Manuel Vázquez Portal, Grupo Decoro / CubaNet
HAVANA, September - Local wags say there are two possible ways out to the
Cuban problem.... One by air and the other by sea. Leaving Cuba, regardless of
means or destination, is the secret longing of the larger part of the
population. Never before had this happened.
In Colonial times, the authorities had to condemn people to exile for them
to leave the island. During the Republican period in the first half of the 20th
Century, political persecution was the motive for the occasional exile which
didn't last longer than a few years.
Cubans seemed to be attached to their land. Nowadays, forty-two years later,
it is different. Now, at the first opportunity, even the hottest proponent of
the government takes off.
Before people had a wish to return. They hoped to come back to their houses
-in those days they weren't confiscated-, rejoin their families -in those days
family ties were stronger than political passions-, and recover their national
symbols -in those days, they weren't the private property of any party.
Now -this now that is almost a half-century long, houses deteriorate and
collapse, family members die, and patriotic symbols lose their luster- people
leave without thinking of returning. They simply want to escape from something
that doesn't let them live the way they would want to.
Ah, but it's not easy to leave. There are desperate ones who die in the
landing gear of an aircraft. There are daring buccaneers who set out in a
caulked washbasin. There are seductive damsels that snare a First World poverty
boss. There are hardened officials who turn coat the minute the step on foreign
land.
Someone once said: "When the ruled emigrate, the rulers are the
problem." But Cuban rulers don't want to shoulder the blame, and they blame
another government of stimulating a stampede. Leaving is becoming more difficult
with each passing day and people are increasingly finding no way out, and when
they can no longer leave, they are going to want to blame the rulers and that's
when all hell will break loose.
Versión
original en español
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