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FROM
CUBA
Viņales Valley: another teardrop on Cuba's
cheek
Rafael Ferro Salas, Abdala Press
PINAR DEL RÍO, Cuba, August (www.cubanet.org)
- On the island there is a Cuba that's off-limits.
It's the Cuba that shows its most beautiful
face to the foreign visitor. Pinar del Río,
as part of that island, hasn't stayed free
from that ban. The Valley of Viñales,
an age-old feature and a pride of nature,
has been snatched away from its inhabitants.
Just as the people of Camagüey have
their big earthenware jars, and Matanzas
has its bridges, the people of Pinar del
Río have their Viñales Valley.
A place in which visitors have no other
choice while contemplating it than to have
their breath taken away before such beauty.
From the heights of its viewing point the
majesty of the valley can be seen with its
mogotes, a type of mountainous formation
that exists nowhere else. But now the valley
nolonger belongs to the people of Pinar
del Río, nor is access to it allowed
for the rest of the Cubans who live on the
island.
Some time ago the construction workers
arrived at the spot. In the midst of the
indigenous animals' gabble of fright and
surprise, a brand-new access highway to
the valley arose. The old road was closed.
Now only the rented vehicles of foreign
tourists travel the new route, and those
carrying visitors invited to the spot by
government officials. For Cubans who live
in the island nation, traveling is prohibited
on the access road leading to the valley's
vantage point, the site where the view is
loveliest and most unforgettable.
The town nearest to the place gave the
valley its name, but its inhabitans carry
the stigma of the ban and can't get to the
beautiful spot unless accompanied by a foreign
tourist.
This ban has put an end to a custom in
Pinar del Río, a gift that its inhabitants
made to every friend who visited: taking
them to Viñales Valley to hear them
say with amazement that this is the most
beautiful place in Cuba.
Now the place is part of the other Cuba.
The island that isn't shown to the Cubans
who work and live in it. The nation's greatest
beauty snatched away from its people and
placed at the feet of the foreigner who
comes and pays to enjoy the gifts that the
leisure industry hands over.
That other Cuba in which the Cubans who
inhabit it are being left like the natives
who suffered the politics of plundering.
Pinar del Río is full of natural
beauties. The landscape has been plucked
out of the eyes like a punishment. The province
is an immense jail repaying a sin for its
natural beauty. The most beautiful sites
are being left like a footprint in the fog
of memory. So far no one knows when the
day will come when they can go back to traveling
among them.
In the meantime, the friends arrive and
the resident of Pinar del Río is
filled with helplessness. Viñales
remains a lovely word that stings, another
teardrop on the face of Cuba.
Versión
original en español
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