Without a flag
By Varela
Antonio Maceo once said that the flag had to be carried to every battlefield, and if the standard-bearer fell, someone else had to pick up the flag and keep it flying. In other words, in every battle, the flag is the last to fall.
That implies (I imagine) that the last soldier left standing may choose not to fight but only hold the flag aloft, which is the most glorious way to fight – and die.
Putting aside the book of Our History and picking up the pamphlets of the Historic Exile, I notice that, because they lost their homeland (they ran away from it) the members of our Historic Exile have used the Cuban flag as their symbol, but at convenience.
Let me explain.
At every public event staged by the Hysterical Exile (pardon me, Historic Exile), its people always display the flag with the lone star in a red triangle and three blue stripes with two white stripes. Sometimes they add the American flag, possibly as a sign of respect for the country that sheltered them. Or as a way to establish their legal status with the Migra.
That’s so eponymous that it’s almost real. One gets teary-eyed when one sees these little old people carrying two flags, like warriors from two motherlands. The heirs of the mambises.
Some of those warriors have become local painters, like Ninoska Pérez, Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, and have slipped the national flag into their various paintings.
Adding the flag as an element of a scene can be seen in many Cuban paintings and has become old hat. Personally, I find it excessive, in bad taste, even chauvinistic. But colors were made for all tastes.
In the case of the Hystericals (Historics, I mean), it has become a standard of what they interpret as patriotism. Ninoska paints acrylics in which snails are decorated with a Cuban flag. Posada Carriles does oil paintings that show mambises waving rigid flags (only the flag is rigid, mind). And in Bosch’s watercolor landscapes, the flag appears in the sky and on the clouds (I don’t know if it’s the artist’s fixation with airliners.)
Everything looks very patriotic, if only they were consistent. But they aren’t. The Hysterical Exiles (or Historic Exiles, makes no difference) are the biggest opportunists in the history of Cuba.
When it suits them, they bring out the Cuban flag. When it doesn’t, they hide it and wave another flag.
I say this because Posada Carriles’ trial just began in El Paso and, on the first day, two groups of people gathered outside the courthouse. Some in favor, others against, the way things are done in this country.
The group against called the elderly exile a terrorist and demanded his deportation to Venezuela to face criminal charges going back to the 1970s, when he worked for the Venezuelan Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention and tortured women with lit cigarettes, murdered, kidnapped and extorted members of the leftist group Punto Cero.
The other group, in favor, supported a so-called Basilio, Bambi or The Hunter (Posada’s aliases during his time as CIA agent) but did not carry the Cuban flag. Instead, they waved a flag with a blue rectangle with 50 stars, seven red stripes and six white stripes, in other words, the American flag (yes, the one flown by the colonists against England, the flag flown at Iwo Jima, the flag flown on the Fourth of July, the flag that stands on the moon.)
So, what’s the story? Are we – or are we not – Cuban patriots?
In Florida, we are, but in Texas it is not convenient to display our glorious flag, much less to support Posada Carriles.
Our Historic-Hysterical Exiles have not only renounced their Cuban birthplace but also make believe on TV that the American people support the well-known international terrorist. They are Cubans by birth, naturalized as U.S. citizens, yet, all of a sudden their patriotism is expressed on the side of George Washington, not Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.
I expect there will be problems with Homeland Security. A country that has invaded two Muslim nations to fight terrorism cannot allows its flag to be displayed in favor of a man who has dispensed terrorism throughout Central American and the Caribbean, in attacks on Cuban airplanes, air terminals, ships, ports, embassies and hotels, killing diplomats and tourists – even if some want to label him as a Freedom Fighter.
The acolytes who supported The Hunter outside the courthouse in El Paso have every right to support him, but they don’t have the right to pose like ordinary Americans. At the very least, in all honesty, these bums ought to hang from their necks a sign that identifies them as CIA mercenaries.
