IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 3 ENGLISH | Page 105

Task,”7 as if it were some sort of scientific triumph, is a form of silence. One of Álvarez
Rodríguez’s interviews hits the nail on the head:
María Laura Martín Rodríguez: “It is criminal,
shameful, that his name was used for something
like this, that it name something that brutalized all
those men and women who loved sugar.”
If our actions don’t deserve any acknowledgment;
if it is possible to terminate an activity in which
we’ve been engaged our whole life without even
looking at the result; if our pension is not enough
for us to be able to buy a pair of shoes; if the decision to undo our lives is celebrated as a triumph
and given a flashy name, then, what value did all
our contributions have?
This is the value of Álvarez Rodríguez’s action:
going to each and everyone of these people and
letting them talk, not because she found them
along the way, or because she feels pity for them,
but because they were dignified protagonists of
an era, even if today they have nothing to eat.
Thanks to Álvarez Rodríguez, we have heard the
only sound and the only alarm that the disadvantaged have been able to activate.

honestidad, la decencia, la vergüenza, el decoro,
la honradez y la sensibilidad antes los problemas
de los demás” We have perceived with great pain
the growing decay over the Special Period’s more
than twenty years in moral and civic values like
honesty, decency, prudence, decorum, openness
and sensitivity regarding the problems of others]
(Speech at the First Ordinary Session of the
VIIIth Legislature of the National Assembly of
the People’s Power, on July 7, 2013), Juventud
Rebelde [July 9, 2013]: 4.
5-Luis Pita Suárez, in La callada molienda, ed.
cit., 175.
6-Anonymus interview, ibid, 83.
7-Álvaro Reynoso (1829-1888) was a famous Cuban scientist.

Notes:
1-Zanetti Lecuona, Oscar. Esplendor y decadencia del azúcar en las Antillas hispanas (La Habana: Editorial Ciencias Sociales-Ruth Casa Editorial, 2012): 303-308.
2-See
Historia
de
la
ANIR,
en
http://www.redciencia.cu/anir/historia.html
3-Still in 2002, concerning the closure of the
mills, Cuban economist Julio Carranza Valdez
declared in issue 30 of the journal Temas: “No se
puede olvidar que la posición de Cuba, frente a
sus clientes y acreedores en el mercado mundial,
ha estado por décadas respaldada por su potencial
de producción de azúcar, factor que ahora se reduce considerablemente” We cannot forget that
Cuba’s position with its clients and creditors in
the international market for years has been
backed by its sugar production potential, something that is now considerably reduced] (38).
4-In a recent speech, Raúl M. Castro Ruz said:
“Hemos percibido con dolor, a lo largo de los más
de 20 años de período especial, el acrecentado deterioro de valores morales, y cívicos, como la

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