The Jewish or Hitler are not the ones to blame. It isn’t the moon’s fault, nor my white grandfather’s, who one evening long time ago crossed the steel curtain and settled in Uruguay. It isn’t Buena Fe’s fault, though I deduce there is a lot of bad faith in blame. It isn’t Pocholo’s fault either; he was a nasty guy with a gang. It isn’t Higinio’s fault, though he also has a gang and we find that’s a terrible burden.
A single individual is not to be blamed for the fact that Cuban baseball is in such a mess. Cuban baseball has –essentially– been so great that a single man would never be able to discredit it, even in one hundred years of incapable, irresponsible and atrocious individual management. Strong as the Chinese Wall (Marrero, Luque, Méndez, Miñoso, Vinent, Marquetti, Casanova), the Cuban baseball would have been able to fight back if it hadn’t been for the plot.
Yes, the plot. The maneuver, hopefully unconscious, by which it seams have gradually got loose. It begins (or ends) in the economic US blockade and ends (or begins) in the mental blockade by the Cuban part, focused in defending principles that can only foresee the end. And Higinio has been the visible face of absentmindedness, but he is not –he cannot be– the one leading it. He is not the juggler of his generation, nor the strong hand of the charioteer. He doesn’t have such reach.
Higinio is the target of criticisms, and he deserves that, but for agreeing to be in ridicule, for being the spokesperson of stupidity pondered by other minds, rather than his own and indubitable incompetence. Higinio is the ventriloquist of someone who hides behind anonymity and finds joy all year round in guiding through the wrong course, perhaps out of a whim, blindness or basic opportunism. As a nice bodyguard, Higinio stood up and fell in the fulfillment of his duty, shot by the disapproval of a ¾ of the country (the rest is no secret that hates baseball).
The truth is that Higinio has been a puppet. And now, it is said he left the Commission –it is not official yet. It is said he was replaced by Heriberto Algo, who used to lead baseball in Pinar del Rio and from here on, I say, there is no other choice but to expose the fussy mistake by the character(s) in anonymity. It is also said that Higinio will just work as a federate, which is limited to getting on the ships, which are clean and comfy, and sometimes they even serve very good meals.
