Card-Carrying Party Members Are Also Abandoning Ship
HAVANA TIMES – A friend pointed out to me recently that one group which has lost no time gathering up their things, selling their houses, and leaving the country have been leaders of the Communist Party in Cuba. This, considering that on the island, as in the majority of the totalitarian countries, belonging to the sole ideological party in charge is an essential requirement if you want to assume any important position in a company, institution or other organization.
When we talk about their leaving for other countries, mainly to the United States, we note that they’re not leaving alone, but with their children, in-laws, and grandchildren… without feeling in the least conflicted. I couldn’t help but agree with my friend, because several of my neighbors who were party members themselves, are no longer here. Relatives now occupy their homes instead, or other people have bought their houses.
I’ve had the pleasure of maintaining very good relations with these neighbors. I recall an occasion when one of them had the kindness to want to find me a job at their workplace. And her husband had to wait five years to reunite with her in Miami, because he had responsibilities in the Interior Ministry.
My other neighbor was also very good to me. She helped me find my cat when it got lost in her back yard, and did me other favors, like letting me use her landline phone, which we never had at home. In Cuba, the ones with the privilege of a conventional home telephone were precisely those same leaders.
My relationship with the neighbors across the street was no different, and they, too, were party members. There were others like that on the block – a company head, for example, who left with everyone in the family. We’re not talking anymore about saying goodbye to a grandson or son and that’s it – we’re talking about complete families.
It’s not the same experience as in 1961, when the socialist character of the nation was declared, and those who didn’t coincide ideologically left. Or those who departed later in 1970, because the Soviet model that was implanted in this tropical land with its Caribbean sun and didn’t meet their expectations.
The case of 1980 with the Mariel boatlift, was violent and unforgettable for everyone in Cuba. Ardent party members never tired of screaming to the four winds that these were the scum of society, a scourge that didn’t live up to the Socialist values of the country. Or later, in 1994, the rafters. At that time, as well, the government didn’t stop proclaiming here that they were leaving for economic reasons, not political conflicts, because “in Cuba no one was persecuted for their ideas.”
The exodus now is beyond massive. Even greater than those that came before, I understand. All throughout these long and painful decades called “revolution,” people have continued opting to leave. Only now, it’s not just the counterrevolutionaries, the scum, the economically unfortunate, it’s everyone who can: the green, the partially ripe, and the mature.
The political, the social and the economic have been transformed into one single thing: a catastrophe. A chaos that seems to admit only one possible solution: leaving. Whether or not you hold a card that declares you a Communist militant, that’s the conclusion.
At other times, this would have been inconceivable, or at least a very troubling matter. Today, the majority of us understand. Because it’s also true that for far more than a few on Cuban soil, socialism like that you read about in the Marxist books of before or afterwards, no longer exists. Nor is there any common good to defend. Only a survival that’s ever more brutal, horrific, in a human jungle without pity, ruled over by a group in power that seeks only their own interests.
As for me, I have absolutely no reason to judge. Much less to reproach. It’s a responsibility that belongs to each one of us Cubans. Even though it might look different to those who lived through those times that were so cruel in ideological terms, when the accepted way to demonstrate your loyalty to the socialist ideal was to head to the police stations to denounce others. To inform that the neighbor said such and such that was not well in tune with the revolutionary principles; or they put on that T-shirt with a phrase in English on it. There were those who asked the police to keep tabs on the person next door, because they saw them engaged in suspicious activities… The list is enormous.
The current departure of these former loyalists may seem more than sad to those who suffered in the past and now observe what’s happening. Frustrating. And obviously, they may have an opinion that differs from mine. I, who didn’t suffer this harm, would advise that we make it our goal not to forget that period, in order not to repeat it. In addition to sustaining tirelessly that every society must be built on a foundation of respect for others, beginning with their beliefs. This is fundamental.
However, it’s impossible to achieve this respect in the face of a government that still hands out clubs (as it did on July 11, 2021) to its members, to beat anyone who dares to publicly clamor for what they don’t consider correct. Much less can this type of society be built when everyone is leaving, with or without their ideals. With or without their clear political principles. And where their life project is found outside our borders, as it is impossible to generate in our own land.