The Great Chess Master Lázaro Bruzón published a video on Facebook this Monday in which he reflects on why some Cubans find it difficult to "accept change," arguing that decades of indoctrination have turned ideology into a part of the personal identity of millions of people.
"We grew up in a country where there is a totalitarian system that encompasses all spheres of life," Bruzón states in the recording.
The chess player, based in Missouri since 2018, describes how from childhood, Cubans received a singular message through street posters, television, radio, schools, history books, and even cartoons: that the Revolution was good, socialism was the only possible path, and capitalism—along with the United States—was the source of all evils.
"When so many years pass with such strong indoctrination, many people struggle, at some point in their lives, to accept that they were and have been wrong," she points out.
For Bruzón, the obstacle is not just ideological but deeply personal: accepting the deception means reevaluating the heroes of childhood, rejecting books once read, programs enjoyed, and memories that are part of one's identity.
“It is to reject and renounce so many things that define your identity, which many people resist; they cling to that self-deception because they prefer to remain this way, suffering less than simply accepting that we were all part of that manipulation, which has been extreme to the utmost,” she states.
The chess player explicitly includes himself in that process. Before emigrating, he was a member of the Young Communist League and a deputy in the People's Power Assembly in Las Tunas, and he even got a tattoo of Che Guevara as a reflection of his youthful indoctrination.
"I have to be honest and say that I was just another one who followed a doctrine that is wrong in many aspects and is wholly responsible for the ills of the Cuban nation," he admits in the video.
Bruzón argued that collective healing requires individual courage: "To heal, to have a prosperous nation that is just for all Cubans, we must also start with this, by each Cuban accepting their share of responsibility."
The video arrives just hours after a post published by Bruzón himself titled “Cuba: the price of awakening,” where he explored this internal conflict in greater depth. In that post, the chess player described how the process of questioning what has been learned involves “dismantling, piece by piece, a mental structure built over decades,” and warned that accepting the truth not only means recognizing political mistakes but also re-evaluating memories, references, and beliefs that are part of personal identity.
This reflection is framed within a sustained trajectory of critical statements. Last May, the chess player stated that the indoctrination in Cuba "leads to fanaticism, incapacitates critical thinking, and often logic as well," and recounted how during his first visit to the United States in 2013, he arrived with fear and prejudices towards Americans, a product of decades of propaganda.
On June 13, he challenged the regime's cyber fighters with the phrase “checkmate, just surrender,” and last Friday he described Díaz-Canel as representing “evil, failure, and a burden” following his speeches at the XXII Congress of the Central Union of Cuban Workers.
The reports of indoctrination described by Bruzón have recent documentary support: in April, it was reported that preschool children in Havana were being forced to chant slogans like "Fidel," "socialism," and "militian," and in September 2025, it was revealed that first-grade math books included images of Fidel Castro in basic exercises.
"We simply have to defend the truth, accept that we were wrong, and strive for a better Cuba, free from all that doctrine and dogmatism that has brought us to where we are," concludes Bruzón in the video.
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