Cuba: How Low Can We Stoop?

Warhol P

HAVANA TIMES — I recently read an article by a fellow Havana Times blogger which mentions how the renowned Cuban actress Ana Luisa Rubio was beaten up as part of a government reprisal. When I first read her name, I had the impression I didn’t know the actress. After doing a Google search and seeing her photos, I immediately recognized her and felt profound pain.

I was horrified by the photos of her swollen, blood-stained face and the actress’ agonized look. From the very sharp images, I could tell they had been particularly brutal with her face.

I don’t know why but, for a moment, I thought of my mother. This actress is probably the same age as her, I thought. What would I have done if something like this had happened to my mother? What would I had done if it had happened to anyone I knew, be it a woman or a man?

Things like these make me realize this revolution is an enormous pile of trash, and I say “trash” to avoid using another word that might be more appropriate here.

How could we even talk about human rights when situations as sordid as this one are still taking place?

Something similar could happen to any one of us who write for Havana Times.

That also crossed my mind, that, for the simple reason I have different ideas, my face could be used like a football by anyone who disagrees with me. Let it be said in passing that these are my ideas and I believe that every human being is independent and has their own way of thinking and seeing things. Accordingly, they should have the right to choose between what they consider to be good and bad.

Those responsible didn’t even care to notice the woman they were beating was once a well-known actress we had followed and enjoyed on Cuban television. What’s more, I recall that, not long ago, she was interviewed on a Cuban show, Medio Dia en TV (“Noon TV”), where she spoke of her portrayal of a character known as “Captain Storm” and told the audience she was currently working on children’s literature.

Then, we hear this unpalatable story that the perpetrators were members of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) on her block. How can something like this even happen in Cuba? We’ve been combatting violence against women, year after year, and now this terribly shameful thing happens, throwing everything we’ve been trying to achieve in terms of human rights out the window.

These are the kinds of things that make my stomach turn. I am repulsed by these excesses and lies. I wonder what will happen with the people who attacked her.

Everyone knows that no one has the right to go to someone’s home and force the owner outside to beat them up, let alone take delight in disfiguring their faces.

In Cuba, we’ve gone from yelling the slogan: “one, two, three, four, out with the worms!”, from throwing eggs at the disaffected, to violence and brutality. Yes, we’ve changed, but for the worse. Am I wrong?

The eighties are well behind us and, today, things can be different. To begin with, the world is privy to everything, and news like this one spread through the Internet and reach all corners of the globe and many different places (save, of course, Cuba’s television and press).

Thinking about this incident, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re wrong in saying “Our Homeland is Humanity.” If loyalty to one’s homeland was ever a sign of one’s humanity, today, for me, this expression has lost all meaning.

I can only resign myself to saying: fellas, we’ve had it.