I’ve spent the last several days itinerantly following the development of debates and actions around two recent events in Cuba’s public sphere: the “Último Jueves” (“Last Thursday of the Month”) forum on the Internet, sponsored by “Temas” magazine, and the March for Nonviolence held on November 6.
Soon we will mark 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event that signaled the global-scale ideological victory of neo-liberalism in politics and daily life. It is quite conceivable that Cuban media coverage-the same press that ignored the events in Eastern Europe until the final and incontrovertible moment-will focus on highlighting the social costs of the transition to capitalism.
Recently, I’ve been hearing an increasing number of heard Cuban leaders, journalists and citizens referring to the need to reduce state expenditures on the country’s social programs. The debate is centered on the long-serving, meager and (in my opinion) now irreplaceable ration book.
Behind the gates, masked individuals guard Oventic, one of the autonomous municipalities controlled by Zapatista rebels in southern Mexico. We find the tension floating in the air just as we get out of the van that took us to the entry of the Caracol II encampment, 20 minutes from San Cristóbal de las Casas.
I was in residence at the Ecumenical Research Department (DEI) in Costa Rica, when the study on civic participation that I was carrying out —by the force of circumstances— turned into passionate accompaniment of the social movement opposed to the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
I’ve spent these last weeks in a kind of “intellectual maquiladora,” gripped by work, bureaucratic reports and projects that never seem to become of anything. I sit here tired of sustaining a precarious balance between commitment and dreams; content with doing what I like, but sick of thinking about my people and my island.
Fulfilling an old dream, I recently visited an encampment of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil. Learning about the MST is to draw closer to one of the greatest, most expressive and most organic Latin American social movements.
If we add to all this the corrosive effects of the crisis and the vertical structure of the system (which limits the resources and powers available to local authorities), it is obvious that “rendering accounts” has little meaning and is just seen as a traditional practice.
The Juanes concert just ended and-feeling excited-I wanted to write “something.” Then I suddenly received an e-mail from a friend in Miami. She’s the same person who called me a “stuck in the mud leftist,” until she understood my activism was far removed from the ploys of the “socialist” bureaucracy.
They were all taken aback by the instant ideological shift (and exhaustive TV and radio play) of an artist whose career has been based on light pop tunes and tough guy disputes. The video and its author were not rejected for their politics, but for their politicking.