Hoping for a Miracle in 2017

Rosa Martinez

HAVANA TIMES — When a new year begins, the most common thing to do is to look back on the good things that the old year brought, but mainly about what we did wrong and how we can change this in the present in order to improve our lives.

When a new era begins, Cubans, like anyone else on the planet, analyze what to do to improve our economy every January.

However, will it be possible to improve the state of family finances if the national economy is on the ground? Tourism workers, some in the private sector (not a very high percentage), those who have family members abroad and receive remittances and all kinds of help, those who live by inventing things and always come up on top, will of course say that they will, that they can better their lives, in spite of the crisis that the country is experiencing. However, the majority of the population, myself included, depend on how Cuba’s leaders will resolve the big liquidity problem which this country has to a great extent.

When everybody should be celebrating the arrival of 2017 and, consequently, a little more life, regular ordinary workers only think about what will become of their families, especially their children.

“Raul Castro didn’t let us eat the roasted pork in peace, he didn’t even let the first few days in January pass us by before announcing that this would be another time of hardship, with greater economic problems and more crises,” a doctor family friend remarked.

However, Cubans no longer expect anything else anyway, with the country having an impoverished economy nothing can really improve.

That’s why, on January 1st, 21 Cubans arrived on the Florida coastline, because they didn’t want to lose one more second on the beloved Island, because they think that they have nothing left to do here, because even pushing the country forward it doesn’t make progress…

And it hurts, it hurts so much that in the land you love, where you were born and grew up, where almost of your family live, where you want to rest forever in peace, you will never have the the chance to live a decent life.

It hurts, that in spite of being a university graduate, a tireless, honest worker, who resists and tries again and again, you can’t find a way to get by.

It hurts more to think, even if it is just for a few seconds, that the only way to improve our lives is to leave, that the only way we can provide a secure future for our children is to leave our roots, our home, the neighborhood, our lifelong friends…

The majority tries to chase the dream traveling to Ecuador, Panama, Guyana, Venezuela… then they head towards the North. Others leave directly for Europe. I continue here (I don’t have any other choice) waiting for a miracle…