Cuba / Cuban Affairs

      I’ve been thinking about the inability to read the signs of the times

A cycle has repeated itself: desperate situation – people fed up who take to the streets – arrests and calls to trust in “the tremendous Revolution we have.”

And faced with this cycle, the questions everyone is asking: Until when? Until when will the voice of this people be ignored, a people who have already exhausted every possible way of saying they do not want continuity, that they do not want to live under the flag of July 26? What more does this system need in order to realize that these are not isolated events but rather the expression—once again—of the desperation and desire for change of an entire people?

 Do they not see? Are they really so incapable of understanding that we Cubans are tired of dragging out a miserable existence? Do they really think people believe their empty and false speeches? Do they think people don’t realize that we are in this state because those who cling to power only think of themselves and couldn’t care less about the suffering of the people?

Gibara is not a strange or isolated event; Gibara is yet another in the already long chain of demands for the freedom we deserve. And unfortunately, it is yet another example of the decision of those who govern us not to listen, not to accept the voice of the people they so claim to protect—a decision to repress instead of seeking solutions.

 They seem not to realize that this people have said: “Enough!” and the people have decided to set themselves in motion. The oppressors seem to really believe that their control over the country is total and unalterable. They seem confident in the strength of the chains they have been weaving for more than 60 years.

And yet, people will feel more or less fear, they will take longer or shorter pauses in their protests, but the decision for change is already unstoppable. The responses from those in power may always be the same, they may continue repressing and imprisoning, they may continue trying to sow despair, but if they are minimally intelligent, if they are minimally sensible, it will not be hard for them to understand that the hour of change has arrived, and that this people will not stop pushing against the wall that oppresses them, will not stop striking the chains that bind them, will not stop fighting against the bars of this great prison into which they have turned our island.

They may try to silence the voices in Gibara, but the spirit of freedom will continue blowing through this land, and it will take root again and again in the souls of those of us who still believe that the Cuba we dream of is possible. Gibara is not the end; it is only one more chapter.