The "challenges of Cuban youth" was the topic chosen by the official media Cubadebate for its weekly podcast, which on April 4th served as a platform for dialogue between two young officials and academics from the Cuban regime.
Between the idealization of the socialist model and a social reality that completely eludes them, the television presenter and official academic, Marxlenin Pérez, and the sociologist Anaclara León attempted to address these challenges in a discussion that served as a propaganda exercise for the "post-continuity".
In the context of the 63rd anniversary of the Union of Communist Youth (UJC), the participants openly acknowledged the difficulty of being a "revolutionary young person", referring not only to material shortages but also to the lack of ideological tools to support the official discourse among the new generations.
Between the slogan and the crisis
Although the podcast aimed to "debate without filters," the truth is that the framework was clearly constrained by the boundaries of official ideology.
Despite this, moments of sincerity slipped through that, unintentionally, exposed the divide between revolutionary propaganda and the genuine concerns of Cuban youth.
Anaclara admitted that many young people enter university not with the goal of "contributing to the country," but to obtain a degree that will help them emigrate.
"Many say: ‘I am not going to practice; the degree is for my parents and for me to leave’," he confessed. In a nation where brain drain and an aging population are advancing without pause, this statement reflected the collapse of the nation-building project that the regime insists on perpetuating.
The revolution as a foreign inheritance
One of the most revealing moments was when León expressed that “young people do not feel part of the revolutionary process” and that for many in his generation “the revolution is something that has already passed,” completely disconnected from their present.
Far from representing a historical continuity, the "revolutionary" discourse seems like a mantra devoid of practical relevance for those who have been born amidst blackouts, inflation, and widespread deterioration.
The criticism did not stop there. The interlocutor herself acknowledged that “being a revolutionary can make you seem crazy or indoctrinated,” revealing that even within the youth structures of the regime, such as the UJC or the FEU, there is no solid education on what socialism truly means.
Participate for what?
Despite efforts to portray Cuban youth as protagonists, Anaclara herself acknowledged that many of the youth structures reproduce vertical, rather than horizontal, and worn-out schemes.
"Young people need to feel like protagonists, not passive recipients," he said, without elaborating on how that protagonism can be exercised without true freedom of expression or decision.
Although cloaked in inclusivity and progressive language, the podcast ultimately reinforced the image of a youth caught between empty rhetoric and the urgent need to build a future that the State does not provide.
The challenges faced by young Cubans go far beyond the official discourse: they involve surviving, seeking opportunities where none exist, and channeling the overwhelming desire for change among Cuban youth within a repressive regime, with leadership that neither represents nor listens to them, and that only seeks to utilize them for its goal of remaining in power.
A goal for which they use wet gunpowder of a speech that seeks to align the nation with the so-called "revolution," dismiss those who oppose the regime as "non-Cubans," proclaim a false unity around the leadership of "continuity," and present socialism as an irreversible and eternal socioeconomic project.
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