A Peculiar Way of Courting

Yanelys Nuñez Leyva

HAVANA TIMES — A few days ago I witnessed one of the newest ways to woo a girl.

I was on the beach when a young man approached us, a friend of mine and me. Very spontaneously, he began reciting a speech, one that he had evidently repeated many times before.

His brief presentation revolved around the fact that he had a car, with which he could take my friend out, while he also mentioned his place of work: a famous nightclub here in the capital, one called “Guanimar.” He then ended with the (serious) promise of getting himself tattooed with the name of my friend.

After all that, and believing that everything had been said, he grabbed my friend trying to give her a kiss, to which she responded with a gesture of displeasure and pushed him off of her.

This “prince charming” wasn’t drunk or under the influence of any other substance. He was simply acting the way many people do these days: like real idiots when it comes time to approach a woman.

Reproducing the ritual of a peacock, trying to woo the female by exposing its extended feathers and brilliant colors, these beings — devoid of all imagination and creativity — use the little purchasing power they might have as their letter of introduction.

The degeneration of basic values such as humility, modesty and sincerity, has caused us to find ourselves faced with this kind of mindlessness more often than in the past.

“Courting,” some experts say, “is the process of selecting and attracting another individual in order to establish an intimate relationship, which,” according to them, “usually involves love, sex, commitment, cohabitation, marriage and/or reproduction.”

Reading that definition caused me more than a little grief, because at this rate it won’t be long before the only thing we’ll be seeing in the streets of Havana will be men threatening women with clubs, looking for partners only for mating.