I settled in the United States definitively at the beginning of the 90s, a decision that has allowed me to value the great contributions of this country to humanity, which, although far from perfect, is the nation that provides the most assistance to those in need. framework in which we Cubans have been particularly favored.
Living in Miami also allowed me to delve deeply into the Cuban world of emigration with its glorious side of exiles, men and women who have not abandoned their commitment to Cuba and who, despite disappointments and frustrations, constantly struggle for freedom. of Cubans and of any people threatened by the carnivorous left dressed as a dove of peace.
At that time, among the exiles, a group of Cubans living in different countries, including the United States, who tried to go unnoticed, was mentioned. Sometimes they were relatives of high-ranking officials of the Castro regime who, thanks to the privileges of their relatives, had the ability to set up businesses abroad, export stolen objects, especially works of art, or simply get jobs abroad in companies that operated on the Island. .
They called this aristocracy of totalitarianism the “quedaditos”, they were characters who usually did not defend the dictatorship, nor did they attack it, they remained in the shadows to make the once despised greenback.
It should be noted that some of these individuals fully enjoyed the privileges granted by the dictatorship while they resided on the Island. Numerous business trips, academic and cultural exchanges that allowed them to carefully carve out a future abroad through the relationships they established feeling or pretending, to be supporters of Castroism. Their payment, a horrendous complicit silence, although it is fair to recognize that a few could not continue to evade reality and have assumed, over the years, positions opposed to Castroism.
In this crowd of men and women with double standards, there are always exceptions, a particularly harmful subspecies was created that was popularly identified as the “red worms”, individuals who, although they made an effort to have the best possible life in the country they chose for live, they did not stop defending totalitarianism, sometimes stridently, in a constant effort so that the dilapidated doors of the dictatorship would not be closed to them.
These opprobrium addicts venerate Fidel Castro and his ruins with such devotion that the writer José Antonio Albertini calls them “Las Vestales de Fidel”, for serving a god that does not exist.
These dependents do not accept that the mere fact of leaving the country and not being prepared to abide by the economic, social and political measures in force in it, completely disavows them in the eyes of the ruling class, especially when the Cuban authorities have always excommunicated those who go abroad and desist from continuing to participate in the revolutionary assignment that from the official perspective never ends.
The “red worms”, I don’t know who created such an appropriate adjective for those who shield a system that has violated their own rights, come from different backgrounds, but are always ready to defend the dictatorship with fallacious arguments and holding third parties accountable, Washington is preferred , of the failures of the regime they champion.
There are of all stripes. Professors, businessmen, journalists, economists and ordinary people, who defend a government so unviable that they had no alternative but to abandon a chimera that consumed their existence, suffer from a pathological nostalgia for what they never experienced or enjoyed.
It is still painful to find people, sometimes talented, who defend a regime of opprobrium. Having to leave your country, even for strictly economic reasons, is a reflection that the government is not doing well, it does not mean that you attack it, but you do not have to defend it, it is a kind of self-victimization that should concern our professionals in the mental health, because it is possible that it is a widespread syndrome in certain sectors of the island population.
On the other hand, it is fair to point out that the vast majority of adolescents who went to study in the former Soviet bloc, today mature men and women, are staunch enemies of totalitarianism. They militate against the dictatorship with remarkable fervor, but that is a topic for another work.
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