Approval, discontent greet Castro revolution's 50th year in Cuba

Posted on Tuesday, 01.06.09

Approval, discontent greet Castro revolution's 50th year in Cuba
By MIAMI HERALD STAFF

SANTIAGO DE CUBA -- At Parque Dolores, tourist buses filled with
Canadians and Europeans lugging cameras that cost two years' wages here
listen to musical trios while elderly men pick through the trash.

The handicapped beg for coins under the mindful eye of a police officer.
Aging newspaper hawkers trying to supplement their $9 monthly pensions
sell copies of the government newspaper with the proud headline --
``Keeps going down! Infant Mortality at 4.7!''

''Nothing in the world is better than this,'' said Raúl Ferrer, 86, a
retired ship worker who spent Friday afternoon dozing on a bench.

''There is no other place that takes care of its elderly and children
the way Cuba does. I quite honestly would be dead in my grave if it were
not for this,'' Ferrer said, pointing to newspaper coverage of
Thursday's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the revolution.

Some in Santiago and Havana who watched Raúl Castro's national address
praised Fidel Castro for igniting the revolution that toppled a
dictator, while others said the speech ignored the economic pain Cubans
are feeling.

''He is saying nothing new,'' said Brenda, a Havana economist in her
late 40s who kept making exasperated expressions as Castro spoke. ``He
is saying nothing that all those people sitting there have not heard and
know already.''

Others simply tuned out.

''I was not even interested in watching,'' said Regina, a housewife in
her 40s. ``My husband kept calling me from the other room to go and
watch it and I didn't.''

Conversations with Cubans in the eastern city of Santiago, the
birthplace of the revolution, seem to mirror wider discussions -- some
hushed -- about the revolution's future and legacy.

Ferrer's sister and brother-in-law were among insurgents who helped oust
dictator Fulgencio Batista five decades ago. The years that followed saw
a redistribution of wealth that caused the rich to flee and everyone
else to become more or less poor.

''I used to be a big fan of the United States,'' Ferrer said. ''I loved
it. But reading and reading, reading this,'' he said, pointing to the
paper again, ``my eyes slowly started opening.''

He recounted spending 15 days in a Cuban hospital long ago and never
paying a bill. Now, he is waiting for a slot in a home for the aged. In
the meantime, Ferrer sleeps on a mat at a building he keeps an eye on at
night.

''I am quite happy here,'' he said.

Not so for cab driver Andres. As he hoped to pick up some of the
tourists near the square, he rolled his eyes hearing people talk of the
50th anniversary commemoration.

''I did not watch it,'' Andres said. 'I and most other Cuban people are
tired of the lies. It's lies, lies and more lies. They get up there and
talk to the Cuban people telling us, `You have to do this, you have to
do that. You have to struggle.' I believe things I can see. You have to
touch and feel reality. Nothing they said can be touched or felt. None
of it was real.''

Francisco, 64, who sells peanuts to tourists in the plaza, praises the
revolution.

''If the revolution had not won, who knows what shape this country would
be in. My dad was a laborer for 20 cents a day, not a penny more,'' he
said. ``Now look around. Every kid you see has a big belly and a scoop
of ice cream in his hand.''

But he acknowledges a difficult life. He has to sell at least two dozen
paper cones filled with nuts before he can afford a bar of soap and
detergent to wash his guayabera.

''I watched the celebration of the anniversary last night on TV. It was
very nicely decorated,'' he said, without a hint of irony in his voice.

A drummer singing Guantanamera to the tourists who refused to purchase
peanuts proudly recounts how he was a fighter during the 1961 Bay of
Pigs invasion backed by the CIA and squelched by the Cuban government.
He shakes his head at a belligerent elderly man who puts an old plastic
ice cream cup in front of tourists' tables and won't leave until they
drop in a coin.

''You have shameless people who don't want to struggle. Look at that old
man, asking for money when he gets the same pension as me,'' said
drummer Miguel Portuondo, 64, who goes by the stage name Bocú Yeyé.
``There are women at all the nightclubs in town batting their eyelashes
sweetly, acting all innocent, when really they are pretending not to be
prostitutes. Why? Because they do not want to work. They do not want to
study.''

Portuondo did both. He joined the rebels at age 14, distributing
underground propaganda in the city. 'I was only 14, but I was not the
youngest! There were children as young as 12. Of course, I did not even
know what I was struggling for, but my parents' hatred for Batista was
so great that they had me distributing propaganda for the rebels.''

He later fought at the Bay of Pigs, although he did not know then what
he was fighting against. On Thursday, he was one of the special invited
guests at the historic celebration in Parque Cespedes. He was there as a
former rebel fighter and renowned local musician. He keeps all his press
clippings in his briefcase to prove it.

''For me, it was a very proud occasion,'' Portuondo said. ``These 50
years have been beautiful. Sure, we have to struggle, but this country
gives you what you need to struggle -- an education. I studied, became a
professional musician and retired. Now I am out here working and
struggling to make a few extra dollars. There is nothing wrong with that.''

''The people who criticize this system or just want to leave have been
co-opted by the desire for capitalism. But capitalism does not offer any
love, affection or respect for the people,'' Portuondo said.

He said he proudly watched Castro's speech, calling it ``decisive.''

''He is a man who says things as they are: Two plus two equals four, not
five,'' he said. ``That's how it is, and that's how he says it. He has a
lot of virtues, just like his brother.''

The names of the correspondents who filed this report and the surnames
of some of those interviewed were not published because the reporters
lacked the journalist visa required by the Cuban government.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2009/01/02/v-fullstory/835581/approval-discontent-greet-castro.html