"Better Plastered than Perfumed" Revolutionary Fragrances

"Better Plastered than Perfumed" Revolutionary Fragrances / Juan Juan
Almeida
Posted on November 5, 2014

The uproar from the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba was of
considerable proportions. At a presentation of the recent Labiofam* 2014
conference, two new perfumes were introduced which, according to company
officials, had been named "Ernesto" and "Hugo" in an attempted tribute
to Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Hugo Chavez.

At first I thought it was a logical reaction, given that its creators
described Ernesto as having a woodsy and sweet bouquet, and Hugo as
having hints of tropical fruits. Some expert "noses," however, insist
that both essences smell more like public restrooms at Carnaval.

The official announcement published in the newspaper Granma left more
questions than answers, and was less credible than Alejandro Castro
Espín's mechanical engineering degree. After years of using the names of
both men to christen parks, lodges, schools, factories and even
cantatas without proper consent, the Cuban Communist Party said through
its official news outlet that "initiatives of this nature will never be
accepted by our people or the Revolutionary government."

The collective memory of Cuba's leaders appears to be failing. They seem
to have forgotten that on July 27, 1983 Celia Sánchez Manduley*,
described as "the most beloved flower," became synonymous with a useless
textile manufacturer, that an ineffective building contracting business
was named after Blas Roca Calderío* or that the name for the
unproductive construction company Almest was created out of the last
names of Juan Almeida* and Armando Mestre*.

It is worth remembering that in 1994 — the same year Fidel Castro agreed
to pose for the magazine Cigar Aficionado sniffing a Cohiba Lancero —
Labiofam brought to market three fragrances imported from France:
colognes labelled Alejandro, Celia and Havana. As a press statement of
the time indicated, "the first two are products with allegorical names
for figures of the Revolution."



José Antonio Fraga Castro — nephew to Fidel and Raul and director of
Labiofam — wanted to repeat David's feat against Goliath and pave the
way to their loyalty with the asphalt of this odiferous hypocrisy. But
he did not know how to use the sling and ended up with a huge bump on
his head. He forgot that the iconic image of Che, which was launched and
promoted by his uncles, has its own copyright. Fidel Castro is the
product, the pedestal, and the only official model which can promote the
Cuba brand, as Raul has decreed

In 2002, the village of Birán* — a hamlet within the municipality of
Cueto that is about 45 miles from the city of Holguín and about 19 from
Marcané — was declared an open-air museum. It was crowned a National
Monument in early 2011 by government decree and became an obligatory
overnight stop for tourists to the area looking for a distillery.

In case you didn't know, the profitable home rum authorized by the
Revolutionary government, which according to its official news outlet
"does not endorse projects of this kind," was given the name Comandante
Fidel. It is exported by the Cuban firm Tecnoazucar, and bottled and
labelled with Fidel's image by the Spanish firm Abanescu, S.L., located
in La Jonquera, Catalonia.

As an old urban prophet author ot Politicaductor, or a new translator of
Cuban political thought wrote: "Better I smell Kurdish than perfumed."

*Translator's notes: Labiofam is a Cuban veterinary and pharmaceutical
products company. Alejandro Castro Espín is Cuban president Raul
Castro's only son. Celia Sánchez Manduley was a leading figure in the
Cuban revolution with close personal ties to Fidel Castro. Blas Roca
Calderío was a revolutionary figure who later served as head of Cuba's
National Assembly. Juan Almeida and Armando Mestre were also prominent
figures in the Cuban revolution and the former was this blogger's
father. Birán is best known as the birthplace of Fidel Castro.

Spanish post
7 October 2014

Source: "Better Plastered than Perfumed" Revolutionary Fragrances / Juan
Juan Almeida | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/better-plastered-than-perfumed-revolutionary-fragrances-juan-juan-almeida/