\u201cThey\u2019re going to leave anyway. There\u2019s the custom of leaving. If since January they can\u2019t enter the United States so comfortably, they\u2019ll go somewhere else. Perhaps they\u2019ll come over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alberto Enrique says this. He\u2019s writing now from a street in Prague. Last year, when the irregular Cubans were still let in at the U.S. borders, we met in the Czech Republic. We bumped into each other by chance. That\u2019s when I started to understand why a Cuban community gathered in Central Europe, why a welcoming space was constituted here, what spirit sustains a policy of entrance only comparable to the one abolished by Obama in one of his last gestures in favor of the normalization.<\/p>\n
Alberto Enrique wore a top hat. In the background, hospitable, Saint Wenceslaus of Bohemia occupied the place of honor in the very square where student Jan Palach immolated himself during the Soviet invasion of 1968.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s a bit ridiculous,\u201d he says pointing to the hat, \u201cbut it\u2019s my uniform, and I wear it to earn money to eat.\u201d The top says Guinness. It\u2019s the beer propaganda, the dandy attire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lure clients for a restaurant, I can\u2019t complain. I\u2019m doing much better than at the beginning, because then I spent five or six months without work. I spend the day on this corner, convincing the Czechs to come eat. But I don\u2019t care, I\u2019ll do whatever. In Havana I was a sketcher. I was a dancer. Then I dedicated myself to body building. I don\u2019t have a permanent trade. I\u2019m versatile.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says and laughs with the phrase, which seems clever to him. \u201cI\u2019m versatile; right here, in a neighboring city, I worked in an aluminum carpentry workshop.\u201d All of a sudden he stops speaking Spanish, uses Czech to invite a couple of young men coming from the National Museum. They have eaten hot sausages in the kiosk by the tram stop. They continue their way down Saint Wenceslaus.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t think I speak Czech. I defend myself with a few words. This is not a language that you learn from one day to the other. You need five or six years to learn it. It\u2019s the fourth most difficult language in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
He likes to invent statistics. \u201cThis is the seventh most beautiful city in the world. The Castle is the largest in Europe. Czech women are the third among the most beautiful women. This country, you can bet on it, is the second friendliest toward Cuban emigrants, after the United States. For whatever reason, but that\u2019s how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that. But that statistic is old. Could it now be said, when no one now dares to leave through Central America toward the Rio Grande, that the Czech Republic is the most hospitable, the only one that will let in Cubans because of their nationality? The way to get there remains to be established, naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sold my house and that\u2019s it? I went to Russia, like all those who don\u2019t have a visa. And from Russia I left for Serbia. From Serbia I jumped to Hungary, where I was imprisoned. The person who was with me took a wrong turn, can you imagine! We asked for asylum in Serbia, and we spent a month there. The process was long and uncertain, that\u2019s why we again jumped the border, and that\u2019s how we came here. I knew that Cubans were given papers here. That\u2019s why I am thankful to this country. The immigration officers treated us very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
One would think that compatriots help to feel less isolation. One would think that compatriots have very prosperous businesses. But Prague is deceptive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a Cuban community, but not many Cubans are united here. There are businesses that exploit Cuban dance and culture. There\u2019s the Bodeguita and another place was opened, the Macumba. But they\u2019re not all Cubans. The owners are Czech.<\/p>\n
Tropical salsa is not danced in Prague\u2019s Macumba. It\u2019s the same music, but the choreography is stylized. They use sinuous gestures. It\u2019s Russian salsa. Prague\u2019s Bodeguita barely proposes a few Cuban dishes on the menu. It\u2019s a bodega of international flavors a few blocks from Franz Kafka\u2019s house. There aren\u2019t too many Cubans among the clients. In the service, yes. Dance teachers, waiters, lurers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t know the language the Czechs already don\u2019t treat you that well. Many of them like the Cubans, but the emigrant always has problems. I live with a Cuban girl. A Czech one, no sir. I don\u2019t want any more Czech girlfriends. I had one and I\u2019m not going to repeat it. They don\u2019t understand us, we don\u2019t understand them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says that and specifies, along the way, that he won\u2019t leave Prague. He writes this to me from a street on the way to Saint Wenceslaus Square.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if the Czechs will change their policy now that the Americans have changed theirs. But up to now this is the only European country that legalizes Cubans without having to wait too much. Other people have to get married, they have to invent. Cubans don\u2019t. They get here and they tell them, \u2018Here, take you papers.\u2019 It could be because these people have such bad memories about the Soviets, who knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThey\u2019re going to leave anyway. There\u2019s the custom of leaving. If since January they can\u2019t enter the United States so comfortably, they\u2019ll go somewhere else. Perhaps they\u2019ll come over here.\u201d Alberto Enrique says this. He\u2019s writing now from a street in Prague. Last year, when the irregular Cubans were still let in at the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3307,"featured_media":86837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13908],"tags":[9713],"ppma_author":[33891,12319],"class_list":["post-86815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-cuba","tag-cuban-people"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n