Cuban nostalgia

By: Pedro Corzo - 01/01/2024

Guest columnist.
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The common denominator of exiles and emigrants is having left behind the land in which they were born, in addition, most likely, sharing the longings for the past, which for both, can be overwhelming, although different. It is worth saying that I learned this very recently.

Nostalgia is one of the most personal and complex feelings. I experienced that feeling a year ago, in a restaurant where I was having dinner with my wife and the married couple of the brothers Morera and Xiomara, Kemel and Cristina.

I assimilated it with difficulty. A Castro singer-songwriter had just died, I call him that because his songs, as Jose A. Albertini wrote, helped silence the rifle shots at the firing squads. The music of this subject, undoubtedly a notable artist, is admired by many compatriots, and one of those fans proposed that the entertainers perform a song in his memory.

Needless to say, I was very upset, although I understood the situation when everyone told me, “those are the memories of that man, you must understand, what you remember tenderly can be bitter for another.” An irreducible truth because sometimes even moments of danger are remembered with charm.

Art in general, as well as sports, have been used by island totalitarianism to manipulate the population and spread a smokescreen over the events in Cuba. In addition, artistic manifestations have been used to repress the authors, as It happened, among others, to Meme Solís. The performers that I remember most are Los Cinco Latino, The Platter and Luis Aguile, a very Cuban Argentine.

Terror devoured us. The political situation was so demonic that a song titled “Adiós Felicidad” by Ela O'Farril was considered counter-revolutionary. The author was arrested and harassed, denounced by a communist professor, a friend of her family, for having composed a counterrevolutionary ballad, an accusation that led to her exile.

Christmas, starting in the 60s, began to happen very discreetly. People stopped congratulating each other, or did so very discreetly. At the same time, there was very little to give away, groceries were conspicuous by their absence or decorated at prohibitively expensive prices. However, the worst thing was that the celebrations of December 24 and 25 were politically incorrect, but not the 31st, the eve of the new lord's advent.

January 6, Three Kings Day, was also for prison or exile. Toys, according to government propaganda, were regulated so that all children had them.

The regime replaced customs, traditions. He transformed everything so that Fidel Castro took over the collective imagination. More than a government, a new creed was imposed in Cuba

I admit that, at Christmas, the homesickness is more severe. It is a period that, without being religious, imprisons me and puts me in a time machine that leads to sharing again with those who are no longer here, in a place and time, who will never return.

My last Christmas in Cuba was in 1980. They were practically prohibited on the island. Some Church decorated discreetly according to the dates. I remember, a temple, which was open to the public, was located on Trista Street in the unforgettable Santa Clara.

The Castro regime established that the Christmas holidays were celebrations without a devout connotation for the people, something that is becoming widespread today. The celebrations would take place on July 25, 26 and 27, as part of their policy of destroying national roots and transmuting the date of the assault on the Moncada barracks into the focal point of the new religion that was catechizing Cubans.

The Christmas that I remember most is that of 1958, a year before the Three C's strategy was in effect, "zero cinemas, zero shopping, zero cabarets" in which Fidel Castro's M26 de Julio, to the rhythm of bombs and personal attacks, imposed terror, a situation that would worsen drastically months later.

The country was virtually at war. We were all frightened by the extreme violence of the warring parties, however, no one could imagine the magnitude of the disaster that was coming. The Republic, the entire nation, were approaching extinction. Work by the Castro brothers.

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