A Cuban Dialogue
Friedenberg, Daniel M.
I hadn't seen Mario since he fled Cuba. "Hola, Mario," I said. "It's been a long time." "Manuel!" he said, hugging me. "What brings you to New York? I just asked Raul Chibas last week...
...I graduated from a Jesuit school, you romantic...
...Nobody wants another Grau or even Prio...
...As long as it is legal you can steal and cheat with impunity...
...They can't do that," Fidel reassured me...
...They confiscated the weapons to be sent to me in the mountains...
...You know how the Cuban Communists never supported us...
...Judges, what for...
...But it also might be that your own training as a member of the high bourgeoisie has made you incapable of appreciating the suffering of the people...
...Fidel sat slumped in his seat...
...You have no vision of the energy that will flow forth from a liberated people...
...But he forgot two things...
...They are already calling us Communists, just as Che said they did in Guatemala before they found Castillo Armas under a rock and armed him to overthrow Arbenz...
...Justice, what for...
...She was crying like Tete, but for a different reason...
...Celia put her palm over the hand of Fidel...
...Wait a minute, Fidel" I said...
...It is easy to talk about Yanqui imperialism but I wonder if we are willing to face the prospect that the United States government may take Raul seriously and eliminate us from the quota...
...Arbenz was elected by popular choice, and that did not prevent the American State Department from crushing him," Fidel said with a snort...
...For Fidel had the absolute truth of a Loyola or Stalin, of the dedicated fanatic who creates a new set of torture chambers and concentration camps, of large armies and the eternal cycle of hunger and war...
...They like to laugh and joke and dance...
...I know how the words are used and corrupted until the same filthy forces regain control...
...And a lot of the benefits of the subsidy simply flow back in repatriate dollars to the American owners of the sugar plantations and mills, or used to before the currency freeze...
...Fidel, Urrutia then President, Celia, Tete and the two of us...
...But when all is said and done, we should realize there are real benefits for us too...
...Most of all luck to Cuba, which needs it...
...I asked...
...He said nothing but a peculiarly sad expression crossed his lips...
...But, though we can't forget the past, we still have to live with them...
...Our sugar sales are limited elsewhere...
...Fidel glared at me...
...she cried out...
...But please Fidel, think carefully what you are saying...
...But it is not good will, it is interest, that motivates Yanqui policy...
...When I think it's been three years since we last saw each other...
...That is your legal justice...
...Legal forms...
...And to achieve this I am willing to seek support from the progressive forces, wherever they come from...
...But this socialist system was forced on Hungary by the Soviet Union through conquest, rather than growing out of the needs and hopes of the Hungarian people...
...You mean I should be a hypocrite," Fidel growled...
...Whom did the Church support in the Mexican revolution...
...And what is truth...
...That is not the meaning of our fight...
...With impeccable courtesy he spoke...
...We have incredibly fertile soil...
...As the old proverb says, he who sows winds will harvest storms...
...But the fewer the better...
...We seek other markets...
...Tet6 smiled at me with a bewildered expression...
...There again I have no quarrel...
...President Urrutia sat across from him, clean-shaven, alert and aristocratic, with an air of quiet confidence that I could see irritated Fidel...
...An enemy of an enemy is un amigo...
...He paused, and then continued...
...And you too, senoras and senores...
...When the Americans can't buy elections, they buy the elected...
...And what is the result...
...The revolution was fought to eliminate bureaucracy and corruption, to give the workers and peasants a chance to dream of a better world, a world of Christian brotherhood and peace...
...But by uniting the opposition, the religious element with the landed oligarchy, a combination too strong for the Republicans was forged...
...And tobacco, and tomatoes, and mineral ores and petroleum and manufactured goods of all kinds," Fidel answered gaily...
...American investment is strong there too but it has not destroyed the Mexican spirit...
...He must have seen enough of imperialism to be convinced, as is Raul, my kid brother, that the fox loses its hair but never its tricks...
...By God, you're getting fat...
...This demands strength and will, a united Cuba...
...She got up, went to Fidel and impulsively stroked his head with a maternal gesture...
...I want to go back to a regular job, work with no relation to politics, as I did before the revolution...
...Give me the spirit rather of our great Latin American poet, Ruben Dario: ! Y al sal que hay alumbra las nuevas victarias ganadas, y al hcroe que guia su grupo de jdvenes fieros, al que ama la insignia del suelo materno, al que ha desafiado, cenido el acero y el arma en la mano, los soles del rojo verano, las nieves y vientos del gelido invierno, la noche, la escarcha, y el odio y la muerte, por ser por la patria inmortal, saludan con voces de brance las trompas de guerra que tocan la marcha triunfal!* Tete watched Fidel while he quoted the martial stanzas...
...The Americans, the Americans," he sneered...
...Don't let yourself be consumed by hate no matter how justified...
...I read Raul Roa's condemnation of the Soviet invasion of Hungary while we were living in Mexico...
...You are the Jefe Maximo, the new Jose Marti...
...The macheteros should have a forty-hour week and all-year-round wages...
...Then she reverently kissed the finger...
...I asked...
...Elections or no elections, peace or violence, humanistic revolution or Communism—these are big words...
...You know they worked with Batista almost to the last minute...
...I just accepted a job in San Juan myself...
...I haven't read the book," Urrutia said, "but I am familiar with Arevalo's thought...
...Even when they failed, they pushed through the Platt Amendment so they could come back any time their investments were threatened...
...That's the real reason I went home early...
...If we yield one inch, the whole gang of thieves, the electric and telephone companies, the petroleum and the sugar and the mining outfits will manipulate us just as they did after the fall of Machado...
...And I shuddered...
...The underdeveloped countries are being strangled by the imperialists...
...Celia and Tete were facing the two of us across the table...
...And the Americans tried to do the same thing over the petroleum expropriations of Mexico...
...A woman in a brilliant evening dress came over and put a finger on Fidel's sleeve...
...But they all flow from a certain economic base...
...Urrutia seemed to notice the gesture and a somewhat acid smile touched his lips...
...And how glorious to be able to fight for the right, knowing that the right is on our side and that history will record us, if not conquerors, at least martyrs for the truth...
...I am not going to be overthrown by scraps of paper'—that is what he threw in your teeth...
...I know that Batista was a hoodlum who used the law for his own purposes...
...I know all about Christian values and actual Christian conduct...
...You classical economists get me sick...
...Not at all," I replied...
...We want all Cubans to laugh, to joke and dance...
...Dawn was breaking and I could hear the pigeons clucking...
...For it was the first time that I disagreed with Fidel...
...But what if the international cartels block the passage...
...You yourself defined our aim as a humanistic revolution...
...You mean," I asked, "that you would substitute the Russian market for the American market and consider that a step in the liberation of Cuba...
...Al carajo with the Yanquis...
...You do not see into the heart of Yanqui imperialism, you refuse to admit its real nature, because in your soul you yourself think and feel as an upper-class American, a Spanish-speaking one but a Yanqui none the less...
...He laughed...
...Fidel and Urrutia were disputing the trials we had held of the Batista war criminals...
...And American investment is greater on our small island than throughout all Mexico...
...Remember, the British, working with the international cartels, did just that when they overturned Mossadegh of Iran after the nationalization of petroleum...
...The Yanquis are thinking of their billiondollar investment and we are thinking of the needs of our people...
...The second is that, as you mentioned, a good part of the Cuban owners are in reality American and they would not cut off their nose to spite their face...
...It took only twelve men from the Granma to conquer Batista...
...But he made no move to leave and lit another cigar...
...Lizaro Cardenas told the Yanquis where to come off and ever since then they have been forced to accept the autonomy of Mexico...
...They put Batista in office...
...Then we can advance more securely to the social measures necessary to destroy the old order...
...Because of my training as an engineer, I tend to look at the technical factors even in politics...
...I insisted...
...I looked at Fidel...
...Besides, you must realize that the Americans have an obsessive regard for form and the trials created a bad effect there...
...Tet6, you should know that better than any of us," he continued...
...Unless the Cuban learns to be duro, bien duro, he will never have the force to withstand the will of the Yanquis...
...Cuatro gatos come down from the Sierra, a woman who was the symbol of the earlier fight against Machado, and the greatest Cuban judge...
...Break the chains that bind us and we can produce like they do...
...The Army was never with Arbenz and the power of the oligarchy was untouched in Guatemala...
...No, thank you...
...can do almost as much damage...
...Without us, the system would collapse and many powerful interests would be hurt...
...It was great to be alive, how well I remember...
...I asked with surprise...
...They may come to the conclusion it would be better to face the issue, knowing they would lose everything, and start an economic blockade to destroy the revolution and get back their property...
...San Juan has better food than Habana these days...
...No, I tell you, the Americans will try to break our revolution and the first step will be to corrupt the people against us...
...Because of several factors...
...The Committee...
...What did the judge do...
...Because of the quota, we have to buy back from the United States goods we could purchase at lower prices in other countries...
...I didn't want to get involved because I respected our president as much as I adored Fidel...
...I didn't say I was a Communist," Fidel answered, looking at Tete with a grimace of disgust...
...And I believe he has a clearer view now...
...They had their nails torn out...
...The only ones who could make me a Communist would be the Americans, not Cubans...
...They only entered the war against Spain after we were on the point of winning...
...They were as little and as much to blame as anyone else...
...I've had enough...
...Our fear is America, not Russia, for just that reason...
...Viva el Jefe...
...They are getting no benefits...
...The revolution was waged to do away with violence, to eliminate the Army and use the barracks for schools, as you so often said...
...Our Cuban people are too soft...
...They gave him arms and planes to shoot down the Cuban workers...
...Where did they get you with Machado, a protector of the Church, when you organized your student manifesto against his rule...
...The Yanquis have built enormous petroleum refining plants here...
...His mouth was clamped in a vise, his lips thin and curled in a hard line...
...I respect you for that...
...She was in the mid-forties, but a natural charm and vivacity often gave her the look of a young girl...
...And please, don't ask me to join the Committee work there...
...Viva Cardenasl that's what happens...
...But most important, you forget we have a billion-dollar hostage, the enormous American investment here...
...It is getting very late, Fidel, and I must see an important delegation tomorrow...
...Of course we have to be hard to achieve our objectives...
...The American press had started its first big campaign against the revolution, accusing us of the most fantastic charges, of bloodbaths, some even comparing us with the Romans throwing Christians to the lions—the same press that never reported the murders and sadistic torturing of tens of thousands of Cuban men and women by the batistianos...
...How can they...
...And whose petroleum will we refine...
...The two aims are incompatible...
...The schools teach American culture, not Hispanic...
...The standard of living may have risen since the Americans stole the island...
...But Peron ended up actually proposing more concessions to Standard Oil of California...
...The Committee," Mario said in disgust...
...They are not concerned with democracy, with human beings, but only with power...
...I'll soon find out," Mario said...
...Tete spoke up...
...But what then happens...
...But your truth and your justice are only reflections of that training...
...You are concerned with truth and justice...
...Even putting aside the possibility of an invasion by the United States, a couple of turns of the screw in the economic field • Triumphal March And to the sun that today lights up the newly gained victories, And to the hero who guides his group of fierce young men, To him who loves the standard of his maternal soil, To him who has defied, sword-girded and weapon in hand, The suns of burning summer, Snows and winds of frigid winter, Night, white frost, And hatred and death, to fight for his immortal homeland, Salute with voices of bronze and trumpets of war That play the triumphal march...
...I asked...
...Don't talk to me of brotherhood and peace...
...Do you realize we are the only people in all Latin America who say No to the Yanquis...
...For some reason an argument had begun between Fidel and Urrutia...
...What you would like to see as the ultimate state of affairs is a Cuba americanizada...
...The Americans will make me a Fidelista again if they keep up this porra...
...The Sugar Bar," Mario mused...
...Our sugar and tobacco market is almost entirely American...
...We must be honest with ourselves as to the limits of a hard policy...
...Why not...
...They supported him when he would have fallen the first year in power...
...Fidel asked sarcastically...
...Urrutia had said to Fidel that it would have been better to conduct the trials in a more judicious atmosphere than a public stadium with thousands of howling spectators...
...Remember, it was the Mexican police who did the confiscating, not the Americans...
...Manuel, even you are naive on the question of American power...
...I wish you the best of luck in the coming difficult days...
...But there is a way of doing things...
...So much has happened to poor Cuba since then, the years seem more like decades...
...Tell me about it," Mario said...
...He told them not to mix in politics and then sent them to jail...
...We will buy petroleum from the Soviet Union, we will sell sugar to the Soviet Union...
...Viva Cardenas," shouted Fidel, and then winked at Celia...
...You can arrive at your objective and yet do it in a slow calculated way so as not to offend the American liberals together with the reactionaries and conservatives...
...He went to fight Franco in Spain...
...The middle class should be free of extortion and shakedown from corrupt politicians...
...We will win by such an overwhelming vote that the American people—if not their government—will see that our 26th of July Movement is the only voice of the Cubans...
...Most of the corrupt plutocracy has fled and what remains can be turned to our will...
...Hungary was revolting against a socialist system, which is a superior form of economic organization to capitalism...
...We will sell elsewhere, we will crush the pulpo americano by developing new markets...
...Whom did the Church support in Spain during the Civil War where your husband's corpse is rotting from a fascist bullet...
...I remember trying to defend a group of pobrecitos caught in a swoop by Eleuterio Pedraza's police after Batista came back from Florida...
...Say one thing and do another...
...His face became hard...
...Jefe," I said, "you know how I feel about Yanqui influence...
...I just asked Raul Chibas last week why I hadn't heard from you...
...So much the worse for the Hungarian capitalists and feudal lords," Fidel said bluntly...
...The guajiros should live in houses with hot and cold running water and a toilet...
...He turned again to Urrutia...
...America is trying to reimpose on Cuba a more primitive social structure to the one we are proposing...
...A tear dripped down her cheek...
...Dios mio," I said...
...Why not...
...The bigger the interest, the smarter the lawyer and the more corrupt the judge...
...We will go else where...
...The romantics are leaving...
...But you must admit that the only rational explanation of imperialism comes from the Marxist camp...
...Fidel, you are exaggerating...
...Truth, what for...
...Manuel, you talk like a counter-revolutionary...
...I lived over ten years in exile in Mexico...
...Otherwise the state is administered in chaos and the latest decree alone is legal...
...who tell the Americans that we will no longer be inferior, puppets, sardinas ready to be eaten by the shark...
...The mass of Spaniards were ready for land reform...
...If the United States tries to strangle us, we shall know who our friends are...
...I am familiar with the dangers...
...Another Christian, all-forgiving soul...
...We are as much to blame as they...
...Manuel, Manuel," Fidel answered, "don't you see that our very distance from Russia is the security we need...
...Even the Spanish language is being corrupted...
...The native customs are dying...
...And now that I have won despite them, they want me to lick their boots in gratitude...
...Besides Lazaro Cardenas had the exceptional luck of being president at the same time as Franklin Roosevelt, the smallest of the sharks after Lincoln, while this Eisenhower is the worst of reactionaries...
...Manuel Urrutia rose from the table...
...The first thing we should do is have elections...
...Fidel laughed whimsically at Tete...
...Legal forms," he spat out...
...President Urrutia is only using common sense when he points out that it is not smart to alienate the Americans...
...These people care nothing for economic democracy or the rights of the workers for a better life...
...And don't tell me I am a Communist...
...We can import from Venezuela, from Mexico, even from the Arab states...
...The first is the practical...
...Viva Fidel...
...The Negro is a degraded citizen...
...Are we so different...
...Good...
...And to create this unity we have to forge our own organization of iron...
...Let us call elections and show the Yanqui that Cuba is a frente unido...
...Did I not refuse to condemn you at your trial on the grounds that resistance against an illegal government is no crime...
...I was stunned...
...To break their chain of repression is the goal to which I am dedicating my life...
...Do you mean that you agree a system should be imposed on a people even if they don't want it, because you feel it is superior and disregarding whether the people agree with your definition of superiority...
...The Americans are obsessed by forms and we should realize this...
...I don't have to be a Communist to know that I buy and sell where I can to save the Cuban revolution...
...That is the very system we fought to destroy...
...It was indeed late, past 3:00 in the morning...
...But Fidel and Celia had stood up to see the sun rise...
...Mechanically I repeated "patria o muerte...
...But I knew that Fidel's truth, true or false, could no longer be for me...
...Perhaps," he said in a tone that verged on insult...
...God bless you all and good night...
...Their dollars are blocked now...
...But once legal government is instituted, order and justice are necessary...
...But it seems to me we should put the situation in a correct frame of reference...
...He paused, and then looked at me intently...
...I am no judge but as a lawyer I can tell you legal forms have imprisoned as many men as they have freed...
...Fidel whispered something to Celia, who smiled...
...One boy was castrated...
...Now only Fidel and Celia remain...
...It is very late and I'm expecting a group of journalists from the United States tomorrow...
...All I hear is what I must do and must not do for fear of what the Americans will say...
...Now she seemed old and tired...
...According to a report Che recently drew up, the so-called premium we get on sugar could easily be compensated by a combination of cutting off the flow of dollars to the American owners, buying goods cheaper than what we overpay them now, and selling unlimited sugar on the world market...
...They came in to take our island, just as they stole Puerto Rico and the Philippines...
...We have a golden chance in Cuba, perhaps the first in the entire history of all Latin America...
...And it was also the first time I realized where he was taking us...
...I could see that Fidel was greatly irritated at Jose Marti being quoted against his own position...
...Our Cuba is the richest country of its size in the world...
...In this sense I am a Marxist...
...Urrutia was startled by the savagery of Fidel's voice...
...Did you ever read the book...
...It wasn't only the Americans...
...Fidel half rose from his chair and scowled...
...And tobacco...
...Tete was almost crying...
...Fidel leaned over the table and glared at Tete...
...The bourgeoisie creates that paraphernalia to destroy anyone who opposes its rule...
...The second is ideological...
...Even from a Soviet economic view, that is crazy...
...Let us not play into their hands with the legal porqueria of elections when we have already voted with our own blood and sacrifice...
...It was obvious he had not slept for days...
...Never lose sight of the prime enemy and don't be lead astray by a lot of intelectuales esttipidos...
...In a sense he is right...
...And let Grau San Martin, Carlos Prio Socarras and that collection of chivatos return, supported by more American dollars, to twist and confuse the minds of the people...
...And the capitalists will no longer have to beware of confiscation if there is a revolution of true social content...
...If their small investment in Guatemala forced them to invade the country for what they call democracy, what won't they do to us...
...And he promptly joined the Spanish regiment of El Campesino, the great Communist peasant gen eral...
...Then we will defeat the capitalists...
...It was Machado and Batista who made our sweet island obsessed by hate and vengeance...
...The first is that the entire delicate structure of sugar quotas, including their own domestic sugar beet industry, is keyed to the Cuban crop...
...But Urrutia has a point...
...President Cardenas sold petroleum to Hitler when he was blocked by the Yanquis, even though he loathed the Nazi system...
...And only the hardest will survive...
...I must sleep, I must sleep, I thought to myself, or I will go insane...
...Celia turned and kissed Fidel...
...The interruptions were getting on his nerves...
...Our enemy is the imperialist forces flowing from America and linking themselves with the reactionaries in Cuba that want to perpetuate the old order...
...Don't say those things, Fidel," she said...
...Che gave me the Fdbula del tiburdn y las sardinas by Juan Jose Arevalo...
...Tete was dressed in an elegant black suit with a double string of pearls around her throat...
...Every few seconds one of the guests came over to have a menu signed by Fidel...
...Cuba stands behind you...
...I told you," Fidel answered...
...During the Spanish Civil War the Republicans brought on the fascist revolt by attacking the landowning class and the Church at the same time...
...It's the good food in Puerto Rico," I said...
...we will use them for ourselves instead of letting the profits go north...
...And I knew I must escape from my beloved Cuba, or else I might soon end up a victim of the very system I had fought to create...
...We will do just what Lazaro Cardenas did...
...Can we not learn the industrial skills of the Yanqui...
...Only through destroying the roots of United States' control on Cuban soil can our people recover their soul...
...Even El Campesino re nounced Communism as the new tyranny after living in Russia...
...How little we knew...
...Oh Fidel, be careful," Teti cried out...
...We were at the roof garden of the Habana-Hilton, remember...
...If they cut our sugar quota, we could nationalize everything they own...
...I don't mean we should modify our revolutionary aims...
...And the Church was mute when he spoke...
...I can't help thinking that some of this discussion is a bit abstract," I said...
...Remember what he said...
...What happened that night after I left...
...Cuba is a small island next to the most powerful nation in the world...
...Celia, in a creased olive-green uniform, looked plain by comparison...
...I wondered if he understood the full implications of what he was saying...
...But we Manuel, we are the future and not they...
...In Argentina the Yanquis bitterly opposed Peron because they thought their investments threatened...
...Whom does the Church always support...
...The Yanquis may invade us and destroy our revolution, as they did in Guatemala and, with more subtle means, in Bolivia...
...Not to mention the Sierra...
...But suppose the United States capitalists feel they have nothing to lose any more...
...Our case is different...
...And he warned me that if I persisted in representing offenders against public order I too would be sent to prison...
...But I don't have the sense of the good Lord, who in his infinite compassion permitted the Mexicans to heed American pressure, thus leaving 70 of my 81 comrades on the Granma dead within the week of landing...
...His eyes seemed to glaze and his voice rose...
...Your brother Raul recently announced that the sugar quota was Cuban slavery to the economic dictates of America...
...We did not fight the revolution for that...
...Then he shrugged, and muttered rather ominously: "The group is getting smaller...
...Anyway, after you had gone, I moved closer to Fidel...
...I never had heard Fidel speak this way before...
...We need their ideas to wake up the masses, to organize, to hate if necessary...
...Pablo your husband had to flee when Batista liquidated the student revolts...
...It shows how the American Pentagon, the State Department and Wall Street work hand in glove to suck us of our wealth...
...Che can tell you about Americans...
...The last time I saw you was in May 1959, just after Fidel came back from his trip to the United States...
...You think the good will of the Americans can help us...
...Celia kept her eyes fixed on Fidel...
...Mario, when the argument started, I could see you didn't want to take sides—for all the good it did considering the way Fidel crucified you over television a few months later...
...We thought we represented the purity of our democratic revolution...
...I have to get some sleep...
...I may even fail...
...Stand back and let me look at you...
...Grau and Prio all over again, but this time the United States runs the show directly instead of through a Welles, a Caffery or Smith...
...Their wealth is being sucked out like a sponge...
...For it can only lead to another cycle of violence and those who love you will be destroyed with it...
...But the old Cuban Army is shattered and our militia unbeatable...
...Tell the Cuban people that their sacrifices were in vain, that we must not upset the Yanquis by sentencing the criminals who tortured our Cubans, that we must not touch the American interests even though they extort millions of dollars from us and raise the utility and food and building costs to the point where we cannot live as decent human beings...
...Russia flanks Hungary, as the United States flanks Cuba...
...It is a mingling of facts with arguments that have only the appearance of truth...
...The truth I thought...
...he roared...
...I can't take it any more...
...But Mexico is 40 million and we are 6," Fidel answered...
...We have great resources of iron, copper, manganese, nickel, chromium and cobalt...
...You yourself should be the first to admit that there is justice of form based on content and mere justice of form," he said...
...She left, a small drooping figure in black...
...More is at stake than Cuba...
...We were sitting in the Sugar Bar overlooking Habana, still blazing with lights though it was long after midnight...
...It may take twenty or thirty years of struggle to win...
...He used the words "legal forms," which seemed to irritate El Jefe...
...For it must then imply a secret police, a powerful Army, a totalitarian press and propa ganda machine, even torture cells—only now a man who calls himself a socialist will do the torturing instead of a man who calls himself a fascist...
...As I am not a Communist, neither am I antiCommunist...
...Look at Puerto Rico...
...Do you really think the Americans will help us...
...Violence and hatred are wrong, even when used by good persons because they will poison the good until they are no different than the ones they replace...
...Although it's quite some time now," I said, "I can remember the discussion as if it were last night...
...As I left, I saw them peering to the east at the first false beams of light...
...But that is the reverse of democracy, it is tyranny in its old form cloaked by a new vocabulary...
...Tet6 spoke up...
...Remember what our great Jose Marti wrote: `The enemies of a people's freedom are not so much the foreigners who oppress them as the timidity and vanity of its own sons.' Our Cuban martyr, who had suffered much from the Americans, could still see that the oppressor only enters in strength when the people itself is ready for betrayal...
...Our greatest battle still lies ahead...
...Patria o muerte...
Vol. 9 • September 1962 • No. 4
