Havana, Cuba, Aug 4, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The editor-in-chief of the Cuban magazine Vitral, Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez, said this week Cuba is in need more than ever of “a climate of reconciliation, a language of reconciliation, gestures of reconciliation, attitudes of reconciliation and a future of reconciliation.”
In a recent article Valdes explained that at the country’s present juncture—marked by “a climate of tension and uncertainty bordering on the unbearable”—reconciliation is “a word and a reality which is missing from our media, our discourses, from our actions and those of everyone else.”
“Cuba suffers, but the people struggle, and no one knows until when: those who are the most honest and gifted figure out a way to survive, without doing anything illegal or falling into despair; the needy get tired, but they persevere; the wealthy flee the country, no matter where; those most in despair fall prey to alcohol and crime; and those who are unable to fight anymore, those who can’t even live their own lives anymore, commit suicide,” he said.
According to Valdes, “this word (reconciliation) is not well-liked, it is not understood very well here because it is equated with weakness or embarrassing concessions. It is also not understood by Cubans in exile, for the same reasons but from the opposite perspective: Be reconciled with who?—some say. Be reconciled for what?—say others.”