The last formal acquisition of the Castro almanac is August 5, a kind of Day of Struggle against Social Protests. The newspaper Granma published a chronicle that canonizes the date on which “Fidel did not hesitate and went out into the street with the only bulletproof vest he always wore: his shame,” convinced that the people “would not be capable” of destroying the Revolution.
The text describes the last “fright” that, on August 5, 1994, made Castro understand that the people were crushed by the ups and downs of the Special Period and that the slogans did not feed anyone. The presence of the then president in an environment secured by his escort is the prelude, according to Granmaof the eventful march of Diaz-Canel for San Antonio de los Bañoson July 11, 2021.
Despite the setbacks and the poorly told stories, the Government has assumed that this connection is sufficient to improvise today tribunes of “revolutionary reaffirmation” throughout the island, such as in El Curita park, in Central Havana. But also, as usual, police fences and prohibitions on activists and independent journalists to leave their homes cannot be absent.
The solitary microphones, mediated by some old speakers, wait for someone to grab them with a harangue. But who will have the energy, under the Cuban August sun, to issue or assimilate slogans at full volume?
The current will not be lacking to boost the voice of the seasoned officials, through loudspeakers, equalizers and cables “tied” with tape. The young technician who prepared the equipment, taking advantage of the absence of supervisors, has already summoned a couple of music lover “partners”. Silvio and Sara González will have to be put first, indispensable to enter a revolutionary “environment”. Then, if no one shows up, Los Van Van, la Aragón and NG La Banda will come, who don’t bother the leaders.
If at the end of the hour no one has gone up to the rostrum to celebrate the new and glorious event, the technician will have carte blanche to descend to more subterranean and sweaty melodies. Someone will watch over, in some corner, the appearance of officials to return to Silvio and his politically correct trovas.
But it is still early and not even the curious that nest in any corner come to the gallery. The same scenario is repeated in other parks, which, depending on their size and importance, deserve a discreet State Security officer, a gang of red berets or a little bus with dark glasses, to transport those who want to make life bitter. party.
In the midst of an energy crisis, during a massive exodus, without food or medicine, the Government squeezes its propaganda arsenal to invent a new day in its saints and appropriate what they have begun to call “the Malecon events.”
However, no one shows up in the parks yet. An official call will be necessary, in work centers and schools, to achieve the necessary public. It is the old socialist “spontaneity”, the same one that leads the National Information System to proclaim that there are tents full of books and pullovers with the faces of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, succulent souvenirs for tourists, in the March 13 park, ” official headquarters” of the celebrations in Havana.
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