Translator: Unstated, Yoani Sánchez
I often complain about this self-sufficient little fatty in every Cuban
home — the television — and its excessive influence on our lives. This
week, for example, the nightly programming has been saturated with
political messages that we later hear repeated in schools, workplaces,
offices… in the infinite spiral of ideological propaganda. But in the
midst of this slogan overdose from the loudspeakers, we can also find
people who have not watched the National News for months and who can't
remember the last time they flipped through the newspaper Granma. They
are people who lead a parallel life to that broadcast on the official
screen, those have voluntarily vaccinated themselves against the
excesses of hegemonic discourse.
But the growing suspicion with which so many of my compatriots receive
the news and opinions broadcast through legal channels eases my mind.
Not only do they apply it to the exaggerated figures for agricultural
production, but this lack of confidence extends to the reports on
foreign relations, the physical state of some public figure, and even a
simple sports commentary. Cubans increasingly doubt what they are told,
begin to read between the lines, and interpret, in reverse, information
in the national media. The disbelief has gotten to the point where
insult is deciphered as praise and vice versa. Those demonized by
partisan publications are thus transformed into admired beings — albeit
in a whisper — and even those fired from the government apparatus
acquire a certain aura of appeal.
Knowing this peculiar phenomenon of reinterpretation, the number of
people who have called me to ask about the health of Laura Pollan does
not surprise me. The great number of friends and onlookers who have
gathered outside the Calixto Garcia Hospital emergency room where she
was admitted for acute respiratory distress is comforting. Considering
all the insults, curses, and lies that have been launched against this
woman on the official television, the reactions of so many Cubans in
solidarity with her is a revelation. The dozens of text messages
transmitting medical reports about the leader of the Ladies in White,
the prayers at shrines throughout Cuba, and the encouragement from so
many other peaceful activists, are the major silencers of this shrill
character who — in our living rooms — launches into a tirade we no
longer believe in.
8 October 2011
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