Zombies

Published in El País
(Spain) on 16 May 2015
by Fernando Savater (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Becky Stoakes. Edited by Emily France.
The other night, whilst watching Alejandro Brugués’s Cuban comedy, “Juan of the Dead,” I started. Scenes of the protagonists fighting against the zombified hoards hounding them through the streets of Havana reminded me of other scenes at the recent Panama Summit. Here, my Sakharov prizewinner friends, Guillermo Fariñas, Berta Soler or Rosa María Payá, saw themselves in an unequal struggle against the usual thugs that the Castro dictatorship sends wherever they can sweep up dissidents. News reports euphemistically spoke of “confrontation between Cubans who were in favor of Castro and those against,” as if they were equivalents. In other words, in Brugués’s film it was Cubans fighting that were in favor of and against becoming zombies.

However, the dissidents weren't welcome at the celebration of amorous reconciliation between the U.S. government and the Castro regime. They spoiled the general rejoicing over this new step, which is opening very lucrative economic opportunities, although I fear that the main beneficiaries won’t be those struggling to get by on the island; hopefully something will reach them, I wish it from the depths of my heart. Raúl Castro promised that in this respect (concerning the dictatorship) everything could be discussed, “including human rights,” although with patience, much patience. The same thing happened — us elders, who are so discredited today, still remember it — when, in 1959, President Eisenhower came to Madrid to give his democratic support to Franco. The era of good business started for some and the daily life of the zombies gradually improved, but the prisons remained full, democracy forbidden, and there was one firing squad instead of another, although only 15 years remained. Patience ….

Now, it appears that the Pope will be visiting Cuba — as long as he doesn't put Fidel under a papal canopy ….


Zombis

Pero los disidentes no eran bienvenidos en la fiesta de la reconciliación amorosa entre el gobierno norteamericano y el régimen castrista

La otra noche, viendo la divertida película cubana Juan de los muertos,de Alejandro Brugués, tuve un sobresalto. Las escenas en que los protagonistas pelean contra hordas zombificadas que les acosan por las calles de La Habana me recordaron otras de la reciente cumbre de Panamá, en las que mis amigos del premio Sajarov Guillermo Fariñas, Berta Soler o Rosa María Payá se las veían en pugna desigual contra los habituales matones que la dictadura castrista envía allí donde pueden barrer disidentes. El informativo hablaba púdicamente de “enfrentamientos entre cubanos a favor y en contra de Castro”, como si fueran equivalentes. O sea que en la película de Brugués pelean cubanos a favor y en contra de convertirse en zombis…

Pero los disidentes no eran bienvenidos en la fiesta de la reconciliación amorosa entre el gobierno norteamericano y el régimen castrista. Estropeaban la alegría general por la nueva etapa que abre perspectivas económicas muy jugosas, aunque temo que sus beneficiarios principales no sean los cubanos que malviven en la isla: ojalá que les toque algo, lo deseo de corazón. Raúl Castro prometió que con respeto (a la dictadura) se podía hablar de todo, “incluso de derechos humanos”, aunque con paciencia, con mucha paciencia… Lo mismo ocurrió —aún lo recordamos los ancianos hoy tan desacreditados— cuando en 1959 el presidente Eisenhower vino a Madrid a dar su espaldarazo democrático a Franco. Para algunos empezó la era de los buenos negocios y la vida cotidiana de los zombis mejoró poco a poco: pero las cárceles siguieron llenas, la democracia prohibida y hubo algún fusilamiento que otro, aunque sólo quince años más. Paciencia…

Ahora parece que va el Papa a Cuba: con tal de que no lleve bajo palio a Fidel…
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