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The state-controlled press sought to embrace the Christmas spirit but choked on the Christmas Eve dinner of 1959. The portal Cubadebate shared a photo on Facebook of Fidel Castro celebrating with families from the Ciénaga de Zapata, most of whom were involved in charcoal production, during Christmas of 1959. They describe it as the "Christmas Eve of freedom," despite the fact that by the end of that year, following the approval of the Agrarian Reform, many Cubans were silently suffering from the loss of a significant portion of their lands.
Time has shown that many of those lands were never cultivated again and that what had previously been produced as private property, under collective ownership, became overrun with invasive weeds. The suffering was in vain.
Cubadebate reports that Fidel Castro and Celia Sánchez, along with Agriculture Minister Pedro Miret and Captain Antonio Núñez Jiménez, director of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), both accompanied by their wives, attended the Christmas Eve dinner in the Ciénaga de Zapata in 1959.
As soon as they arrived at the Ciénaga de Zapata, the new leaders sat under a tree to watch how a pig was roasted in the local style. One of the neighbors pointed out the difference from Batista’s men, who a year earlier had come to steal the pig and, in the process, killed a nephew, whose burial place was never discovered.
Comments on the Cubadebate post came in quickly, and what the bastion of the establishment perceived as a review of the archives, internet users took as a macabre joke amid the terrible shortages and darkness being experienced on the Island.
A Facebook user who goes by the name Dioelis Rivera laments that "now there isn't even Christmas Eve. Everything is bad, the country is plunged into darkness from blackouts. What was the point of the 'revolution if now life is worse than before?'" he questions.
"Journalist, are you aware that today, December 24th, on the eve of Christmas Eve, the province of Matanzas woke up in the dark? Only a few circuits have electricity," criticized internet user Patricia Llera, who received several responses to her post, including one from Osmel Barnat, stating that Mayabeque is facing the same situation. "What a disaster," he wrote.
Mayita Díaz, for her part, lamented that Cuba is the only country in the world where Christmas is not celebrated. "That man brought nothing but sadness to the people," she said in reference to Fidel Castro.
Pablo Álvarez clarified that in 1959, remnants of capitalism still remained. "A few years after socialism was established, hunger, widespread poverty, and a lack of individual and economic freedoms emerged, laying the groundwork for what Cuba is today; immersed in darkness, with more than a quarter of its population fleeing from the socialism led by the PCC," he noted.
Suárez Jorge took it a bit worse and reprimanded the journalist who signed the article for recalling a Christmas Eve of Fidel Castro after he put an end to this Catholic celebration in Cuba. "It's a disrespect from that journalist to the people, who for years have not known what Christmas or a Christmas Eve is. They've eradicated all the traditions of the Cuban people."
It is very difficult to find a single comment in support of the Christmas report by Cubadebate. Roman Hernández summarizes that Christmas Eve of Fidel Castro in the Ciénaga de Zapata as the last family dinner. "All the others were dreadful; communism arrived and the happiness of the Cuban people came to an end."
One of the most applauded comments was from María del Carmen Álvarez. She said, "What a shame! So many deaths for this," and received 12 likes.
In the same vein, Ibet Díaz de Celis Curbelo recalled that "today, December 24, but in 2024, we will be eating in the dark" within Cuba.
Yuneil Cepena Gijón pointed out that the spread served to Fidel Castro in 1959 at the Ciénaga de Zapata had more food "than the tables of millions of Cubans today."
Finally, Aylén López summarized the general sentiment: "For me, this is the worst December 24th. Without electricity, without food, and without joy. I see no desire to celebrate," she said.
Fidel Castro eliminated the Christmas holiday in December 1969, fixated on the goal of harvesting 10 million tons of sugar, which was never achieved. He reinstated it in 1998 during Pope John Paul II's visit to Havana. Since then, December 25 has been a holiday in Cuba, but what he could not restore was the tradition of a family dinner. The mass emigration has left many homes empty in Cuba.
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