Amarilis Cortina Rey, Cuba-Verdad
HAVANA, May - In the prologue of the book "Just One King (Un Solo Rey),"
edited by CubaNet in Miami, the writer Antonio Conte claimed that in these times
chronicles don't occupy much space in newspapers and magazines, while presenting
a series of writings of that genre, written by various Cuban independent
journalists.
Yes, it's true that news reports are much more dynamic and commercial. But
so much of what's happening in Cuba is so incredible that we need to use the
chronicle as the only effective way to explain this to people not familiar with
our reality. Even to some nationals these things are inexplicable or even
surrealist!
How do you explain it all in a tight report? How do you describe the drama
of children and adults running after an old soviet tractor that pulls a cart
full of trash, collected in the dollar stores, with the purpose of finding food
or objects whose sales signify some pesos or dollars? How do you write that in a
first short paragraph?
This happens several times every week in the junkyards outside the capital,
and gets worse when the vehicle stops to discard it's smelly cargo. At that
moment they climb atop the trash and throw themselves in with hopes of finding "something."
The ones that could not climb jump down to the bottom of the pit, where the
contaminated cargo will be dumped. Many fights begins here. The loot? A piece of
soap, a tube of toothpaste, a bottle of shampoo with residues of the product, a
disposable lighter with a small bit of combustible fluid. Any piece of trash,
anything, because we are a society submitted in the most horrible misery.
This practice is so common in this era of Cuban Socialism, that these people
have been baptized with the nickname of "divers."
The "divers" work in any and all places, from the busy city street
of San Rafael to the main expressway. At these dumpsites the "divers"
wait for hours, playing chess, Parcheesi or even reading. There are also lunch
trucks, that sell their Spam sandwiches.
When a trash load containing rests of tobacco filling from discarded
cigarettes arrives, it comes with a custodian aboard to stop disorder. This load
is more valued than gold. It is well paid by the vendors of homemade cigarettes.
This practice was born with the "special period" that begun after
the collapse of the eastern block, and it looks that will continue and will grow
even stronger.
The national media doesn't touch the topic; it looks as if those who pay the
journalists prohibit it. On the other hand, the leaders of the Communist Party
nor the tourists know about the trash collectors in Havana. Nor do they know the
dangers the "divers" face everyday, swimming in filth.
This, ours, is another world. A world that hides so many human tragedies
that it is impossible to narrate it in the limited paragraphs of a news report.
Translated by: April Solís
Versión original
en español
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