All to Revolution Square… and looking for what?
By Aurelio Pedroso
11 April 2011
There will be three occasions of sheer rehearsal before the big parade on the 16th. The first one already completed, started with 21 artillery salvos and a drill formation of combat and transport helicopters as well as military planes which flew over the building where I live creating havoc among hens, pigeons and dogs.
For more than 30 years the island has not been involved in a war and even those happened well outside of our borders. Only veterans from Angola and Ethiopia know what it is like to be under that deadly fracas, frightened and praying to all saints so as not to be ever again part of such a drama.
An impressive display is planned for the 16th, for that is the intention: to impress inside and out. Fifty years of summoning and reaffirmation of socialism at the brink of the abyss — the President’s words. Half a century involved in a sort of now-or-never program of survival.
People know this and don´t let themselves be fooled about reality. In Cuba’s capital city, in every street hole –and there are many- there lies a commentary about the upcoming congress of the Communist Party and the summoning to the big parade in Revolution Square.
It couldn´t be otherwise. The Cuban population is characteristically keen about everyday happenings, knowledgeable in more than a few aspects of political culture and living in an almost inevitable state of awareness considering the necessity to interpret and combine dreams and nightmares of change, illusions and delusions in face of a system which the common citizen feels eager to modify and improve.
The words of the late John Paul II, repeated later on by the King of Spain (reigning nowadays over thousands of Cubans thanks to their Spanish forefathers) have turned out to be prophetic: the country has no other choice than to open inwardly and also to the world.
Hence all the expectations towards the Congress, which will most probably see Raúl Castro emerge again as First Secretary with, may God hear this, a young man or woman as the second in charge.
And finally, to Revolution Square, looking for what? some of my foreign press colleagues have asked. Well, checking on the voluntarism of attendance, and how innovative some night-before posters can be, who other than Fidel Castro be the main figure in the tribunes and, in the guise of military experts, wonder how modern or outmoded is the military technology going out on a renovated first-world-like avenue…
Some will march with the conviction of a country definitively taking on a positive path; some will be just observers; and others will march 200 meters to then head back home.
Obviously enough, those of the opposition will be absent. Many of them are already abroad. The few who decided to stay will probably be in front of the T.V., thoughtful and opinionated.
Anyway, we´ll all go in search of something on the 50th anniversary of our socialist enterprise.
