FERNANDO ARRABAL
11
which you subject your own people , the Pearl of the Antilles would
turn into the Island of Robinson Crusoe .
What an Easter Sunday!
But how hard it would be for you to find your good Friday!
Heaven and hope full of holes, and time rots in the clocks.
Today only fools still dare to underplay Communist "excesses"
in Cuba so they can better appreciate its "accomplishments ."
They make an undeserved distinction between what is acceptable
for Cuba but unacceptable for themselves, and they insult the
Cuban people by not acknowledging their courage, or their culture,
or their right to the freedom which
they
still enjoy.
This argument,
less racist than ignorant,
was astounding when heard in the mouth of a Swede who played
the part of a dumb Swede when he talked about the Island .
In 1959, Cuba compared to Sweden in music, novels, poetry,
chess, railroads , television sets, etc.
If,
for absurd argument's sake, Cubans should have suffered
despotism, torture and gags from that year on, then Swedes would
have deserved tyranny, shackles and dungeons.
Why wouldn't the steps taken by Sweden have served just as
well for Cuba, where the rhumba was invented?
If
something burns or someone sobs, all that remains are black–
ened ruins and tears.
Today the only glory lies in the glosses written to glorify you in
your lair. For foreign propagandists, paradise has turned into
purgatory and a magnificent future into a mirage .
But in their zeal they would like to turn widespread fear into a
cult of "culture" and "health."
Cuba, they assure us, has taken
a giant step forward
in Education and Social Welfare .
In these two areas, it seems to me, her steps are not giant-they
are not even gnomish,
they are the steps of a crab
which, as everybody knows, is an animal that walks backwards.
EDUCATION : STEADY!
It
is quite amazing to remember how you promised, before you
took power,
