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Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Meaning of a U.S. Embassy in Havana

The Meaning of a U.S. Embassy in Havana
"A conflict of eras is unfolding in Cuba—a collision between two
countries."
YOANI SÁNCHEZ AUG 15, 2015

My grandchildren will ask, "Were you there, grandma?" The answer will be
barely a monosyllable accompanied by a smile. "Yes," I will tell them,
although at the moment the flag of the United States was raised over its
embassy in Havana I was gathering opinions for a story, or connected to
some Internet access point. "I was there," I will repeat.

The fact of living in Cuba on August 14 makes the more than 11 million
of us participants in a historic event that transcends the raising of an
insignia to the top of a flagpole. We are all here, in the epicenter of
what is happening.

For my generation, as for so many other Cubans, it is the end of one
stage. It does not mean that starting tomorrow everything we have
dreamed of will be realized, nor that freedom will break out by the
grace of a piece of cloth waving on the Malecón. Now comes the most
difficult part. However, it will be that kind of uphill climb in which
we cannot blame our failures on our neighbor to the north. It is the
beginning of the stage of absorbing who we are, and recognizing why we
have only made it this far.

The official propaganda will run out of epithets. This has already been
happening since the December 17 announcement of the reestablishment of
relations between Washington and Havana took all of us by surprise. That
equation, repeated so many times, of not permitting an internal
dissidence or the existence of other parties because Uncle Sam was
waiting for a sign of weakness to pounce on the island, is increasingly
unsustainable.

Now, the ideologues of continuity warn that "the war against
imperialism" will become more subtle, the methods more sophisticated …
but slogans do not understand nuances. "Are they the enemy, or aren't
they?" ask all those who, with the simple logic of reality, experienced
a childhood and youth marked by constant paranoia toward that country on
the other side of the Straits of Florida.

Now that an official Cuban delegation has shared the U.S.
embassy-opening ceremony with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, there
is a family photo that they can no longer deny or minimize. There we saw
those who until recently called us to the trenches, now shaking hands
with their opponent and explaining the change as a new era. And it is
good that this is so, because these political pragmatists can no longer
turn around and tell us otherwise. We have caught them respecting and
allowing entrance to the Stars and Stripes.

The opposition must also understand that we are living in new
times—moments of reaching out to the people, and helping them to see
that there is a country after the dictatorship and that they can be the
voice of millions who suffer every day economic hardship, lack of
freedom, police harassment, and lack of expectations. The
authoritarianism expressed in warlordism, not wanting to speak with
those who are different, or snubbing the other for not thinking like
they do, are just other ways of reproducing the Castro regime.

A conflict of eras is unfolding in Cuba—a collision between two
countries: one that has been stranded in the middle of the 20th century,
and one that is pushing the other to move forward. They are two islands
that clash, but it needs to happen. We know, by the laws of biology and
of Kronos, which will prevail. But right now they are in full collision
and dragging all of us between the opposing forces.

This Friday's front-page of the newspaper Granma shows this conflict
with a past that doesn't want to stop playing a starring role in our
present—a past tense of military uniforms, guerrillas, bravado, and
political tantrums that refuses to give way to a modern and plural
country. When one scrutinizes Friday's edition of the official
publication of the Cuban Communist Party, it is easy to detect how a
country that is unraveling clings to its past, trying not to make room
for the country to come.

In this future Cuba, which is just around the corner, some restless
grandchildren will ask me about one day lost in the intense summer of
2015. With a smile, I will be able to tell them, "I was there, I lived
it … because I understood the point of inflection that it signified."

This article was translated from the Spanish by Mary Jo Porter.

Source: Cuban Blogger Yoani Sánchez on the Opening of the U.S. Embassy
in Cuba - The Atlantic -
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/cuba-us-embassy-yoani-sanchez/401405/

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