Forget trying croquettes made out of giraffe neck, and if you want them wear a pith helmet and go on safari to Africa, because the story that they had been stolen from a National Zoo was just that: a story…
One of the most colorful current gossips in Cuba-because here there are many all the time- stated that besides the long-neck mammal they had made disappear four monkeys and a pony, at a ceremony that will make David Copperfield himself envious, but here there are wizards that can make disappear whatever they want.
I grabbed a phone and searched in its pages the listed phones for the National Zoo and its illustrious predecessor, the one on 26 Street. At first I had to swear that I was not pulling his leg, that I was a journalist and wanted to know if the rumor was true. After a silence, he dryly assured me it was a lie. In the 26 Zoo, he told me, there hadn’t been giraffes in ages…
As there is Havana of diurnal animals of which we have no idea, I suspected that maybe if the animals were gone, trafficked to some farm of a nouveau rich, or killed in some work of Santeria, but a voodoo priest friend of mine told me had no idea that giraffes were used in a liturgical rite.
Just a few years ago somebody stole ostriches from Josone Park, Varadero, and they discovered the “collector” because his son at school said, with candor and vanity, he had eaten ostrich steak. When the Special Period people ate even cats and the downturn in the Cuban zoos population was epic. And lions became vegetarians the hard way …
In Siguaraya City gossips are recurrent. When Allport and Postman postulated their famous Theory of Rumor, they barely outlined what that phenomenon in Cuba was. Cubans are hyperbolic by nature. Moreover, we do not support gossip but it entertains us.
Perhaps we call here the rumor “ball” because when it rolls away it reaches unsuspected dimensions, and in the absence of a press in tune with the “vox populix” rarely is left unchecked. Or just the opposite. Alleged deceased appear out of nowhere, without rhyme or reason, just to say “hey, I’m here, alive”…
Maybe that that popular song by Los Van Van was born like that, the black man does not have anythin, with Pedrito Calvo snappy voice. It was said that he had been torched. And like him, thousands. When I was a child I remember one day they said Alvaro Torres was killed in a plane crash. They also said Tony Calá had lost it because voodoo saint ceremony went wrong. And Rudy Reyes had killed his wife. And they also said an actress had killed her husband for raping her daughter. And Susana Perez was dead, and many more.
Many times there is a real background in the stories, but sometimes human is pure slander. Of politics, I don’t even want to talk…
These days it is also said that on February 12, with date and all-would end the dual currency in Cuba. And that Jorgito Martinez had died. Again he came to deny the more serious information on Cuban television: Vivir del Cuento … With visible signs that he has been ill, Jorgito came to his character Arnold the Exterminator, but said he was “in good shape” and then Panfilo (Luis Silva) said people were speaking each nonsense …
In this case, fortunately, the dead you kill are in good health … But still, forget the giraffe croquette
Author
Charly Morales Valido
Maybe the giraffe already escape for the island in a cigarreta,for sure she got family in Florida zoo, and they sending a boat to picking her in the coast,if she don’t will escape maybe,someone will got a piece of red meat in combination whit rice and black beans in some paladar in Havana city.Is not easy the life for one pour giraffe in the little island because I’ve in the news papers ,not one got her pictures or any information to finding her,so that’s why,is a secret operation of rescue in combination whit the lemur king and the penguins because,is better living in Madagascar island than in the full of promises of cuba,Havana zoo.