TRIUNFO DE LA REVOLUCION CUBANA - HIMNO DEL 26 DE JULIO

Jose Marti. Simbolos de cubania. Canciones cubanas. Las bayamesas

Jose Marti. Simbolos de cubania. Canciones cubanas. Las bayamesas

La Bayamesa, por anonimo

No recuerdas gentil bayamesa,
que Bayamo fue un sol refulgente,
donde impuso un cubano valiente
con su mano el pendón tricolor?

¿No recuerdas que en tiempos pasados
el tirano explotó tu riqueza,
pero ya no levanta cabeza
moribundo de rabia y dolor?

Te quemaron tus hijos; no hay queja
que más vale morir con honor
que servir al tirano opresor
que el derecho nos quiere usurpar

Ya mi Cuba despierta sonriendo
mientras sufre y padece el tirano
a quien quiere el valiente cubano
arrojar de sus playas de amor.»

La Bayamesa por Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Francisco Castillo y Moreno. Letra de José Fornaris

No recuerdas, gentil bayamesa,
que tu fuiste mi sol refulgente,
que dichoso a tu lánguida frente,
blando beso imprimí con amor.

No recuerdas que en tiempo dichoso,
me extasié con tu pura belleza,
y en tu seno doblé la cabeza,
moribuendo de dicha y amor.

Recordando las glorias pasadas,
disipemos, mi bien, las tristezas,
y que vuelvan las dulces ternezas,
que otro tiempo gozamos los dos.

La Bayamesa, por Sindo Garay

Tiene en su alma la bayamesa,
tristes recuerdos de tradiciones,
cuando contempla los verdes llanos,
lágrimas vierte por sus pasiones.

Ella es sencilla, le brinda al hombre,
virtudes todas y el corazón,
pero si siente de la patria el grito,
todo lo deja, todo lo quema,
ese es su lema, su religión.

El Mambi

Allá en el año noventa y cinco,

y por la selvas del Mayarí
una mañana dejé el bohío,
y a la manigua salió un mambí.

Una cubana que era mi encanto,
y a quien la noche llorando vio,
al otro día con su caballo,
busco mis huellas y me siguió.

Aquella niña de faz trigueña,
y ojos más negros que la maldad,
unió sus fuegos a mi fiereza,
y dio su vida a la libertad.

Un día triste cayó a mi lado,
su hermoso pecho sangrando ví,
y desde entonces fue más ardiente,
Cuba adorada mi amor por ti,
y desde entonces fue más ardiente,
Cuba adorada mi amor por ti.

El Mambí por Luis Casas Romero. Letra: Sergio Lavilla

Bonsay Generation

Every new generation has something to offer to the world. Except for Cuban generations*. Cuban generations has been burned down to ashes since the arrival of a grass that has become so old that resembles a living fossil from the Jurassic period.
Every youth is rebellious. Youth is idealistic and wants to change the world for the better. We wanted to do so too. But our prosthetic parents impeded us. They stagnated in the first half of the 20th C. ideology of Stalinism and Cold War and didn’t want to recognize that new winds were blowing after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. They just wanted to keep rolling the old game. Every new generation starts a revolution. These revolutions cause a change in the relations of production and social relations. But in Cuba they stayed the same. The whole movement of society suffers from a decades old paralysis and we all know the results.
I have known brilliant minds and personalities during years of living in the U.S. I know that the best minds and characters of my generation are scattered around the world. The Castros are addicted to using one of the favorite weapons of the Spanish colonial period: exile. Exile is practiced not only by physical absence but also by ridiculous high rates of phone service and impossibility of Internet connection. In a world of Skype free communications Cuba is an island of deafness. Exile has postponed Cuban independence for decades by forcing in-communication. It did it during the Spanish colonial period and it does it from the first wave of Cuban exiles after 1959 until today. Exile is colonialism in the 21st C.
The great majority of us has been pushed to exile by tricks of invitation letters and travels abroad. While the majority of artists and thinkers were given ways to leave the island, the working class intelligentsia, doctors and other technology-science proletarians has been forced to remain at the service of the government. If some doctors and military personnel go abroad is because the government needs them to work for oil in Venezuela or send them to get paid miserable salaries in Ecuador or Bolivia while the Cuban government takes a huge cut.
Those who can influence public opinion and counteract the labor of governmental propaganda have to leave. In order to work propaganda has to be total propaganda. Artists and intellectuals and their works of images and words block effectiveness and weaken propaganda efforts. They need to go to exile. A Diaspora is the best answer to keep the old generation of Jurassic fossils in power. That way nothing change.
The whole country and society corrupts in putrefaction while the youth forced to exile lives in remembrance of all the good things that we could have done for our country.
In the mind of Leader Maximus ideology is more important than country. Holding power is more relevant than social advancement. The tongue of state deceives neighbors and allies, whether Soviets or Venezuelans, with bed time stories of old heroics by the fire. Old parasites stay fed by those who believe in their tales of redemption and in turn feed new generations of parasites that lose the will to change while getting apathetic and lazy. The best of society are forced to leave. The enterprising spirits, the creative geniuses, the revolutionaries that try to alter the swamp of stagnation and that are forced to paralysis instead. You see it more clearly today after political prisoners are sent to exile, going from prison to another country.
My generation has been trimmed. Her limbs cut to fit the size of a Bonsay generation. Their arms and fingers so short they cannot create anything but only play with toys of nostalgia, suspecting their dreams will never be realized. The mind of my generation and of all the generations born in Cuba after 1959, have the size of a child’s mind. Their brain has been reduced to a toy brain the same way tribes from the Amazon beheaded their prisoners and shortened the size of their skulls with sand and fire. We have been put in a prevention growth artifacts that precludes us from growing up and becoming adults. That is what our parents wanted from us, a population of children, so that they could play with us until the day they die. One day they will certainly die and that day we will not know what to do, and we will be foraging the earth for another father, and that father will come, and we will be their slave children too. Unless we rebel now from any dependence on our parents.

*I'm applying a reductive generalization for the sake of highlighting a problem that young Cubans suffer. While many of us have problems starting a new life in another country, many others have become very successful and have adapted with dexterity, showing enormous quantities of psychological, mental and physical resources and skills. Those are the ones who work hard, the ones that have obtained Bachelor, Master and PH.D. degrees, the one who have become successful entrepreneurs and workers. They are also the ones who have raised their families and sent their children to colleges and universities around the country. I have deliberately chosen to leave them out of this article.

Cubano y Taliban

Quisiera usted ser aliado de un gobierno que condena a las mujeres adulteras a la pena de muerte por apedreamiento? Eso es lo que los tribunales de los fundamentalistas del gobienro Irani hicieron con Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condenada en secreto por adulterio en el 2006 y haciendo publica la sentencia en 2010 confundiendo al publico con la aparencia de haber cometido el crimen mas serio de asesinar a su esposo.
Las sutilezas del codigo penal Irani van tan lejos a como sugerir el tamano de las piedras que se van a lanzar a la condenada, no muy grandes como para ocasionarle una muerte instantanea, lo suficientemente pequenas como para hacerla sufrir por un tiempo antes de morir.
Gracias a la presion internacional la pena por lapidacion fue cambiada a la ejecucion por la horca. Pero la cosa no para ahi, como si fuera poco, la senora Ashtiani ha tenido que recibir 99 latigazos en la espalda.
A usted le gustaria tener de amigo alguien que piensa que es justo matar a quemarropa a una mujer llamada Neda por el delito de manifestarse en la calle contra el gobierno? Si usted es Cubano seguramente ni jugando. Y si usted no es Cubano pero ha sido criado en los valores de la civilizacion Cristiana, tampoco. No es en la Biblia que Jesus dice en defensa de Magdalena “El que sea libre de pecado que tire la primera piedra”? Acaso Jesus no se esta refiriendo a la pena de muerte por lapidacion o apedreamiento? En estas palabras de Jesus se esconden las bases de la civilizacion y la cultura Cristiana. Ahora, ustes es libre de escoger y apoyar a las personas, pueblos, gobiernos y causas que usted quiera. Pero si usted apoya a personas, pueblos o gobiernos que aceptan la lapidacion usted no es Cubano ni es Latinoamericano. Usted en todo caso es un engendro, un Frankestein, pero no se llame a si mismo Cubano porque no lo es. Nuestroa valores Cubanos, Latinoamercianos, Occidentales, no aceptan la lapidacion; ni el corte de narices y orejas; ni el asesinato y acoso de mujeres que protestan contra un gobierno.
En Agosto del 2010 la television estatal Irani tuvo el tamano descaro de televisar una entrevista supuestamente hecha a Ashanti donde esta confesaba su particpacion en la muerte de su esposo. Tamana insolencia digo, no solo por el intento de convencer al mundo de que condenar a muerte por adulterio es justo, sino porque la cara de la mujer en cuestion estaba distorsionada y sus palabras traducidas del idioma Azeri al idioma Persa; o sea, cualquier actor pudo haber represantado a Ashanti en su “confesion”.
En ultima instancia, lo que verdadermente molesta y da deseos de vomitar sobre el caso Ashianti no son los detalles de la supuesta confesion, o su participacion -o no- en la muerte de su esposo. Lo que realmente da vertigo es que la ejecucion por apedreamiento es considerada por el gobierno Irani como justa y representativa de los valores morales y tradiciones de la culture Islamica y del pueblo Irani. Lo que verdaderamente revuelve el estomago es saber que una mujer puede morir por un disparo de la policia en la calle y su crimen quedar impune. Para nosotros los Cubanos y para el mundo civilizado que sostiene valores eticos y morales universales - universales, repito con el perdon del lector- todo estas cosas son, por supuesto, actos de pura barbarie.
Justicia a lo Taliban: Otro sonado caso de crueldad, maltrato y vejacion de mujeres en el Medio Oriente es el caso de Bibi Aisha. A la edad de 12 anos Bibi Aisha fue vendida por su padre a un Taliban para pagar una deuda. Bibi fue maltratada, abusada, encerrada, vejada durante anos hasta que logro escapar a la edad de 16 anos. Enganada por dos mujeres fue entregada de vuelta a su marido, el cual la llevo ante los Talibanes y decidieron condenarla a perder su nariz y orejas, cortadas en el medio de la noche mientras dormia: “Cuando ellos me cortaron las orejas y la nariz me desmaye. Senti algo como agua fria en mi nariz. Abri los ojos y no podia ver por causa de tanta sangre” (CNN). Despues Bibi fue abandonada en la montanas para dejarla morir, pero sobrevivio. Y si esto es escalofriante lo es mas saber que el codigo moral de los Talibanes y las costumbres de las tribus Pashtum consideran este evento como normal. El esposo actuo pensando que estaba haciendo lo correcto al igual que los hombres que lo rodeaban.
Decena de miles de mujeres y ninas Afghanas son victimas de crueldad por hombres Afghanos. Los campamentos que tratan a la mujeres abusadas en Afghanistan -ocho de ellos en total- han recibido 1400 mujeres vejadas y mutiladas durante los ultimos dos o tres anos. Usted podra imaginar las otras miles de ninas y mujeres que nunca recibiran ayuda porque han muerto o porque jamas escaparan de su encierro y saldran a la luz.
Ahora, si estos son los hechos por que el Gobierno Cubano se alia y hace amistad con estos gobiernos de criminals, delincuentes, gentuza de la peor calana cuyos valores morales y eticos son contrarios a todo sentido de lo que es justo y bueno? Por que el canciller Cubano Bruno Rodriguez se llega hasta Iran a expresar la voluntad del gobierno Cubano de apoyar el programa nuclear “pacifico” Irani y a firmar contratos de colaboracion en todos los campos, incluido el político, económico, comercial y el intercambio científico y cultural?
Que hace el gobierno de Cuba dandole apoyo a gobiernos inmorales mientras acusa al goberno de los Estados Unidos.de ser el enemigo del pueblo Cubano? Un pais que tiene a un presidente de la raza negra. Un pais donde residen aproximadamente dos millones de Cubanos y gracias a los cuales cientos de miles de familias Cubanas han podido sobrevivir las catastrofes economicas en Cuba durante mas de medio siglo. Desde el punto de vista moral y etico es inadmisible que el gobierno de Cuba apoye al gobierno Irani y condene los esfuerzos del gobierno norteamericano en el Medio Oriente -incluidos Afhnaistan, Iraq y Pakistan- para llevar justicia y civilization a regiones que aun viven en los tiempos historicos de cientos de miles de anos atras.
Nosotros los Cubanos, los que fueron a Angola a ayudar en la lucha contra el colonialismo Portugues, los que pelearon en Cuito Cuanavale y ayudaron a echar abajo el apartheid y el gobierno racista de Sudafrica, y los hijos de estos: Que diablos hacemos ayudando y apoyando a los que condenaron a Sakineh a morir por apedramiento y a los que mataron a Neda a sangre fria? Por que nosotros los Cubanos no estamos haciendo lo que deberiamos estar haciendo: darles una mano y un espaldarazo a los que valientemente luchan contra AlQuaida y los puercos Talibanes en Afghanistan, Iraq y Pakistan y los que estan tratando de cambiar las cosas para el bien de sus poblaciones?
La unica respuesta posible es que al gobierno de los Castro le interesa mantenerse en el poder a costa de cualquier cosa, valores morales, religion, principios eticos, lo que sea. Todo con tal de mantener en el poder a la dinastia de los Castro y a su instrumento el Partido Comunista. Pintar a los Estados Unidos de America como al enemigo es muy facil. Llamarlos Imperio para enganar y meterle miedo a la gente es cosa de ninos. Por que no ser responsables y en su lugar ayudar a combatir las raices del terrorismo, el principal enemigo de la humanidad? El terrorismo internacional en sus diferentes y principales versiones: AlQuaida, Taliban, FARC y ETA. Esos son los verdadederos enemigos de la raza humana. Y si alguien esta haciendo mas que nadie por combatirlos son los Estados Unidos. Nuestro deber entonces es apoyar a quien esta en primera fila y jugandosela todas en la lucha contra el terrorismo y sus causas.
Basta ya de mentiras y de arrogancia. No estamos en al epoca de la Guerra Fria. Los Estados Unidos de Norteamerica no son el enemigo de los pobres tal y como el gobierno Cubano nos pretende hacernos creer. Cuba ya no es siquiera un amenaza para los USA. La verdadera amenaza son los terroristas y con un Iran nuclear la esperanza contra el terrorismo en el mundo esta perdida.
Un gobierno que apadrea y mata mujeres es un gobierno no confiable y cobarde, sin embargo el Gobierno de Cuba y s Partico Comunista lo apoya y establece convenios de colaboracion con el. Por que el falso orgullo, la arrogancia y la insensatez? Por que el Gobierno Cubano no acaba de enfrentar con seriedad y responsabilidad ante las Americas y el mundo la normalizacion las relaciones con los Estados Unidos? Por que no deja de ser tan Taliban y ayuda a las causas justas precisamente ahora que el mundo las necesita tanto? Pueblo de Cuba, piense, actue, no se deje enganar y mire de frente a sus verdaderos enemigos: los terroristas de todo tipo.

Pavlov based and Freud based Propaganda (From Seremos Como el Che to Abajo la Escoria)

K

“One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years, thought Bernard Marx, who was an specialist in hypnopaedia. Sixty two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth. Idiots!” (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World).

Every morning since I entered school at age five and continuously during six years until I reached age twelve; together with thousands of other children across the nation I’m obliged to salute the flag and shout aloud “Pioneros por el Comunismo, Seremos como el Che!” (Pioneers for Communism, we will be like Che). We have to do this five days a week at eight in the morning during six scholar years, making a total of approximately one thousand eleven hundred and forty days of exclamations of allegiance and commitment to Che Guevara and to Communism.
Propaganda is a set of techniques aimed at provoking a series of changes in the personality of the individual enclosed by the mass. Jacques Ellul enumerate three schools of propaganda that are based on three different psychological theories. The Pavlovian school, the Freudian school and the Deweyian school. “Stalinist propaganda was in great measure found on Pavlov theory of the conditioned reflex, Hitlerian propaganda was on great measure founded on Freud’s theory of repression and libido. American propaganda is founded in great measure in Dewey’s theory of teaching” (Ellul 5). Stalinist propaganda appropriates Ivan Pavlov’s theory of conditional reflexes in order to build a conceptual basis for a series of techniques. Pavlovian based propaganda, first used by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and later perfected by Joseph Stalin, consists mainly of hammering of auditory and visual stimuli such as slogans, phrases, symbols and signs, songs, poems, hymns, speeches, etc, into the mind of the receiver for long periods of time, constantly and consistently until a conditioned reflex is build into the mind of the individual.
After consecutive repetitions a dog makes an association between lunch and a light bulb turning on. The dog had learned that food comes in after the light turns on, and it starts salivating in expectancy of his need about to be satisfied. Martial artists have used the same technique with success; they throw punches and kicks day after day, year after year until the punches and kicks become conditional reflexes in a combat situation.



The Cuban pioneer has been conditioned to salivate in hunger and expectancy every morning at the sounds of the phrase “Seremos como el Che”. We have learned that by the time we become adults we all will be like Che Guevara. And being like Che means holding the same qualities of stoic guerrilla warrior who’s asthma didn’t preclude him from going to the mountains, whose character led him to create volunteer work –“trabajo voluntario”- and whose spirit is a lighthouse for the oppressed around the world.
I suppose all members of my generation are feeling demoralized by now because none of us has been capable of living up to Che Guevara’s ideals of a New Man. After all, one thousand, one hundred and forty times screaming “seremos como el Che can create an unconditional reflex but it cannot bend reality. Ironically, Stalinist propaganda has just created anger and frustration since the signal that used to provoke stimulation was never followed by the satisfaction of needs and fulfillment of expectancies*.
But Cuban propaganda is not only made of Pavlovian elements. As Ellul says, “ the aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas but provoke action. It is no longer to change adherence to a doctrine, but to make the individual cling irrationally to a process of action. It is no longer to lead to a choice but to loosen the reflexes. It is no longer to transform an opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief” (Ellul 25). Cuban propaganda techniques include also Freudian based elements.
While describing the case of Anna O, in 1910, Freud claimed that unconscious memories and emotions associated to painful events strive to find release through neurotic symptoms. You may be able to recall that you were punished while being a child but you cannot recall why. “What were those ideas or thoughts that would be repressed and rendered unconscious? Freud believed that they were wishes. During the traumatic event, a wish had been aroused that went against the person’s ego-ideal. Because it is hard for people to accept the fact that they are not what they like to be, such incompatibility causes pain. If it causes too much pain, the wish is repressed ” (Engler 33). Freudian based propaganda has been built out of the conception that the person has to be enabled to realize his wishes and impulses without any feelings of remorse or guilt.



To this aim Hitlerian propaganda has to present the individual with an orchestration of hate building mechanisms while creating the means to get him release his aggressive impulses. Jews are degraded and portrayed as rats so that the object of propaganda would be not able to apply his moral value judgments against a person. The Jew, rendered an animal, would fall into the same category of morality that animals are placed into; animals have no rights, that is. In any case the only moral right for the Nazi is the right of the superior creature to whatever he pleases against the inferior.
The same way that repressed unconscious wishes come back with redoubled strength in the form of neurotic symptoms and all sort of problems, social neurotic symptoms of repressed unconscious forces need to be released from time to time. A sort of compromise needs to be reached in political rallies and demonstrations or by using the fascination of involvement in a nationalistic mystique through sport events, public music festival and all sorts of cultural activities.
The repressed instincts and cathartic release theory occupies no small part of Cuban governmental handling of complex social situations of anger and frustration. Periodically Cuban population show signs of accumulated anxiety and internal psychological conflicts as a byproduct of the overall state of austerity and high demands imposed on them, the lack of rewards and years of expectations and unfulfilled promises. The discord and unrest accumulated needs to find release. If sports and popular musical events are not enough to provoke cathartic release –and sometimes it doesn’t-- people can take the streets spontaneously and demonstrate their opposition to governmental policies. Every time the social pressure is about to break asunder the meticulously assembled social fabric, a valve of release needs to be open. This has happened in very decade of the revolution and some of the most notorious cases are the Mariel boatlift in 1980, the Maleconazo and subsequent Guantanamo Bay exodus in 1994.



In 1980 I was a high school student at pre-universitario Jose Marti in old Havana. I remember my class, together with the students of all the other classes, taken from our class room to join a demonstration against the so called “scum” that had decided to get into the Peruvian Embassy in Havana to apply for a visa to abandon the country. We marched together with hundred of thousands of people from every sector of society to shout offensive slurs and rise our fists in contempt against the opprobrious “vende-patrias” –country sellers-- that had dared to swap the goodness of the revolution for the promises of a life under capitalism.
Too young to know what the whole thing was about it was beyond my grasp to realize that the Freudian conception of accumulated repression and anxiety and the subsequent cathartic release was being put into practice at a social level, involving hundred of thousand, probably million of participants. To my memory come scenes of outmost disgust that took place the following days of the Peruvian Embassy incident: My friends and I are walking back from our physical education class at the sport complex Ciudad Deportiva. While going to the bust stop we see an old lady walking down the street trying to get into a taxi cab. She is surrounded by a mob screaming any imaginable odious expletives while spitting at her face and blocking her entrance into taxicabs stopping by. She is impeded to get into any car, thus obliged to stand the ire of the mob and their salivations. We, teen comrades, couldn’t understand the irrationality of the situation, except that she was been insulted and degraded because of trying to take a boat from Mariel to Miami. We walked away and got into a bus, shocked by what we had just witnessed. We moved toward the back of the bus to be left alone with our own business as most teens do when they are in groups. One of us asked to re-create the scene with him playing the old lady and the rest of us playing the mob yelling hateful slurs and pretending to spit in his face. We did it, we screamed and shout out at him every kind of bad words, insults and deriding gestures that we could have rendered possible, we put all our creativity and energy at playing the mob. Perhaps that was our way to cope with the traumatizing event. We, the actors performing in the back of the bus the superbly practiced role of young men exerting our will against the inferior animal creature; recreating that day all the stages of Stalinist and Hitlerian propaganda. What we have just witnessed minutes before was one the countless Freudian propaganda events that anyone could have seen during those years. Unfortunately, scenes like the one I described still occur today**.

*Whether Wikipedia’s claim that Fabio Grobart may have recruited Fidel Castro in 1948 as an Stalin operative is true or not there is no doubt that putting into realization the plan for the construction of the New Man required the implementation of Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflex. If Fidel Castro was recruited by Grobart, Fidel may have been schooled on the basics of Pavlovian propaganda as part of his training as an intelligence operative. If he was never recruited still there is the fact that conditional reflex is the basis for the shaping of the personality of the Cuban child during his years as a Pionero.

**Some similar events that have occurred recently includes: harassment and use of force against the group of wives of political prisoners Las Damas de Blanco by mobs and undercover agents; harassment and use of force to impede the mother of dead by hunger strike political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo to go to church to pray for the soul of his son and to go to the cemetery to cry for him.

Bibliography:
1) Jacques Ellul. Propaganda. The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. Vintage Books. Random House, NY. 1973.
2) Barbara Engler. Personality Theories. 8th Ed. Union County College.

Pavlov and Freud Based Propagandas (From Seremos Como el Che to Abajo la Escoria)

K

“One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years, thought Bernard Marx, who was an specialist in hypnopaedia. Sixty two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth. Idiots!” (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World).
Every morning since I entered school at age five and continuously during six years until I reached age twelve; together with thousands of other children across the nation I’m obliged to salute the flag and shout aloud “Pioneros por el Comunismo, Seremos como el Che!” (Pioneers for Communism, we will be like Che). We have to do this five days a week at eight in the morning during six consecutive scholar years, making a total of approximately one thousand eleven hundred and forty days of exclamations of allegiance and commitment to Che Guevara and to Communism.
Propaganda is a set of techniques aimed at provoking a series of changes in the personality of the individual enclosed by the mass. Jacques Ellul enumerate three schools of propaganda that are based on three different psychological theories: The Pavlovian school, the Freudian school and the Deweyian school. “Stalinist propaganda was in great measure found on Pavlov theory of the conditioned reflex, Hitlerian propaganda was on great measure founded on Freud’s theory of repression and libido. American propaganda is founded in great measure in Dewey’s theory of teaching” (Ellul 5). Stalinist propaganda appropriates Ivan Pavlov’s theory of conditional reflexes trying to build a conceptual basis for a set of techniques. Pavlovian based propaganda, first used by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and later perfected by Joseph Stalin, consists mainly of hammering auditory and visual stimuli such as slogans, phrases, symbols and signs, songs, poems, hymns, speeches, etc, into the mind of the receiver for long periods of time, constantly and consitently, until a conditioned reflex is build into the mind of the individual.
After consecutive repetitions a dog makes an association between lunch-time and a light bulb turning on. The dog had learned that food comes in after the light turns on, and it starts salivating in expectancy of his need about to be satisfied. Martial artists have used the same technique with success; they throw punches and kicks day after day, year after year until the become conditional reflexes in a combat situation.
The Cuban pioneer has been conditioned to salivate in hunger and expectancy every morning at the sounds of the phrase “Seremos como el Che”. We have learned that by the time we become adults we all will be like Che Guevara. And being like Che means holding the same qualities of stoic guerrilla warrior who’s asthma didn’t preclude him from going to the mountains, whose character led him to create volunteer work –“trabajo voluntario”- and whose spirit is a lighthouse to follow for the oppressed around the world.

I suppose all the members of my generation are feeling demoralized by now because none of us has been capable of living up to Che Guevara’s ideals of a New Man. After all, one thousand, one hundred and forty times screaming “seremos como el Che can create an unconditional reflex, but it cannot bend reality*. Ironically, Stalinist propaganda has just created anger and frustration since the signal that used to provoke stimulation were never followed by the satisfaction of needs and fulfillment of expectancies.
But Cuban propaganda is not only made of Pavlovian elements. As Ellul says, “ the aim of modern propaganda is no longer to modify ideas but provoke action. It is no longer to change adherence to a doctrine, but to make the individual cling irrationally to a process of action. It is no longer to lead to a choice but to loosen the reflexes. It is no longer to transform an opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief” (Ellul 25).
Cuban propaganda techniques include also Freudian based elements.
The case of Anna O, described by Freud in 1910, proclaimed that unconscious memories and emotions associated to painful events strive to find release through neurotic symptoms. You may be able to recall that you were punished while you were a child but you cannot recall why. “What were those ideas or thoughts that would be repressed and rendered unconscious? Freud believed that they were wishes. During the traumatic event, a wish had been aroused that went against the person’s ego-ideal. Because it is hard for people to accept the fact that they are not what they like to be, such incompatibility causes pain. If it causes too much pain, the wish is repressed ” (Engler 33). Freudian based propaganda has been built out of the conception that the person needs to be enabled to release tension and realize his wishes and impulses without any feelings of remorse or guilt. To this aim Hitlerian propaganda has to present the individual with an orchestration of hate building devices while creating the means to get him release his aggressive impulses. Jews are degraded and portrayed as rats so that the object of propaganda would be not able to apply his moral value judgments against a person. The Jew, rendered an animal, would fall into the same category of morality that animals are placed into; they have no rights, that is. In any case the only moral right for the Nazi is the right of the superio being to whatever he pleases against the inferior creature.
The same way that repressed unconscious wishes come back with redoubled strength in the form of neurotic symptoms and all sort of problems, social neurotic symptoms of repressed unconscious forces need to be released from time to time. A sort of compromise need to be reached in political rallies and demonstrations or by using the fascination of involvement in a nationalistic mystique through sport events, public music festival and all sorts of cultural activities.

The repressed instincts and cathartic release theory occupies no small part of Cuban governmental handling of complex social situations of anger and frustration. Periodically Cuban population show signs of accumulated anxiety and internal psychological conflicts as a byproduct of the overall state of austerity and high demands imposed on them, the lack of rewards and years of expectations and unfulfilled promises. The discord and unrest accumulated needs to find release. If sports and popular musical events are not enough to provoke cathartic release –and sometimes it doesn’t-- people can take the streets spontaneously and demonstrate their opposition to governmental policies. Every time the social pressure is about to break asunder the meticulously assembled social fabric, a valve of release needs to be open. This has happened in very decade of the revolution and some of the most notorious cases are the Mariel boatlift in 1980, the Maleconazo and the subsequent Guantanamo Bay exodus in 1994.
In 1980 I was a high school student at pre-universitario Jose Marti in old Havana. I remember my class, together with the students of all other classes, be taken from our classroom to join a demonstration against the so called “scum” that had decided to get into the Peruvian Embassy in Havana to apply for a visa to leave the country. We marched together with hundred of thousands of people from every sector of society to shout offensive words and rise our fists in contempt against the opprobrious “vende-patrias” –country sellers-- that had dared to swap the goodness of the revolution for the promises of a life under capitalism. Too young to realize what the whole thing was about, it was beyond my grasp to know that Freudian mechanisms of accumulated repression and anxiety and the subsequent cathartic release were being executed at a social level, involving hundred of thousand, probably million of participants.
To my memory come scenes of outmost disgust that happened the following days of the Peruvian Embassy incident: My friends and I are walking back from our physical education class at the sport complex Ciudad Deportiva. While we are walking to the bust stop we see an old lady walking down the street trying to get into a taxi cab. She is surrounded by a mob screaming any imaginable odious expletives at her while spitting at her face and blocking her entrance into the taxicab stopping by. She is impeded to get into any car, thus obliged to stand the ire of the mob and their salivations. We, teen comrades, couldn’t understand the irrationality of the situation, except that she was been insulted and degraded because of trying to get into a boat from Mariel to Miami. We walked away and got into a bus, consciously or unconsciously shocked by what we had just witnessed. We moved toward the back of the bus to be left alone with our own business as most teens do when they are in groups. One of us asked to re-create the scene with him playing the old lady and the rest of us playing the mob yelling hateful slurs and pretending to spit in his face. We did it, we screamed and shout out at him every kind of bad words, insults and deriding gestures that we could have rendered possible, we put all our creativity and energy at playing the mob. Perhaps that was our way to cope with the traumatizing event. We, the actors performing in the back of the bus the superbly practiced role of young men exerting our will against the inferior animal creature, recreating that day all the stages of Stalinist and Hitlerian propaganda.
What we have just witnessed minutes before was one the countless Freudian propaganda events that anyone could have seen during those years. Unfortunately, scenes like the one I described still occur today**.

*Whether Wikipedia’s claim that Fabio Grobart may have recruited Fidel Castro in 1948 as an Stalin operative is true or not there is no doubt that putting into realization the plan for the construction of the New Man required the implementation of Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflex. If Fidel Castro was recruited by Grobart Fidel may have been taught in the basics of Pavlovian propaganda as part of his training as an intelligence operative. If he was never recruited still there is the fact that conditional reflex is the basis for the shaping of the personality of the Cuban child during his years of schooling as a Pionero.

**Some similar events that have occurred recently includes: harassment and use of force against the group of wives of political prisoners Las Damas de Blanco by mobs and undercover agents; harassment and use of force to impede the mother of dead by hunger strike political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo to go to church to pray for the soul of his son and to go to the cemetery to cry for him.
Bibliography:
1) Jacques Ellul. Propaganda. The Formation of Men’s Attitudes. Vintage Books. Random House, NY. 1973.
2) Barbara Engler. Personality Theories. 8th Ed. Union County College.

The Founders of the Communist Party of Cuba (P.C.C) exposed by Wikipedia

One of the advantages of open source constructions is that anonymity allows for the kind of writing that nobody would dare to write otherwise. Sociologist Howard S. Becker says that one of the problems sociology confront as a discipline is the recurrence of abstract and vague statements avoiding exposure of causation and taking responsibility. “Sociologists’ inability or unwillingness to make casual statements similarly leads to bad writing (…) better to say something innocuous but safe than something bold you might not be able to defend against criticism (…) They want to discover causes, because cause are scientifically interesting, but they don’t want the philosophical responsibility” (Becker 8-9).
I have read somewhere that Wikipedia have achieved supremacy of accuracy over Encyclopedia Britannica. That sentence, although seemingly far-fetched, would be easily accepted if we think of constraints that come from evils such as institutionalism and personal interest; censorship and self-censorship; fears of and real risks of retaliation and punishment. So it is not difficult to think that Wikipedia is an invitation to the kind of bold statements and courageous factual stating that would be impossible to publish unless the identity of the author and the source of information are hidden. Sure, secrecy and anonymity permits other kind of evils such as slander, distortion of facts and blatant lie. But with a platform that anybody can enter, review, check and correct, falseness and inaccuracy are kept at a minimum, even zero, level.
So when I read what Wikipedia has to say about the founders of the Cuban Communist Party I took it as matter of fact. I was taken aback by exposure of data that I never heard of in all my years living in Cuba and that I would have never dreamed of hearing from anybody or any source. I’m glad that Wikipedia gives the opportunity to people who are understandably afraid of retaliation to use the advantages of open source to upload information that otherwise would have pose risks to their lives and well being.
I felt kind of shocked by reading that Juan Marinello, the cultural crusader who put into writing a program against the Cuban avangardist abstract artists at the beginning of the Revolution, was a high profile figure in Batista’s administration. Could you imagine what that means for somebody who’s aesthetic formation was shaped by the reading of Juan Marinello’s “Conversacion con los Pintores Abstractos” among other socialist-realism, Marxist based texts? Well, Juan Marinello was not the only communist, high profile official of Castro’s administration who served under the orders of Batista, we also find Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, who held high-ranked positions almost since the beginning of the Revolution --until close to his death he was Vice-President of the Republic-- in the list of Batista’s powered executives. I also have read that lovely Tina Modotti, who is one of my 20th C. aesthetics heroes, was an Stalin operative and that Julio Antonio Mella may have been killed for deviation to Trotskyism. Wait until you read what Wikipedia has to say about Fabio Grobart, it could give you the goosebumps: It says that Fabio may have recruited Fidel Castro to Stalin's cause. Ayayayhh!
It could sound surprising to many that the Cuban communists supported Batista. But is that really surprising? After all, are not Marxist-Leninists supporters of the dictatorship of the proletariat? Is there not a close relation between Totalitarianism and dictatorship? So, why the communists could have not liked the idea of a strong man like Batista in power? Actually, Cuban communists supported not only Batista, they also supported Machado years before. I believe that they –the Cuban Communists withdrew their support of Batista after realizing that he was not going to follow-up Marxist-Leninist ideology. On the other hand, the Cuban communists may have decided to support Fidel Castro with the condition that he would commit to Stalinization of Cuba. And if its true that Fabio Grobart did recruit Fidel as an Stalin operative, he was indeed committed.
Who knows if Wikipedia or any other open source, identity hidden enabling platform is going to air more and more facts and documents for all to see. I’m sure that the censor's closet cannot be kept locked any longer, and if anyone has reasons to think that the information is inaccurate, please feel free to correct it. After all, that’s what open source is all about. But be accurate, because otherwise, someone else will correct your “facts”.
Bellow there is some of the information I took from Wikipedia about the founders of the Communist Party of Cuba (P.C.C.). If you are interested, you can read more by clicking on the links that follow.
“in 1942, Rodríguez (Carlos Rafael) joined the cabinet of President Fulgencio Batista.[3] A "dedicated Marxist", Rodríguez's participation in the Batista cabinet marked the high point of the regime's collaboration with the Communist Party.
“The founders of the Cuban Communist Party, who can be variously attributed and variously excluded, are listed as: Julio Antonio Mella, Juan Marinello, Alejandro Barreiro, Carlos Baliño, Jesús Menéndez, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, Lázaro Peña, Blas Roca, Rubén Martínez Villena, Anibal Escalante, Emilio Roig and Fabio Grobart.
Fabio Grobart (aka Abraham Semjovitch; Alberto Blanco) was born in Bialystok, Poland in 1905 and died in Cuba. October 22, 1994; he was a member of the Comintern and often considered a covert Moscow appointed leader of the Communists in the Caribbean area. Mella used the pseudonyms Cuauhtémoc Zapata, Kim (El Machete), y Lord McPartland in his writing. Blas Roca was born Francisco Calderío.[18]
The Cuban Communist Party was later renamed the People's Socialist Party for electoral reasons. Its policy was dictated from Moscow, it at one time supported the dictatorships of Gerardo Machado, and would later support Fulgencio Batista in whose government Dr. Juan Marinello and Carlos Rafael Rodriguez were Ministers Without Portfolio. Although covert communist support was given to Castro and the Che Guevara in the Sierra Maestra, the overt People's Socialist Party was critical of Fidel Castro's rise to power until the summer of 1958”.
“Fabio Grobart was long considered “… maybe the highest ranking representative of the Third International in Cuba in that moment. However, Grobart’s importance in founding the Cuban communist party was recognized by Fidel Castro, the Rand thinktank, and Jewish history experts such as Moisés Asís, who states ‘By 1925, there were 8,000 Jews in Cuba (some 2,700 sephardic, 5,200 ashkenazic, and 100 Americans). Four ashkenazic Jews were in the small group that founded the first Communist Party of Cuba in 1925: Grimberg, Vasserman, Simjovich aka Grobart, and Gurbich. They opposed the religious and community life of the other Jews.’
“It has been claimed that Grobart recruited Fidel Castro as an agent in 1948. Although the party Grobart helped found was not the first Cuban communist party, it is considered as such by the present Cuban government. “
“The first well-known Cuban communist was Pablo Lafargue, born in Santiago de Cuba in 1847. Lafargue went to Europe, became a disciple of Karl Marx, married one of Marx’s daughters, became a very important member of the Socialist Internationals, and helped found the French Workers Party in 1882. Lafargue and his wife committed suicide. The original Cuban Communist Party seems to have arisen early in the 20th Century in the eastern town of Manzanillo.”
“Although it is public record that Gerard Machado often turned to the communist party for support”.
“The official position of the present Cuban government is still that Mella was killed at Gerardo Machado's orders, but it admits that Tina Modotti was a Stalinist operative who operated in a number of countries.”
About Diego Rivera’s ‘In the Arsenal’: “Given the closeness of Diego Rivera to the people involved some consider this fresco painting to be evidence of Vidale's and Rivera's involvement in Mella's assassination and this work of art is believed by many to relate to Rivera's expulsion from the Mexican Communist Party.”
About the death of Julio Antonio Mella: “At the time of his death he was a Cuban marxist revolutionary in Mexico trying to organize the overthrow of the Cuban government of General Gerardo Machado. This cause was an embarrassment to the Cuban Communist Party which was trying to gain power by establishing a modus vivendi with Machado.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Antonio_Mella
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Rafael_Rodr%C3%ADguez
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Grobart

“No te Senales”

Mi abuela me despierta a las 6 de la manana y me dice: “Ve votar, no te senales”. A partir de ahi es el dia entero con la siquitrilla. Yo no quiero ir a votar, pues para mi vote o no vote nada va a cambiar. Despues de todo yo no voy a votar para elegir al presidente de la nacion ni nada por el estilo. Yo solo estaria votando por algun delegado del Poder Popular, el cual yo ni conozco ni me interesa conocer y al cual jamas le he visto la cara. Solo se que ese delegado seguramente estuve en la Guerra de Angola, ha participado en quince mil trabajos voluntarios y zafras y a lo major es hasta heroe nacional del trabajo. Lo cual a mi ni me va ni me viene pues el no va a resolver ninguna de mis preocupaciones sobre la falta de perspectivas y planes para el futuro.
El problema de la nacion es un problema estructural que no se va a resolver con un voto menos o un voto mas o con un delegado que fue a Angola en lugar de otro que no fue. Mi amiga que vive a pocas cuadras y con la cual converso dos o tres veces por semana y yo hemos jurado secretamente no ir a votar, no ser parte del fraude a traves del cual cada tres o cuatro anos el primer secretario del Partido Comunista y Presidente de los Consejos de Estado y Ministros se re-elige a si mismo manipulando el voto de los delegados de la asamblea nacional del Poder Popular. Una farsa teatral. Por eso yo no voto.
Pero mi abuela se la pasa todo el dia hablandome de las consecuencias de no ir a votar. De que si en el futuro vas a pedir un trabajo y no te lo van a dar porque no fuiste a votar. De que si la presidenta del comite se va a dar cuenta de que eres un “gusano” porque no votaste y el dia que necesites una buena carta de recomendacion no te la va a dar. De que si vas revelarle a todo el mundo cuales son tus verdaderas inclinaciones ideoologicas, haciendote vulnerable a cualquiera que se le antoje hacerte dano. En fin que “no te senales y ve a votar“ es la unica salida.
The thing is that this was not a case of persuasion being employed by my family in order to exert a change in attitude from me that would result on my free decision to vote. In the words of Dr. Goebbels, “the purpose of propaganda is to lead the people to an understanding that will allow it to willingly and without internal resistance devote itself to the tasks and goals of a superior leadership” (Goebbels at Nuremberg). They, my family were trying to make me go vote willingly and without any internal conflict but they were just achieving the opposite of what Dr. Goebbels asked from them, becoming bad propagandists on the way by increasing my internal conflicts while forcing me to do something that I found unethical. I decide not to vote because to do so was for me to give recognition and legitimation to the election.
Finalmente y casi rallando las 6 de la tarde me aparezco en la casa electoral. Al fin al cabo no es solo mi abuela, es mi mama tambien y toda la familia todo el dia aterrorizandome con los cuentos de las consequencias. Foucault tenia toda la razon cuando decia que el poder no se ejerce de arriba hacia abajo sino horizontalmente. El decia que las personas interiorizan el poder y se convierten en mechanismos e instrumentos de el. El poder se ejerce a traves de la familia y los amigos, ellos son el verdadero poder. Ellos han ejercido tanta presion sobre mi durante todo el dia, desde el momento en que desperte, que al final vencieron. Fui a votar, decidi convertirme en parte del fraude y legitimizar con mi voto el teatro de la politica monopartidista en Cuba en la cual el presidente se re-elije ano tras anos a traves de los siglos.
Entro a la casa electoral, pongo mi nombre en la lista, recojo la boleta y me coloco dentro del cubiculo done una cortina de tela me protégé de la vista de los curiosos. Quiero poner una gran cruz en la boleta, una pinguita, una malapalabra, un garabato, cualquier cosa que sirva para destruirla. Pero tengo miedo, estoy aterrorizado, no puedo mover el lapiz. Al final, me decido a votar por uno de los delegados, cualquiera de ellos, el que mejor me parezca de acuerdo a su nombre o cualquier cosa, al azar. Salgo con mi boleta y me encamino hacia la urna de palo con pionera de apendice. Segundos antes de echar la boleta, la presidenta del Comite de Defensa de la Revolucion, C.D.R. por sus siglas, en cada barrio y en cada cuadra del pais, esta viejita me pide que le ensene la boleta. Yo se la doy, despues de todos somos amigos, o ella es amiga de mi mama desde hace un monton de anos. Ella la abre y mira, por suerte no la tache ni le dibuje una pinga, ni le hice un garabato. Aliviado respiro, tomo la boleta de vuelta desde sus manos y la echo en la urna mientras la pionera hace un saludo pioneril a no se que bandera. Sera la bandera de la coercion y la infamia.
Regreso a casa y mi abuela y mi mama me preguntan “Ya votaste?. “Si”, respondo, Ellas suspiran aliviadas. “La presidente del Comite me reviso la boleta antes de echarla en la urna”. “Pero eso no se debe hacer, eso esta mal”, dice mi mama, la archi-Fidelista de toda la vida. Yo me quedo pensativo. Total, que importa si la presidente la reviso o no la reviso si de todos modos todo es un gran fraude. Son las elecciones de un solo partido, para elegir a sus candidatos los cuales eligen al unico candidato a la presidencia. No hay mas partidos ni candidatos por las cuales votar, esto es solo un papiti, un fraude, una farsa teatral para legitimar a los ojos del mundo la dicatdura. Una burda maniobra para crear la illusion de que en Cuba existe una democracia y de que el poder del Estado y Gobierno vienen del pueblo y se sustenta en el pueblo. Pero la realidad es de que todo esto no es mas que parte de la gran maniobra de manipulacion de las masas, forzandolas a votar utilzando todos los medios psicologicos de terror, intimidacion y propaganda a traves de todos los canales de diffusion masiva, la familia los amigos, las organizaciones de masas, todo lo que se le pueda echar mano, lo cual es la nacion entera. Porque al final, de la propaganda y el terror electoral no hay quien se escape.

Дядя Степа - милиционер 1/2

Дядя Стёпа

THE TIGER'S COAT 1920 Part 3

THE TIGER'S COAT 1920 Part 2

THE TIGER'S COAT (1920) Part 1

Un Solo Pueblo, Un Solo Comandante

"Tal y como esta haciendo ahora nueatro Comandante con constantes Reflexiones"(Elian Gonzalez)

El Comandante piensa por usted, usted no tiene que pensar absolutamente nada, su papel en todo esto es cumplir ordenes y obedecer. No piense, deje que el comandante se encargue de eso. Cuando el Comandante haya organizado sus ideas y pensamientos se los hara saber a traves de sus Reflexiones. De esa manera usted puede emplear su tiempo libre de pensamientos politicos en otra cosa, pues una de las tareas del que hace propaganda es anular los procesos de pensamiento critico para crear la ilusion de unidad.
La unidad del pueblo se alcanza vis-a-vis la figura del Comandante en Jefe. La masa, una ves borrada la personalidad y la individualidad de sus elementos, recupera sus aspiraciones y esperanzas en la figura del Maximo Lider, el cual concreta y realiza en si mismo todos los suenos del pueblo.
De otro modo como se le pudieran pedir tantos sacrificios y esfuerzos a la gente? Si la masa no se ve a si misma en la figura del Comandante, si la masa consciente o insconscientemente no realiza todas sus fantasias y aspiraciones en las hazanas y aventuras del Comandante; como pudiera aguantar y atravesar los Periodos Especiales y Maleconazos sin pasta de diente ni jabon, casi sin comida y encuera?
Con el Comandante viajamos a Africa y nos fumamos un tabaco acostado en catre con Patricio Lumumba a la izquierda y Agostino Neto a la derecha. Con el Jefe resistimos la Crisis de Octubre en el fondo de una trinchera, fascinados con el prospecto del mundo desapareciendo en el proximo segundo. Con el Caballo nos vamos a la zafra, hacemos trabajos voluntarios, practicamos nuestra punteria en las Milicias de Tropas Territoriales. Y cuando llegan las merecidas vacaciones despues de tantos bombazos y tiroteos, prision y rescate en Etiopia, gonorrea en Angola y expediciones en el Orinoco nos vamos de buceo con el Comandante en el Archipielago de los jardines de la Reina.
Despues de todo, tantas hazanas merecen una buena cena con langostas y unas cervezitas a la mesa con el Comnadante.

El Caso de Elian no es Unico.

Todos los que hemos nacido despues del triunfo de la Revolucion hemos pasado por el mismo proceso de indoctrinacion que Elian. Ninguno de nosotros escogio la decision de alzar la mano en senal de saludo mientras gritabamos "Pioneros por el Comunismo. Seremos como el Che". Ninguno de nosotros tomo la decision consciente de usar una panoleta roja alrededor del cuello. Nosotros lo hicimos porque era lo que nuestras familias, la sociedad y el sistema esperaba de nosotros. El uniforme de pionero es parte de la indumentaria que nos obligaba a borrar nuestra individualidad y desaparecer en el grupo. En la doctrina politica del Utilitarianismo, que tiene sus bases en Jeremy Bentham y John Stuart Mill, el bienestar de una sociedad esta determinado por el numero de individuos que son felices. Mientras mayor es ese numero mas cerca de la perfeccion la sociedad es. El lado oscuro del Utilitarianismo es que implica el sacrificio de la felicidad de los individuos que no se adaptan a las normas del grupo. Por ende, si el bienestar de 10 millones de personas requiere el sufrimiento de otros 2 millones, el Estado sacrificara a esos 2 millones en el nombre de la felicidad de los otros 10 millones. Este es el caso de los Cubanos expatriados, los inconformes que se negaron a acomodarse al sistema Comunista y que decidieron marcharse a otras tierras a realizar sus suenos de independencia y a ejercer sus derechos inalienables como individuos. La cercania de Cuba a los U.S. propicio el escape de los inadaptados, los cuales nunca pudieron organizarse en oposicion, y permitio que durante medio siglo la dictadura Utilitaria se mantuviera en el poder.
Es sabido que para formar parte de un culto regilioso uno tiene que pasar por un proceso en el cual abandona su voluntad y su ego para disolverlos en la voluntad del leader o de la deidad que el representa. Una vez disuelto el ego y la capacidad de decidir, el jefe del culto se ha aduenado de la capacidad de mover las cuerdas de sus sujetos como marionetas sin capacidad para pensar racionalmente. De que otro modo como podria explicarse el influjo poderoso que Charles Manson ejercia en la Familia y que los llevo a cometer, a instancias de su lider, los horrendos crimenes que todos conocemos.
La perdida del ego y de la capacidad para pensar y conducirse racionalmente puede ser lograda de varias maneras y utilizando varios recursos. Cualquiera que sean estos, ya sea el sentido del deber, el orgullo de servir a una causa, un ideal o al grupo, el aura de la autoridad, etc, el fin es el mismo, anular el sentido de responsabilidad del sujeto y convertirlo en instrumento de una voluntad que no se origina en el mismo.
A tal fin la formacion del individuo como instrumento del estado empieza cuando aun el ego y la personalidad no han sido formados. Empieza en el momento de su nacimiento. Pues es mas facil crear una personalidad que cambiar una ya formada. La famila es el entormo inmediato donde se dasarrolla la primera fase de la formacion del individuo y donde se ejercen las primeras interaciones que van a determinar el modo en que este va a interactuar con la soiedad en el futuro. El gobierno revolucionario Cubano se asegura que una vez el nino ha alcanzado los cinco anos de edad empice un proceso donde ceremoniosamente alcanza el status de pionero y se le otorga una panoleta, a la edad de aproximadamente 6 anos. Se le ensena a saludar la bandera, decir las consignas, escuchar las noticias filtradas del dia, en fin se le inculca una cosmologia y una vision del mundo que es la vision del mundo de la ideologia del Partido Comunista.
El nino es desde que nace una propiedad del estado. El estado Cubano ejerce un monopolio sobre todos los medios de produccion en Cuba -los ultimos acontecimientos de liberacion de negocios privados esencialmente no han cambiado esto-, y sobre las personas de todas las edades. El proceso por el cual el estado prioriza el ejercico de sus derechos propritarios sobre el nino por encima de los derechos de la familia se extiende a traves de su crecimiento y formacion.
Con tal finalidad el gobierno Cubano ha habilitado las "Escuelas en el Campo". Desde el momento que el sujeto entra en secundaria basica, alrededor de los 11-12 anos, cada ano a principio del curso escolar es enviado por 45 dias a trabajar en las labores de agricultura. Bajo el pretexto de una frase Martiana que dice que la formacion academica del individuo no debe eatar separada de su formacion como trabajador, el estado separa al adolescente de su familia por 45 dias con el fin de asegurar la potestad sobre el. Esto es en el caso de los adolescentes que asisten a escuelas secundarias y pre-universitarios localizados dentro de la ciudad. En la mayoria de los casos el nino es obligado a trabajar en las ESBEC o Escuela Secundaria Basica en el Campo durante todo el ano escolar, separado de su familia y solo permiido a visitarla durante los fines de semana.
La causa de por que el estado Cubano necesita apoderarse de sus individuos y especialmente de los ninos hay que buscarla en las raices ideologicas del Partido Comunista y su maximo lider. Parte de la doctrina del Comunismo es la formacion del Hombre Nuevo, el mito del nuevo ser humano que va a surgir como consecuencia de la creacion de un sistema social donde la propiedad privada no existe y donde las clases sociales han desaparecido. Este mito tiene raices en la doctrima Rousseauiana del Buen Salvaje que concibe al ser humano como una criatura inocente y de naturaleza pacifica. El Buen Salvaje es corrompido por el surgimiento artifical de la propiedad privada y las actitudes psicologicas que esto engendra, tales como envidia, vanidad, egoismo, avaricia, etc. La desaparecion de estas manifestaciones y actitudes negativas se alcanza por ende al ser eliminada la propiedad privada.El retorno del hombre a su estado primordial, natural, desprejuiciado y carente de tendencias sociales destructivas es predecido y programado por la doctrina Materialista Historica Marxista. El Comunismo es la ultima fase del desarrollo materialista dialectico de las formaciones sociales, pero para arribar a ese ultimo estado de perfeccion social es necesario primero pasar por la fase del socialismo, la cual implica el uso de la fuerza y el ejercicio del poder de la dictadura del proletariado. La dictadura del estado proletario tiene la mision de formar a las nuevas generaciones y para ello es necesario tomar una actitud activa. Al ser La familia un producto de una cultura obsoleta y decadente a los ojos de la nueva doctrina, anterior a la Revolucion y que arrastra todos los males de la previa formacion social capitalista, es una obligacion del estado intervenir en la formacion de las nuevas generaciones y asi revertir el proceso de decadencia social que impide la formacion y creacion del Hombre Nuevo.

El Yo y el Otro Desconectados.

Despues de saludar el pueblo Venezolano, Elian narra en primera persona ejemplos de las cosas que esta haciendo para ser un perfecto individuo y hacer todo lo posible por otorgar lo que se espera de el. Lo que se espera de el no es mas que una parte de lo que se espera del grupo,una serie de actividades y conductas tales como "reflexionar", "divertirse", "conocer su historia". El cambio retorico aqui que refleja la normatividad de sus ideas y el hecho de que no provienen de el mismo sino que son parte de un proceso de idoctrinacion lo revela la frase "Como debe ser la juventud, alegre". Se refiere no a una realidad sino a una normativa:"debe ser", un diente del engranaje ideologico.
A la pregunta del periodista de " cuando decidiste" --note que la palbra clave aqui es "decidiste", la cual implica una decision personal y consciente-- la respuesta se limita a narrar los hechos como sucedieron pues eso es lo unico que Elian conoce. El proceso de decision personal no ha tenido lugar y por eso el no lo puede narrar. Lo que existe en cambio es una serie de acontecimientos que tuvieron lugar como consecuencia de las decisiones tomadas por 'los padres' de Elian Fidel y Raul, que son quienes realmente deciden el curso de la vida de los jovencitos Cubanos y las decisiones que son permitidas y exhortadas. Note el gesto de las manos que son eco de las marchas fraseologicas en la mente del muchacho, "1, 2, 3...4 Comiendo Mierda y Rompiendo Zapatos". Tal y como me contaba mi abuelo que los milicianos cantaban durante las marchas diarias en los campamentos al triunfo de la Revolucion que los hacian mantener ocupados dia tras dia para distraer sus mentes, lo cual es otra tecnica de la propaganda de la cual hablare mas tarde.

Alienacion y Trastorno de la Personalidad

La propaganda primero aliena al individuo y lo convierte en una persona diferente a lo que es. A tal punto de que le crea un trastorno de personalidad pues el individuo es incapaz de expresar sus verdaderos pensamientos y sentimientos, los cuales son abolidos. En el caso de Elian, el amor a su madre y por extension a su familia en Miami, es reprimido, escondido del ojo publico, aniquilado, pues puede causarle problemas con la autoridad representada en la institucion militar y la figura de su padre --su padre real y sus padres adoptivos, Fidel y Raul.

Some Areas to Cover (There will be much more).

•El Teatro de la Revolucion y sus periodicos. Shows y “Puesta en Escena”.
•La manipulacion de los hechos por ambas partes.
•EL comienzo: El oportunismo politico.
•“Clarity and purity are not identical concerns, nor do they call forth similar forms of motive and commitment. While clarity is a matter of cognition, purity is a matter of moral coherence” (Appadurai, 915). Use this concept to explain the necessity of demonizing and excoriating Cubans leaving to the USA as “gusanos”.
•Demonization of subjects gives way to a change in affection for part of the group or other individuals. Political labels such as ‘landlord’, ‘class enemy’, and ‘counterrevolutionary’ become powerful bearers of affect, and how… verbal propaganda and mass-mediated images can literally turn ordinary faces into abominations that must be destroyed” (Appadurai, 916). This explain the use of verbal violence and degradation during Mariel and subsequents “actos de repudio”; the uses of name calling and branding in the press such as “las ratas abandonan el barco” –the rats leave the ship—when a prominent cultural figure decides to defect to another country. I.e. trumpet player Arturo Sandoval news of defection by official newspaper Gramma in the year …).

Intervención de Elián Gonzáles en congreso de la juventud en Cuba

Ninito Cubano Que Piensas Hacer?

Fabrica Simbolica