I have read respectable positions, with well-written lyrics and good argumentative prose, that encourage celebrating carnival, despite the affronts and threats that we suffer today. Your text is for me one more proof of the ingenuity that human beings have to try to justify anything.
But let’s be honest: what is carnival, not only in Santa Cruz but all over the world? A short period in which the floodgates for revelry and drinking are open. It is a time when instincts overflow and excesses are given free rein. It is to set free the animal caged by social limitations, so that it runs wild without censorship and in droves.
When mentioning dates in which the celebration was not suspended, despite the imminent danger or collective pain, one must also remember others in which we paid a high price for the celebration (such as when the defense of the Bolivian coast was postponed) or there was no alternative but to suspend it (like the past two years of pandemic). You can always decorate our arguments with references that suit the defended position.
I have also heard that Carnival is a form of reactivation and that not doing it would cause economic damage. It is partly true: some small merchants, street vendors and seamstresses benefit, but those who benefit most are the suppliers of alcoholic beverages and smugglers, in addition to those who profit from sponsorships; it is for these the real deal.
Of course, everyone has the right to spend the fruit of their efforts and their work in recreation and fun. That’s true. But there are also those who waste what they have and even what they don’t have; and then they wake up with a hangover and the burden of bigger problems
It will not be necessary to debate whether or not carnival is the expression of joy and part of the “oriental soul”, since practically in all corners of the world it could be given the same or similar adjectives. But that hubbub should never silence the deep voice of the people, in defense of FREEDOM.
And that is what is at stake in our country today. With firm and fast steps we are heading towards the perfection of a dictatorship. Those who do not see it that way and believe that they are just insignificant dalliances of a person conceited by power, are wrong from start to finish. If not, ask the Venezuelans, the Nicaraguans or the Cubans. Or simply ask yourself why millions of citizens of those countries prefer to face misery outside the borders of their homeland rather than stay in those “socialist paradises”?
I can agree with those who, in good faith, think that privateering is a space that could be used to express a clear protest against the abuses and arbitrariness of political power; but that would imply a great agreement not to wear multicolored jackets and enjoy danceable sounds but to demonstrate, in black mourning and with a lean attitude, that our DEMOCRACY is being assassinated.
In short, carnival means neglecting the vicissitudes of everyday life; it is looking for a temporary refuge to forget worries and, many times, even evade responsibilities; it is pretending to ignore and deny our reality. On the contrary, fighting and protesting against abuses and combating tyranny and injustice is, above all, showing that we are aware of the dangers that lie in wait for us and that we are willing to fight them with determination, conviction and courage, rather than quietly lamenting or wait, in useless waiting, for others to come to defend us.
Everyone is free to choose what they consider appropriate to their way of thinking and their conscience. We will receive the reward or punishment of what we do or fail to do. If we are a leafy, strong and fruitful tree or a squalid and useless grass, it will be seen in our fruits; and by our fruits they will know us.
