{"id":247887,"date":"2022-01-10T12:32:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T17:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=247887"},"modified":"2022-01-10T12:32:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T17:32:59","slug":"i-refuse-to-add-fuel-to-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/i-refuse-to-add-fuel-to-the-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"I refuse to add fuel to the fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

I refuse to add fuel to the fire. People get tired of hatred. Hate screams loud and love whispers. But love prevails.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every day I remember: \u201cI caught you, Panchito, I caught you!\u201d and we, children, playing \u201chide and seek\u201d or \u201cSimon says.\u201d All \u201cround the wheel of bread and cinnamon.\u201d And if someone fell (or got tired) they were given a chance, we invoked \u201cpio tai.\u201d No abusing the defenseless. Yes, I remember.<\/span><\/p>\n

I cannot feel hatred or contempt for the neighbor always asking for a bit of salt, or her children or her grandchildren. Not even for that other one, the one asking for coffee, who would remove the latch and open my door without asking permission. \u201cCan I come in?\u201d (and she was already inside) \u201cHave coffee already been made in this house?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

No promise of \u201cfreedom\u201d will make me forget my essence. No geography can make me hate or wish evil to those to whom I said \u201cCome in!\u201d \u201cHigh five!\u201d That \u201cfreedom\u201d would be a bitter prison if the only thing I achieve, in its name, is scheming intrigues to ruin their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

I come from a place where it was said \u201cOpen!\u201d and the masarreal (a Cuban pastry) was split in two. Period! That was the law!<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not a better person for having a car. That doesn\u2019t define me. I am not better or worse because my plate is scarce or abundant. The things I have do not define me, but the things I do, do. I am the work of others who, in turn, were the fruit of others from further back and so on, forever and ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I am today, I owe to those living ghosts that inhabit me. What makes me who I am is the memory of those who shared their bread with me, of the neighbor who loved me and took care of me as a child. Her wrinkled hand stroking my head and saying tenderly \u201cOh my little boy.\u201d That\u2019s where everything came in! That is my essence.<\/span><\/p>\n

What made love last to this day was the girlfriend from the little park. She tattooed my soul. I don\u2019t remember her face. I don\u2019t remember her name. But that high school kiss sealed all the kisses that followed. The tender aroma of that girl from senior high, was extended to all the women and men of the world with whom I came across later. That\u2019s there, and it happened that afternoon in that park, when the sun was setting. That young girl, a Royal Poinciana<\/span> and the sunset in the background. That\u2019s the lamp that gives me light when it\u2019s darkest. She, her children, and the children of her children!<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry, but a long time ago I got tired of hatred. Love prevailed. I am linked to these people by an umbilical cord. All the blessings I have received in my life I owe to them. I neither want nor can block them. That\u2019s how things are there, where I come from. With them, to the end! For them, it is always open! and let\u2019s split the masarreal in two!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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