I am from Cuba.
Cuba is much more than its tourist attractions, its history, its buildings, or what makes it sometimes the center of the news.
Walking through the streets of Cuba is discovering the true essence of the country, the one that I have inhabited for more than three decades. Cuba is defined by its day-to-day.
This Caribbean island goes beyond its government, its ideology, its political system. It is not only the Capitol, the beauty of old Havana with its colonial memories, the international Varadero, or the beautiful keys in the center of the island. Trinidad with its cobbled streets, or even Santiago de Cuba which winks at the sea.
It is a country of its people. Of supportive people, who always extend help in the face of difficulties. Of people who work, beyond economic remuneration or bonuses. Of people who dream and do not put aside their hopes, as difficult as the time we have to live may be.
In Cuba, people invent and reinvent themselves. But the essence and pride of being children of this soil is not renounced. Stripped of ideology, feeling that great love for the land where one was born. In that, being Cuban is also summed up. Here, a whole arsenal of tools for day to day is used. Because yes there are lines abound, material shortages, problems with means of transportation, and inflation that grows and grows. There is no single formula. But yes, the people of this country grow and make the reality that hits us sustainable.
I like Cubans and their undeniable flavor and legacy of its music and culture. Those who do not forget the sense of family. Those who still meet with friends or lovers, in front of the sea to watch the sunset. Those who play music loudly (typical of Cubans at parties), who do not stop celebrating, believing and feeling.
I remain, of Cuba, with that, with its people, its traditions, its customs, although many run the risk of dying in the face of the onslaught of the contemporary. From Cuba, I prefer its culture and its idiosyncrasies. With its people, the one that builds, with that immense pride even in feeling children and heirs of this land. Where queues, shortages and all kinds of problems assail us daily, we have had to overcome ourselves time and time again, reinvent ourselves for a more just purpose, but never renouncing our essence, that which makes Cubans take out an entire arsenal of tools to make sustainable of the reality that hits us.
