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and groups, and acting conscientiously in their incessant search for balance and stability inherent
in all civilized societies.
By using that educational monopoly, the regime
has derailed “civic education” and “the teaching
of values” as a way to affirm the mind and spirit
of young people regarding a series of ideological
principles and social behaviors very conveniently
designed to protect its political control.
There is one and only one source of limited information for society, in general, and young people,
in particular. This results in a doubly negative effect: it creates a very narrow set of ethical, cultural and political goals for people and, on the
other hand, paralyzes their ability to carry out
very essential research, initiatives and debates essential to youth and extremely necessary for individual and collective growth.
The fact that generations of young people have
been born and educated under a suppressive regime in which there is not a strong and dynamic
civil society has meant they have been denied an
irreplaceable social and influential space in which
to learn and participate. This space, based on diversity and legitimation, and the promotion and
defense of private, group and social interests, is
one of the most important places in which communities can develop and find balance. In addition, it also strengthens citizens’ sense of responsibility and their awareness of their rights.
By nature, young people are restless, dynamic,
and pluralistic. They have a tendency to enthusiastically embrace diversity, which ensures that
any current attempt to impose models, preconceived canons or closed, unchangeable structures
on them from on high will result in their natural
and spontaneous rejection of them. This is a form
of rebelliousness they are channeling through
ways and attitudes circumstances permit.
There are not civil or legal spaces in Cuba for expressing their concerns, criticisms or unconformities; political, social and civil organizations are

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controlled by and dependent upon the State via a
corporate structure that in fact corrupts and annuls all these corporative institutions, which represent the interests of their members.
All this is further complemented by an extensive
system of surveillance, coercion and repression
whose responsibility it is to prevent and eliminate
any independent expression and gravely endanger
the aspirations and social participation of those
who are dissatisfied or challenge the status quo.
Reaction and response
Beyond the urgent need for more economic and
political freedom, which any objective analysis of
Cuban reality would reveal, the above described
elements and phenomena make it so that Cuban
young people are not in a position to openly and
frontally demand these changes and transformations. Why? Because they lack the most minimal freedom with which to develop socioeconomically and any clear sense of the very necessary civic and intellectual referents they need to
be able to participate in a conscientious and committed manner in society and politics. Any individual or groups wishing to do so must have these
to engage our time’s most complex political and
social processes of interaction.
Far from being able to confront the problems and
challenges, these existential and intellectual lacunae enable dual morality, evasion and escapism to
prevail among young people when they need to
channel their desires, needs and frustrations.
It is often the case that young people’s use of alternative and illegal spaces not only contradicts
and denies the regime’s imposed values, but also
the more positively, universally acknowledged
ones. This results from a poor, deficient education
and is one of the factors that increase the lamentable moral and existential disarray that affects so
many Cuban young people today.
Phenomena such as alcoholism, prostitution, religious fanaticism, marginality, criminal behavior,