Identidades in English No 1, February 2014 | Page 62

I suppose our country has been influenced by all the
politics that emerged after the taking of Bastille, Hegel
and Marx’s more or less successful philosophies, and
the multiple changes that occurred socially, and between one war and another, during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Well, this person was explaining
to me that I should organize a group (silently, of
course, and with the supreme discretion of the conspirators), and shift my attention from the concrete,
immediate problems of my existence, and begin to
“speculate” in high-level politics, and help him or
someone else take power.
Crazy people are indulged like popular personalities
in Cuba, and in our country, politics and insanity often
go hand in hand. I, with my own insanity, understand
certain realities:
• The current government will never share its power
with other political parties because democracy is not
part of its founding decrees. The current Cuban government no longer has a political or economic program. It has no social program, and focuses only on a
military program inspired by Cold War ideology. Survival, and nothing else, is the only idea contained in
the ideas and speeches pronounced by he who is filling
in for the Cuban Revolution’s only true leader.
• Those who wield real power, that caste of Russianeducated military officials who inherited the endemic
racism of the insipient Cuban aristocracy that helped
them achieve their position, will not share that power
because they attained it by military force, and not
democratic or civic means. The “revolution” was,
above all, a military revolution that quickly imposed a
curfew on democratic thought, reflection and dissent.
From José Martí to Fidel Castro, any ideas about independence, democracy and republic have been preceded by blood and fire. We do not produce velvet in
Cuba.
I believe that the gravest error committed by those
who want democracy in Cuba—either because they
respect the fundamental rights of humans or because
they want power—is to propose plans for the Cuban
government to be forced to share or lose its power.
These projects and their actions are focused on

fighting those in power, in a direct struggle. This
means these people are not familiar enough with
Cuba’s social system, because there are millions of
Cubans willing to kill anyone who in any way expresses ideas different from those of the leaders of the
military, economic, social and political revolution of
1959. Cuba is like any other country; millions of its
citizens are ready to exterminate other millions in order to defend an idea, even if the idea is not true.
Recent events affecting politics and societies in Latin
America reveal just how important it is for political
actors to have programs that are clear, defined and focused on multiple social platforms and human values.
Above everything else, they must have political programs in which everyday citizens can see, understand
and feel the real power in their decisions. Citizens
must be able to empower and acknowledge themselves as part of a like-minded group, as part of a
shared interest, and recover their rhetorical space and
be able to dialogue with all the other social actors.
They must feel empowered and capable of making a
series of decisions on behalf of the whole group, i.e.,
everyone.
Many of our opposition groups do not focus on the
most important thing: working in communities and
with social groups. Still, in some cases, things are
worse, and some “Cuban democratic” projects should
be called the “Party for Me” or the “I Want to be President Party.” Most of the world sees them as revealing
an incipient, clumsy or bad side of Cuban civil society.
What are solutions or proposals for democracy in
Cuba? Paths? Ideas? There are many, although not as
many as there should be, but for some groups and political platforms, like the Progressive Arc or Cuban
Liberal Party, the intention and rhetoric of national
unity is always alive, well, and present. Unity is the
fundamental action and idea. The only way our civil
activists can bring about the unity of actions and criteria needed to transmit a message capable of being
received and understood by our communities is by
valiantly sacrificing the sense of “me” and egos. Our
communities need guidance and practical solutions to
the grave problems facing Cuba today

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