The New Enemy / Julio Cesar Alvarez

The New Enemy / Julio Cesar Alvarez
Translating Cuba
By Julio Cesar Alvarez

Public enemy number one for the Cuban State is not longer the Ladies in
White, but rather the images captured by the lenses of independent
journalists and common citizens, which can show the dark side of our
society.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In politics this is
doubly true, but for us as independent Cuban journalists, who are
accused by the government of being mercenaries, slanderers and of
following a script written in Washington, the images are a matter of
vital importance.

If we limit ourselves to denouncing the excesses of the government only
with words, well they can reply with more words. But if the lenses of
our cameras or cellphones catch, in flagrante, a cop abusing a citizen,
there are no words that can deny the fact.

The Government knows this reality, and hasn't stood by with folded arms.
Already there is growing hostility, on the part of the supporters of the
regime, against those who take pictures that have the potential to belie
the official discourse, or that can reflect a reality distinct from the
paradise offered by the lenses of the official media.

But most worrying is the notable fear of taking pictures that is
beginning to spread among ordinary people, who now see taking photos or
videos as something forbidden, punishable, or contrary to the security
of the State, even in situations having nothing to do with politics.

Weeks again, in a building located on the Havana street of Porvenir at
the corner of Kessel, a man committed suicide by throwing himself off
the fourth floor. An even apparently without political implications that
can happen anywhere in the world. I happened to be passing by there and
joined the curious to watch the deployment of police, ambulances, fire
engines.

At the very moment when I took out my cellphone to record some images, a
man publicly warned me, "Hey, look out, that's counterrevolutionary."
Seconds later another man said to me, "Hey, be careful with that." And a
lady, seeming very worried for me, warned, "Son, do not get caught filming."

These last two phrases, which were accidentally caught on the audio
recording of the video, are an example of the fear and paranoia with
which our people live, terrorized by someone as harmless and common in
the world today as taking a video or photo of a suicide.

The Revolutionary nonsense and paranoia continue as strong as ever.
Taking a photo or making a video in Cuba has been turned into a
suspicious act, counterrevolutionary; as it was in the '60s and '70s for
a man who had long hair or strange clothes.
The dictatorship knows that images are free, rebellious, not loyal to
any government, not members of any party. From there to the paranoia of
a regime that doesn't know how to exist without the total submission of
its subjects.

Originally published in Spanish in Cubanet.org

7 May 2012

http://translatingcuba.com/?p=18152