The 'ya basta' line

Back around when I was in grad school in New York, I had a Cuban roomate named Ibis. We were a perfect match because I never watched television and she never stopped. My abstention gave her total access to the whole set and time to see every last television show on the air. I was no threat. The TV was all hers. What the heck, Cuba Libre in hand, I even watched sometimes with her, and got to see Law & Order, or maybe it was LA Law, her favorite show. Could television-watching could be turned into a career? She often wondered about it.

She explained to me that for some Cubans, exemplified by herself, television was non-negotiable, a necessity of life, something to fight for. And all things, truly all things, except for a call from her mother in Miami, could wait while Law & Order was on. But if her mother called while Law & Order was on, they watched together on their simultaneously tuned sets in two cities as they chatted. That's the way it was.

Well it looks like castro has met his first Ibis.

This past week, a whole neighborhood of Cubans in Havana fought off castro's sweaty little communist agents in grubby black leather jackets for trying to confiscate one of their television sets. A line was crossed - into the intolerable - when the bastards tried to steal the television set for the "crime" of watching American television programs. Who were these resistors to communism? Ordinary Cubans, and maybe, like Ibis, watching Law & Order by satellite dish. They beat the castroite thugs back and chased them out in a real revolutionary act. Over this ordinary pleasure.

Television is often seen as a passive medium. Well, in Cuba it isn't. In an unfree society, it's a few minutes of sanity, a few glimpses of freedom. Amid all the ration cards, restrictions on movements, 12-hour speeches by the bearded Beast, rotten medical care, insulting billboards saying 'we're doing well,' block committees, bad food, leering, grinning visits from Hugo Chavez, crappy transport, potholes, propaganda education, damn castro to heck if he ever tries to take their TV sets, too.

Because that is obviously the line where some Cubans say 'ya basta.'

A small victory, for now.

Posted by Mora at July 31, 2005 11:41 AM

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» CUBA'S TV-SET REVOLUTIONARIES from Publius Pundit
Fidel Castro's goons were in for the surprise of their lives when a whole neighborhood in Havana rose up and beat them back with sticks when they tried to confiscate a barrio TV set. A line was crossed. Nobody gets between Cubans and their TV sets. Nob... [Read More]

Tracked on July 31, 2005 02:13 PM

» Cuba: Holding on to Television from Global Voices Online
Mora at Babalu Blog reports that some government agents tried confiscating a television with an illegal satellite dish, but that the neighborhood resisted. ... [Read More]

Tracked on August 1, 2005 07:20 PM

Comments

Posted by: George L. Moneo at July 31, 2005 12:38 PM

Posted by: j.scott barnard at July 31, 2005 12:57 PM

Posted by: Dave J at July 31, 2005 05:35 PM