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Identity and Culture

Cuba: Reasons for a
Non-Identity
Verónica Vega
Writer
Havana, Cuba

U

pon returning from my trip to
France, in 2011, the plane
entered Cuban airspace in the
midst of a spectacular sunset. I looked at
the ill-tended, fragile land below, and
felt attached to it via an invisible,
umbilical cord. It was intense feeling of
belonging that I’d thought never
possible. Tears welled up in my eyes,
spontaneously; with an irrational
impulse, I said to my seatmates (who did
not speak Spanish): “I am Cuban; this is
my country.” In trying to share this
experience, I’ve discovered how difficult
it is to transmit a sense of pride that is in
no way anything like the patriotism
imposed against which generations of
Cubans have reacted, and react with

rage, desacralizing, or apathy. How does
one separate one’s country from one’s
self, from a political process that has
asphyxiated our national identity? Once,
my son put a badge bearing the Cuban
flag on his backpack, and his own cousin
visibly and disdainfully asked him:
Cuba? For most adolescents, any
insignia is better than the Cuban one.
They haughtily wear the U.S.’s on shirts,
bandanas, caps, etc. One even sees
sandals or bags with the British flag on
them, vestiges of a fashion craze that
was all the rage at the London craft fairs
of 2012, and T-shirts referencing other
country’s soccer teams. In sharp
contrast, the only ones interested in
Cuban insignias are tourists.

In Process
(Yasser)

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