But Things Are Changing

Erasmo Calzadilla

I know of a concrete and living example of something that’s finally changing.  What is it? – or rather, who is it?  Well, it’s me myself.

That’s right, you have to be optimistic.  It’s true that they expelled me from a school and have refused to let me into another one, but I continue working as a professor at a municipal university, even though it’s only on a contractual basis.

In another period —given what I’ve written about for some time now in Havana Times— I would have been kicked out onto the street without a hearing or an explanation.

But instead, they’ve asked me for my paperwork for this upcoming semester; plus I’ve registered for the Master’s program in university education.

Either they’re giving me more rope to jerk me for another loop when I least expect it, or they want to look at me as an example of how things are changing; or perhaps they are truly changing.

Is it that they just haven’t noticed?  That would be difficult.  If there is an efficient outfit in this country, it’s the one in charge of political surveillance.

Let’s take a look around.  The sociopolitical atmosphere doesn’t resemble that of the ‘80s, or even the ‘90s.  Things can’t be done like they were before.  Now we all know that differences of opinion are not deviations from some immutable “truth,” and that protesting is not synonymous with supporting imperialism.

It’s not that our leaders have become generous; and with government enterprises now on the skids, people have begun grasping at new types of freedom and have begun to look at the world differently.

In these difficult times of high unemployment and hiring freezes throughout the whole city, it’s a relief to know that I’ll be re-hired, at least for the semester that’s now beginning.