HAVANA, Cuba.- Despite the bad omens, the fierce criticism, the memes and the deep desire —expressed by many inside and outside of social networks— that Team Cuba make a big splash in the World Baseball Classic, the antillean squadron has passed to the semifinals of the event, putting a point in the mouth of those who predicted that he would not go beyond the first round.
The victory achieved against Australia has left a strange feeling among those who did not expect anything from the Cuban team. The surprise has thrown them off balance and right now many are torn between the pessimism cultivated for years, and the hope that the players born on this long-suffering island, and spread throughout the world, will shine again as a team in international competitions.
Between the confusion and the emotion, politics has come to sneak in, with renewed force after the advance of the team and despite those who have urged to keep the sport at the margin of ideological differences. It is an unavoidable evil, it seems, but it is strongly incited from the leadership of the dictatorial power that resides in Havana.
Through their social networks, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Lis Cuesta and Gerardo Hernández have been the first to politicize Team Cuba’s victories, even associating them with the official hashtag of the “elections” called for March 26: better is possible. And it is that the regime, lacking the capacity to generate enthusiasm with its rhetoric of continuity, needs positive events that help to alleviate the enormous popular discontent in the face of suffrage.
It cannot be said, however, that every corner is talking about ball. It takes much more than the union of good players in the World Classic to recover the heated debates of the “hot corner” of Central Park, and the baseball spirit that permeated this nation, from one end to the other.
But something is something, and this unexpected result has stirred a precious feeling in Cubans, which the usual spoilers try to sully with their slogans and their trumpery triumphalism. The shadow of the most slippery politicking looms over the Antillean team, which constitutes only the outline of a possible Cuba.
We are very far from the national reconciliation that some insist on seeing through the composition of the Cuban line up, which for the first time has brought together athletes “from here and there.” It must be very clear that half of those players agree with the dictatorship, abide by and defend its behavior. In the other half are the neutral athletes, the “tolerable” ones because they have kept silent about the totalitarian nature of the Cuban government, and the events that have shaken the country in the last three years.
The regime counts on its faithful and on those who do not express any commitment. That is enough for him to brag and provoke. But Cuba, as a nation, cannot exclude Aroldis Chapman, Yasmany Tomás, Yulieski Gourriel, Pito Abreu and other excellent baseball players who make the Communist Party uncomfortable for saying what they think, for reminding everyone who wants to listen that yesterday Castroism despised them as “deserters” and today even denies them the right to return to their homeland.
Those who say they don’t want to know about politics when it comes to sports seem to forget how many terrible performances and defeats it took for the Cuban sports authorities to decide to summon the players who play in professional leagues. They forget that for decades political and ideological interests have prevailed over sports quality and justice with athletes who have given everything on the field, only to be excluded from important events because “they are not trustworthy.”
The team that will play the Clásico semifinal in Miami is just a fragment of the possible Cuba, that Cuba of all that, from the leadership, does not stop boycotting. Because the vulgar and hackneyed posts uploaded to Facebook by that ruling mob, which lives on sensationalism and demagogy, can only be sabotage. Anyone would say that they do it to make them uncomfortable, so that their bad vibes reach the fans and the players, so that the spirits are even more heated and opinions are polarized to the extreme.
It was not enough for the constellation of obese with assist to training at the Latin American Stadium. Now Lis Cuesta asks the babalawos to “activate” and throw water and husk on the ground.
#TeamAsere pic.twitter.com/omyIbopBKD
— Lis Cuesta (@liscuestacuba) March 15, 2023
You can be more ridiculous, but not more ordinary. The federated Cuesta would do well to remember that Díaz-Canel received a mpaka at the beginning of his term, and he has gone from bad to worse. The orishas also punish when they are invoked in vain, or out of mere snobbery, as is the case with that lady.
While the spy Gerardo Hernández quoted Martí in a tweetIn order not to discredit himself with a phrase of his own, Díaz-Canel resorted to an awkward analogy between Cuba’s victory over Australia and the commemoration of another anniversary of the Baraguá Protest. Ideological spasm in its pure state; heyday of jingoistic continuity.
“Patriotism purifies and sublimates men.” Jose Marti. #Cuba #elCubaClasico #CDRCuba #SomosDelBarrio pic.twitter.com/23Gg42b5Kp
— Gerardo Hdez. Nordelo (@GHNordelo5) March 15, 2023
And they still blame the Cuban emigration for wanting to politicize everything.
