Grandfather, What is Cuba?
by Esteban Fernández
What Cuba Is
The grandson asks: "What is Cuba?" and the grandfather answers:
OK, but don't run off, sit down and be quiet for a few seconds, I'm going
to tell you:
Cuba is neither the Guatemalan Quetzal nor the North American Eagle.
Cuba is a pine finch bird. Cuban finch
Cuba is neither Rock and Roll nor Tango nor Merengue.
Cuba is Rhumba music, Cuba is Guaracha music, Cuba is Son music, and it is
Danzon music.
Cuba is not a dream of mine, Cuba is a reality.
Cuba is something that even though it may seem far away, it's actually very
close by..
Look, feel my heart and you will feel Cuba's heartbeats.
Cuba is my mother, Cuba is your father's mother and your own mother.
Cuba is my crib, Cuba is today, tomorrow and always.
Cuba is the past, Cuba is the present, and Cuba is the future.
Cuba is not Fidel Castro. Cuba is its forefathers Maceo, Marti, and Maximo
Gomez;
it is martyrs Pedro Luis Boitel and Vicente Mendez.
Cuba does not belong to the enslavers but to those who will one day break
their chains.
Cuba is a rooster that wakes us up each morning from the eastern countryside.
Cuba is Rum, Tobacco, it is Sugar, it is Tropicana Night Club's hot mulatto
dancers.
Cuba is a Permanent Mental Image.
Cuba is in a Bolero dance, in a fragrance, in a whisper,
and in the tears that you sometimes see running down my cheeks.
Cuba is a Blue Sky like you have never seen.
Cuba is a Storm and it is a Rainbow.
Cuba is independence warriors Quintin Banderas and Calixto Garcia.
Cuba is neither Black nor White nor Mulatto; Cuba is a plow, it is a Palm
Hut.
It is a Hymn, a Coat of Arms, a Flag and a Farmer's Machete knife.
Cuba is neither Washington nor Moscow, nor Paris, nor Madrid.
Cuba is Varadero Beach. Cuba is the Hanabanilla Falls.
Cuba is a farmer shouting: "Take the shoulder, Deer"
Cuba is not: knowing how to say "Damn". Cuba is knowing how to say:
"Fatherland!".
But if you want to use the word "Damn",
use it only to say: "Damn! I'm a Cuban!"
Cuba is a history.
Cuba is thousands of history pages filled with a lot of Cuban blood,
so that you can say with pride:
Cuban blood is in my veins. My veins have the same blood as my dad, and the
same blood as my grandfather, and the same blood as warrior Ignacio
Agramonte.
Cuba is not just an island. Cuba is a Monument, Cuba is an Altar.
And it's not enough to have Cuba in your thoughts, you must put it on a
Pedestal.
And it's not enough to wear a Cuba lapel pin on your suit,
you must have it in your soul and within yourself.
To be a Cuban is a Right, to be Cuban is a Religion.
To be Cuban is not an obligation, it is God's Blessing.
Cuba is singer Celia Cruz screaming: "Sugaaaar" .
Cuba is Cuban Stew, Cuba is Okra, and Cuban Sweet Potato. Celia Cruz
Everything reminds me of Cuba.
Cuba is in the Cuban sandwich and the midnight sandwich that I eat, in the
Ironber and Materva soft drinks,
and in the Guava turnover, in a butterfly flying near me,
in an old song by Nico Membiela and a joke by comedian Alvarez Guedes.
Cuba is the Protest of Baragua'. Cuba is the War Cry of Baire, Cuba is the
War Cry of Yara.
Cuba is: "The most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen" as
described by Christopher Columbus.
Cuba is the Indian Hatuey executed by the Spaniards.
Cuba is the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Cuba is Independence Day May 20, 1902.
Yes!: Cuba is Partying, Out on the Town, Carnival and Bacardi Rum.
But Cuba also is:
Thousands and thousands of dead Martyrs from 1492 through today.
Cuba is: A hidden treasure which I want to find.
I know it's there, but I cannot touch it.
And if your grandfather dies without that treasure, do not cry.
Raise your forehead and before his tomb make a promise: That you will go find it!
That you will find it! And that you will rescue it!
And with tears in his eyes, the grandchild answers:
"OK, grandpa, Can I go play now?"
Published in the 20 de Mayo newspaper Nota Breve column by Esteban Fernández. Submitted by Migdalia Gari de Ferrer
Translated by Lillian Martinez
Fin
De:
CUBACUBANA@aol.com
Thu, 19 Apr 2001 17:08:31 edt
ABUELO ¿QUÉ COSA ES CUBA?
por Esteban Fernández.
LA NOTA BREVE
Lillian Martinez
PO Box 293
Round Rock Texas USA 78680-0293
512 246-2597 - Voice
512 246-1478 - Fax
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