Today the Ice Cream Tastes Different

Erasmo Calzadilla

Havana's Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor. Photo: Caridad

A few months ago, I commented on a blog about a flood of photos of Fidel and Raul Castro (of all ages, except as infants or senile old men) that had been posted at the Coppelia ice-cream complex in the very heart of the city.

Every time I go there, I come out disgusted after finding another room virtually taken over by these images…

But Surprise!  This week when I visited that ice cream park and there was not a single icon plastered on the walls.

What happened?  These types of photos are usually permanent; because once they’re put up, no one dares remove them. Who could have been so brave to do so?   Could it have been that the people who hung them up realized that the cult to the personality is harmful to the workers’ movement?

A poster that's no longer there.

I doubt it, because in many other places throughout the country more and more photos of them are put up (with the same speed that the ideas on which such actions are based disappear).

I can’t figure out what type of iconoclast revolution has occurred at the Coppelia, but the ice cream tasted especially rich on that occasion, and it was easily digested.  It also reminds us that the occupied rooms are recoverable.

Erasmo Calzadilla

Erasmo Calzadilla: I find it difficult to introduce myself in public. I've tried many times but it doesn’t flow. I’m more less how I appear in my posts, add some unpresentable qualities and stir; that should do for a first approach. If you want to dig a little deeper, ask me for an appointment and wait for a reply.