Fidel, Obama and Us

Although it does not find coverage in the national press, there is an intense exchange of ideas in Cuban society surrounding the current political situation marked by the presence of Barack Obama as the new U.S. president, the perception that public opinion has of this phenomenon and the judgments put forward by Fidel Castro in various articles, especially in his most recent reflection entitled “Obama’s speech in Cairo.”

To witness Fidel Castro, a creature predestined to fight imperialism, dedicate time to examining from a positive perspective the actions of a North American president is an unprecedented experience. The risk is that those who follow him will not understand or will misread him.

For 50 years, under Fidel’s direction and teachings, a school of thought has developed in Cuba whose nucleus is a militant anti-imperialism and whose followers assume the precepts and style of the Commandante, although, naturally, they lack his genius and his capacity to read reality and act consequently.

In Fidel, firmness and flexibility, talent and determination combine in perfect doses, crowned with unswerving intellectual and political honesty. Protected by the shield of an irreproachable and principled revolutionary and anti-imperialist attitude, the Commandante is allowed luxuries that other party members do not have, among them, the luxury to illustrate, without prejudice, objectively and dispassionately, the contours of the unprecedented political phenomenon that is called Barack Obama.

Trained in the precept that: “You can never trust imperialism, not even an iota of it” and that: “Those who believe in the good faith of the empire do not survive their error,” Cuban Party members, especially the most veteran, firm and principled, will have a hard time believing that there is a U.S. president who acts in good faith and who, at the very least, they can grant the benefit of the doubt.

No one doubts Fidel’s lucidity, his capacity to find his way in the most complex political situations and no one dares to contradict him. No one believes he can make a mistake and those who may are ready to follow him in the error. Nevertheless, these convictions do not resolve the contradiction.

Cuban revolutionaries are not in want for reasons to profoundly hate the U.S. imperialism that they have fought for 50 years and that has handed them only blows and insults, a sentiment they express through the rejection of its symbols, mainly its spokespersons, none more eminent than the president of the United States.

However, due to the novelty of the phenomenon and its importance for the United States, Cuba and the world, Fidel has processed it in his methodical and meticulous way, passing it through the sieve of his vast political experience, which no other statesman has accumulated, and through his sharp instinct.

Following step by step, minute by minute, word for word, and gesture by gesture, the background and actions of the new U.S. president with his usual lucidity and honesty, Fidel puts forward his opinions, not to show that he is up to date, nor to prove his sagacity, but rather to direct party members and the top officials of the revolution.

Last night and this morning, when I visited and called people I know, whose perception of these events I needed to write this column, one of them said to me: “Up to now everything about Obama is only words.”

How lucky! He gave me the opportunity I needed to say to him: “As far as I know, all the political programs, all the doctrines and all the big goals, have started to become ideas and words. No one ever starts a house with the roof and few are the leaders like Fidel who have managed to see their words, projects and ideals become a reality expressed throughout a whole nation, people and historic period.”

“Give him time,” mentioned a bystander. “Maybe Obama won’t accomplish anything or achieve all he proposes to.”

“Not even Jesus Christ,” pointed out someone else, “could be measured against that standard. Even He didn’t accomplish all he proposed. To do good the first thing you have to do is want to do good. Everything else is up to circumstances.”

The exercise had ended. It was late and we said goodbye with the certainty that whatever may be the case, there would be other experiences and other battles waged with the same conviction and, for greater tranquility, with the same leader at the helm.