The political analyst Julio Shiling warns that the most profound damage the Castro regime has inflicted on the Cuban people is not economic, but psychological, sociological, and anthropological, due to the deliberate destruction of the connection with national history.
In an interview for CiberCuba, Shiling —director of the Patria de Martí think tank and author of the book Dictatorships and Their Paradigms— explained that communism "cut the umbilical cord with Cuban history", created its own narrative to explain the events of the country from 1492 to 1958, and thus "destroyed the way we identify ourselves as a people."
"This fabrication of history to fit an ideological model and a political dictatorial system has harmed it, has caused an extraordinary trauma to the people of Cuba," Shiling stated.
The analyst emphasized that this damage often takes a backseat to material crises, even though both elements are closely related.
"We constantly hear about the economic hardships that are very evident, but equally, if not more importantly, is the psychological, sociological, and anthropological damage that has been inflicted on the Cuban people."
According to Shiling, the regime not only imposed a false narrative but also rewrote the profiles of all national heroes to fit the convenience of Castroism.
"All our heroes were redefined according to what would suit the communist Castro dictatorial regime," he noted.
The most striking case, in their opinion, is that of José Martí: "Even our greatest hero is questioned; he is hated in many circles for that falsehood of Castro communism."
Shiling also mentioned Father Félix Varela, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, and Ignacio Agramonte as figures distorted by the regime's propaganda machinery.
The analyst recalled that Martí expressed that socialism was ineffective and that Agramonte spoke out against communism, but the regime ignored those positions.
"It doesn't matter that Martí said socialism was unworkable, that Ignacio Agramonte stated that communism was ineffective; none of that is mentioned."
He asserted that when the ideas of a national hero did not align with the official ideology, the regime chose to discredit the historical figure in question.
"They reclassify or belittle by saying that Carlos Manuel de Céspedes or Ignacio Agramonte were bourgeois, giving a fabricated perspective of what they want to present."
"The fact that they present that fabricated version does not mean it is true; that great trauma damages collective memory in an extraordinary way."
The interview is part of a broader debate on the 1940 Constitution as a tool for democratic transition, a topic that was the subject of a forum held in Miami last week, in which Shiling participated.
Since 1959, the Castro regime has implemented a systematic control of education, the media, and historical narrative to legitimize its power, selectively appropriating the heroes of independence while silencing aspects of their thinking that are incompatible with Marxism-Leninism.
For Shiling, the answer to that trauma has a specific name: "Returning to the Constitution of 1940 is a mechanism for healing and national reconciliation."
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