IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 45

mother (Santa) I’d be back. It has taken
me over a month to fulfill that promise: I
am certain that Santa, who immediately
recognized me, was surprised.
There are no evictions in Cuba
The cubicle’s furnishings consist of
three small chairs; a fan was resting on
one of them. Santa had to move it so I
could sit. She told me Kirenia was in the
hospital with pneumonia.

Santa’s cubicle
Santa: It has rained and there is a lot of
humidity. But her pregnancy is not in
danger. They had her in intensive care,
but she was able to go to a ward.
YR: Tell me what happened in 1993,
when your daughter was 11.
Santa: As far as I know, there are no
evictions in Cuba.
YR: The Cuban Revolution did away
with that.
Santa: Well, the police and the
[housing] authorities came into my home
and tore everything down. What my
daughter always talks about and cannot
forget is that when she woke up, the first
thing she saw was the sky; the sky as a
roof.
YR: Where were you?
She hemmed and hawed, lowered her
eyes, but ended up confessing to me that

she had been in prison for six months.
Her mother took care of Kirenia and her
younger brother, but he wasn’t home at
that time either. Upon returning, the girl
was out on the street, crying.
Santa: My daughter is in possession of
letters written about me as a social case,
while I was in prison. The very same day
I got a pass, I got home and found all my
stuff on the street, the wardrobe, just
rotting, etc. I had a three-day pass, but
was so traumatized that I went back that
very day.
YR: Why was your home demolished?
Was it in bad condition, uninhabitable?
Santa: It was made of wood, but it
wasn’t in bad shape; it was new. They
just ordered its destruction. I actually
don’t know who ordered this. I already
told you where I was at the time. When I
arrived, I did not find my mother, my
children. Everything was on the street,
wardrobe, clo ѡ