Author: Veronica Fernadez

During the most difficult times of the “Special Period” (the 1993-94 crisis in Cuba resulting from the collapse of the socialist camp), I estimate that more than 50 percent of the Cuban population tossed their dogs out into the street. These former pets contracted all types of illnesses, among them what is commonly called “mange,” which can also affect people.

The local media constantly hammers us about the measures we must take to avoid contracting the AH1N1 virus, an infamous pandemic. However, when I stop to analyze the many things that affect us in our society, I note that there are other pandemics that can and do upset the stability and balance of any human being; these are situations that directly threaten our mental health.

This whole situation has reverberated in areas such as Cojímar, which was a small community up until 15 years ago and has now become a large suburb.

When Rodolfo approached me yesterday as I came in to work, the first thing he said was that he needed to talk with me about something that had happened to him in my neighborhood, Cojimar (located to the east of Havana bay). He said he felt bothered by what had occurred there.

For over a month now, I have been listening from my house in Cojimar to the penetrating noise of the infamous fumigation apparatus that invade our sound environment every summer, year after year, in hopes of eradicating the dangerous Aedes aegypti mosquito.

I began to make excuses, knowing full well that these two Argentine ladies were absolutely right. They told me that they understood my reasoning, but that they had walked through the entire area and that it was all flooded with garbage.

Those like me who have spent years working in culture know that this is not the first time such a situation has happened. We also know we haven’t -like the song goes- ‘tripped on the same stone twice,’ but a million times.