By virtue of having gone so many centuries exploited and discriminated by the great powers, any achievement for the Latin American population is magnified from its perspective. It’s as if that we are crying out to the world: “Look at us, we exist!”
I need to confess something. All this time I’ve been a victim of prejudice against the Bolivarian government of Venezuela and its desire to build a political, economic and social system that they call 21st century socialism. The figure of President Hugo Chavez has always aroused suspicion in me.
Populist social revolutions have as an inevitable feature, an excess of enthusiasm seasoned with a ridiculous chauvinism. The indignant masses cease to be citizens belonging to a party or a government; they adopt the epithets of their leaders.
No, dear readers, this isn’t a misspelling or an editing error. It wasn’t an English default of a MS Word document in my PC. The title of this post is a sort of parable related to its content. I’ve borrowed that classic passage from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
From my point of view, this was a wise and sensible decision in these times when all conservative and sectarian structures, institutions and ideologies are facing their greatest crises. His decision should be an example for many politicians to follow.
In movies and novels, endings are always important. The last image is what sticks in one’s mind. Real life is like that too. The last impressions we retain of someone or something frame what we remember about them – for good or bad.
La película de Ana tells another story of our harsh reality. It belongs to that long list of Cuban films of the last decade that chronicle a society in crisis. Ana, a television actress, is forced to pose as a prostitute named “Ginette,” and she agrees to be filmed by foreigners.
Thanks to TeleSur, a few days ago I learned about a photo published in the Spanish newspaper El Pais that showed President Chavez in poor physical condition and connected to breathing apparatus. A whole program of discussion and debate regarding the incident was presented.
“Don’t yell at me, it doesn’t make what you’re saying any more right”, goes a line from one of Beatriz Marquez’s songs. It was popular in the 1980s, when I was a teenager. That little refrain sticks with me like a ring on my finger whenever I read some of the comments in Havana Times.
“Hey, have you read the horoscope for 2013?” “No, what do things look like for this year?” “Wonderful, my friend. The predictions are excellent. They say that this is the year of travel.” This was the conversation I overheard between two women.