<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Eso me han preguntado: \u201c\u00bfQu\u00e9 significa Fidel Castro para ti?\u201d. Y en los \u00faltimos d\u00edas, desde el anuncio de su cesi\u00f3n de poder a su hermano Ra\u00fal Castro, he perdido la cuenta de los periodistas, colegas, amigos, que me han lanzado a la cara, casi sin compasi\u00f3n, esa pregunta.<\/p>\n
Lo m\u00e1s curioso es que yo, jam\u00e1s, desde que tengo uso de raz\u00f3n, me hab\u00eda detenido a pensar en qu\u00e9 significado puede tener ese nombre: Fidel Castro Ruz, para eso que algunos pudieran llamar \u201cla historia de mi vida\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I<\/strong><\/p>\n Lo recuerdo de los discursos. Debo confesar que, de ni\u00f1o, jam\u00e1s sent\u00ed inter\u00e9s por esos asuntos de la pol\u00edtica, como otros ni\u00f1os que vi entonces, y veo hoy, enredarse en la ret\u00f3rica repetitiva de los discursos en los matutinos, los actos pol\u00edticos, buscando ganarse un punto en esa emulaci\u00f3n en la que siempre existi\u00f3 un aspecto que evaluaba ese comportamiento.\u00a0 Luego, con los a\u00f1os, conversando con otros que tambi\u00e9n alguna vez fueron ni\u00f1os, supe que ellos s\u00ed participaron en aquellas algazaras simplemente porque sus padres los impulsaban, porque era un modo de destacarse en el grupo, o porque lo sent\u00edan como una moda: hab\u00eda que gritar como gritaban los mayores contra el imperialismo. No ten\u00edan una clara conciencia de lo que hac\u00edan, es obvio. Y debiera ser normal, pues se supone que a esas edades el ni\u00f1o est\u00e9 descubriendo el mundo a trav\u00e9s del juego y no perdiendo el precioso tiempo de su formaci\u00f3n en ning\u00fan adoctrinamiento pol\u00edtico de esos tan usuales en la educaci\u00f3n cubana desde que la Revoluci\u00f3n triunf\u00f3 en el 59.<\/p>\n La figura de Fidel se equiparaba a la de otros grandes. Eran dioses, seres incorruptibles, perfectos. Recuerdo que una de mis maestras de primaria me castig\u00f3 un d\u00eda en que se me ocurri\u00f3 hacer una pregunta, desde mi absoluta inocencia, cuando me estaban ense\u00f1ando en la clase de historia las instalaciones de la Sierra Maestra, la armer\u00eda, la escuelita, el boh\u00edo donde estaba la comandancia de Fidel… Mi pregunta paraliz\u00f3 a la maestra: \u00bfy d\u00f3nde estaban los ba\u00f1os, se\u00f1o?, porque yo me imaginaba que aquellos hombres necesitaban, tambi\u00e9n, hacer sus necesidades. Estuve todo una ma\u00f1ana contra la pared, sentado en una silla, hasta que mi madre, maestra de aquella escuela, vino a buscarme, me dio un sopapo y me dijo que no volviera a faltarle el respeto a la maestra ni a los h\u00e9roes.<\/p>\n Desde entonces, Fidel fue el gran inquisidor, aunque yo no lo sab\u00eda, no pod\u00eda definirlo. Pero nos hab\u00edan impuesto ser como \u00e9l, que era m\u00e1s perfecto, m\u00e1s grande que el Ch\u00e9, m\u00e1s iluminado que Mart\u00ed. Eso dec\u00edan. Y era fastidioso. Yo era un muchacho al que se le pegaban las clases, no necesitaba estudiar, y realmente nunca estudi\u00e9 en esos tiempos, porque prefer\u00eda estar leyendo en la fabulosa biblioteca que en mi casa ten\u00edan mis padres, que andar esforz\u00e1ndome en cumplir un grupo de par\u00e1metros de la \u201cemulaci\u00f3n pioneril\u201d para parecerme a alguien por qui\u00e9n, adem\u00e1s, deb\u00eda estar parado horas y horas en las numerosas esperas que tuve que hacer para hacer la cadeneta humana de pioneros que dar\u00edan la bienvenida a cuanto presidente africano, asi\u00e1tico o de los pa\u00edses socialistas aquel hombre invitaba a Cuba, o a para ser igual a un hombre que me oblig\u00f3 m\u00e1s de cuatro veces a escuchar, de pie, al sol y la lluvia, unos largu\u00edsimos discursos que el ni\u00f1o que yo era entonces no entend\u00eda, aunque encontrara alg\u00fan alivio en formar la pachanga con mis amiguitos cuando Fidel se callaba y el maestro dec\u00eda, \u201cahora, muchachos\u201d, para que nosotros grit\u00e1ramos: \u00a1Fidel, seguro, a los yanquis dale duro!, \u00a1Carter, Tarr\u00fa, Fidel Coj\u00f3n\u00fa!, y ese mont\u00f3n de consignas, que ya se sabe.<\/p>\n Fidel entonces fue, tambi\u00e9n, ese hombre al que mi padre escuchaba sentado frente al televisor, aunque yo me secara llorando porque ese d\u00eda no dar\u00edan los mu\u00f1equitos, o porque el discurso era en el otro canal y mi padre dec\u00eda: \u201cvoy a o\u00edr el discurso, \u00bfentendido?\u201d y no hab\u00eda discusi\u00f3n.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n II<\/strong><\/p>\n Pero mi padre era un hombre de Fidel. Tiene su historia. Hizo la Revoluci\u00f3n y sigue creyendo que todav\u00eda es pura y posible. Ciego. O quiz\u00e1s empe\u00f1ado en no reconocer que ha tirado su vida por la borda, que Fidel lo ha traicionado porque ya casi medio siglo luchando por algo que no acaba de llegar, a pesar de todos los supuestos esfuerzos.<\/p>\n Digo esto porque Fidel, tal cual lo veo ahora, es el culpable de que mi relaci\u00f3n humana con mi padre se haya ensombrecido, de que a veces nos distanciemos, de que hayamos preferido no hablar ni de Cuba, ni del pa\u00eds, ni del d\u00eda a d\u00eda nuestro porque todo ello puede derivar en una discusi\u00f3n que nos siga distanciando. Primero no me cre\u00eda cuando yo le hablaba y le contaba de lo que le hac\u00edan a los otros, a esos que se hab\u00edan decidido a hacer valer sus criterios diferentes. No hab\u00eda represi\u00f3n, dec\u00eda. No hab\u00eda enga\u00f1o en la Revoluci\u00f3n, dec\u00eda. Es un proyecto limpio, dec\u00eda. Y tuvo que ver de muy cerca todo lo que me hicieron por decir lo que pensaba, por enfrentarme a quienes quisieron condicionar mi \u00e9xito intelectual a mi participaci\u00f3n en las tareas de la Revoluci\u00f3n, con quienes no vieron bien que yo respetara y defendiera la amistad que me une a muchos \u201cdisidentes peligrosos\u201d, como Ra\u00fal Rivero, Manuel V\u00e1zquez Portal, Manuel Cuesta Mor\u00faa, Eloy Guti\u00e9rrez Menoyo, por mencionar s\u00f3lo algunos. Cuando vio todos los desmanes, todas las censuras, todas las trampas legales para \u201chacerme invisible\u201d e incluso las resoluciones ministeriales que me tildaban de \u201cagente del enemigo\u201d, \u201cmercenario\u201d, entre otras calificaciones, pens\u00e9 que hab\u00eda abierto los ojos. Pero dijo: \u201cFidel no sabe nada de esto… es obra de mediocres funcionarios que se creen due\u00f1os del poder absoluto\u201d.<\/p>\n Quise decirle, bien lo recuerdo, que hab\u00eda visto una pel\u00edcula sobre el nazismo en la cual una viejita, cuando la llevaron a un campo de concentraci\u00f3n y le ense\u00f1aron lo que all\u00ed se hab\u00eda hecho, dijo: \u201cEl F\u00fchrer no sabe nada de esto, si supiera, seguro que no hubiera pasado\u201d. Pero no quise abrir m\u00e1s la herida.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n III<\/strong><\/p>\n Cu\u00e1ntas veces estuve cerca de Fidel. Unas cuantas. Muy cerca. E incluso me atrev\u00ed a escribir el gui\u00f3n sobre su vida en ese documental de Estela Bravo del que, despu\u00e9s, fui desapareciendo por obra y gracia de los sucios manejos de esa periodista y su marido. Jam\u00e1s me ha interesado acercarme, como muchos otros, y decirle: \u201cComandante, comandante… yo soy…\u201d, serviles, como si no se tratara de un hombre, un ser humano con virtudes y defectos, con logros y fallas (ambos inmensos por su responsabilidad ante el pueblo y la historia).<\/p>\n El Fidel que va conmigo, porque de alg\u00fan modo los cubanos lo arrastramos con nosotros, es responsable tambi\u00e9n de que mis compa\u00f1eros de carrera est\u00e9n hoy separados: unos en el exilio (Lidia, Sandra Marina, Valesy, Ivette), otros en puestos oficiales donde de alg\u00fan modo son odiados por que han tenido que responder a los dictados del gobierno censurando a sus colegas (Rosa Miriam, Grisel, Rub\u00e9n) y otros en el m\u00e1s triste de los silencios: la labor invisible y mediocre de los medios provinciales (el resto de los que se graduaron ese a\u00f1o).<\/p>\n A Fidel quise hacerle mis primeras preguntas como periodista frustrado: \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 se me sancion\u00f3 cuando cubr\u00ed las labores de terminaci\u00f3n de la Refiner\u00eda de Petr\u00f3leo en Cienfuegos y quise escribir que era imposible que aquello echara a andar, tal y como dijo el Granma y prometi\u00f3 Fidel en un discurso de ese a\u00f1o?; \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 me obligaron a callar muchas cosas anormales, muchas mentiras y muchas anormalidades que vi y quise reportar mientras yo cubr\u00eda como periodista la construcci\u00f3n de la Central Electronuclear de Juragu\u00e1, tambi\u00e9n en Cienfuegos?; \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 cuando decid\u00ed escribir mi gran libro de periodismo sobre las jineteras, todas las instituciones cubanas me cerraron las puertas porque mi investigaci\u00f3n no estaba en los planes bajados por el Departamento de Orientaci\u00f3n Revolucionaria?; \u00bfpor qu\u00e9 jam\u00e1s dieron respuesta a mis cartas enviadas a todas partes cuando el Ministro de Cultura Abel Prieto y el Presidente del Instituto Cubano del Libro Iroel S\u00e1nchez, en contubernio con otros seudointelectuales en el poder dictaminaron eliminar mi nombre de todas las antolog\u00edas, todos los programas culturales, todos los eventos, todas las editoriales, debido a mi posici\u00f3n independiente, a mis opiniones concedidas a la prensa extranjera, a mis libros sobre la realidad social cubana, a mi colaboraci\u00f3n con revistas y publicaciones consideradas \u201cdisidentes\u201d, y a muchas verdades que les dije frente a frente? , … y tantas otras preguntas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n IV<\/strong><\/p>\n Esperaba que la vida, alguna vez, me diera la oportunidad de hacerle, en un escenario p\u00fablico, bajo el signo de la democracia a la que todos aspiramos, alguna de estas preguntas:<\/p>\n Pero Fidel Castro, tal cual han anunciado, parece estar enfermo. Muy enfermo. Y quienes lo conocemos sabemos que puede ser cierto: no de otro modo hubiera cedido ni un \u00e1pice de su poder un hombre que ha enfermado de poder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n V<\/strong><\/p>\n Me han preguntado mucho qu\u00e9 pasar\u00e1 cuando Fidel Castro muera, ahora o despu\u00e9s, alg\u00fan d\u00eda. Ser\u00e1 un d\u00eda triste, he dicho. Porque como cristiano siempre que un ser humano muere, haya hecho el bien o el mal que haya hecho, se impone el respeto por esa persona que se va y que, querr\u00e1moslo o no, va a marcar con su partida una estela de tristeza para quienes lo quisieron, que siempre los hay.<\/p>\n Con Fidel se ir\u00e1 una \u00e9poca, por desgracia, una \u00e9poca de sue\u00f1os traicionados. S\u00f3lo espero, lo he dicho en alguna entrevista, que en ese momento los cubanos sepamos dejar a un lado nuestros miedos, nuestras cavilaciones, nuestras dudas, nuestros odios acumulados y nuestras diferencias. De la respuesta que demos a partir de ese momento depender\u00e1 la reconstrucci\u00f3n de nuestra isla, con libertad, con independencia, sin interferencias de nadie. Como hombre de izquierda pienso que, entonces, podremos volver a mirar y retomar, desde la democracia, aquel camino perdido hacia ese mundo mejor posible para todos que una vez Fidel Castro abandon\u00f3 sin que hasta hoy haya dado explicaciones a nadie de las razones que tuvo para hacerlo.<\/p>\n Esa es una explicaci\u00f3n que, seguro estoy, nos deber\u00e1 siempre.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Translated by Regina M. Anavy<\/p>\n <\/p>\n People have asked me: \u201cWhat does Fidel Castro mean to you?\u201d And in the past few days, since the announcement of his transfer of power to his brother Ra\u00fal Castro, I\u2019ve lost count of the journalists, colleagues, friends who have, almost unsympathetically, tossed this question in my face.<\/p>\n The curious thing is that never, in all the time I have been capable of reason, had I stopped to think what significance this name\u2014Fidel Castro Ruz\u2014might have in what some could call \u201cthe story of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I<\/strong><\/p>\n I remember the speeches. I must confess that, since childhood, I have never felt any interest in political matters, unlike other children I saw then and that I see today, mixed up in the repetitive rhetoric of the morning speeches, the political acts, looking to score a point by that emulation where someone was always evaluating their behavior. Later, with the years, discussing the matter with those who were once that type of child also, I knew that, yes, they participated in that fun simply because their parents pushed them, because it was a way of standing out in the crowd, or because they saw it as the fashion: one had to shout, like the adults were shouting, against imperialism. They didn\u2019t have a clear concept of what they were doing, obviously. And it must have been normal, since we can suppose that a child at that age is discovering the world through play, and not losing the precious time of his development in the political indoctrination that has been so typical of Cuban education since the triumph of the Revolution in \u201959.<\/p>\n The figure of Fidel compared to that of the other greats. They were gods, incorruptible beings, perfect. I remember that one of my primary school teachers punished me one day when it occurred to me to ask a question, out of my absolute innocence, when they were teaching a history class about the installations in the Sierra Maestra, the armory, the little school, the hut from which Fidel gave his commands\u2026 My question paralyzed the teacher: \u201cAnd where were the bathrooms, Ma\u2019am? Because I imagine that those men, too, had to do their business.\u201d I spent the whole morning facing the wall, sitting in a chair, until my mother, a teacher at the same school, came to get me. She gave me a smack and told me I should never again lack respect for the teacher, nor for our heroes.<\/p>\n Since that moment Fidel was the great inquisitor, even if I did not know him, could not define him. But they had pushed us to be like him, he who was more perfect, greater even than Ch\u00e9, more enlightened than Mart\u00ed. That\u2019s what they said. And it was annoying. I was a kid that sailed through classes, that never needed to study, and really I never did study back then because I preferred to read from the fantastic library that my parents had at home, rather than force myself to follow a set of parameters for \u201cpioneer emulation,\u201d to be like someone for whom, moreover, I had to stand for hours and hours waiting around when I had to form part of the human chain of Young Pioneers that would welcome oh so many African, Asian, or other socialist country presidents whom that man invited to Cuba, or to be like a man who, on more than four occasions, obliged me to listen, standing in the sun and rain, to incredibly long speeches that the child I was then did not understand, even though I found some comfort in performing the routine with my little friends when Fidel stopped talking and the teacher would say, \u201cNow, kids!\u201d so that we would yell, \u201cGo on, Fidel, give it to the Yankees! Carter\u2019s a sissy, Fidel has guts\u201d! and that mountain of other slogans that everyone now knows.<\/p>\n Fidel then was also that man my father would listen to seated in front of the television, although I cried my eyes out because that day they wouldn\u2019t be showing cartoons on TV, or because the speech was on another channel and my father would say, \u201cI\u2019m going to hear the speech, understand?\u201d and there was no discussion.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n II<\/strong><\/p>\n But my father was on Fidel\u2019s side. He has his story. He took part in the Revolution and continues believing that it is still pure and possible. Blind. Or perhaps determined not to admit that he has thrown his life away, that Fidel has betrayed him, because he has passed almost half a century struggling for something that has yet to arrive, despite all the supposed effort.<\/p>\n I say this because Fidel, as I see him now, is the person I blame for the shadow that has been cast over my relationship with my father, for the fact that sometimes we distance ourselves from one another, that we have preferred not to speak of Cuba, nor about the country, nor our daily lives, because all those things can lead to a discussion that continues to push us apart. At first he didn\u2019t believe me when I spoke to him and told him what they did to others, to those who had decided to value different opinions. There had been no repression, he said. There had been no deceit in the Revolution, he said. It\u2019s an honest plan, he said. And he had to see up close everything they did to me for saying what I thought, for confronting those who wanted to condition my intellectual success on my participation in the work of the Revolution, those who did not look well upon me because I respected and defended the friendship that connects me to many \u201cdangerous dissidents,\u201d like Ra\u00fal Rivero, Manuel V\u00e1zquez Portal, Manuel Cuesta Mor\u00faa, Eloy Guti\u00e9rrez Menoyo, just to name a few. When he saw all the abuse, all the censorship, all the legal tricks to \u201cmake me invisible,\u201d including the ministerial resolutions that branded me an \u201cenemy agent\u201d and a \u201cmercenary,\u201d among other things, I thought that he had opened his eyes. But he said: \u201cFidel knows nothing of this\u2026 It\u2019s the work of mediocre government officials who think they are masters of absolute power.\u201d<\/p>\n I wanted to tell him, I remember this well, that I had seen a film about Nazism in which an old woman, when they took her to a concentration camp and showed her what had been done there, said: \u201cThe F\u00fcrhrer doesn\u2019t know anything about this. If he had known, I am sure it would not have happened.\u201d But I didn\u2019t want to open the wound any further.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n III<\/strong><\/p>\n A few times I was near Fidel. A few. Very near. And I even dared to write the screenplay about his life in that documentary by Estela Bravo from which, later, I was disappeared, by the work of and thanks to the dishonest scheming of that journalist and her husband. I had never been interested in approaching him, like so many others, and saying: \u201cComandante, Comandante\u2026 I am \u2026\u201d Servile, as if he weren\u2019t just another man, a human being with virtues and defects, with accomplishments and failures (both immense given his responsibility before the people and History).<\/p>\n The Fidel who travels with me, because, in some way we Cubans all drag him along with us, is also responsible for the fact that my professional friends are separated today: some in exile (Lidia, Sandra Marina, Valesy, Ivette), others in official posts where they are in some way hated for having to follow government orders to censor their colleagues (Rosa Miriam, Grisel, Rub\u00e9n), and others in the saddest of silences: the invisible and mediocre labor of the provinces (the rest of those who graduated that year).<\/p>\n I wanted to ask Fidel my first questions as a frustrated journalist: Why was I sanctioned when I covered the final work on the oil refinery in Cienfuegos and wanted to write that it was impossible that it would go as planned, like Granma<\/em> said and Fidel promised in a speech that year? Why did they force me to remain silent about many unusual things, many lies and irregularities that I saw and wanted to report while I covered as a journalist the construction of the nuclear power plant at Juragu\u00e1, also in Cienfuegos? Why, when I decided to write my important journalistic book about prostitution, did every Cuban institution shut its doors to me because my investigation did not fall under the plans of the Department of Revolutionary Orientation? Why did they never reply to the letters I sent everywhere when the Minister of Culture, Abel Preito, and the president of the Cuban Book Institute, Iroel S\u00e1nchez, in collusion with other powerful pseudo-intellectuals, ruled that my name should be eliminated from every anthology, every cultural program, every event, every editorial, owing to my independent position, the opinions I gave to the foreign press, my books about the social reality in Cuba, my collaboration with magazines and publications considered \u201cdissident,\u201d and the many other truths that I told them face-to-face? \u2026 and so many other questions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n IV<\/strong><\/p>\n I used to hope that, some day, life would give me the opportunity to ask Fidel in a public setting, under the banner of the democracy to which we all aspire, some of these questions:<\/p>\n But Fidel Castro, just as they announced, appears to be sick. Very sick. And those of us who know him well know that it must be true: in no other way would he have ceded even a shred of his power, a man who has become sick with power.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n V<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been asked a lot what will happen when, sooner or later, Fidel Castro dies some day. It will be a sad day, I have said, because, as a Christian, any time a human being dies, whether he has done good or evil, one must respect his passing. Whether we liked him or not, his departure will leave a trail of sadness for those who loved him, for these people always exist.<\/p>\n With Fidel an era will end, an era, unfortunately, of betrayed dreams. I only hope, I said this in an interview once, that in this moment we Cubans will know how to put aside our fears, our caviling, our doubts, our accumulated hatreds and our differences. The reconstruction of our island, with liberty, with independence and without anyone\u2019s interference, will depend on the answer we give at that moment. As a man of the left, I think we will then be able to go back, look at and retake that lost road of democracy toward a better possible world for everyone, that road once abandoned by Fidel Castro without even, to this day, explaining to anyone his reasons for doing so.<\/p>\n That is an explanation, I am certain, he will always owe us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol e ingl\u00e9s (a continuaci\u00f3n del original en espa\u00f1ol), gracias a la traducci\u00f3n de la escritora y periodista Regina M. Anavy. Eso me han preguntado: \u201c\u00bfQu\u00e9 significa Fidel Castro para ti?\u201d. Y en los \u00faltimos d\u00edas, desde el anuncio de su cesi\u00f3n de poder a su hermano Ra\u00fal Castro, he perdido […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publicados-anteriormente-en-amirvalle-com"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Fidel Castro and I<\/h2>\n
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