A Letter to the Cuban Youth

When I say that Cubans can build one of the most modern, participatory and developed societies of our time, do not take it as a compliment. Take it as a challenge.

Our country has everything it needs to take the path toward a state that puts the welfare of its people and their quality of life first. However, it lacks the kind of political system required to uproot the rusted-out historical foundations currently governing the country. Which is the first step for granting individuals the right and responsibility to realize their projects without arbitrary interferences. Thus creating the best conditions for their growth as individuals living in freedom.

As a young Cuban I’ve wondered many times: Which is the best choice?

Perhaps to wait for the comfortably entrenched Historical Leadership of the Revolution to someday become aware of its responsibility and undertake the real changes the country needs?

Perhaps, leave the country, like thousands of Cubans have done in order to have a chance at self-fulfillment as a human being?

Make myself an accomplice of the ruling class by settling down into a position from which I serve the master and in return win a measure of comfort and security while turning a blind eye to my fellow Cubans and their needs?

To deceive myself, not looking around me, inventing an ephemeral and artificial happiness, laughing out loud on street corners and stealing from my workplace so I can eat and meet my other basic needs?

To get myself into the lucrative business of some “culturists” and “intellectualists” who voice only half-truths in order to look good for their audience while taking advantage behind the scenes of the privileges the state rewards them with for not telling whole truth?

The more I consider these options –which many around me have chosen- the less comfortable I feel about any of them. My conscience does not stop yelling, pushing me, reminding me that I have a duty. It isn’t any other than to try to awaken my country from its long slumber, so that it can start moving in the right direction before it becomes impossible for it to catch up with the rest of a dynamic and increasingly fast-paced world.

I am not the only one who feels this call. Thousands of young people across the country are torn between the same hard choices; we share the same doubts, the same thoughts, the same dreams. Our whole lives we have been told that we can’t, that we will not make it, that we don’t have what it takes… This is all false; the real barriers are in our minds, they have been placed there with only one intention: to make us surrender without even trying.

The men and women who are part of this movement took on the challenge and responsibility that history imposes upon us: To show that within our broken society there are still people who can raise the flag of hope, take on, and embrace both the material and the spiritual reconstruction of our Country. I’m convinced this fight is a just one, and invite you all, as a  generation not to surrender.

Peace and a prosperous life for our people!

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Ing. Eliecer L. Ávila Cicilia