Esto lo escribí hace casi exactamente tres años –fue publicado por el Miami Herald el 12 de enero de 2012-, y me entristece pensar que, haciéndole solo un par de “cambios cosméticos”, siga tan vigente hoy como entonces:
The world seems about to spin out of its axis — without waiting for the Mayan calendar — and there is almost no indication, whether you look to Washington or Brussels, of anything sensible and daring being done to stop it, other than hitting the replay button. It is as if an epidemic had struck, a virus compelling us to "dance with the one that brung ya." The one saving grace is that, at the rate American banks are losing their "leaders" to European politics, Wall Street may soon be depleted.
It feels like watching a "Jenga" game — where the loser is the player who pulls out the little wood piece that brings the wobbly tower down — where nobody wants to make a move.
But wait, there is one guy who is actually playing, and his name is Raúl. Yes, "that" Raúl. He may not be making the moves or changes we would make. But Cuba's Jenga tower — arguably as wobbly as they come — is being tinkered with by a player that seems willing to take risks few of his counterparts in the free world want to face.
We Cuban Americans, on the other hand, are the most reluctant Jenga players the world has ever seen: we obdurately stick to our danzón with a policy aimed at isolating Cuba, though our dancing partner's halitosis has left us more isolated in the ball room than Cuba has ever been.
Maybe it is because we Cuban Americans are more prone to tell others what to do than to listen to them, and that makes us impermeable to any drop of wisdom or even common sense that others could contribute to our "cause." This trait of our collective Cuban personae was starkly though sweetly reflected in Luis Aguilar Leon (Lundi)'s brilliant essay, "El Profeta Habla de los Cubanos" (The Prophet Speaks about Cubans), published 25 years ago.
Whether it is the Pope who tells us to open up to Cuba, or the international community — unified as few if any issues unify it — that year after year pleads for the end of the Cuban embargo, we know better. We note that the Pope and the Cuban Catholic Cardinal are fellow travelers of the Cuban regime, and the world, all of it, has been co-opted and duped by Cuban propaganda.
So we embrace our scattered wooden pieces (the tower we see is just a figment of our imagination) without risking any daring move, fearfully aware that any new pile we try to build could be seen as a concession to our Nemesis in Havana.
And here we are, 22 years (25 in January 2015) after witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall and celebrating "Castro's Final Hour" — while ignoring the many opportunities the fluid situation created for a new approach towards Cuba. Twelve years (15 today) after the Elian saga harmed our national image when we refused to tone down our emotions and leave some room to reason, as many tried to tell us we should. Five years (eight now) after celebrating Fidel's "death" to come and three (six) after watching Raúl formally take over, we are stuck in the same page we were over 50 years ago (56, and counting....).
But the stakes are even higher today than they were three years ago because, whether we can believe this or not, Cuba is now changing, and it is changing without us having any input, other than the input those who visit the island may have.
So what do we do? Some of us are already writing the script for the new pope, scheduled to visit Cuba in March. Others are bent on undoing the measures our president took to make travel and remittances to Cuba more flexible. ...
While Cubans on the island are learning to live with somewhat better expectations, tied to car and home ownership, individual entrepreneurship and financing, we in Miami remain prisoners of our fears and stubbornness, with one single expectation: the biological solution that will leave us with "no problem."
Sooner or later, biology will be on our side. But by then we may have spent all the good will and credit Cubans on the island may still be willing to extend to us. And, with the brothers gone, we will have no one else to blame but ourselves.
When it comes to the future of Cuba, the only change we have any control over is that in our own attitude towards it. We should have listened to Pope John Paul II when he told us not to be afraid. That is the only change we should believe in.
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