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Spanglocismo
I have not drummed up any support yet in Miami for Habla Libremente por Cuba, a unique program for constructive criticism in Cuba. I thought it would be immediately recognized for its true potential and become the model for dialogue with frustrated dictators throughout the world - a world obviously in dire need of more constructive revolutionary programs to arrest the monetary demoralization of humankind.
No doubt Habla Libremente por Cuba would be a viable, low-cost alternative to institutional censorship in Cuba. Each Cuban would be responsible for censoring his or her own constructive criticism before publishing it on the Free Cuba Open Dialogue Publishing Network. Virtual Library Centers would initially be set up throughout Cuba. Free computers, coffee, and empanadas would be provided to accomodate all who are willing to wait in line for a few hours to publish, read, and criticize constructive criticism. Of course all criticism would have to be within the Revolution in order to be immune from censorship, and its author immune from prison, torture, and execution.
When production in China, Venezuela and Cuba is eventually integrated and ramped up, every Cuban would be able to rent a laptop for two pesos a month and go to Red Hot Spots to engage in dialectical dialogue. Of course regular contests would be held, with prizes awarded by Fidel Castro for Best Constructive Criticism - he would be inelible to participate in the contests.
I intuited the rudiments of the Habla Libremente por Cuba concept from Fidel Castro during a cyberspace seance. Instead of being called a genius for boosting the concept, I have been called a (expletive deleted) among other things. Politically correct intellectuals have termed the notion "a crazy idea", an "absurd suggestion", "antithetical to Cuban reality," something that "will never, never work."
"Forget it. Castro runs Cuba and he is crazy," said my friend Darwin Leon, a Cuban-American cubosurrealist artist who is so sick and tired of "The Cuba Thing" that he might move upstate to get away from it - but not too far upstate - he has family in South Florida.
"I thought you said he is smart."
"He's one of the smartest men in the world, but he's nuts. Listen to his speeches. He's all over the place. He thinks he's god. Cuba is obsolete now. Cuba won't change for fifty years."
"But The Miami Herald always reports that people hate him down there. He'll be dead any day now. There will be a regime change when he dies. President Bush has it all arranged"
"Don't believe everything you hear. Some Cubans love Castro so much, they cry with joy whenever they see him. His stamp on them will last fifty years. There's not going to be a big change over night. Castro might live to be a hundred. Forget Cuba, it's obsolete right now."
"You think he'll get that old? The leaders in China got so old they had to wear diapers and met in wheelchairs."
"Maybe."
"Would Cubans pick up weapons and fight regime change after Castro dies?"
"Yes, many of them would fight to the death for the memory of Castro, because they love him."
"I thought everybody hated him because he betrayed them, and that's why I got the impression he is a big worm for betraying people. I was thinking of doing a performance-art skit called El Gusano Gigante. A dozen red worms would crawl across the stage. They would suddenly stand up on their tails and shed their skins, revealing Castro and his men, armed to the teeth."
"That would get you killed in Cuba," said Darwin, shaking his head.
"Don't you think he's dumb for clamping down on criticism? Habla Libramente por Cuba would give everyone access to a network in Cuba so they could have a dialogue, engage in constructive criticism."
"He can't allow that!" Darwin exclaimed impatiently, indicating with a wave of the hand that he wanted to change the subject.
"But why not?"
"Because people would feel free then."
"So? Cuba would not fall apart because people had a place to go 'blah-blah-blah' and let off steam. And it would cut down on secret policing expenses - the police could snoop at the central server."
"It would be too much freedom. It can't be permitted. Only in America are people really free. This is the best country for freedom."
"Maybe so, but does Castro really think people will revolt just because they can go 'blah-blah-blah' on the Internet? That's stupid. We are not so free here in the United States. People don't give a flying (expletive deleted)...."
"A what?"
"Nobody cares what we say. We're just nobodies. We have no influence in America," I complained.
"This is a dark age started by the anti-art movement. This is the Age of Mediocrity. Just look around at the contemporary art. Our time, the Renaissance, is coming," Darwin proclaimed.
"That won't be a democratic time. All art is equal, they say. They're even teaching the little kids that no art is good or bad, getting them ready to consume whatever is dished out. I can't wait for the aristocracy of good taste to arrive."
"But democracy is good ...." Darwin looked disturbed.
"I have faith in Nothing with a big N."
"You should be careful about that Nothing you talk about," said my Born Again friend.
"Nothing is perfect. Look, I'm glad about the democratic spirit of our country - but this country is by no means democratic. It is an aristocracy of mediocracy."
"Ha, you are good with words. Say something sarcastic. I like that."
"Darwin, you know very well we are censored in this great nation of ours, the superpowerful leader of civilization upon whom an attack is an attack on civilization per se. The major publishers including galleries work for corporate America and its political bureau. We get big packs of lies in the mainstream media and trash on the walls. Posting pictures and text on the Internet is like pissing in the ocean. So what is Castro afraid of? The mainstream U.S. media censors everything for the power elite. Look, do you think the television station or The Miami Herald would quote someone who said President Bush is a mass murderer and liar who kills his own people and robs the poor, who should face the firing squad, be wrapped in a flag, hung from the flagpole, and 'blah-blah-blah'? - would they quote an honest opinion like that even if many people agreed with it, even if they believed it to be true?"
"Bush is good." Darwin objected.
"Maybe for red-neck Cuban exiles," I said, laughing, and Darwin chuckled in turn. As a neo-Renaissance cubosurrealist, Darwin likes crossed swords, conflicting opinions, satire. I think President Bush's individualism, love for wealth, and his desire to tightening the screws on Castro appeals to Darwin's Renaissance sensibility.
"Maybe President Bush is better than President Batista," I taunted my friend.
"Batista was good! Have you heard about the good days in Cuba when he was the leader?"
"The epoca de oro?"
"It was Cuba's golden age."
"Yes, I have heard about that age, my friend. You remind me of the fellow quoted in the paper. He said the Batista days were marvelous. He had never been to Cuba, but he listened to the music of the time and what the oldtimers in Miami were saying. "
"But I lived there."
"You are too young - you missed the golden age."
"I still know about it. When I was growing up in Cuba, I thought every place was like Cuba. But my father saw other places in the world. He said they were amazing. He could hardly believe it. I was amazed after we left. Cuba could have been like that too. The Cuban economy was good before Castro."
"Maybe better than other Latin American countries, but not so good. I have some statistics on that if you're interested."
"I have statistics too. Batista was good for Cuba."
"At first Batista was a good man, a reformer who instituted social welfare reforms. He established rural hospitals, raised wages and salaries, took better care of the army, legalized the Communist Party, and so on."
"He wasn't a Communist. He just recognized the Party like other parties," Darwin observed.
"Well, like other politicians, he pandered to the crowd with social programs to gain popularity. He was a cane worker, rose to power in the military. The second time around as a political leader, after living in Florida for quite awhile, Batista became corrupt and tyrannical, a pawn of greedy Yankee businessmen and gangsters who prostituted Cubans and had many political prisoners tortured and murdered. You must know that he overthrew Prio, suspended the Constitution and Congress, cancelled elections, dissolved all political parties and so on."
"My mom said things were very good under Batista," Darwin said incredulously.
"I recall reading a book about how good things were under Hitler," I countered, "as long as you went to a few Nazi meetings and were not on the black list. I wish I could recall the title - something like, We Were Happy. So a lot depends on your circumstances. There was a good reason besides dumb luck that Fidel Castro overthrew Batista's government with a few hundred men. Batista was hated by many ordinary Cubans."
"Oh, Castro's men killed people on the march into Havana. They asked them if they were for or against Castro, and if they were against him, they were shot on the spot."
"Sounds like a very old technique. Look, Batista had many Cubans tortured and murdered. Something was very, very wrong with him and his government. He did not take good advice when it was given, and it went down. His reputation was so awful that the American government would not allow Batista back into the United States."
"But Castro killed thousands of people."
"Hey, don't get me wrong. I don't agree with violent methods, the way things are usually done when push comes to shove. But like other young Americans, I hoped Castro and Che would help reform the right-wing world we were so sick of. Little Cuba was a big deal to us. But our ideals were betrayed. Castro's first mistake was in alienating the talented people who had the expertise to effect practical social reforms. By the way, I went to military school with a few kids from the Batista regime. I almost went on the Bay of Pigs invasion."
"Really?"
"Not because of the politics, but because a sum of money was offered to train and to invade Cuba, a large sum for a teenager like me. I'm glad I didn't go. Kennedy really botched it because of the lousy advice he got, just as Bush botched Iraq, but Bush actually was groomed to run for president to make war, on Iraq, of course."
"What happened with Kennedy and Cuba?"
"The way I understand it, Kennedy said he was against pre-emptive wars because they were undemocratic, but he inherited Eisenhower's plan to invade Cuba. He excused himself for going along with it, saying it was not an invasion but a test of the will of the Cuban people, to see if they would react and take charge of the government. Once the whole thing was coming down and he was told the invasion was doomed and should be called off, someone quoted him as saying that the invaders belonged in Cuba anyway."
"Really?"
"Kennedy let himself be persuaded that there were in reality two worlds, an overt world and a covert world - so you could make covert war and violate your overt principles. In other words, he was a politician, a professional hypocrite."
"I thought he was a liberal."
"Me too. When I was a kid I thought he was the greatest president of freedom who ever lived, and when I came to Florida I could not understand at the time why so many people in Miami hated him. He was a liberal when the liberalist ideology was convenient. And he was an imperialist too. He certainly was not a military or foreign policy genius. Just look whom he sided with in Vietnam - the greedy and oppressive landlords. "
"But what do you think went wrong in Cuba?"
"I'm no expert. It's the same old story everybody has been told.The landing place in Cuba was changed to a place where the invaders could not take cover or escape into the mountains as planned if things went badly. There was no air cover as promised. Dissidents and insurgents inside of Cuba weren't informed - they were picked up, tossed into prison, tortured, killed. Kennedy had indicated shortly before he was assassinated that he was willing to engage in dialogue with Castro. I think all that got him killed, not by Castro, but by anti-communist right-wingers who made a bigger fool out of Oswald than he already was. Castro almost crapped his fatigues when he heard Kennedy had been killed. I think Bush Senior was in on it."
"But this is still the best country. It is the most free country of all. And there is no censorship."
"Oh, come on, Darwin, get real! You know better than that. There is plenty of censorship, injustice and stupidity in this country. Of course it is not so obvious to you because you have come from a place where the repression was most obviously cruel and brutal. Paradise looks great to newcomers, but the local yahoos who have been sitting at the end of the bar in the Paradise Saloon are snickering at the greenhorns' enthusiasm and saying, "Wait until they find out what is really going on around here."
"Let me put it this way," I continued. "Do you think galleries are going to stop exhibiting contemporary anti-art and mount an exhibition of your fine art any time soon? I hope so. But right now your expression and mine is being censored in this free country of ours, not by the masses but by the tasteless taste-makers whom they emulate. Let's not brag too much, but our art is some of the best around, and we can't get a dime for it now, as the world is being trashed. For example, the masters painted religious subjects; a Jewish art collector and dealer would be glad to get a good deal on a painting of Jesus Christ. But today the rich man who pays millions of dollars for art rather inferior to yours rejects your painting because of your subject matter, and not the truth of the composition. Oh no! You painted Jesus crucified on the twin towers, as the popes wandered in despair below. In my opinion your painting sums up the crisis of our civilization. I'm not a Christian, but I will buy a painting of Jesus the Christ, who represents the truth of the crisis we are in, the dissolution of the twenty-third civilization."
"But at least people can say anything they want here," Darwin said, smiling at effusion - he likes to get me going. "Nowhere in Cuba are people safe to do that, not even in their homes."
"And that is why I am saying Fidel Castro is mistaken, acting really stupid."
"He is very, very smart."
"Maybe he's a stupid genius - I don't care. If Fidel backed off and let people say whatever they want to, there would be less resistance to him. As it is, he makes thousands of enemies for everyone he has shot or thrown in jail. He should let them at least engage in constructive criticism. Or even to just protest, like those ladies in white."
"They are brave. He doesn't dare shoot them down."
"No way. Just imagine the scene broadcasted on television: strong men with big black batons beating the little ladies in white into bloody pulp. That sort of publicity would not serve Castro's purpose. But everyone knows about the repression behind the scenes, so why not just go ahead and beat women up on the street? If not, why not let people speak freely for Cuba on the Internet? Castro does not make sense to me. He should adopt the Habla Libremente por Cuba program right away, and start building a better legacy for himself."
"No, he can't do that. He thinks he's god. He can't allow people to talk freely. That would be the end of him," Darwin assured me.
"I think you are dead wrong on that point, amigo. Let me give you an example of a smart dictator, one who let people gibber jabber and call him a fascist all day long. Fidel is a fascist in a red dress, you know. He was into the falanges thing, and into being a thug like the street thugs who helped Hitler and Mussolini."
"You could go to prison in Cuba for saying things like that."
"I was reading a book about the Bosnian War - Love Thy Neighbor, A Story of War. The book includes a chapter about Slobodan Milosevic, the suicidal mass murdering maniac whom the author, Peter Mass, interviewed, " I announced, opened up my notebook and searched for the reference.
"It's author is Peter Mass. Let me read this. Listen up: 'There was no need to worry about being overheard. One measure of Milosevic's genius is that he tolerated a surprising amount of free speech. He was willing to harass or detain anyone who was a real threat, but few people were, and so Belgrade was crawling with dissidents and professors who quite openly called Milosevic a fascist. Saddam would have cut off their heads, creating ten new enemies for every one he executed. Milosevic let them ramble on and the opposition, which chanted "Slobo, Saddam" at protests, remained pathetically weak.'
"Fidel has got to be a saint compared to Slobodan," I added. "Slobodan means 'freedom' - but Slobodan must have read the story about the hydra, how it grew two heads for every head Hercules cut off. For every mouth Fidel shuts up, a hundred start yapping against him. He might as well just let them yap, don't you think?"
Darwin shrugged. He has a fine critical mind, but it's hard to move die-hard Cuban exiles from their firm convictions, set in stone by personal suffering.
"My father was pro-Revolution at first," he said. "He was not a fanatic - he was a solar scientist, a loyal government servant who traveled around on projects. When in France he observed that some things were better there than in Cuba. After he got back to Cuba, he said so in an innocent letter to an acquaintance, not suspecting his mail would be inspected or his opinion that certain Cuban government programs were not what they should be, would land him in prison and get him tortured. He was lucky: he managed to get out of prison and got us out of Cuba. We went to Spain. It wasn't easy making a living in Spain, or getting settled in America. We had to do menial work to survive in America. My father is a scientist; he was discriminated against in America; but the United States is the best country. You don't understand how bad Cuba is. You should go down there. You would leave in two days. Then you would not want to have a dialogue with Fidel Castro, or think money should be sent to Cuban families, so Castro can get it."
"Well, I understand he gets a big piece of that money now. But sanctions don't work - they just make dictators stronger and punish the people. I hope you understand why I am ashamed of President Bush and the politics he represents, the policy of screwing the poor and making pre-emptive war based on a pack of lies."
"Bush is good. My dad likes Bush, a lot," Darwin emphasized.
"The poverty is Miami is pathetic," I rattled on. "That is what Bush and his neoconservatives are all about - increasing the gap between the rich and poor. If you wind up on the street in Miami, you might as well be dead because you are just a worm crawling in scum as far as other people are concerned. But I like the palm trees, the blue skies, and the women in Miami."
"The women are amazing on Lincoln Road. They're from all over the world."
"Why come here?"
"They see Miami on television and the movies, and it looks very glamorous.
"The latinas are so hot!" (I was tired of 'cool' so I used the word I had learned from Paris Hilton). "Speaking of Spanish, I was turned down for work three times last week because I don't speak it. But I know how to read it well enough to read the Cuban constitution. I keep it in my nightstand and read it before I go to sleep."
"You're kidding."
"I'm learning some Spanish. I like to read the part where it says that I would be gauranteed a job if I were a Cuban in Cuba. Maybe I will learn Spanish well enough to defect to Cuba. Gee, what kind of job would I get?" I wondered as an afterthought. "Cleaning latrines?"
"No," Darwin answered. "You could get a job where maybe you could use your writing skills."
"Writing propaganda? I like some of Castro's criticism of the U.S."
"Sure. For Granma, the paper. You might have a column where you would report every day on the improvements made by the Revolution."
"Heck, that would be easy. I would cut and paste the usual stuff from day to day, change a few details every day, then work on my novels."
"If you slip up, say something against the government, even accidentally, you'll disappear, be imprisoned and tortured. You should go down there and see what Cuba is, David. It is easy to get there from Mexico."
"There used to be a good service from Jamaica on the Russian planes for fifty bucks," I said. "But I might get picked up by the police in Cuba. Nobody would help me. The United States would bust me and fine me if I got back to the States."
"Nothing is going to happen to you in Cuba if you don't make a scene. There are plenty of people wandering around Havana. I tell you, you would come back in a day, a half a day, because you wouldn't like it!"
"My American acquaintances love Havana. I guess you're right - nothing has happened to them. But they say they have to be real careful. If I emigrate, how much would I make in Cuba on the job?"
"A few pesos a month."
"A few pesos? But how would I pay rent?"
"People stay with their families."
"But where would I stay?"
"I don't know. I keep telling you, you should be with a woman, have something to live for, have goals, somewhere to stay.
"I don't know. I've had those goals before. I like being single. Maybe Fidel Castro would have a good job for me. I could do some housesitting for him in one of his houses, maybe write a fine novel, like his friend Gabriel Marquez. I'd just keep my nose out of the Revolution."
"David, listen to me: you would hate Cuba. First of all, you would not be able to drink your big cans of ice-cold Arizona tea in Havana."
"Oh, no!"
Note:
Foremost cubosurrealist Darwin Leon is quoted with his permission. Photos of samples of his work may be viewed at:
www.darwinleon.com
