Under Crossfire

Erasmo Calzadilla

HAVANA TIMES — I’m gradually recovering from the upset caused by seeing my face published on the front page of Cubanet, in an article which lies about sensitive issues and tries to take away my prestige on a very petty level. I guess that’s the kind of audience it’s meant for.

In an event in Miami, in September 2016, I posed some uncomfortable questions to heads of official-dissident journalism. Now that I made the jump to stay in the US one of them saw the opportunity to seek revenge, presenting me as a Castro supporter who betrayed his principles in search of the American dream.

I asked the Institute for War and Peace Reporting – the organizer of the event – to release the recordings so the truth is known, but they said there was no recording.  It’s a shame because I would have had the chance to show who is lying and protect myself from the attacks and threats unleashed on me.

Later, Cubanet took out references to debates which were subject to non-disclosure. However, this new text – or rather, the amended article – doesn’t belie the previous copy in its main theory: my alleged defense of Cuban government control of the media. Which in a Cuban context means explicitly supporting the Castro dictatorship.

To show that I am not what they say I am doesn’t take much effort. I have been publishing articles continuously for nearly a decade, writing against the Castro dictatorship’s totalitarian control, something which has brought me quite a few personal problems and the ruin of my professional career. Furthermore, I collaborate with this publication, Havana Times, which I would never want to see controlled by the State or anybody who would tame its freedom.

In Cuba, I have been called a rightist, an anti-Marxist (in the hearings relating to my expulsion from Havana University) and a few years ago, a government blogger labeled me an anarchist-capitalist.

Who would have ever thought that as I soon as I crossed the pond, without having even dusted myself off after my journey, I would have the large sign of COMMUNIST and PRO-CASTRO supporter pinned to my forehead?

All of the above has happened not because I haven’t defined my position and because I move like a fickle person in the world of ideology. My political position has been very stable for a long time: I’m from the liberal left. However, the brainless extremists on both sides of the Florida Strait don’t understand subtleties. If you criticize Uncle Sam is because you are a communist. If you don’t like the regime in Havana then you are a pro-capitalist counterrevolutionary. Truly amazing!

And I’m stuck in the middle of this battle of intellectual farts, not ideas, receiving shell fire from both sides…

It’s normal; that’s how it is when you choose a path that’s different from the predominant tendencies.  I’ll continue on with the same ideas I defended in Cuba, which don’t change because now I can eat whole wheat bread subsidized by the US taxpayer (to whom I already expressed my gratitude).

And if they through me out of here, I’ll find somewhere else to go.
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Note: I would like to take this opportunity to thank journalist Elaine Diaz for her support during the Miami event. Every time I ran into problems in the discussions she would suddenly appear in support of my arguments.