This interview is a continuation of my Soy/Somos conversations with Hispanics, Latinos, Latinx living in the US. This is who I am/This is who we are. If you’d like to receive future Soy/Somos posts please contact me here.
On July 11 of this year Cubanos took to the streets all over the island in a public demonstration that was startling to the rest of the world. On July 12th the government retaliated by asking other Cubans to attack the demonstrators. The government arrested between 500 and 800 people and shut down the internet. “Cubanos contra Cubanos.” Cubans felt betrayed.
This week I interviewed Ricardo, a Cuban national living in the United States. Ricardo was very frank with his stories and feelings about the current Cuba and the long history of the island that he loves. His parents still live there as do other family members and friends. He visits regularly.
In reporting Ricardo’s heartfelt comments, I am telling you his thoughts as he told them to me. I’ve changed a few details about him to help camouflage who he is because he speaks so freely. Almost our entire conversation was in Spanish. So the words I write are as close to the original as I could make them in translation. In a few instances I’ve left a few expressions in the original Spanish.
I was in Cuba earlier this year, and I don’t see how people can live. They don’t have water, they don’t have funds. There may be some chicken in a store that sells in dollars… el matazón de las colas, those endless lines… I felt that I was living in the Stone Age. Imagine… the chicken was frozen, and the sellers in order to sell the chicken would smash it against the sidewalks, as if they were animals. They broke the archway of a friend’s house built in 1930 with the frozen chicken. No one is thinking. It makes me crazy.
I left Cuba early in my twenties, and was repatriated several years ago. Before, when you left Cuba for whatever reason, the government would take away all your rights as a Cuban, your house, everything, todo lo que sudaste. Now, with repatriation, you can go back, complete papers and receive an ID card, una cedula.. With your cedula you can be taken care of in a hospital, or anywhere, like any Cuban. You can own a house in the city and one at the beach. You can buy a car or two or three.
Just now they changed the law again. For each month that I am living away I must give the government 500 Cuban pesos.
It seems that Cubans who have left and have repatriated are a steady source of funds for their families and the state…
Exactly.
I assume all the responsibility for my parents, but I have to stop there. I have kids to support. Cubanos think that in the United States money just flows down a big spigot. I bought a house for my parents. I’ve bought a car and they crash it.
When you work for the government and the government truck breaks down you laugh and say no problem. you go to the shop and they fix it—or you keep driving it and destroy the tires. The government will give another vehicle. With my car, if something breaks, they laugh, “that piece of junk,” “those old cars they break again.” And I say you think it’s funny, and now I have to send money to pay for your repair.
And you are gambling with the money I send you, playing bolita and owing 5000 pesos. Seriously. And I don’t even play numbers here… The society has become one of “bring me” and “solve it for me.” “Tráeme” y “resuelveme.”
Does the thinking that something is owed come from the habit of depending on a government who gives and takes away?
Sadly, this is how I see life in Cuba now: Neither the government nor the society feels shame. I am sorry if this might be misinterpreted. People in Cuba don’t want to do anything because you have to help them. They don’t understand that I work like a convict, un condenado, here in the United States to help them and my own young family. They don’t ask you to take care of the problems, but you know. And you take care of the problems.
I was talking to a young man in Cuba. He says his country sucks. “There is no money. There is no way to make money.”
What are you doing for work, I say.
“I’m working as a custodian for a place.. This gives me some little pull so I can have two pigs and three rabbits.”
For what?
“Because I can sell them.”
I say, why don’t you find the best house builder you can find, or the best mason. Tell the guy I want to work no matter how much you pay me. Pay attention, learn a trade. And then you can make all the money you want.
He just laughs.
I’ve heard that the Cuban government guarantees that every Cuban has enough food.
It has changed in the last 6 months. The government led people to believe that it was going to raise everyone’s salary. They made a whole explanation on tv. That foodstuffs would be very cheap, that you’d have enough money. What they didn’t say was that electricity would go up, water too, that the costs of any kind of paperwork would go up, the box of cigarettes, that your subscription to the newspaper would go from 5 pesos to 45. The cost of everything went up. All owned by the government.
They put officials in charge of food distribution centers for the people. The officials are the first to set aside food for themselves and their buddies and then the next official and the next. The people end up getting half. Socialism has very beautiful ideas and intentions, until they put a human being in charge.
Ricardo, what can you tell me about the protests on July 11?
The protests began because we want vaccinations and food. About liberty, that came after. First thing, the people wanted medicine. It’s pretty easy. I have a doctor friend who works in the policlínico. The mothers want to kill him because in this moment he represents the State. He can tell you what kind of problem you have but can’t give you medicine. Doesn’t have it. And in Cuba people start screaming at him.
What do you think could bring some relief? What should happen?
The best solution right now is for the United States to remove the embago. If that happened, we would be like in the time of Obama. The people can create small businesses, be taxi drivers, they can rent to strangers. The country would flourish. Yes, the government would earn some money—but it doesn’t matter, ordinary people would make un dinerito.
This is what I always say: It’s not humanly possible that poor people start a revolution and win. Revolutions are for the rich. In all Latin American countries it has always been people of the upper class who can think differently and finance revolutions, the ones who begin everything.
That the Cuban revolution has lasted so long and that the government has been able to control its population can be thanked to the United States who maintained the embargo and set themselves up as a common enemy.
Listen, I lived in Cuba and worked there and return every year. I care about a beautiful Cuba where the US says OK we are going to leave them alone, and the Cuban government says OK, and where the Cuban government cannot control the number of Americans who begin to arrive. They will not have enough security as happened during the Obama opening and they had to tell the people to begin their businesses….
Trump wrecked everything. He played footsie with the Cuban politicians in Miami—and the control was handed back to the Cuban government. Who was screwed? The people. Always.
Whoever you speak to in Miami have their brains traumatized. Intervention. Intervention. They want to bombard Cuba. It doesn’t matter if you kill all the people who live on the island. This is wrong. And it isn’t everyone who thinks this. There are good people who don’t. But the majority do, at least the ones who yell loudest.
Can you tell me something positive about everyday life in Cuba today? What about the music?
Remember we are living under a pandemic. That doesn’t exist today. But yes, about the Cuban people, give them a lawyer to tell them they have to go against the Revolution—or a doctor—and they will not follow. But give them un reggaetonero, a reggaeton musician or singer, and everyone will come. You must know that of all the movements that have arisen against the government in Cuba, the one that has had some success is the San Isidro movement, led by artists and musicians, writing and singing the song “Patria y Vida.” Motherland and life.
I love the song. I identify with it.
For thoughtful perspectives on Cuba, read Ruth Behar and Richard Blanco’s Bridges to/from Cuba.
Take a look Carolina’s endearing story - Soy/Somos: Una Cubana Takes Off Her American Suit.
Other Soy/Somos you may enjoy:
I’d love to hear your thoughts.