Prison Diary XLVI - Let Him Sleep

Prison Diary XLVI: Let Him Sleep / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on August 13, 2013

Today, during the count, Lieutenant Fermin was told that an inmate who
had been operated on for several malignant cysts in the testes, to whom
they'd given cytostatic drugs and a hundred medications plus a bladder
catheter, had a high fever and could not get out of bed.

"Let him sleep," he answered.

"He's awake," a prisoner told him.

"Never mind," insisted the officer, "leave him be."

The barracks were silent for several minutes, no one could believe what
we'd heard, being treated like a human being.

Like it or not, we have to accept that in Cuban cells there are no human
beings, we're not even in the category of animals, who are cared for and
protected in the cattle ranches and pigsties. We are nothing more than
"public enemies," according to the official nomenclature, we are
"nothing," something suspended in time and space, which is neither seen
nor does it materialize. There are no rights for prisoners, save the
sick and dying.

Meanwhile, the young prisoner becomes delirious, his twenty-something
years justifying his crying for his mother. Only silence answered him in
the barracks.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats
Prison 1580, July 2013

Translator's note: This entry was written before Angel was transferred
out of Prison 1580, but was first published today, 12 August 2013.

Source: "Prison Diary XLVI: Let Him Sleep / Angel Santiesteban |
Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/prison-diary-xlvi-let-him-sleep-angel-santiesteban/