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FROM
CUBA
Forbidden dreams
Rafael Ferro Salas
PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - May (www.cubanet.org)
- Dionisio Herrera Rodríguez is 55
years old. He's worked as a bus driver for
a quarter of a century. Dionisio had a dream
which they shattered.
He knew that new buses had come to this
province. He works as a bus driver for public
transportation and in his entire career,
he's had no traffic accidents. Enough merits
to deserve one of the new coaches that arrived.
At least he thought that and began preparing
his dream.
The buses were delivered to the drivers
but they didn't include Dionisio in the
distribution, and then the nightly dream
became a constant nightmare.
"It was an injustice," he told
me. "I deserved one of those coaches,
the very workers were sure of it. I've always
had a perfect attitude in my occupation.
I had a right to dream that I would drive
one of the new buses, but they shattered
my dream overnight."
He pauses and wipes the sweat from his
forehead with a handerkerchief he takes
out of his pocket. The afternoon progresses
and the sun shines into the living room
of the house. Outside cars pass by indifferently,
the people, too. The old driver continues
speaking:
"When the distribution of the equipment
was over I went to the administration of
my urban transportation company. They nearly
refused to see me. I think they were embarassed
to explain the reasons to me. Then the subdirector
told me to go into the office and there
he explained the reasons they understood
to be correct for not giving me a new bus."
Another pause and he puts away the handkerchief,
although he keeps sweating. Now he lights
a cigarette and smokes nervously. He blows
out the smoke looking at the ceiling of
the house and says to me:
"You're probably going to laugh at
what I'm going to say, reporter, but the
first reason those in the administration
gave me to justify not giving me the coach
was that I'm not a member of the Communist
Party. What do you think of that?"
I smile and nod my head in assent, as if
I already knew that. In Cuba it's normal
for you to be denied a job or any kind of
opportunity to improve your life if you're
not a member of the Communist Party or other
government organizations. Now I'm beginning
to understand the cause of the nightmare
Dionisio is living. He throws the cigarette
butt out the window and after exhaling the
smoke from his lungs, he keeps talking.
"The second reason they gave me was
that I am the father of an opponent of the
Cuban government. My son is named Ornel
Herrera Padrón..."
Eliosbel Garriga Cabrera, a correspondent
of Abdala Press who is with me, interrrupts
him to tell me that Ornel belongs to the
Movement for Racial Integration over which
he presides in the province.
"It's like I say, reporter; overnight
they end a man's only dream in his life.
What they did to me hurt my son a great
deal, but I told him it wasn't his fault.
I'm not going to allow my boy to change
his way of thinking for any reason on this
earth. I'm prepared to keep swallowing bitter
mouthfuls and putting up with injustices,
but my son will continue to think as he
believes."
Eliosbel and I said our goodbyes and went
out into the street. The afternoon kept
progressing. As we crossed the street corner
we saw one of the recently arrived buses
pass by. We looked at each other without
talking. We looked back to the other side
of the street where Dionisio's house was
and saw him in the doorway. The bus passed
in front of his house and he didn't want
to look at it. He entered the house lowering
his head, as if looking for something that
they had suddenly taken away from him. Then
I was able to realize all the sadness that
a man with shattered dreams bears.
Versión
original en español
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