The Cuban writer Carlos Aguilera, residing in Prague for the past decade, stated in an interview with Tania Costa that he doubts whether Cubans are prepared to practice democracy, attributing this challenge to decades of totalitarian education under the dictatorship.
"I'm not sure that Cubans are ready to choose," stated Aguilera, adding that "there I do believe there is anthropological damage," a concept coined by the Cuban intellectual Dagoberto Valdés Hernández in 1994 to describe the structural effects of totalitarianism on individuals: cognitive, ethical, emotional, and civic impairments that hinder life in a democracy.
For Aguilera, the origin of the problem is clear: "Cubans, precisely because they come from such a totalitarian, closed, and authoritarian education, face a sort of difficulty in opening up the space for others to choose."
The writer also provided a demanding definition of what democracy means: "Democracy is something that is built every day, fundamentally. You can't just come in and say, well, from now on this is eliminated and democracy has started."
Aguilera warned against a common misconception in Cuban society: the belief that democracy comes with the satisfaction of material needs. "What I fear is that many people think that having food or certain things means democracy has arrived. Democracy is precisely what begins after that."
For her part, Tania Costa defended that "we must be a democrat at all times, not just when it suits us, or is convenient, or when we like it. The space must be for everyone," she stated.
A thesis that Aguilera supported: "Democracy is great for me personally, but that's not democracy. Democracy is that you can even say and do things that I don't like, as long as it doesn't go against everyone's freedom."
The journalist also rejected the trend of criminalizing differing opinions: "Just because someone doesn't think like me doesn't mean they are communist."
Aguilera also nuanced the category of "the Cubans" as a fictional construct. "Cubans as such do not exist; there are many Cubans: you, me, him, others," she pointed out, acknowledging the internal diversity of a society that the regime has historically treated as a homogeneous block.
The concept of anthropological damage employed by Aguilera is not universally accepted in exile circles. Political scientist Julio Shiling rejects it and argues that Cubans can adapt to democracy, asserting that those who have left the Island “live in democracy and we are not oddities,” and that the issue is institutional, not anthropological.
The debate about the readiness of Cubans for democracy is a recurring topic in opposition and exile circles, and it becomes particularly relevant at a time when proposals for the day after the dictatorship are gaining traction in the Cuban public debate.
Aguilera summarized her stance with a phrase that encapsulates the challenge. "It's about opening spaces, it’s about making choices, and it’s about bringing to the table even the things we don’t like."
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