Urban whispers

Urban whispers

Juan González Febles

HAVANA, Cuba - August (www.cubanet.org) - In Havana, people don't speak;
they whisper. They walk like zombies. They go out only when necessary.
No sense talking in the streets. We must not forget that "the streets
belong to the faithful of the Revolution." It won't do to provoke "those
people."

There are disquieting rumors about Fidel Castro's health. At first,
there is denial. Later will come disbelief, later still indifference and
last, forgetfulness.

The city neither laughs nor cries. Havana residents display an
inscrutable visage. Speculation and knowingness have long faded from
their minds. People move amidst an odd apprehension. They don't know and
they don't care to know. They take refuge in their silent ally of four
decades: the wait.

They wait for a better time, and those who wait are pathetic. To wait
patiently goes beyond the national character. Cubans don't like long
waits for long silences. They create tension.

People look at each other fearfully in the street, and whisper in their
bedrooms. It's the beginning of the end. Hope struggles silently with
fear. As Cubans dance in the streets of Miami, in Havana the streets are
pregnant with the urban whispers of fear and silenced hopes.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/ago06/04e1.htm