In just a few weeks Pope Joseph Ratzinger will arrive in Cuba, but we are already breathing something of his incense from a distance. In a country where many of those who pray in the churches by day light candles at night to an African deity, the visit from His Holiness awakens enthusiasm, but also curiosity. The Catholics are preparing their liturgies and their pomp to receive Benedict XVI, while others wonder if his arrival will bring some significant transformation in the political or social situation of the nation. People want to believe that the Holy Father will push the reform process of Raul's regime, driving it toward greater speed and depth. The most imaginative even dream that the highest figure of the Vatican will achieve what the popular rebellion should achieve: real change.
There are too many differences between this month of March in which his Holiness will land at the Havana airport and that January of 1998 when John Paul II did so. He who was also known as the "Traveling Pope," came preceded by stories relating to the fall of the regimes of Eastern Europe. Ratzinger, for his part, will arrive at a time when there is an entire generation of Cubans born after the fall of the Berlin Wall, who don't even know the significance of the initials USSR. At the end of the nineties Karol Wojtyla lit up our hearts -- including those of agnostics like myself -- saying the word "freedom" more than a dozens times in the Plaza of the Revolution. But now the apathy and discouragement will make it more difficult for the phrases of Ratzinger to inspire the same emotion. His visit will be but a pallid reflection of that other, because we are no longer the same, nor is it the same Pope.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
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Michael Hesemann: Brothers In Faith: How The Ratzinger Boys Became World Catholic Leaders
Shes lucky she lives in a free country like Cuba. A country that is at war. A war declared by the USA embargo of over 50 years. Shes lucky to live in the safest country in the hemesphire, unlike here in Mexico, where over the last 3 days, over 14 people have been killed in the city of torreon, all within the same nieghborhood. She dont know how lucky she is.
It's not easy to make real change happen, whether through massive protests (Egypt) or elections (the US).
Most of the time dreams for change are thwarted by those in power. But not all the time. Thus, the potential rewards outweigh the probable disappointments, IMO.
Perhaps if the old Cuban oligarchy who came to America in the 1950's would quit with their mischief Cuba might feel relaxed enough to open up. I shudder to think where our freedoms would be if we had a nation 90 miles off our shore causing us continued mischief at every opportunity. Just the amount of freedom we've lost with our war on terror tells you that when a nation is put under stress freedom is not what’s dished out, just the opposite. If you want to keep Cuba what it is then all America needs to do in keep on keeping on!
End the embargo because it makes us the biggest hypocrite in the hemisphere.
My dream is for the US to keep it's hands off Cuba! Ever since the old Cuban oligarchy came to America we've let that tail wag the dog!
Self loathing, really! Does that mean you never have to be objective? Being a hypocrite is no great burden? That's certainly been the modes operandi of the right wing.
This will be one dictator kissing the ring of another.
I do not disagree w/your view that Obama has gone with the Castro brothers, where no other president has dared. What has he gotten in return? Butkus.
The 52 year existence of the Castro regime, is predicated on the "EMBARGO".With the embargo gone, his regime would lose all credibility with the masses.The embargo card is not a US option.
The trump card to get rid of the Castros is Venezuela's upcoming election. If Chavez goes down, the Castro brothers will follow soon after or at the very least will consider altering their embargo views.
American commercialization and deployment of McDonalds will do little to change that fact.