The Cuban sociologist, playwright, and researcher Esther Suárez Durán published an essay this Friday on the independent platform CubaxCuba that dissects, through language analysis, the rift between the Cuban people and the regime's leadership: "Us" and "Them". Something More than a Matter of Grammar.
The text outlines the evolution of collective pronouns in Cuba: from the revolutionary "We" that, in the early years, united rulers and citizens, to the "You" with which the people began to address their leaders when problems accumulated without resolution, and finally to the current "They," which no longer implies dialogue but rather absolute distance and unchallengeability.
Suárez Durán recalls that in the early days of the revolution, the leader deliberately used the plural form in his public appearances, which fostered a genuine sense of collective identity. "The grammatical plural was embodied in the people, and those of us who embraced the ideas of the revolution, regardless of our ages, soon felt like we were part of the 'Us': with victories and setbacks. With achievements and mistakes," he writes.
To explain this initial cohesion, the researcher refers to Weber's concept of "charismatic domination," which Max Weber defined as that which "rests on the extraordinary devotion to the holiness, heroism, or exemplary nature of a person and to the orders created or revealed by that person." However, Suárez Durán emphasizes that, in her opinion, charisma was not the only support: "the leadership of this process ensured, for decades, the fulfillment of the social pact agreed upon with the people."
That pact began to crumble when citizens demanded accountability and those in power responded with indifference. The author describes how "the appeal to 'You' from 'Us' grew increasingly belligerent […] because the 'You' responded either with silence, dismissal, or, alternatively, with denial and falsehood."
What consummated the rupture was the display of privileges by the elite connected to power. "In the face of the widening, like an unfathomable abyss, of the gap in living standards; the ostentation and exhibition of privileges; in summary, immorality as the norm of conduct instead of empathy and exemplarity; the plural subject 'You' [...] was replaced by another, now recognized as completely distant, indifferent, and unappealable: 'They'," writes Suárez Durán.
That distancing is reflected in concrete figures: 92% of Cubans disapproved of the government's management according to the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights in September 2025, and among young people aged 18 to 30, only 3.39% expressed a favorable opinion.
The Cuban jurist René Fidel González García stated in September 2026 that between the rulers and the citizenry, there is no longer merely "alienation" but rather a "structural and irreversible disconnection." In today’s Cuban society, while large majorities are barely surviving — recent data indicates that 94% are living in extreme poverty — the power elites, largely associated with the Castro family, lead a scandalous life of luxury.
The most serious consequence of this fracture, the author concludes, is that "at this point, from the 'Them' there's no possibility of appealing to a unity that holds any value," while from the people "the mere mention of 'Them' oozes despair, frustration, but, above all, contempt. Deep. Abyssal."
In response to this, Suárez Durán advocates for the dignity of the majority: “We, the Many (because that’s what we are: the many), show sacred respect, recognize the homeland as a shrine, and are neither willing nor in a position to accept any unhealthy, ridiculous, and annoying pedestal.”
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