The Children of Marti

I was in the middle of reading a piece in Newsweek entitled “(f)idel’s Children” when I refreshed the Babalu page to see if any new posts had gone up. And I read Ruth’s post “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”-And I know that somewhere there’s a Cabezon with a proud smile on his face.

With the Ruth’s words still bouncing in my mostly empty head, I continued to read…"(f)idel's children" pfft.. I guess the author was trying to say “Children of the Revolution” since the article is about the Cubans who were born after (f)idel took over and their angst, anger and frustration about the lack of material comforts, not lack of freedom:

Young Cubans are starting to publicly demand that the regime make tangible improvements in their lives. Their wish lists are decidedly apolitical. Instead of pining for democracy, most are focused on things foreign peers take for granted: the freedom to travel abroad, unrestricted Internet access, enough disposable income to buy a cell phone or an iPod.

You hear that “apolitical” thing a lot when talking to newly exiled Cubans. Of course! Politics for them is the communist party, the totalitarian control of every aspect of their lives, slogans, indoctrination, intimidation and repression. They instinctively want to get as far away from this as possible. To be left alone to make their own decisions and choose their destiny. To be Free! How yearning to be free is not political is something that maybe only nuanced, highly evolved Newsweek reporters can discern, I certainly can’t .

And this where Ruth’s words of wisdom connected with the story: Try as they might to build che’s new man, to mass produce a bunch of “fidel’s children”-obedient, mind numb automotons, all they accomplish is to continue to produce Cubans. The Children of Marti.

Posted by Gusano at February 28, 2008 03:15 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.babalublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/hut.cgi/7577

Comments

Posted by: Henry "Conductor" Gomez at February 28, 2008 05:27 PM

Post a comment