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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Whose Brain Is It

Whose Brain Is It? / Yoani Sanchez
Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sanchez

Meanwhile the Great Culprit
shelters behind the wise protection of the forehead.
"Defense of the innocent myocardium"

Rubén Martínez Villena

My family claims for itself that mass of neurons, reinforced with the
care lavished on me as a child. The teacher who taught me to read
demands credit for the connections that helped to unite thought and
language. Every one of my friends also claims their share, their piece
of one lobe or the other, for the satisfactions and upsets they have
inscribed on its fragile convolutions. Even the boy who crossed in front
of my eyes, just for a second, would be entitled to a portion of my
cerebral cortex, as his passage recorded a tiny impression in my memory.

All of the books I've read, the ice creams I've eaten, the kisses given
coldly or with passion, the films I've seen, the morning coffee and the
shouts of the neighbors… to them belongs a share of this grey mass I
carry behind my forehead. To the cat that purrs and digs its nails in,
to the police who watches and blows his whistle, to the official who
adjusts her military uniform and says "no," to the mediocre professor
who misspells "geographie," and to the brilliant speaker whose words
seem to open doors, throw wide the windows. To them should be given —
one by one — my cortical cells, on which they managed to make indelible
marks. My axons would be distributed among millions of people, alive and
dead, to those I met or simply heard in a musical note or through their
verses.

However, according to Legislative Decree 302 which also regulates the
foreign travel of professionals, my own brain — like those of the rest
of university graduates — does not belong to me. The folds and grooves
of this organ are the property — according to the new law — of an
educational system that boasts of being free but later charges us
through ownership over our intellect. The authorities who regulate the
possibility of leaving this Island believe that a qualified citizen is a
simple conglomeration of brain matter "formed" by the State. But
claiming the rights to use a human mind is like trying to put gates on
the sea… shackles on every neuron.

9 November 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/whose-brain-is-it-yoani-snchez/

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