Guardian angels

"Guardian angels"

I see police everywhere. I don't know if they are stuck on my retina or
if in recent months there has been an alarming growth in their numbers.
They come in Mercedes Benz trucks, stand three at a time on the corners
and even show up with their German shepherds at various places in the
city. While hundreds of round modern cameras watch us from above, those
in uniform control us on the broken sidewalks at street level. They come
out of nowhere and disappear when we need them most. Astute in detecting
a sack of cement transported without papers, they rarely emerge at night
in the slums where the number of crimes grows and grows.

There are also those in plain clothes, those "guardian angels" with a
permanent presence in any line, cultural center, or human gathering.
They are no longer as easy to spot because they've changed their rayon
pullovers, checked shirts and military haircuts for costumes ranging
from braids with colored beads to letting their underwear show above the
waist of their pants. They sport cell phones, sunglasses, and leather
sandals, but still seem out of place with the expression of someone who
does not blend into the situation they inform about. They go to the Film
Festival but have never seen a Fellini film, they are in the art
galleries but are incapable of saying whether a painting is figurative
or abstract. In short, they have been taught to camouflage themselves
but they can't erase their sneer of contempt toward the "petit
bourgeoisie weakness" that is art and its manifestations.

What I fear the most, however, is not this group with the metal badges
on their chests, or those under cover who write reports, but the
coercive police inside all of us. The one who blows the whistle of fear
to warn us of what we do not dare, and who shakes the shackles of
indifference each time we add to our critiques or opinions. The one who
has attended the Academy of Self-Censorship and is a skilled soldier in
showing us the roads that bring no trouble. The one with a Penal Code
with at most a couple short articles: No. 1 "Don't look for problems,"
and No. 2 "What you do won't change anything." If we wake up one day
wanting to silence the pounding of that one's boots inside our head,
then we remember the bars, the courts, the chill of a provincial prison.
He doesn't need to take a cudgel to our ribs, because he knows how to
pluck the strings of fear, and with the phrase, "Stay calm, it's better
to wait," he executes the karate kicks that leave our body immobilized,
aching in anticipation.

Generation Y » "Guardian angels" (7 February 2010)
http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?p=1459