Freedom, a Forbidden Word
HAVANA TIMES – Whenever I come across a phrase painted on a wall, a fence, a barrier… like Viva Fidel, Hasta la victoria siempre, or Viva el Partido Comunista de Cuba, I can’t help but smile.
It was on one of those occasions when I was visiting the town of Gibara and came across one of these slogans painted in bright colors. I said to the person who was with me, “Gibara is really communist.” And I received the response: “It used to say Abajo Fidel (Down with Fidel), but the security forces came, erased it, and wrote what you see now.”
It was then that I became a bit more aware that, as in every place and human dynamic, things are not always exactly what they seem to be. If one knows a little about history, perhaps they can understand better; if not, we risk building a mistaken view of what we are perceiving.
But this time, as I was visiting a friend’s house in Holguín, my eyes stumbled upon a yellow stain trying to hide a word, which is an idea, and which can also be understood as an aspiration, a dream, an ideal…
I approached because it was right in front of my friend’s house, and it seemed to me that the word was Libertad (Freedom). My friend opened the door, and I asked if she had noticed it and if she knew anything about it. She told me she hadn’t seen it.
I went inside her house, we talked, and I left.
Two days later, she came to my house and told me that yes, it was a proclamation asking for the freedom of a political prisoner. Soon after, she reminded me about the incident and said, “Yes, someone was asking for the freedom of some political prisoner.”
Interesting, I replied. Not because the posters and those manifestations are new —because they’re not. Although, of course, they’ve been trying to hide them all along. It’s interesting because in a country where we are reduced to thinking about how to get food or how to escape the country itself, this event holds meaning.
I believe that as long as we maintain a critical outlook, a value, even if minimal, to express what we think, and don’t let ourselves be completely annihilated by horrible circumstances, then there is hope. And this remains good news for everyone.