Havana Cuba-. It is the topic of the moment and it will be for a long time because emigrating to the United States will continue to be the dream of many Cubans, no matter how much the island’s economy may improve in the coming years. If the underlying problem —which is essentially political— is not resolved, we will be talking, joking, and even cursing the thousand and one ways we have invented for years.
to put ourselves well protected from communism, but in the distance.
The paths taken by Cubans have been diverse: from visa “trafficking” at consulates —where Mexico’s may be the paradigm of corruption— to taking the longest route through Russia and crossing the inhospitable Bering Strait; from stealing a fumigation plane or locking themselves in the holds or landing gear of an aircraft to jumping into the sea on a surfboard. And among such tricks, we must not forget the “rider a yuma”; “deserting” from a medical, commercial or diplomatic mission after feigning “proven” political loyalty. It is also common to invent an incredible “credible fear” and, of course, the “bartering” of tickets to a Nicaragua that was only opened to free visas when our pressure cooker was about to explode.
But at the heart of all these “migration processes” have always been, in a mandatory way, the figures of those “essential intermediaries” – under the figure of resellers, scammers, corrupt officials, lawyers, partners, facilitators, traffickers, guides and coyotes — to which in these days the figure of the “sponsor”, a word that we will be hearing until we get bored because that is what
touch, in an inalienable way, if in the escape we persist in heading north.
So if, until the minutes before Biden’s announcement, we only heard about volcanoes, jungles, deserts and coyotes, after the borders were closed and the new measures that try to eliminate the irregular flow of migrants were implemented, today is different. There will be no other word that “falls in love” or “disappoints” a Cuban man or woman more than the one that, in the hours after the bucket of ice water that they poured on us, has begun to be the fodder of memes and other publications on the networks social.
“Having a sponsor is the only way to be free”, someone parodied the famous phrase of José Martí. “Mother is anyone, sponsor is only one”, is another very funny one that I have also read.
“Sponsor wanted”, some have published only as a joke, because in reality the possibility of finding one is not funny at all, much less for those who accept the “challenge” of “adopting a Cuban” and “saving his life”. . Because in these terms —with which some have made us laugh in the midst of so much sadness— is that the new way to obtain the blessed “parole” is interpreted.
But, knowing the responsibility that the “sponsor” acquires, how many will be willing to play that risky card of becoming one, even for the benefit of a close relative? I don’t think there are many brave people. It is one thing to send a hundred dollars as a regular remittance and quite another to carry someone else’s briefcase on your back for two years.
From now on it will be necessary to be aware of the statistics to know if the strategy will be fruitful but it is not difficult to guess that it is made not only to separate the chaff from the grain; but so that when this select seed manages to pass the sieve of investigations and paperwork, it is a kind of “gourmet product.” In other words, a “luxury immigrant”, because just as the one who does not have a godfather will not be baptized, the one who does not
have a sponsor will never land in Miami.
Unfortunately, for a majority of Cubans the “American dream” has become a nightmare, as well as for a few, thanks precisely to the “sponsor” mechanism, it will become more “sweet” and attainable, more real. But that does not mean that everything is over for the “unsponsored”. Not only because the most desperate to get out of the prison-island will go anywhere, but because, even though they have
very difficult, something will be invented along the way.
In this sense, the memes and publications on social networks also herald the forms that the coveted “sponsorship” could take. You just have to give time to time for the cunning to nest in the cracks of the new procedure. Nothing is infallible.
The truth is that, in addition to the dollar that governs our lives condemned by the useless national currency, the remittances that make the difference between full and empty bellies, the discriminatory disadvantages of an identity card compared to a foreign passport, now we comes this other “privilege” of having a
sponsor to remind us that in Cuba every day it becomes more difficult to stop being second class citizens.
OPINION ARTICLE
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