The popular Cuban interpreter said she felt “anger” and “pain” about the situation on the island.
MIAMI, United States. – Cuban actress María Teresa Pina assured that in Cuba “they are destroying a people in a cynical and cruel way” and described as “irreversible” the damage that, in her opinion, the system causes on people, to the point that those who suffer from it “are going to live with that damage.”
During an interview with the project The Cuban Familythe interpreter also said she felt “anger” and “pain” for the situation in the country, criticized the silence of those who avoid speaking out and stated that fear explains part of the lack of rebellion within the Island.
“It seems very terrible to me that the whole world knows about this and is silent,” Pina said. Regarding the silence of people inside Cuba, he added: “I understand their silence, but if you are not going to say anything, leave, do not want to appear.” In that same section, he maintained: “What is happening in Cuba is terrible and self-respecting Cubans have to feel the pain and anger that they are killing your people little by little, depersonalizing them with irreversible anthropological damage.”
When asked by actor Lieter Ledesma about whether this damage is reversible, Pina was blunt: “It is irreversible. People who have that damage are going to live with that damage.” In the conversation, he linked this idea with the difficulties of adaptation that he observes in part of emigration: “In fact, there are many people here with the same damage, who arrive here and are not able to adapt, to join, they are not able to adapt to the society that is welcoming them, because the damage they have is so strong that they want to have the same thing that they have there with everything that is here.”
At another time, the actress spoke about the weight of indoctrination and fear. “I was born in 1961, since I went to school for the first time they were already brainwashing me,” he stated, and maintained that this process operates on several generations. When explaining why he believes people do not rebel, he responded: “Because of fear; they have put it into them.” And, when contrasting his current situation with the initial stage after emigrating, he stated: “I am no longer afraid, but, when I arrived here, I came with fear.”
The dialogue included direct criticism of state management and living conditions on the Island. Pina stated: “The famine is planned, everything is planned so that you do not feel like a person.”
The conversation also addressed political and economic control. When talking about garbage and the infrastructure of communal services, the actress maintained that the responsibility falls on the Government: “Garbage is a Government problem, they had to have a Communal infrastructure so that this does not happen as it happens in the entire world.” In that same argument thread, he added: “There can be no private individual in Cuba, do you know why? Because they need to have economic control of everything so that you think as they want you to think. If you are economically free, you are ideologically free.”
Finally, when she was questioned about the national direction, Pina responded: “Nowhere,” and added: “To sadness, to frustration, to death.”
here and now
“I live in the present. I am 64 years old. At this age you don’t have a future, you have the present,” said the actress, before adding: “My present is to be happy. It is to work, to earn money to give myself certain pleasures.” When they asked him which ones, he responded: “I like to be with my friends, drinking my beer, listening to good music, talking about everyday problems or not, or philosophizing, it doesn’t matter to me.”
Pina also talked about her artistic career, how she builds characters and common tensions in the profession. When describing herself, she rejected the label of “great actress” and opted for another definition: “I believe that I am a dedicated actress with a heart that does not take care of itself. I don’t take care of my heart, I don’t take care of myself at all. When I give myself, I give myself.” Regarding his career on television, he noted: “I took advantage of what they gave me,” and added: “And what I got, I did the best I could.”
She related that she came to Havana from Ciego de Ávila, where she trained and worked in theater, and said that she discovered her vocation while studying another specialty: “I have always been the guajira of Ciego de Ávilawho came to Havana with his heart in his hand to take on the scenes.” According to him, he previously studied to “work and help” at home: “And I studied dental assistant. But I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
In the field of roles, the actress commented that she frequently played prostitutes in theater and television. She clarified, however, that she did not feel pigeonholed: “Many things touched me,” she noted.
