IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 8 ENGLISH | Page 116

Do you feel professionally fulfilled?
No. I wanted to make comics and I'm working as a cartoonist and illustrator. The Cuban
cartoonist are like Cinderella, because it is
an art designed for countries with a market
economy. We don’t have a comic industry
here and therefore such art is not developed;
it barely survives. While these conditions do
not change, the only hope is to insert the
cartoon into an alternative project with
enough power to be developed.
I believe that the problem of alternative art
is not so much to create projects rather to
sustain them.
I agree with you, because sometimes difficulties arise within the same projects and
they collapse. There is also a lack of solidarity. Those who manage to enter in a
market niche do not give hints to anyone
else. Such a lack of solidarity has to do with
the "anthropological damage" in Cuba.
Before 1959, for example, the values of the
Christian religion spread with the simple
principle of loving your neighbor. Now
people are complaining that the children do
not respect their parents, but what would
have happened instead if the government
itself taught us not to respect different ideas?
Are you confident about a future in Cuba,
or are you mentally plotting your future
abroad?
I imagine that a very positive change will
happen for us, the underdogs, but I don’t
know how or when. I would also like to
travel and experience other realities that may
help me understand mine a little more. I
have not had that experience. On the other
hand, my situation here is very difficult. My
house is in a 114 years old building two
blocks from the Malecón. There was a collapse and the firefighters had to come to the
rescue. My room was in the worst state, but
only the eaves fell on the hall. Otherwise, I
would not be telling the story.

It is true that the revolution provided houses
for the people, although they had to pay for
them, but my family received its house in
poor condition, as the documents show, and
when we asked to move to another one in
better conditions or to get State resources in
order to repair it, but nothing was granted.
We stopped paying and only if that debt is
paid off you can be approved for a capital
repair of the roof. Thus, we're trying to raise
the money to pay it off and see how we can
rescue our house, in which we were born and
want to live.
If you could change anything in the past,
what would you change?
I would have liked to be born in a country
with rights. That’s all. We see foreigners as
gods, but they are simply people who come
from countries where the citizens' rights are
respected. They earn wages to live, they can
challenge the government's policies without
being discredited, and they may travel at the
expenses of their own labor. I would have
liked that normal life. To extend my desires
to the present, I would like for Cuba to be a
democratic country with freedom of expression, where people are not attacked because
they think differently and where mutual
understanding and respect are possible.
Juan Carlos Briñas immigrated a few months
ago to Suriname, where he works in room
service at a hotel and is creating conditions
to start painting and illustrating. He agreed
to answer these additional questions by
email.
What were you expecting to find in exile
and what did you find?
Human rights. Now I feel that I can walk
freely without any obtuse law enforcement
agent asking me for identification with no
reason; I am being treated like a human
being without discrimination based on race,
ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

116