Author: Erasmo Calzadilla

This blog is starting to resemble a personal diary now. Today, for example, I want to talk about my three masters, not those that I have, but the ones I’ve abandoned. This assumes someone’s interested in reading about what I do with my spare time…

OK, there are worse things in the world than discovering new wrinkles, no doubt; but it’s sad to see your youthfulness fading without having done anything important.

Since the beginning of the “revolution,” un-paid student labor was gradually turned to in tackling difficult agricultural tasks. This is also said to have an educational purpose whereby study is linked to work.

I feel the obligation and pleasure in clarifying that following that first and fateful impression, I’ve begun to especially appreciate the titanic task of one group, the teachers, who are practically giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in an attempt to revive the near dead.

Something comical, and at times pathetic, had been happening to a friend and me for some time. Jose Forte, my partner in this story, was a member of our group of pretty much penniless guys who were rock lovers .

I don’t recall any professor or technician trying to kindle a sense of sensitivity or respect for the animals. Instead, they did just the opposite. The lives of those small beings were worth less than nothing to them.

As soon as I stepped in the door —after they took a brief glance at my qualifications, which wasn’t a thick file— they already wanted to hire me as a teacher on a permanent basis. That was strange…

I didn’t argue; I merely collected my things together and prepared myself for the adventure of finding where I could earn a few pesos a day to make up for the loss.

I applaud the effort of my friends, but I have something in favor of violence, and I’ll take advantage of this opportunity to explain myself here.

One day I visited the Environmental Agency, an entity of the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA), where I took advantage of this opportunity to find out if there’s any law that prohibits or regulates the sale of animals.