IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 120

foreigner.” How can one remain rooted
to a country if one’s daughter, a child
barely aware of the world around her,
can come up with something as
devastating as that?

The concept of nation
The history of Cuba that is taught in
schools, a revisionist version chock full
of heroes and slogans, does not seem at
all real.

Students memorize, not learn; they
repeat, not think. As they pass from
grade to grade, with a notion they will be
able to use their knowledge outside
Cuba, if at all possible, they quickly
discover that the ideology is valued more
than honor, worth, talent, or discipline.

The mine (Yasser)

This is the deformed and reprocessed
ideology that is taking form as a nation, a
place with formulas and clichés that students
use ably to pass Civics exams or a class
called “Encounters with Homeland’s
History.”

It is also the nation that automatically
emerges when it denizens are publicly asked
questions such as “Do you feel proud of
being Cuban?” or “Would you wear a Tshirt with a Cuban flag on it?”

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