{"id":241633,"date":"2021-07-19T16:44:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T20:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=241633"},"modified":"2021-07-19T16:44:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T20:44:45","slug":"from-barrio-cuba-beyond-hatred-and-for-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/opinion\/from-barrio-cuba-beyond-hatred-and-for-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"From Barrio Cuba, beyond hatred and for respect"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been living between Cuba and Brazil for about four years for study purposes. My last stay on the island lasted about two years, between 2019 and 2021. In the last six months in Cuba I have tried to connect with the deep reality of the \u201cmarginal\u201d(ized) barrio, of the tenement house where I live. I have wanted, in the midst of my personal challenges, to better understand that fraction of the diasporic country in which I am (absent), which constantly surpasses my imagination and experiences from the potential of the diverse. I don\u2019t think I will be able to understand the complexity of the people around me, of the streets that I walk, of the feelings that surround me, that make me suffer, cry and love\u2026but I need to understand (myself).<\/span><\/p>\n

After two years of being back home, the family\u2019s affection welcomed me with roast pork and <\/span>congr\u00ed<\/span><\/i>, T\u00ednima beer and Los Van Van. My mother, my sister, made sure to provide the fridge with the essentials, they wanted me to inhabit an imagined country, at least basically like the one I had left in 2019. Unlike Bolsonaro\u2019s health <\/span>necropolicy<\/span><\/i><\/a> that I experienced, in a Brazil of supplied markets, it was encouraging to see Dr. Dur\u00e1n transmitting tranquility and the Cuban government working for a decent life in the midst of so many deficiencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, after spending a month and consuming\/distributing the reserves from <\/span>beyond<\/span><\/i> that the Cuban Customs and Copa airlines allowed me, the super-anxiety due to the danger of infecting myself and (seeing) people dying of <\/span>COVID-19<\/span><\/a> in Brazil, was replaced by a basic anxiety, the search and prices of pork, coffee, food, vegetables, bread, milk, medicines, and the lines with their anthropological effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

My arrival, moreover, coincided with the monetary <\/span>reorganization<\/span><\/a> and the measure to concentrate the stores selling basic products in freely convertible currency, to pierce the U.S. financial blockade that prevents access to credit. As a result, I observed that a reorganization of the social differentiation was obtained between those who have a card and those who do not; between those who receive freely convertible currency from abroad on the cards and those who buy them to deposit in their card; and those who have to buy in national currency, at whatever price, basic need products because they don\u2019t have the money to buy freely convertible currency and deposit them on a card.<\/span><\/p>\n

My mother, my grandmother Fela and my neighbor Belkis were delighted with the increase in their pensions, but the speed with which the shortages appeared and prices increased quickly froze their smiles. At the same time, the government organized modules of basic products with a monthly distribution and accessible to each family, which has been relevant and necessary. I have not seen anyone starve to death on the streets, although I know of more than one child\/teenager eating one meal a day, being semi-hungry the rest of the time, dreaming of a cracker or their mouths watering for a <\/span>Pelly<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adolescents\/young people from the barrios that I inhabit in and that inhabit me have seen their spaces for socializing reduced to the families with their dysfunctionalities, a concept that is expressed daily in a diminished capacity to resolve conflicts, exacerbated by the effects of patriarchy that induces toxic masculinity, alcohol and physical-psychological violence against mothers\/women and children.<\/span><\/p>\n

The kids from the barrio (de)build the world they dream of for them on the (anti)social networks and from there they answer the mass (in)communication media, which often make them invisible. Others less fortunate are exponents of the internal technological gap, without a telephone to inhabit the social networks that (dis)connect you to the world; they dream the dreams of others, without critical recourse, in a single, totalizing narrative of their lives in a <\/span>fraternal<\/span><\/i> global network that unites them in their joys, wishes and sufferings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The influence of the school and its teachers during the pandemic limited to occasional homework sent by WhatsApp or Telegram (for those who have a cell phone) and to some educational tele classes, which make them sleepy because of their schematic and repetitive level (for those who have a television). Institutionalized formal education, after two intermittent courses due to the pandemic, moves further away from the horizon of a part of the youth\/adolescence, although in truth it has always been far from understanding their diversity, their tribes, their reggaeton idols and the body language of resistance to the rhythm of <\/span>Chocolate MC<\/span><\/i>. The persistent meritocratic spirit in the Cuban socialist school maintains that we can all achieve social success through universal access to education; the untold story is under what conditions I study and what class, racial, structural, family barriers I will have to challenge in order to achieve success and social mobility.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the arrival of the blackouts, the occupation of bodies in the street and the corridors of the tenement houses increase, the most complex issues are settled, postponed demands are mobilized, the bustle of the house is transferred to the public space and agendas and dissatisfactions are generated or structured there. If those who govern by mandate of the people want to know more than what the <\/span>Population Attention Offices<\/span><\/i> inform them, they must take advantage of the circumstances and walk the unlit streets that are illuminated with wisdom, popular clamor, dignity and indignation.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the months and difficulties go by, and with the surge of the pandemic, the increase in interpersonal, family and neighborhood tensions is remarkable for me. The <\/span>embargo<\/span><\/a> and its effects are an unavoidable reality, its elimination should be a reason for consensus among Cubans of any political creed, as a fair point of credibility for any dialogue from the difference. To withdraw from any call to violence, incitement to hatred, reinforcement of discriminatory discursive codes that inferiorize specific social groups. Dialogue and reflection must be the way, not foolish and unjustified destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

J-11 in Cuba: about the good and the fair<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n