“Time for change,” is what Puerto Rican singer/entertainer Olga Tanon said in the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana earlier today. Time for change indeed. For the first time in fifty years there was a multitude of Cubans gathered in the famous Plaza without the presence of a certain bearded dictator. Over a million cubans, dressed in white, enjoying the ecclectic music of several international acts along state-approved home-grown artists – in peace.
Meanwhile, back in exile, two men pound each other in front of Versailles on Calle Ocho. Luckily, police were there to put them back on the Leon Medical Center van and send them back to their Lincoln Diaz-Balart sponsored elderly care facility.
Time for change, here and there and everywhere. But what kind of change?
Cuba needs ACTION. More than words, more than music. It needs someone to stand up and say, this is how we feel and this is how we will express it. Because, frankly, we don’t even know what it is they think. Oh, and the first wave Cubans living in exile have to hush. Seriously, do more listening than talking, repeating and feeling. Approach things logically. To the post Mariel Boat Lift crowd, you have to start caring a little more. Seriously. And caring about Cuba is more than just visiting and sending money and wedding dresses.
And to everyone in between, including the sons and daughters like me, we should all care about what happens here. You all became citizens, every last one of you. And if there is a country that needs ACTION, it’s this one. We have done a lot of talking about change and now someone needs to stand up and make it happen.
If the school system was so great in 1950’s Cuba, then let’s make it better in 21st century Miami. If the streets were safe and the children played and there was no homelessness in Havana, then do whatever you used to do here. We need your saavy know-how and crafty solutions here in this country, the one that gives you the freedom to express yourself and for everyone to disagree with you.
Mari de Armas 