Rubio’s prayer won’t reach Havana
The Republican convention reminded me of a third-rate circus, sword swallowers and all
By Aurelio Pedroso
HAVANA – Word after word, sentence after sentence (though badly translated into Spanish because of the always complicated conjugation of verbs), I listened to the speech made by senator Marco Rubio at the Republican Party convention.
Let me make clear that I’m not a political analyst and don’t pretend to be one, but, since Rubio is of Cuban origin, I was curious to hear what he said, what he thinks, and where he hides the rabbit, in the manner of vaudeville magicians.
The spectacle reminded me of the third-rate circuses that used to tour our towns and provincial capitals. There were sideshows featuring the Bearded Lady, the Sword Swallower, the Fire Eater and the Lizard Woman, but for the main show and the most fun you had to go under the tent.
I’ll pause only on two topics in Rubio’s speech that caught my attention.
First, the very sad picture he gave of his parents in Cuba, the bad situation that faced them and that eventually (though Rubio didn’t say it clearly) forced them to pack their suitcases and head for the United States. He narrated that story with such conviction that my stomach prompted me to dig – at that hour of the night – into a loaf of bread with one of those fritters that the government sells, which one store clerk described by saying: “They may not taste like fish, but they’re fish.”
That “Via Crucis” about the emigration of his parents (who were not exiles as Marquitos once said but had to rectify later when The Washington Post discovered that his parents emigrated to the U.S. in 1956, long before Fidel Castro moved his headquarters from Sierra Maestra to Havana) was rather touching but still incomplete.
Some, Marquitos among them, would like to return to the Cuba that existed before the Rubios emigrated. And that, ladies and gentlemen, doesn’t mean that the current Cuba is perfect. Let’s not get the wrong idea.
Second, Rubio made a moving plea to the thousands of conventioneers to urgently say a prayer for a free Cuba. Thank you, Marco, we appreciate the thought, but we in Cuba have been praying for a long time (even the atheists), for a reason as different from yours as day from night. We are praying for a better nation, which is not exactly the purpose of your prayer.
Looking at the many people in costume, and watching the great Clint Eastwood in one of his worst theatrical performances, I kept waiting for the parrot that pulled fortune cards out of a box, but it never showed up. In its place appeared Mitt Romney.
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