The official press does not hide its tension before the semifinal of the World Baseball Classic, which will face today in Miami the Cuban team with the United States team, winner of Venezuela this Saturday by 9 runs to 7. The day has already taken on political overtones and Cubans, both on the Island and in exile, have entered fully to answer several questions: What should be the attitude of exiles before the so-called Team Asere? Is the Cuban team an example of national reconciliation? Whose triumph –or failure– will be this Sunday?
The Cuban government seems to have things clear: musical themesspeeches, tweets, raffles for uniforms, analyzes that promise the victory of the island’s team and proclamations from various leaders, are part of the machinery to present the team as an initiative of the regime, which needs a popularity hit in a few days of the elections of deputies to the Parliament.
Knowing that various exile activists have called for protests in the vicinity of the stadium, the official press has also released “messages” to counter these calls.
Knowing that various exile activists have called for protests in the vicinity of the stadium, the official press has also released “messages” to counter these calls
Both Miguel Díaz-Canel and his wife, Lis Cuesta, have tweeted several times a day about the Cuban team. The president transcribed the lyrics of the official song of the selection, interpreted by the singer Alexander Abreu, while Cuesta motivated the criticism of the users by asking that “water and cascarilla” – ritual elements of Santeria – be thrown on the pitch .
The project related to the Puentes de Amor regime, directed in Florida by Carlos Lazo, stated that the game was a “historic event” and that his organization rejected “attempts by individuals or groups to organize protests,” and “politicize or sabotage the event.” “We already won!” Lazo assured in his statement, in line with the government’s forecasts.
cubadebate promised a pullover and a cap from the Cuba team, as well as a recharge of 125 pesos –in collaboration with the state monopoly Etecsa–, to whom they answered a sort of trivia about Cuban baseball.
However, the readers did not cease to find suspicious the announcement, by ETECSA, of a maintenance scheduled for Sunday on the telephone lines and the Internet: “While these technical actions are being carried out, an affectation may be perceived in the operation of the services, so the works will be carried out during the hours of less voice and data traffic”. “They are going to take away our internet so that we don’t see what is going to take place in the ball stadium. Miami got hot,” a Facebook user snapped, amused.
another controversial advertisement was the placement of screens in parks, theaters and squares in different provinces, considered insufficient by readers and on which strong police surveillance is predicted. It is also to be expected that the game will not be broadcast live, but rather that the authorities leave a margin of time to censor any eventuality or problematic image.
Several fans and intellectuals recognize that, in Team Asere, there is a paradox that will have to be resolved in Miami: who does the team really represent?
Several fans and intellectuals recognize that, in Team Asere, there is a paradox that will have to be resolved in Miami: who does the team really represent?
“This is a country that does not want to be taken away from it the only thing it no longer has, but what it counts on,” said Cuban translator Jorge Ferrer on his Facebook profile. “The name of Team Asere for the hybrid team is a semantic, sociological and even poetic finding of enormous caliber.”
The writer Carlos Manuel Álvarez, for his part, pointed out that “people don’t really know where to classify them in this second, when a type of national series promotes one from the big leagues. It can be said that they generated an identity from the mix, which is the only possible identity.
The journalist Gilberto Dihigo lamented that, as in all the “Byzantine fights” in which the Cubans get involved, the one who best takes advantage of the division is the Island’s Government, which washes its hands and places the responsibility of the national division in the hands of the own people, both inside and outside the country.
“Cuba belongs to everyone and has nothing to do with that outdated system and oppressor of opinions, therefore the baseball team does not belong to Castroism,” he said.
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