With a flag that looks proudly upon her

Old Havana: ghost streets, closed venues, nonexistent tourism, and a subdued summer

July 23, 2026

The March for Our Lives has just ended in Washington DC. It was not the only one in the entire Union. Perhaps this is the end of a before and the start of an afterwards.
Few times in history, perhaps since Vietnam, the expressions “my generation” and “change” have sent such a clear message and different to all those who wanted to hear them, especially the politicians and the members of Congress who for practically a decade have set aside the subject of weapons.
From these young people’s perspective, those firearms are only good to kill. The freedom of others to carry them – especially those for military use – end there where they, the children and youngsters, have historically put the dead.
Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland are barely three chapters of a horror story that usually ends with prayers and condolences until, once again, bullets fall on them like Sisyphus’ heavy rocks. And they refuse to swell the statistics in a culture where there are more weapons than persons and in which violence is like bitter bread eaten day in and day out.
Camila Cabello also participated in the march.
The speakers – Anglos, Afro-Americans, Latinos/Hispanics… – expressed from their diversity the spirit of the moment, for starters with two important implications.
The first, a clear VOTE THEM OUT, this is, the determination of making themselves felt in the ballot boxes, especially during next November’s midterm elections. And they must be taken very seriously: today these millennials surpass the baby boomers – that is to say, those born after the last world war and a bit later – as a voting force.
The second, another cry: NO MORE!, accompanied by the determination to accept no more the power or the lobbying capacity of the very powerful National Rifle Association. “I am fire,” Miguel de Cervantes once wrote, “and sword put faraway.”
One of the key questions asked on as well as out of the tribune was “Is this the United States where we want to live?”
Eloquent in her silences, like that of the six minutes and 20 seconds, the time the shooter took to do away with more than a dozen lives in a Florida school.
Among them, Enma González, that young Cuban American who has emerged as one of the natural leaders of this movement, because she is. As simple as clear in her ability to denote and communicate. Eloquent in her silences, like that of the six minutes and 20 seconds, the time the shooter took to do away with more than a dozen lives in a Florida school.
And genuinely and deeply moving, with a flag that looks upon her proudly from the right sleeve of her jacket.
The arrow has been shot.
Now it’s a question of seeing what happens this time with the target.