Mascarade

Mascarade
Rafael Ferro Salas, Abdala Press

PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - June (www.cubanet.org) - Mrs. Novo says she's a
revolutionary. She's the wife of a coronel in the armed forces. Coronel
Cámara (that's Mrs. Novo's husband's last name) is the head of the
Association of Combat Veterans in this province. It's an organization
that groups together army veterans commanded by Mr. Castro who overthrew
the previous government in 1959.

By pretending to pass for a "revolutionary" and also by being the wife
of a coronel, Mrs. Novo is provided with various perks. But...don't be
confused, my friendly reader; Mrs. Novo's is a game that many here in
Cuba call two-faced morality, though it's a mere euphemism and has no
morals to it. The Novo woman--as some call her--is a fat, well-dressed
lady, and it's unnecessary to say that she eats well, too.

Socialism is a system that generates squalor on a large scale, and those
squalid conditions are distributed evenly among people. It's a
diabolical formula: the distribution of misery affects more misery.

Mrs. Novo adapts herself to Cuban socialism by pretending to be a good
socialist, and escapes the squalid conditions. She has almost all her
brothers and sisters in Florida, but she doesn't publicize it. Her
weakness for money and the good things in life gets carried away when
those siblings visit the island. Then Mrs. Novo becomes a veritable lion
protecting the packages her siblings bring. Mrs. Novo is very
intelligent, as it's said in good Cuban: she knows how to swim and hide
the clothes.

From her social rank as the wife of an officer of the armed forces with
an "important post" like her husband, Mrs. Novo visits the best tourist
resorts in the province, reserved for government officials and
high-ranking army officers only. It's obvious to point out that in those
places of privilege for "revolutionaries" Mrs. Novo also doesn't talk
about her exiled brothers and sisters in Florida.

Just a few days ago a newphew of Mrs. Novo was searched by the police in
his home, and all kinds of electronic goods, money and even the house
were seized. The nephew put up foreigners there and did it illegally. It
seems someone denounced him and the boy's luck changed overnight.

The "revolutionary" Mrs. Novo learned of what happened to her beloved
newphew and flew into a rage. She felt that everything they'd done to
him was unfair. That's to say as a revolutionary she did the impossible
to save him, but... for fun, the woman's mask then began to fall from
her face. They stepped on her callus--another popular saying--and it
hurt her greatly.

The occupation of journalist leads one to learn about all things--or
almost eveything, not to be too absolute--and this reporter learned that
Mrs. Novo is preparing something. They say she's on the verge of
retirement and when she does, she'll go apply for a visitor's permit at
the United States Interests Section to visit her brothers and sisters
like the good "revolutionary" that she is.

Don't be surprised, friendly reader; many of "today's revolutionaries"
dance to the beat of Mrs. Novo's son. They're the privileged cast of a
mascarade ball and... there aren't masks for everyone in this
46-year-old carnival, the longest on earth.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/jun06/14e9.htm