Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Translator: Ted Henken
DON'T LET THEM TURN EL YUMA INTO A YANKEE…
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Finally, State Security played its cards. It was time. "El Yuma," as
ordinary people colloquially called him, and as Ted Henken was delighted
to call himself, from now on will be "The Yankee." An ideological
regression if we do nothing about it. And we already know where these
shots will lead: Yankee, Go Home …!
In my opinion, the good American was cruelly betrayed by some of his own
interviewees (they are not bloggers, but moles who will cheerfully
testify in some criminal proceeding). But that is another matter.
The truth is that the governability and survival of the Cuban Revolution
depends solely on maintaining a caste system. In other words, a prison.
Let no one see David with Diego in the street. A simple hug or a laugh
shared across differences might bring down the house of
guidelines-and-cards. It is logical, then, that State Security blindly
strikes out left and right. Let them do it, it's their job.
But let us do ours as citizens as well: let's mix with one another;
let's not be so cowardly and lacking in solidarity; let's support those
among us who have fallen from grace even though we don't always share
their ideas; let's take from him the cross of stigmatization for
whatever reason; let's not denounce the victim but rebuke mercifully the
victimizer; let's go without prejudice to a park to see if others' eyes
are open to the beauty of the truth; let's join in others' projects even
if they are not our own; let's hear before we die if the other had a
clean voice; let's ignore the threatening pointed finger of the
plain-clothed agent who summons us to an interview in the style of
kidnapping and coercion.
In short, let's be a little more Yumas and a little less Yankees. Let's
all stay together in our big Cuban mansion. State Security can only
guarantee us a morally unhealthy hovel. And, what's worse, one rented as
standard issue.
Little Brothers of History, we are running out of time to react as a
generation. If we don't dissolve, now, this Paleolithic power that
paralyzes us, it will be our biographical responsibility. And from that
collective guilt, in the face of the future, not even our own State
Security can save us.
Thanks, Ted, for the metaphor.
May 5 2011
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