"José Martí never knew electric light and he was a genius," said the state journalist Arleen Rodríguez Derivet in an interview with former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa. The statement aimed to justify the blackouts in Cuba, but it ended up becoming the joke of the week.
The segment, recorded last November for the program Conversa con Correa on RT en Español, has recently circulated again on social media just as power outages in Cuba exceed 40 consecutive hours in some provinces.
Amidst candles and sarcasm, social media turned its spotlight on the official spokesperson. The collective mockery rose up against her historical nonsense.
In the video, Rodríguez attempts to downplay the energy crisis by stating that the Apostle "never knew electric light" and that she would like "to write a line like him, with the light on."
Correa, visibly surprised, interrupts her with a striking remark: "But Arleen, we are in the 21st century." The former president's expression—half disbelief, half resignation—captures what half the country was thinking.
From Facebook to X, Cubans reacted with memes to the interview. Psychologist Reybi Sarmiento was very straightforward: "The journalist needs to be informed that Martí not only experienced electric light but also wrote about it."
Martí lived in New York from 1880 to 1895, just as the first electric power plant in Manhattan was being ignited. In his writings, the Cuban celebrated this luminous revolution with a blend of scientific curiosity and the poetic imagery that characterized him.
Arleen tried to turn the Apostle into the patron of the blackout, a symbol of stoic acceptance of hardship. However, her words unleashed laughter in the face of ignorance.
This time, neither the blackouts nor the ideological script managed to overshadow the irony of the moment. The journalist defended the darkness in the name of the man who admired the light.
It was the readers themselves who revealed the truth to him, with political humor and an unending wave of memes. The social media did not hold back. There are montages of Martí dedicating simple verses to Arleen and even one of the journalist with a lantern, learning to read the works of the Master.
In the midst of national gloom, Cubans found another way to flood social media with the energy of laughter and humor.
No matter how much the regime tries to justify the blackouts, there will always be those who will illuminate the light of common sense… even if it’s with sarcasm.
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