9781935554257 / eBook: 9781935554912
HAVANA REAL
One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth About Cuba Today
A diary of life inside Havana by one of Cuba's few bloggers--a worldwide sensation.
Yoani Sánchez is an unusual dissident: no
street protests, no attacks on big politicos, no calls for revolution.
Rather, she produces a simple diary about what it means to live under
the Castro regime in Cuba: the chronic hunger and the difficulty of
shopping; the art of repairing ancient appliances; the struggles of
living under a propaganda machine that pushes deep into public and
private life. For these simple acts of truth-telling her life is one of
constant threat.
But she continues on, refusing to be silenced—a living response to all who have ceased to believe in a future for Cuba.
***
I'm
reading Havana Real. My thoughts turn to my youth in the seventies.
I remember watching news coverage showing, what seemed to me, valiant
people daring shark infested seas in search of freedom. Their
'boats' little more than flimsy rafts pieced together from the most
unlikely parts: old tires, planks of plywood, the shell of an old
rusting car. I remember seeing the US Coast Guard waiting beyond an
invisible barrier silently cheering the refugees on, waiting to bring
them to freedom. These were days just after the Cuban Missile
crisis and my country was still fearful of our neighbors, fearful of
the might of a little island with a strong and passionate leader.
Every Cuban that crossed that imaginary boundary in the middle of the
Atlantic was a victory for freedom and even I, as a child, was
touched by their bravery.
It's
been many years since I was first exposed to the desperate plight
that plagues this small island yet the struggle of Cubans still
wages on. I recently met a man that told me his story. He first
tried to come to The US as a young man, still in his teens. His
crossing was not successful and he and his raft mates were caught
somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic between America and Cuba. He
was held in prison for nine years emerging finally, a man in his late
twenties. He told me how he felt that his most important years had
slipped away from him. First love, a chance for education, any kind
of decent employment were lost to him. He emerged into an island
more degraded than the one he had sought to flee and his sadness
overwhelmed him. After three years of working, doing anything to
earn enough money to buy his right to risk his life on yet another
raft he finally made it to the US.
He
is free now, he misses his family, he is grateful for his freedom.
He spoke of the wonderful people he left behind in Cuba, of his
family, of the slow pace of life, the warmth of community and I
wondered at the price of freedom. I wondered at the lengths humans
will go to so they can be free to speak and think, to worship and
simply live. I wonder how those of us fortunate enough to have all
of this seem not to notice how millions around the world are living
under conditions so severe that they can not even voice an opinion
for fear that they may end up in prison. I wonder how many millions
of stories there are left to be told. Stories of oppression and
desperation. Tales of constant fear, hunger and terrible hardship.
We see the news, we hear stories of war and we are saddened at the
loss of life. But what do we know of the human tale? What do we
know of mothers trying to feed their children when there is little
food to be had, of father's leaving in the morning to find work when
there is none? What do we know of hunger or seeing your child go
barefoot in the cold because shoes can not be found much less bought?
What do we know of the little struggles that people go through every
day just to survive? Reading a book like Havana Real makes the
situations, not just of the Cubans but millions around the world, so
personal. We are familiar with the horrific stories but the little
daily struggles we can not understand because we have no frame of
reference. We have no gauge by which to measure it. At what point
would it be too much of a burden to bear? At what point does a young
man break under the pressure and leave everything behind to build a
life in foreign country where he knows no one? Would I be strong
enough do that? The answer I can tell you is no.
Havana
Real is a book that needed to be written but more than that it is a
book that needs to be read.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yoani Sanchez, a
University of Havana graduate in philology, emigrated to Switzerland in
2002. Two years later, she decided to return to Cuba, but promised
herself she would live there as a free person and started her blog,
Generation Y, upon her return. In 2008,
Time magazine named her one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World"; it named
Generation Y one of the "Best Blogs of 2009." Spain honored her with its highest award
for digital journalism, the Ortega y Gasset Prize. This year, First Lady
Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored her with
the International Women of Culture Award. She lives with her husband,
independent journalist Reinaldo Escobar, and their son in a high-rise
apartment in Havana, overlooking Revolution Square.
Translator
M.J. Porter lives in Seattle, where she
is a partner in a transportation-consulting firm. She co-founded the
cooperative website, HemosOido.com, where volunteers now translate the
work of more than thirty Cuban bloggers into English, German, French and
Danish.
* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.
