BUFFALOES,BY ORLANDO VICENTE
agronomist in chief, physician in chief, cowboy in chief and other more stupides.
FIDEL: AGRONOMIST IN CHIEF, PHYSICIAN IN CHIEF, COWBOY IN CHIEF AND OTHER MORE STUPIDES.
Taking advantage of the influence that Fidel Castro had on the people - there was no one to oppose his absurd inventions - his proven charisma, his tireless verbiage in front of the TV cameras or the radio, began to interfere in all kinds of matters that they corresponded to their ministers or other responsible parties.
It seems that no flatterer could speak to him of a new idea for the development of the country that he immediately made it his own and he proclaimed it to the four winds so that everybody could see how wise he was and the hope of the people in a better future did not die.
First was the matter of Café Caturla whose plantation throughout the island, including the courtyards of the houses, the apartment balconies and the pavements of the sidewalks, would solve the scarcity of grain that was scarce and its price on the black market exceeded that of gold raw.
I remember as a child planting the Caturla coffee in the gardens of my school and stealing a plant that I grew in my pastyard.
Of course that coffee failed miserably. It was not for a tropical country like ours and as the true coffee plants of the mountains needed a bit of shade from the giant trees that surrounded them. So we had Café caturla goes, coffee caturla comes, until all the plants died in the country. He did not make any self-criticism but some head rolled. Always blaming other for his failures.
Then it was the turn of the Zacarina: sugarcane crushed to powder to feed the cattle. The newspapers did nothing but talk about the zucarina. At last a panacea to feed the dwindling cattle whose meat was rationed since the beginning of the revolution and milk even more, only for children. The chief surveyor. There was no one who knew more about Agriculture than he did. Suddenly there was no more talk of the happy food. The cattle, accustomed to the Cuban grass, died with the zacarina. Some other head was cut off.
Then It enter the Hit Parade the Zeolite. A kind of small pebbles that were placed in the ulcers of the patients' legs. Then began the speeches of the commander about the benefits of the zeolites and that they were almost miraculous. The members of the PCC when they had wounds or ulcers said: please, antisepsis, nurse, with foreign antiseptics but not, please, with zeolite. That is for the people.
If he got information about the use of "worms" that devoured rotten tissues in the ulcers, he did not say anything, perhaps advised by a daring minister that the town was thin and covered with worms in the wounds. It was too much, they would think that they were already rotting alive. He did not talk about the worms.
Then came the nuclear plant in Cienfuegos. This time he was more cautious because the United States told him to be careful. The truth is that they invested 1000 million dollars in the work until they discovered that the area was in seismic area and they suspended it. Disillusioned workers, it was what the commander called with the phrase "Work of Shock" returned home and everything was abandoned.
Fidelito, a nuclear engineer, had to bear the guilt in silence but Fidel did not have compassion and replaced him as chief nuclear engineer. That was done in silence because it was his son-Fidel said he did not feel filial love for anyone, he was born deprived of that feeling-and Fidelito went into oblivion and became depressed when he fell into disgrace and a billion of the people went through the sewer. Nor was any self-criticism made.
Before this, the so-called "Swine Fever" had been presented in Guantanamo. All the pigs had to be slaughtered, including the healthy ones - my father had a clandestine raising of small pigs in the grandmother's patio. He presented that he would see each day to feed them and he had to sacrifice them all, we were eating pork until the same smell gave us nausea- Of course some heads fell down because of this, among them, honest men and probos who went unfortunately to jail.
And the commander in chief: silence.
Elderly patients arrived undernourished at the hospital emergency room with edema in the lower limbs due to hypoproteinemia or lack of proteins, especially from red meat. They gave little food to their working children or their small grandchildren. They preferred to die before their offspring. And the cuban News in silence and we were silenced by the fear instilled for so many years.
They invented a new kind of coffee. A mess of green binds with alittle true coffee. The people called rapidilly "Cafe Ñok" because when they drink it used to say "Coño" that is a expression in Cuba of something like shit.
I went to Baconao in my car with my family and another very close friend and we saw an enclosure of crocodile breeding. Crocodiles sunbathing everywhere. This hidden place was not mentioned in the newspapers or any means of communication. Fine meat for the council of State and for foreign tourism.
When I was traveling to the Province of Santiago de Cuba I saw some I saw some small cows of chocolate red color. They say that Raul Castro had brought them and that they were of a strange race, to try to acclimatize themselves and taste that new meat because for the people: nothing.
And when Castro started talking about medicine. "Fuacata "He had to swallow all the stupid things he said about diseases and treatments. Between us we called him "The Commander in Chief Doctor"
And when he gave him the habit of importing water buffaloes - to the swamps of STGO DE CUBA or elsewhere, he spoke glories about the new cattle, how well they adapted. Of its meat, milk and even the exquisite cheeses that would be produced. Suddenly he do not speak more about the buffaloes. If it was meat for the people or an exotic for tourists. Neither the newspapers mentioned it and the people, silent.
Before dying, when he still gave tired speeches and almost without energy, he persisted in his delusions.
This time it was the turn of the Creole Malanga, a white tuber on the inside that is given to children or the elderly since ancient times. As if the people did not know the properties of the tubercle he was explaining about its properties. Of course, with the hunger that was going on in the Special Period, the Farmer in Chief had to speak and this time talking about a food that had long since disappeared from the state stores and that the cleverest exchanged with the peasants up the mountain. Well, give him the taro. He no longer knew what recourse to use in his speeches. But of the flesh. almost firing if you killed a cow, even if it was owned by a peasant.
And so he died. With a piece of taro stuck in his throat and "his beloved town" missing food. They cried it with dry tears because nobody wanted it anymore - only those who want to keep their posts in the government - the newspapers do not stop talking about their exploits but never about their lies and failure.
The new president of Spain Pedro Sanchez recently made a mysterious trip to the island, it must be because of the numerous hotels that this country has in Cuba. The Cuban press, read Granma newspaper, treated him coldly and dedicated a short article about his arrival on his cover. The rest of the newspaper loaded with fragments of the life or works of the missing commander and nothing else. Any resemblance to the North Korean Dynasty is not mere coincidence.
Ahh. The last thing I found out, that a small northern cay were swarming "deers" as a tourist attraction and that a journalist could taste a dish of meat from the small animal, something dry but tasty meat.
Could it be that Brother Raúl follows his example but in a more discreet way?
Dr Orlando Vicente Álvarez
cuban uruguayan
genius
READ
https://www.amazon.com/Memorias-niño-guantanamero-Guantanamero-Spanish/dp/1520725884
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