It exploded in every Cuban home

A Boeing 737-201 crashed at 12:08 p.m on Friday (May 18), shortly after taking off from the Havana airport on an internal flight to Holguin on the east of the island. All six crew members on board were Mexican and the majority of the passengers were Cuban, with five foreigners reported to be among them. Three women were pulled alive from the wreckage, and are in critical condition. The plane, which was nearly 40 years old, was carrying 105 passengers and six crew members.

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HAVANA – The Boeing 737-200 exploded in every Cuban home. Glued to television sets, the radio, others to the internet, they felt the disaster as their own. The soul of Cubans does not know keep out human tragedies. And if they touch us, as is this case, then “it exploded in every house.” That’s what a man in my neighborhood said as he bought his share of bread at the corner store.

But he is not the only one, only one among millions, sensitized with the pain of lost lives — compatriots or not — and what will happen to the three survivors carefully cared for by the health services.

“God help and save them,” said another neighbor, who was looking for her daily bread accompanied by her dog, tied to a leash.

“I really liked the precision and serenity of the director of the hospital” (Calixto García), where they fight to save them, she added, in reference to the survivors who are in serious condition.

“The director spoke as a doctor, as it should be, no political nonsense,” said an elderly gentleman wearing a blue cap of the Industriales (a Cuban baseball team)  who was sitting in the box at the entrance of the warehouse where he waits daily for the newspaper. And with this phrase he made clear a striking aspect: all declarations, from those of the doctor to that of President Diaz-Canel and other political and administrative leaders, were exempt from what we commonly call “political BS.” At least all that have been transmitted by Cuban TV so far.

“There was no need … with everything we were seeing and hearing and doing, the same as the rescue workers and also the president, it’s enough,” he added.

I kept thinking about that statement, “enough”. The pain of tragedy, compact and seduces, is the sad face of the creole’s humanism. We need, after the mourning, to seduce with active hope. Revitalize our humanism by doing. There are sensitive people who think and are willing to participate — each at their time and of their own opinion.

Photos by Prensa Latina.