FERNANDO ARRABAL
9
MINISAP, the Ministry of the Interior is called MININTER, and
the Ministry of the Armed Forces is called MINIFAR.
Grotesqueries and distortions that disclose infinitely more than
they imprudently reveal.
I write to you with love, but with firmness,
I regard you with pity, but with respect;
for every human being deserves to have his mind convinced
even if his madness is not overcome .
Your age deserves respect , since you have reached sixty,
and you have already received the title of
"Hero of the Soviet Union"
and have accomplished the not inconsiderable feat of still being
the mythic incarnation of
"Rebellious Youth"
in Official Cuba.
The title that would be closer to the truth, closer to your
actions and your appearance, is one you could have easily given
yourself with all modesty:
BIG BROTHER.
The faithful Cuban cadres would fervently stand at attention
before this name, as they do today before
LEADER MAXIMUS,
and they would still do it
even more deferentially
if they knew that the title was only a free translation into
Spanish of the name
of the tyrant in 1984.
In today's Cuba, if adulation does not go beyond absurdity and
abasement, it might look like mockery, or at least disrespect.
Spider's nightmare on an island in mourning!
When you were a freewheeling and upright adolescent, you
dreamed of ending privilege and prerogative, but today, planted at
the head of Cuba, titles, chocolate medals, offices and dignities that
would have been the envy of the Radiant Sun of the Pampa or
Emperor Bukassa of the Republic of Central Africa, are planted on
your chest like onions, stuck on your biography like bandaids:
-Cuban Champion of Deep Sea Fishing,
- Legendary Basketball Player,
- First Deck Gunner in the Universe; with a single shot from
a cannon you sank the "Houston,»
