IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 4 ENGLISH | Page 114

The Cuban Chapter of

the Spanish Black Legend
The value of memory

Roberto G. Castell
Writer, novelist and journalist
Batabanó, Mayabeque, Cuba

114

I

n Cuban criollo slang, there are allusions to
poisoning. It is often said that we Cubans
have been poisoned after fifty years of propaganda. I, for example, had a hard time doing justice to the guerrillas who fought in the Escambray
in the sixties. My initial reaction to the first issue
of the journal Encuentro was to say it was reactionary, which may seem redundant, but that issue
totally trashed the “officially” created theory concerning banditry, which is what Castroism called
the activity of these fighters. It took me a while to
purge my deep psyche of the impression left by
films, TV series, soap operas, adventures and literature that persistently demonized the actions