The dust raised by the Juanes concert made us neglect important issues of our reality. On the street, few comment on the measures implemented by Obama to ease shipping and travel to the Island. Even negotiations to reestablish direct mail service between the United States and Cuba have been met with indifference. The incandescent lights of show business left in the dark the new official regulation -- not yet put into practice -- that allows Cuban post offices to offer Internet access in convertible currency. Even the seventh short film in the Nicanor saga, directed by Eduardo del Llano, was overlooked because of the performance.
Now that we've returned to the faded colors of everyday life, I've turned back to looking at the recently released Pas de Quatre. The story happens inside an almendron shared taxi whose driver offers his services for free. Among the three passengers who manage to climb on board this peculiar taxi, one of them must take -- as soon as possible - -his feces analysis to a distant clinic. The driver, played by Luis Alberto Garcia, expounds upon a new philosophy about the damage that immobility and difficulties in transport do to the nation. To the rhythm of the wheels on the asphalt, he comes to say that, "There is no concept more liberating and subversive than that of a Cuban tourist."
So yes, movement has turned into a rebellious act. Hence, to facilitate people's entering and leaving, displacement, or change of location, could spark unsuspected transformations at the national level -- if they gave in to the desire of all us to travel, to use the highways and visit those relatives we haven't seen in twenty years. If a fever of movement took the country by surprise the tremor could infect the bureaucrats and all those leaders lacking in the concept of dynamism. Who knows if the shaking would also remove those who today are a brake, to let us slip away -- finally -- along the road of change.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.