Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos Comes to Cuba (But He Won't Talk to Us)

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos Comes to Cuba (But He
Won't Talk to Us)

Yoani Sanchez
Award-Winning Cuban Blogger
Posted: October 18, 2009 02:13 AM

In the snapshot of the Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos
which will be taken of his visit to Cuba, there will be no room for
nonconformist relatives. In front of the lens there will be the forced
smiles of the ministers, the luster of the ministries and the feigned
complacency of those who hold power. In the composition those who say
"No" will be superfluous and skeptics will be excluded. Only happy faces
will be allowed in front of the camera; those with dirty clothes will
stay home, even though the washing machine of public discussion hasn't
been turned on for decades nor has detergent been allowed anywhere near
the smelly utopia.

He who moves will not appear in the photo, because the resulting image
will need to obtain political and economic support, not generate
concern. Thus, the cobwebs will be whitewashed, the military uniforms
hidden under protocol suits and -- for one brief moment -- they will
appear younger than they really are. Thorny issues will be avoided. Why
discomfit the visitor? And once he leaves some naughty child or other
will get his smack on the head for bothering the guest. The syrupy
family portrait of this visit will be in sepia because the contrasting
tones of reality do not fit into the album of diplomacy.

With one of those silly little cameras used to take the same pictures
tourists always take, the usual repetitive images will be taken: a
school full of students with well-ironed uniforms, a factory with shiny
modern machines, a nearly completed engineering project, and there will
be no lack, of course, of the staged crowds, organized from above.

The negative will need to remain impeccable for later printing in the
pages of history. If perhaps some inappropriate detail slips in, it will
have to be fixed in Photoshop, retouching the photo of the already
altered normality and editing the faces of those who did not come out
smiling.

Yoani Sanchez: Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos Comes to
Cuba (But He Won't Talk to Us) (18 October 2009)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/spanish-foreign-minister_b_324981.html