Change the sign

 

There are definitions, slogans and ways of saying things that continue to be used out of habit, although in reality little remains that justifies these names.  We continue to talk about a social equality that cannot be found anywhere, of a sovereignty that contrasts with our actual dependence on foreign markets, and an ideology that doesn’t bear out its principles in the midst of this “pseudo-capitalism of the State.”

We could continue hanging the same poster on the door, but we this won’t make its slogan match reality.  For example, in the photo above, a tree has grown up and covered part of the resistance option, “Socialism or Death.”  Thus, life ridiculed the extreme choice proposed to us by this slogan. A few thick branches with their green leaves covered the mention of “the grim reaper” and created a dilemma different from those shouted to us from the podium in the hardest years of the Special Period.*

A small sprout threatens to also cover the word “Socialism.”  Hasn’t the time come to change the sign?

Translator’s note: 

Special Period = A long period of severe economic hardship in the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed and no longer supported Cuba.

Photo caption:  At the end of Linea Street, one of the few billboards that recalls the slogan, “Socialism or Death.”

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