To Fidel Castro by Pablo Neruda

[Red Terror]

To Fidel Castro

(by Pablo Neruda, Song of Protest Nobel Prize winner)


Fidel, Fidel, the people are grateful

for words in action and deeds that sing,

that is why I bring from far

a cup of my country’s wine:

it is the blood of a subterranean people

that from the shadows reaches your throat,

they are miners who have lived for centuries

extracting fire from the frozen land.

They go beneath the sea for coal

but on returning they are like ghosts:

they grew accustomed to eternal night,

the working-day light was robbed from them,

nevertheless here is the cup

of so much suffering and distances:

the happiness of imprisoned men

possessed by darkness and illusions

who from the inside of mines perceive

the arrival of spring and its fragrances

because they know that Man is struggling

to reach the amplest clarity.

And Cuba is seen by the Southern miners,

the lonely sons of la pampa,

the shepherds of cold in Patagonia,

the fathers of tin and silver,

the ones who marry cordilleras

extract the copper from Chuquicamata,

men hidden in buses

in populations of pure nostalgia,

women of the fields and workshops,

children who cried away their childhoods:

this is the cup, take it, Fidel.

It is full of so much hope

that upon drinking you will know your victory

is like the aged wine of my country

made not by one man but by many men

and not by one grape but by many plants:

it is not one drop but many rivers:

not one captain but many battles.

And they support you because you represent

the collective honor of our long struggle,

and if Cuba were to fall we would all fall,

and we would come to lift her,

and if she blooms with flowers

she will flourish with our own nectar.

And if they dare touch Cuba’s

forehead, by your hands liberated,

they will find people’s fists,

we will take out our buried weapons:

blood and pride will come to rescue,

to defend our beloved Cuba.

[Dreamwoven]

The Cuban Revolution was so long ago that not many people remember the Batista Regime and the western media has not yet commented on the reasons for the revolution, including the Batista Dictatorship that was set up in 1952. The Bay of Pigs invasion by the US, nor the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. I remember that very well, as we spent two weeks in terror of World War III. Luckily, Khrushchev backed down and the ships delivering the missiles turned back.

I look forward to reading what Dagens Nyheter reports about the real background to the Embargo that has been in force ever since the Revolution. And also about Cuba and how the country has managed in spite of the decades of embargo from Washington. How has Cuba managed to reform its education system, especially for women: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Cuba. We hear so little from Cuba despite our free media...

[Danik 2016]

I visited Cuba in the 80s, don´t remember the exact year anymore. Some things I remember:
Cuban hospitality.
Their love of music and dancing.
Cuban humour
The magic Malecon(strand street in Havana).
The historical and touristical part of Havana was impressive, but as soon as you left the main streets the houses looked degraded, because the citizens had no permission to refurbish or even to paint them.
Cuban´s creative cinema. How they made art with little means
Cubans on the street trying desperately to sell anything they could.
There was plenty of food for tourists, but for the citizen it was dealt out in rations. There was a kind of month ratio. One newspaper I kept for years stated that chicken was given out only to children up to a certain age. I don´t remember if that age was ten or fourteen years.
Tourists had free access to paid TV chanels, but the citizens not. To my astonishment one figure presented as a hero in the open chanel, was José Bonifácio, one of the chief minds of the Brazilian Republican Movement (second part of 19C).
The sudden black out in the evenings.
The few old cars in the streets of Havana. The prefered means of transport was the bycicle.

[Pompey Bum]

I visited Cuba in the 80s, don´t remember the exact year anymore. Some things I remember:
Cuban hospitality.
Their love of music and dancing.
Cuban humour
The magic Malecon(strand street in Havana).
The historical and touristical part of Havana was impressive, but as soon as you left the main streets the houses looked degraded, because the citizens had no permission to refurbish or even to paint them.
Cuban´s creative cinema. How they made art with little means
Cubans on the street trying desperately to sell anything they could.
There was plenty of food for tourists, but for the citizen it was dealt out in rations. There was a kind of month ratio. One newspaper I kept for years stated that chicken was given out only to children up to a certain age. I don´t remember if that age was ten or fourteen years.
Tourists had free access to paid TV chanels, but the citizens not. To my astonishment one figure presented as a hero in the open chanel, was José Bonifácio, one of the chief minds of the Brazilian Republican Movement (second part of 19C).
The sudden black out in the evenings.
The few old cars in the streets of Havana. The prefered means of transport was the bycicle.

Hey, cool. And how about free speech?

[YesNo]

I closest I ever got to Cuba was Miami. I do enjoy the Cuban espressos.

[Danik 2016]

Hey, cool. And how about free speech?

When I was there, many things were censored, starting with TV channels (I don´t know if there was any internet). For example I don´t remember if there was an official newspaper. And there was a control of the foreigners
that came into the country too.
I don´t know how much things have changed since then.

[Danik 2016]

I closest I ever got to Cuba was Miami. I do enjoy the Cuban espressos.

I never went to Miami myself. Are there many Cubans and Brazilians there, Yes/No?

[Dreamwoven]

I think that was the Batista supporters. One was interviewed who celebrating the death of Castro!

He was, of course, interviewed by Swedish TV...

[Pompey Bum]

@Danik: Oh yes, there are a great number of Cuban Americans in Miami. They are reacting very strongly to Castro's death. In fact, they are dancing in the streets. But then they are allowed to. ;-)

[Danik 2016]

Yes, I have seen them on TV.

[Pompey Bum]

Yes, I have seen them on TV.

So what was the answer to my question about free speech? Or let me put it another way. President-Elect Trump greeted the news of Castro's death with the following: “Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights." In your opinion, what would happen to Cubans who said the same? What would happen if they danced in the streets?!

[YesNo]

I never went to Miami myself. Are there many Cubans and Brazilians there, Yes/No?

I do remember going to a Brazilian restaurant in the mid or north Miami Beach area. I don't know what the demographics are. There are a large number Spanish-speaking people as well as a Jewish community in the mid area. I don't know how many would be speaking Portuguese. At the cafe area in the Publix Super Market I expect to have to either speak Spanish or point to what I want. Of course, what I want is usually some sort of pastry and a cortadito which doesn't require an extensive Spanish vocabulary.

This area looks like it is going to be one of the first places to flood from global warming. I figure we might as well enjoy it while it is still there.

[Danik 2016]

São Paulo is also being flooded by global warming. Every year the heat gets up one grade.
The cortadito is probably our "curto", the short coffee.

[Pompey Bum]

I visited Cuba in the 80s, don´t remember the exact year anymore. Some things I remember:
Cuban hospitality.
Their love of music and dancing.
Cuban humour
The magic Malecon(strand street in Havana).
The historical and touristical part of Havana was impressive, but as soon as you left the main streets the houses looked degraded, because the citizens had no permission to refurbish or even to paint them.
Cuban´s creative cinema. How they made art with little means
Cubans on the street trying desperately to sell anything they could.
There was plenty of food for tourists, but for the citizen it was dealt out in rations. There was a kind of month ratio. One newspaper I kept for years stated that chicken was given out only to children up to a certain age. I don´t remember if that age was ten or fourteen years.
Tourists had free access to paid TV chanels, but the citizens not. To my astonishment one figure presented as a hero in the open chanel, was José Bonifácio, one of the chief minds of the Brazilian Republican Movement (second part of 19C).
The sudden black out in the evenings.
The few old cars in the streets of Havana. The prefered means of transport was the bycicle.

How about human rights violations? I've heard stories (just this morning) about dissidents being officially tortured and raped in Cuban prisons. In your opinion, are such stories true?

[desiresjab]

To whom was Castro's Cuba an improvement?