It’s coming!

By Eduardo N. Cordoví Hernández

HAVANA TIMES – “Music is the soul of a people..” I think Jose Marti said that: but if not, someone else did, and well said, for certain. I’ll just lean on the assertible assertion of the assessment, if you forgive the cacophonous redundancies, to try and string together some ideas, with the aim of establishing their excellence beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Another phrase comes to mind, one I heard as a child, in an old Argentine movie: “Where the words end, music begins,” or something like that. I already mentioned I was a child at the time. And in concluding this brief introduction, I want to add another timely maxim from yet another author whose identity I’ve forgotten: “Music is the only miracle we’ve been allowed to perform.”

There’s an old tune, sung in the incomparably melodious voice of Barbarito Diez, that goes: “When will it be Xmas Eve…”

“When will the little piglet come…

When will the little radishes come…”

Celia Cruz would also sing those lines in a more Guaracha rhythm, but adding some other interrogatives of a marked socio-political bent. For example:

“When will our liberty return?

When will the truth return?

When will Justice return?”

I’ve heard some people in my neighborhood greet me with little variations like: “When will that old man Trump be here..? When will the ‘Americans’ be here?” in an understandable anxiety to be done with the current poverty and misery. At the same time, many others, despite also finding those conditions unbearable, consider such a form of finding success disgraceful and unacceptable.

I can’t emit an accurate judgment on the Cuban issue, not even within the narrow confines of my neighborhood: I don’t know everyone! And if I were to conduct a survey, would they really tell me what they think? The truth is that – incredible as it may seem – there are many people who still seem enamored of the monster. I don’t know if this is a case of the so-called Stockholm Syndrome, or if it’s wariness as an instinctive form of survival, or the logical result of a well-elaborated project of psychological manipulation—which has already been termed “anthropological damage”—or if it’s a genuine and noble display of patriotism.

Personally, I have nothing against patriotism, but it seems to me that this word assumes many functions that are simply forms of social manipulation. I don’t intend to elaborate on that notion here; but if we agree with Martí on the principle that “With everyone and for the good of all,” we can concur that among the possible reasonable solutions to national problems—solutions that other, no less patriotic peoples have accepted—are annexation or the request for an armed invasion by foreign powers. What happened in Angola, in Ethiopia, in the Congo (countries where Cuba intervened militarily)…?

What we can say with certainty is that many people, including admitted opponents of socialism, of communism, of the Castro regime and anything else that leans left in political terms, declare themselves against the current government’s being abolished, eradicated, eliminated by violent means, and especially if this is to be carried out by the United States of America.

Meanwhile, more than six decades ago, we heard it said that: “The present is a time of struggle…” but “The future is ours.” And that present was indeed a time of struggle, but the future that was supposed to be ours wasn’t exactly this one; if I recall correctly, even milk was supposed to flow through pipes. Give me a break!

And we also heard that the blame and responsibility lay—and still lies—with others: with our enemies, with adverse circumstances. And for our apparently intractable problems, there’s always a way to justify, a rationale that we should understand, even if the problems remain unresolved. The only response to even the most urgent and recent demands, seems to be a flawed, or less flawed explanation: a government official, an incomplete action, a promise that never materializes, or… the absolute certainty of a miserable future – but honorable, of course!

Meanwhile, with an imposing deployment of US military forces, “Now, indeed, the cry of “Cuba will be free!” sounds somewhat—at least so far—like those other words: “Now, we’re going to build socialism!”

Something that reminds me a little painfully of Willy Chirino, who since the 1990s has been telling us: “It’s coming very soon now…!” Even if he says it from the heart.

Read more here from the diary of Eduardo N. Cordoví.