Osmel Ramirez Alvarez

On February 23, exactly 113 years since the signing of a perpetual lease for the lands and waters occupied by the Guantanamo Naval Base, Obama addressed the US Congress to announce his commitment to “shut down Guantanamo.” As always, his articulate, precise and well-argued speech proved impressive.

Esteemed Barack Obama: This letter was written by a run-of-the-mill Cuban, one who is neither a dissident nor has any ties to government politics. What I’ve written comes from the heart and knows none of the hypocritical opportunism that characterizes politics many a time. It is made of pure sincerity.

The day-to-day life of Cubans is very tough, uncertain, stressful and monotonous. Luckily, there’s not much violence in the country and one doesn’t have to pay for schools or hospitals, for that would make it a true, living hell.

What Latin American government would be upset if the USA offered financing to its private sector and encouraged the growth of small and mid-sized enterprises? However, Raul Castro wants all financing for the State and considers the growth of those sectors not under its supervision a threat.

It’s striking to see the images of a successful revolution, aired on television and sold to the world: smiling children being vaccinated or heading to school in colorful uniforms, hospitals and clinics offering free services, full of apparently satisfied patients, athletes leaping, running or batting a homerun and thrilling fragments of passionate speeches.

We’re now more than accustomed to losing many of the luminaries of our decimated baseball teams. Before and until recently, we were taught to label these players traitors. We would never find out what had become of them, in their careers abroad or personal lives.

Yesterday, all that mattered was democracy in Cuba and fundamental human rights that were being trampled on. Today, none of that matters, only that “which unites us” does (i.e. business opportunities). I am put off by all extremes, I prefer a balanced and just position.

If Jose Marti was here now turning 63 instead of 163 years old, there is no doubt that he would be fighting for this new Cuba. Not as a communist, nor as an exiled extremist Cuban, but as a fighter for tolerance. Like Mandela, like Gandhi, like Juárez.

Until the end of the 1980s, the words “business person” were akin to an obscenity in Cuba. Working for the State was the norm and even farmers who hadn’t handed over their lands to a cooperative were suspect. The communist ethos had imposed its rules on the population.