My grandmother’s voice is whispering in my ear

“Our country is becoming so divided that it’s causing our family and our friends to become divided too. Most people detest our president, and who can blame them? His policies have widened the differences between the rich and the poor. He has aligned himself with the richest people, making them even richer. He is arrogant and he is practically becoming a dictator. Many people think that he has aligned himself with the Mafia. He also benefits from lucrative contracts with multinational companies.

The younger generations have started to demonstrate. Most of them are becoming very vocal about how they feel about our president. The media backs them up because they are also against our president. And how is our president reacting to all this? He is retaliating, of course. He is calling out the media and claiming that it’s all lies. It would not surprise me if he censors the media. And he has also given permission to police forces to do whatever it takes to stop the demonstrations, even if they have to kill. He wants to frighten the population through open displays of brutality. Just a few days ago, a group of insurrectionists, largely composed of students, launched a bloody attack on the presidential palace. We had to duck under the bed because we could hear the gunshots from our house. Dozens were reported killed in the fighting.”

These words could have easily been spoken by my grandmother in the late 1950s. She would have been talking about Fulgencio Batista, Cuba’s president from 1952 until 1959. My grandfather was completely against Batista. After all, the former president, Carlos Prio Socarras, whom Batista overthrew in a coup in 1952, was a frequent client at the tailoring shop where he worked. My grandfather heard about the coup while he was at a coffee shop near their house. He rushed back home to tell my grandmother. My mother had just left to school on the bus, which had to pass by the presidential palace. My grandmother took a taxi to the school, and she got there even before the bus did. Luckily, none of the children were injured, even though at one point the driver told them to lie down on the floor because he saw soldiers with rifles on the street. But he continued picking up children as if nothing was happening. By the time they got to the school, many parents were already there waiting to take them home. My mother was eleven years-old and she had never been so scared. My grandmother did not like Batista, and what was happening in our country, but one of her closest friends was his wife’s secretary, therefore she gave him the benefit of the doubt. My grandmother was more worried about who would come after Batista. She was of the opinion that “mas vale malo conocido que bueno por conocer” (a known evil is better than an unknown good).

I can’t help but think that sixty years later, we find ourselves in the same predicament. We have a president that most people detest. Our friends and families are becoming totally divided. It’s best not to post anything on social media because it becomes a battlefield of insults. Many people think that our president only cares about the rich, and that he doesn’t care about helping the middle class. Others feel that he has widened the differences between racial classes. They think that he has aligned himself with white supremacists and that his slogan of “Make America great again” is none other than “Make America white again.” They feel that we are more racially divided than ever. The racial tensions have caused a lot of people to turn against the police, even to the point that they are asking for the police to be defunded. And in the meantime, good police officers have become targets of out of control protesters. 

Many people are becoming very vocal about how they feel about our president, even to the point of wishing that he does not recover from Covid-19. The media is also against our president. Here in our country, at least up to now, the media cannot be censored, but our president is constantly saying that it’s all fake news. People are demonstrating on the street thus causing riots and destruction in many cities. Innocent people are getting killed during all these protests.

Unfortunately, sixty years ago, my grandmother was right. What came after Batista was devastating for our country. At first, people believed that Fidel Castro was the solution to all their problems. When his caravan arrived in Havana on January 8, 1959, people lined the streets to welcome their hero. He swaggered and spoke with passion until dawn. Finally, white doves were released to signal Cuba’s new government of peace. When one landed on Castro’s shoulder, the crowd erupted in near hysteria, chanting: “Fidel, Fidel!!!” To the Cubans gathered there and those watching on television, it was a sign that their young leader was destined to be their savior. How wrong they were.

My grandmother was not fooled. Shortly after Castro took power, she dismantled her seamstress shop which she had kept in her house for nearly thirty years, creating beautiful dresses for the elegant women of Havana’s society. She gave bonuses to all the ladies that worked for her and she closed shop. Maybe she had a premonition, or she simply realized that her clients were all rapidly fleeting to Miami, so she would soon not have anyone to sew for. I admire her wisdom because had she not done that, the new government would have confiscated her business and everything in it. At least, she was able to salvage her fabrics and her sewing machines by giving them away or selling them.

I wish she had followed her clients to Miami, but my mother had already met my father, and our story had to be written differently, otherwise, I may never have been born. My grandparents had to endure twelve painful years under the new government because they wanted to make sure that my mother and I got out, before they even applied for permission to leave. When we left in 1969, they applied and were able to join us in Spain three years later.

Today, I hear my grandmother’s voice whispering in my ear. I also do not like our current president. I think that he is arrogant and full of himself. I cringe every time he opens his mouth. But I am more worried about what will happen to our country if the far left liberals take power. I can’t help but agree with my grandmother that a known evil is better than an unknown good. I look at the younger generation and their passion to overthrow our current president any which way. And I worry. I hope with all my heart that I am wrong and that they are right. But my grandmother’s wise words keep humming in my head, like a storm that won’t subside. I hear her telling me:

“Socialism is knocking at your door. Do not open the door because it is the threshold to communism. It happened in your birth country, do not allow it to happen in the birth country of your children. They hated us because we owned our house but what they did not know is that it took thirty years of sweat and hard work for your grandfather and I to be able to save enough money to purchase that house. And once we did, they came and they stole it from us. They will hate you too, and they will hate your children because they are educated and they have good jobs. Those so called ‘peaceful’ demonstrations are just the precursor of what is to come. The young people do not believe that communism could happen in the United States because of the way that the government is set up with its system of check and balances. We also did not think that it could happen in Cuba because we were only 90 miles away from the United States and the Americans would not allow it. But it happened. This belief that it cannot happen to us is a common theme to all countries that have fallen under the yolk of communism, but unfortunately, it can happen anywhere.”

Lately, my memories of my childhood in Cuba are more vivid than ever. I remember not being able to pray freely. I could not talk about religion in my school or in public. I went to clandestine religion classes with the Sisters of Charity, hiding for fear of what would happen if we were discovered. And my grandmother’s voice reminds me: “Remember how empty the church was when we used to go to mass? People were afraid to be seen in a church. The same thing is already happening in the United States. People are ransacking the churches. They are being persecuted for their beliefs. Look at the nominee for the Supreme Court. She is being criticized simply because she is Christian. And this is just the beginning. If the socialists win, all religious ceremonies will be prohibited because socialism directly opposes religion. It has already started. God is being pushed out the door. The far left liberals want to remove Him from the Pledge of Allegiance. This country was founded as one nation under God. If socialism triumphs, it will no longer be under God.”

I wake up... it’s all a dream. But then I turn the television and I realize that it is not a dream.  My grandmother hoped that she was wrong in 1959, but she was not. I hope and pray that her words don’t hold true today, but I can’t help but remember a saying that she used to say a lot: “Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo.” (The devil is wiser because he is old, not because he is a devil.)