IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 123

At their very core, Cubans know they are
“special,” even if that singularity results
in them generating a defense mechanism
for dealing with continuing crises, their
ferocious adaptation due to which they
have lost a large part of their humanity.
Even if they react against poverty, which
appears to be their fate, and against
indoctrination, which one sees in their
rejection of popular symbols, they
instinctively separate out what is
rightfully theirs, whether it is an
abstraction or a dream. Words like
“dialogue,”.“transition,”.and.“conciliatio
n” crop up ever more increasingly in that
virtual country: the Internet. Even
official rhetoric has found it necessary to
incorporate words to keep up with
things: “progress,” “sustainability,”
“respect for diversity.” “Down with
difference,” demand Maikel Extremo
and La Alianza. There are two rap
projects whose platform is the
rebelliousness of alternative art, where
the Cuban flag has been used fully and
totally consciously.

Casa Cuba, Cuba Posible are slogans
that circulate that denote an intention of
consensus, to which adjectives like
“participatory” or even the demonized
“democratic” are added. This creates a
more flexible language, an important
difference after decades in which there
was only space for opposites and
radicalisms. The objective projection of
that imagined Cuba has been attempted,
particularly in Miami, but it can only
become a complete reality in a space that
offers the confluence that is already
expected, not so much due to
questionable economic and political
openness, but as a result of a process of
exhaustion. More like a natural need
than reasoned hope. That space of true
plurality among Cubans on the island
and those dispersed throughout the
world is unquestionably the legacy of all
for whom this island is still important,
without.exception.

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