Lynn Cruz’s Diary

When you face this bureaucratic apparatus, which Hannah Arendt would describe as being led by individuals who are unable to think, one realizes that in fact, it is a trivial and overly robot-like person that is unable to see that I am just another human.

Like the feeling you have when a baby you’ve been longing to have finally arrives, I was overcome by the same emotion after Patriotismo 36-77 made its debut. More than half a year went past until it could finally hit the stage.

Ariel Ruiz Urquiola, a scientist who was a professor at Havana University, which he was expelled from because of his ideas, came under the public eye after he held his first hunger strike, as a form of protest because medicines were missing which his sister Omara Ruiz Urquiola needed as part of her cancer treatment.

Ever since I adopted a life philosophy of facing my own external fears (in this case, Cuba’s socio-political system), I have noticed how many people I love and acquaintances project their fear of change, perceiving me to be an enemy.

Yesterday afternoon, at the ID Office located on 17th Street, between J and K streets in the Plaza de la Revolucion municipality, Oscar Casanella, a biochemist who was expelled from the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (INOR), was informed that he was listed under the anomalous status of: “Regulated”, when he tried to extend his passport.

Even though I have written about the possible causes that led to a decree-law being written up which criminalizes art, and even though I have resisted forming part of an entertainment policy which has made Cubans travel along the tree’s branches instead of going directly to the trunk, I must write again about Law #349.

I’ve been indebted to the December 2nd Neighborhood for a while now, which is located in Gelpi, Matanzas province. I arrived in this unfinished neighborhood when I was seven with my parents after a difficult experience which marked all of our lives forever.

Now is a good time for Cuban film thanks to the initiatives by Cubans who have managed to pave the way for Cuban film abroad and try to continue developing and offering opportunities to the Seventh Art created on the island, with or without the protection of Cuban Film Laws.

Last Saturday, we filmed a new scene for the movie Corazon Azul by Miguel Coyula. This time, we went to the Playa neighborhood in the capital where Paja Recol is located, a recording studio and Gorki Aguila’s home, leader of punk-rock band, Porno para Ricardo.

How can a Cuban make their dreams come true, living in Cuba? Because that’s essentially what we are campaigning for, to make a dream come true. Obviously we need to find similar people who like this dream and that’s where the challenge lies.