Cuba 2019 with plenty of love

Cuban citizens have just concluded a national discussion based on the draft of a new Constitution which will be submitted to a referendum on February 24. This process has been exhausting for many reasons, among them because the national panorama shows the old and new wounds in its quotidian fabric, and at all its levels. It is one of the many reasons 2018 ended full of strong emotions for so many — participants or not, as well as those satisfied or not.

It is why this beginning of a new year is an opportune moment, we believe at Progreso Weekly, to share from our small space our best wishes to all our readers. And especially our best wishes for Cuba and its people, wherever they are.

We hope that wounds that have affected our national faith in the past can be healed without traumas or divisions, and that the already begun path of embracing Cuban emigration advances with accelerated and decisive steps. We hope that our young people, those who seek new horizons and opportunities elsewhere may, sooner rather than later, return and fulfill their dreams in the land that gave birth to them. We hope that all the doors remain open to you, outside and inside Cuba, and that regardless of distances, that we may continue as one — as the great people we are.

That our shortages, a great weight for so many in Cuba, do not mark their daily life any longer, and that some day we may laugh at that bump in the road. And that the national public transportation system achieve such efficiency and development, that the private options can never again govern the departure and arrival times of our citizens.

Of course, we also want salaries to be more like the real expenses, and that monetary unification is achieved this year without major traumas. That elderly Cubans can have decent lives without depending on family care with which not everyone counts. That as a society we respect the effort of their years and that we know how to thank them for everything that has been delivered to the newest generations.

Let the closed minds be opened; or that they give way to new ones, and always committed to the bright future that most want for Cuba. That transparency in how things are managed is the norm and not the exception.

We also wish that health and education, Cuba’s greatest achievements as a country, be something we can take pride in and without question. That the resources that both systems required for these to function optimally are always available and produced, and that we can preserve them as fundamental rights and given free to all — something that can not be bought or sold.

That we can count on a national and sovereign production of our sustenance as a country.

We also want to see our GDP grow, as well as our exports and foreign investment on the Island. And that these resources be fairly distributed among its main beneficiaries — the Cuban people.

May art continue to grow in this country characterized by its simple and wild beauty. And that we all may enjoy it equally and in our own way.

Anything else you’d like to add? Well… one last thing: We wish all our people strength, coherence and peace. And plenty of love.

Happy 2019!