The Catholic priest Alberto Reyes posted a message on Facebook addressing the "transgenerational legacy" that weighs on Cuban society, characterized by a culture of fear, subjugation, and political immobility.
Reyes argues that young people have inherited a very harmful way of life, with submission as a form of security, indoctrination as culture, aggression towards dissenters as a heroic act, precarious living as a virtue of resilience, and emigration as a solution to their problems.
The Camagüey priest, known for his criticisms of the regime, laments that a pattern of silence and fear has been passed down from parents to children, where dissent, expressing oneself freely, or simply refraining from participating in official acts is perceived as a threat.
Despite this grim diagnosis, he/she asserts that there is hope.
According to him, the first step towards healing that legacy comes when the essential question arises within society: "Why does it have to be this way?" This inquiry marks the beginning of genuine change.
Below, CiberCuba shares the full text of the publication:
I have been thinking... (118) by Alberto Reyes Pías
I have been thinking about the need to heal the transgenerational legacy
A legacy is an inheritance, something that is received from those who came to life before us.
Each generation passes on to the next its values, its way of thinking, its manner of behaving... and it is this gradual transmission that we call 'transgenerational legacy', which is the way of life that has reached us through the passage from one generation to another.
Regarding this process, there is a bad news and a good one. The bad news is that what is handed down is not always beneficial; not everything we inherit is advantageous.
For example, in recent decades, what has been passed down from generation to generation? We have inherited many fears: the fear of dissent, of expressing ourselves freely, of saying what we feel or think when it contradicts what we have been taught as 'revolutionary values'.
We have been instilled with the fear of protesting publicly and of taking any peaceful initiative that clashes with the wishes of those in power, such as simply choosing not to participate in a public event they have organized.
We have been taught to view submission as security, indoctrination as culture, denunciation as a duty, aggression against dissenters as a heroic act, a precarious and miserable life as the virtue of resistance, and emigration as the solution to our problems…
That's the bad news, but we've mentioned that there's good news, and the good news arises when a simple yet powerful question emerges within a society: 'Why?'.
Why does it have to be this way? Why can't society be changed? Why do the same old people have to remain in power, as if we had chosen a monarchy instead of a republic? Why do we have to live in fear of expressing ourselves, both with words and with gestures? Why do we have to emigrate, tearing ourselves away from the land where we were born and where we have family, friends, and experiences that we cherish, to start over from scratch in a foreign land, one to which we will never fully belong no matter how welcoming it may be? Why?
It is then that the healing of the transgenerational legacy begins; it is at this moment that we become aware that, while it is important to preserve the good that has been passed down to us, it is equally vital to transform what hinders our progress and prevents us from becoming a new generation—free from the prejudices and mistakes of the past—capable of offering the present and the future a better life, one that is freer, more fulfilling, and more able to respond to the needs and challenges of our time.
Yes, definitely, we need to heal, because much of what has been transmitted to us over the years has made us sick, and we are tired of being made to believe that this illness is necessary, heroic, and above all, unchangeable.
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