{"id":253473,"date":"2022-05-28T12:14:49","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T16:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=253473"},"modified":"2022-05-28T12:14:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T16:14:49","slug":"cuba-leaving-staying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/cuba-leaving-staying\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba: Leaving, staying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou have to leave Cuba, even if it\u2019s swimming,\u201d a young man, a friend of a friend, with whom I met weeks ago in <\/span>Santiago de Cuba<\/b><\/a>, tells me categorically. We are at my friend\u2019s house, where we have gone for different reasons \u2015 me, to pay a visit after three years without going to that city; him, for an \u201cerrand,\u201d which, as I later learned, was money sent by another friend from \u201coutside\u201d \u2015 and, drinking coffee, the dialogue almost inevitably takes the most common course of many conversations in recent times on the Cuba: that of the thousands of <\/span>Cubans who are leaving the country<\/b><\/a> month after month, week after week, to try to reach the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo stay is madness,\u201d the young man replies when my friend, more cautious and thoughtful, comments that he finds it is \u201cmadness\u201d that so many people <\/span>throw themselves into the sea<\/b><\/a> or cross jungles, even with small children, and that they risk their lives and spend thousands of dollars without having any assurance that they will achieve their purpose. \u201cIt\u2019s just that no one can put up with this or fix it,\u201d he explained, \u201cand many people don\u2019t want to continue with the hardships and standing in queues all their lives. I don\u2019t know about you, but I have already collected almost all the money, and as soon as I have everything ready, I\u2019ll get out of here, even if it\u2019s for Greenland.\u201d \u201cLook, this is a journalist and he\u2019s going to include you in a feature article,\u201d my friend warns him jokingly. \u201cWell, let him do it,\u201d the other replied, \u201cand let me know by WhatsApp, because with luck I hope to be out of Cuba by then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I think of the young man, whose name I never got to know \u2015 my friend introduced him to me as \u201ca buddy\u201d \u2015 when just a few days ago the topic of mass emigration resurfaced in a conversation, this time in the queue to buy potatoes in the neighborhood market. The queue moves slowly, as if in a glass capsule in which life moves in slow motion, and the resigned would-be buyers spend time hiding from the sun and gossiping with other would-be buyers. The departure of the son of a neighbor who is not in the queue right now, gives rise to a debate in front of me, in which some sympathize with the mother, others support that the boy \u2015 who, according to what they say, left with several friends \u2015 has taken \u201cthe leap,\u201d and others regret that \u201cthe situation\u201d is leading many to take that path.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how far this country is going to go if so many people continue to leave,\u201d complains a woman who is ahead of another woman who is ahead of me, and who talks with her and other neighbors under a small balcony. \u201cAt this rate, the only ones left will be the elderly, the stupid and those who have no way of leaving,\u201d she adds, visibly worried. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be so sure about the old people,\u201d a man replies mischievously, only to recover his seriousness almost immediately: \u201cA cousin of my wife, who is already about 70 years old, went to <\/span>Mexico<\/b><\/a>\u00a0with her husband, who is even older, to meet with their children, and they already entered the other day. And an acquaintance of mine, also over 60, left for <\/span>Nicaragua<\/b><\/a>\u00a0with his daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. He had a huge house and I think he was even about to retire, but he didn\u2019t wait around for his pension to come out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have always left Cuba, and more so when things have gotten bad, or don\u2019t you remember what happened in the 1990s?\u201d says another woman, who is a few turns ahead, but who has joined the group while keeping an eye on the chelonian movement of the queue. \u201cBut there are always other people who decide to stay. I myself don\u2019t intend to leave, despite all the problems there are, which I don\u2019t deny. But the thing is that I grew up and studied here, here I raised my family, here I work in what I like, and I know that in another place I will not feel the same. The times I\u2019ve gone abroad, it\u2019s not that I\u2019ve had a bad time, but in the end I\u2019m always dying to come back,\u201d she explains. \u201cSo I\u2019m not criticizing whoever wants to leave: it\u2019s their decision, it\u2019s their life. But I really couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cosas migratorias (IV)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n