Everyone

Everyone / Regina Coyula
Posted on April 4, 2013

Times are changing in Cuba. A simple comparison to five years ago will
sustain this statement. One of the expressions of this change is the
proposal brought forth by a heterogeneous group of citizens (I have
grown fond of the term) at Laboratorio Casa Cuba* to discuss a topic of
interest to all of us, including those who do not know about the
existence of such proposal.

It should not surprise me, but it does surprise me, to see how from the
fringes of the political spectrum, Cuba Soñada** (Cuba Dreams)…receives
arrows; from each one according to their position and comprehension:
each one of them absolute owners of the truth, each one from the
meta-reading, each one disqualifying*** (surreptitiously or not) the
project.

Now that is fashionable to defend homosexuals, blacks, women, the
disabled and any other socially excluded group, a little bit of respect
for politically different ways of thinking would not be bad; and, in
this, Laboratorio Casa Cuba is ahead of everyone else: laypersons,
Catholics, anarchists and communists have taken equal places around the
same table. The document may seem scandalous to many –better
controversial than anodyne- but they will not be able to attack it for
being offensive toward other schools of thought. Cuba Soñada…gives us
the opportunity to discuss. And, I say this to the orthodox within the
one (legally allowed) political party and to those who plan agendas for
the transition, in and outside of Cuba, and of course, to everyone else.

Translator's notes:

*Laboratorio Casa Cuba is an initiative born from the Cuban Catholic
publication Espacio Laical that has stated its mission as "to study the
Cuban institutional framework" and to promote "research, suggestions for
change, reflection and respectful dialog." It is integrated so far by
communists, democratic socialists, anarchists and Catholics.

**The full title of this document, from the Archdiocese of Havana, is
"Cuba dreams – Cuba possible – Cuba future: proposals for our immediate
future."

***"Disqualify" is a term used by the regime towards any expression of
dissent as a way of dismissing the source. That is, the speaker/actor is
told, essentially, "You are not qualified to speak or act because we —
the powers-that-be — say so." Yoani Sanchez described this in a blog
post about a meeting with State Security.

Translated by: Ernesto Suarez

3 April 2013

http://translatingcuba.com/everyone/