Cuban actress Darlyn Morales shared a reel on her Instagram account where she humorously and candidly lists several situations that Cubans considered normal and everyday, but which, seen from the outside, are hard to believe.
The video, which gathered thousands of reactions, addresses three realities of the Cuban system that the actress herself deems absurd: the prohibition of eating seafood on an island, the laws that protect livestock over people, and the militarization of education from childhood.
The first point that Darlyn touches on is the paradox of seafood. “We are an island surrounded by the sea, my dear, and I didn’t eat shrimp and lobster until I don’t know what age. What happened to all that seafood? Where did it go?” she asks in the video.
The answer is hinted at immediately: "I imagine those in the government never stopped eating seafood. Because we Cubans never ate seafood. It was illegal to buy it, illegal to catch it."
The second topic is about cattle. "The issue of cows. That is sacred in Cuba. It’s not sacred like it is in India. It’s sacred because the cow, my dear, was just for them," says Morales. He adds, "Imagine, a cow can give you more years than if you do it to a person. And even if you are the owner of the cow, you couldn't, my love... Who would eat that meat?"
The third absurdity mentioned by the actress is the subject of Military Preparation, which is mandatory in Cuban education. "If you missed class, you could fail the course, you know? We were running for a possible attack, crawling on the ground, learning all of that; we had been doing it since we were kids," she recalls.
The discipline, known as "Preparation for Defense," or PPD, is upheld in various teachings and even includes instruction with weapons and combat simulations under the doctrine of "War of the Entire People," which is defended and promoted by the dictatorship.
Darlyn Moreles, who has been based in Spain for several years, is a well-known voice of the young Cuban diaspora that uses humor to navigate the contradictions of the system in which she grew up. Her closing statement in the video says it all: "As a Cuban, in the end, I laugh to avoid crying."
Filed under: