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The Cuban comedian Ulises Toirac posted a satirical poster on Facebook this Wednesday announcing the launch of the "Orthodontist Bembocratic Party," featuring the slogan "Down with spy flights and slogans with molars" and the campaign cry "Enjoy and let others enjoy with the National Symphony."
The publication is an ironic response to the debate sparked by the actual launch of the Partido Liberal Ortodoxo Cubano (PLOC) by exiled activist Amelia Calzadilla on April 26 from Madrid, and to the mockery made by the official program Con Filo regarding that initiative last Wednesday.
Toirac accompanies the poster —where he appears in a blue suit and red tie, posing as a professional candidate— with a text that targets two simultaneous objectives: "Some do it to undermine, others to actually launch parties. The truth is that the groove in the hypothalamus is so deep that something that is routine in any country has become almost seismic in ours. So I am launching mine. A party 'Where fun comes first'."
The poster, designed with the aesthetics of a professional political campaign and illustrated with a tooth logo, includes a platform of proposals that are both humorous and revealing: "Chicken and Fish," "Good Vibes," and "Relaxation with Order."
The very name of the party is a play on words with "bemba" — slang for mouth or lips in Cuba — "democratic," and "orthodontics," suggesting that what is needed in Cuba is to "straighten" the political discourse.
With his satire, Toirac highlights the structural anomaly of the Cuban system: Article 5 of the 2019 Constitution enshrines the Communist Party as "the superior leading political force of society and the State," which turns the mere announcement of an alternative party—something routine in any democracy—into an almost seismic event.
The post comes a day after the hosts of Con Filo attempted to downplay the creation of the PLOC in a video shared on social media, aiming to discredit the opposition initiative.
The official mockery had the opposite effect: Amelia Calzadilla responded to Con Filo firmly: "The sarcastic reaction from Con Filo fills me with pride; it reflects how much pain they feel in knowing that as a people we are ready to embrace country projects that do not come from the hands of the one who has deprived us of everything."
Toirac had previously supported Calzadilla in his own style: "What’s absurd is that 'the revolution has prepared it so well,'" ironic about the fact that it was the regime's own harassment that forged the activist's opposition.
The Toirac method embodies what Martí described in a New York column on January 7, 1882 when speaking about the satirical newspaper Punch: "Punch goes after men, with a bundle of whips that end in bells." A criticism that stings, yet wrapped in humor.
It is not the first time that the comedian has used irony as a tool for denunciation: Toirac declared himself a "beggar" to highlight poverty in Cuba, and mocked the new floating rate of the Central Bank with equal forcefulness.
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