The theatrical group Akuara is currently presenting in Miami, the play "Eggs" written by Matanzas native Ulises Rodríguez Febles, inspired by the acts of repudiation generated around 1980 as a consequence of the Mariel boatlift and which continue to the present day in Cuba.
Throwing eggs to the very people whom Fidel Castro had encouraged to leave the country if they did not like his revolution, was one of the relentless deeds among the unfettered compulsive mass attacks, often spurred on by fear on the part of the attackers, a Castro rehash of Mao Tse Tung’s methods during the Cultural Revolution in China.
Shortly before, in slightly more than 72 hours, 10,800 Cubans were crammed inside the gardens of the Embassy of Perú in Havana, after an incident in which a guard had died at the headquarters and which motivated the government to remove the sentries. Castro himself was slow to accept it, and once he did, he also called off the watch at the port of Mariel, where the exiles could arrive with their boats to pick up their relatives.
What Castro hid from them and from the world was that in order to sail back from Mariel, they would also have to carry on board some of the country’s most hardened criminals and the mentally ill, hastily removed from prisons and asylums. These were social scourges willing to admit to their social ills in order to obtain a pass at the police station with clearance to board one of the boats.
Those were allowed to go with ease. But for the others who were truly fed up with the socialist paradise, Castro made sure that they never forgot the price they would have to pay for their decision.
In his play, Rodríguez Febles recalls those dark days. "Eggs" was premiered in Cuba by the Mefisto Teatro in 2007 under the direction of Tony Díaz. Independent journalist Luis Cinco reviewed it as follows:
The problem is that the evil persists: they are being constantly organized by the State Security against the Ladies in White, against the Assembly for the Resistance, against the Patriotic Union of Cuba, against the Campaign for another Cuba. And although they can count on some full-time actors who always appear at the scene, regular workers and students also continue to make their appearance at the acts of repudiation.
In a review of the play by Akuara Teatro, directed by Alberto Sarraín, José Luis Llanes, reporter for the portal Café Fuerte, informs about the persistence of acts of repudiation to this day in Cuba.
Llanes states that, "assaults and harassment to punish dissents among fellow compatriots are, -and continue to be- one of the key elements of the corrupt nature of any ideology that promotes them and constitute a permanent obstacle for any possibility of reconciliation."
Throwing eggs to the very people whom Fidel Castro had encouraged to leave the country if they did not like his revolution, was one of the relentless deeds among the unfettered compulsive mass attacks, often spurred on by fear on the part of the attackers, a Castro rehash of Mao Tse Tung’s methods during the Cultural Revolution in China.
Shortly before, in slightly more than 72 hours, 10,800 Cubans were crammed inside the gardens of the Embassy of Perú in Havana, after an incident in which a guard had died at the headquarters and which motivated the government to remove the sentries. Castro himself was slow to accept it, and once he did, he also called off the watch at the port of Mariel, where the exiles could arrive with their boats to pick up their relatives.
What Castro hid from them and from the world was that in order to sail back from Mariel, they would also have to carry on board some of the country’s most hardened criminals and the mentally ill, hastily removed from prisons and asylums. These were social scourges willing to admit to their social ills in order to obtain a pass at the police station with clearance to board one of the boats.
Those were allowed to go with ease. But for the others who were truly fed up with the socialist paradise, Castro made sure that they never forgot the price they would have to pay for their decision.
In his play, Rodríguez Febles recalls those dark days. "Eggs" was premiered in Cuba by the Mefisto Teatro in 2007 under the direction of Tony Díaz. Independent journalist Luis Cinco reviewed it as follows:
All those who were involved in that depressing orgy of hatred and vileness are portrayed in the work: the militants and the enthusiasts who ‘did their revolutionary duty’; those who 'were forced' to participate in the repudiation rallies against 'the scum' because 'they did not want to be exposed'; those who 'did not know what they were doing; the children who were simply repeating the slogans learned from their teachers; Pastora, the old unyielding revolutionary, who could not forgive her son’s betrayal for 'going to the enemy', but who read his letters in secret; and the victims, whose sin was to try to escape from Fidel’s Paradise. "
"Oscarito, returns to Havana twenty-some-years after having had to endure humiliation at school for leaving with his parents for Miami. He comes back to settle accounts with a past that no one wants to remember. Eugenio lives in the same house he lived with his parents until they left, chased by mobs shouting insults and throwing eggs and stones against ‘the infidels.’ The revolutionary militant, now an old man, remains faithful to the revolution, but goes hungry. Oscarito does not return the stones but brings them eggs, lots of eggs, 'purchased with ‘fulas’ [Cuban currency] at the ‘shopping center.’”
"We were all guilty, one way or another. The moral of the play seems to be to forget once and for all, the mistakes of the past (...) but for true reconciliation among Cubans, the best thing is forgiveness without forgetting. To remember the evils done is the best way to prevent its recurrence, “concludes the writer.
The problem is that the evil persists: they are being constantly organized by the State Security against the Ladies in White, against the Assembly for the Resistance, against the Patriotic Union of Cuba, against the Campaign for another Cuba. And although they can count on some full-time actors who always appear at the scene, regular workers and students also continue to make their appearance at the acts of repudiation.
In a review of the play by Akuara Teatro, directed by Alberto Sarraín, José Luis Llanes, reporter for the portal Café Fuerte, informs about the persistence of acts of repudiation to this day in Cuba.
Llanes states that, "assaults and harassment to punish dissents among fellow compatriots are, -and continue to be- one of the key elements of the corrupt nature of any ideology that promotes them and constitute a permanent obstacle for any possibility of reconciliation."
