain behind the backdrop. Seeing as the
tickets have all sold out, one suspects that it will be a long and
terrible night in this grand theater where they have promised marvels
but where, instead, disaster lurks behind each and every crack of that
old building.
Many furiously searched through the resolutions presented by the
Lineaments to see if they could find some sort of consolation, but
nothing can be done amid hieratic discourses and medieval immobility.
Lineaments 278 and 286, referencing the relaxation of purchasing,
leasing, or selling of homes and of automobiles, are some of the most
searched for and awaited for pieces of legislation. Finally, the slave
will be able to sell his small plantation, finally the everyday citizen
can sell his or her old motorcycle which they brought over nearly 30
years ago from former Eastern Germany or Czechoslovakia. Some see this
as permission to be able to breath, blink, or sleep when one is tired.
Despite the fact that massive media sources of information (or
"dis-information", as a friend of mine says) publish reports each day
of supposed debates which only their journalists pay any attention to or
of a supposed public approval of these measures, nothing is said about
eliminating clear and absurd impositions applied to the right of a large
number of Cubans (who go against the ideology of the communist
apparatus) from entering or leaving the country. As if these human
comings and goings would not produce income for the only slave owner.
Despite the winds that seem to be blowing, the neighborhood Cubans
continue to return their self employment permits. The drought which
whips across the Eastern region of the country has impeded the sowing,
recollection, selling, and earnings cycle which many agriculture workers
were awaiting for during this time of the year. Meanwhile, the
watchdogs of social life tighten their grips, and increase the fines and
constraints.
Translated by Raul G.
9 June 2011
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