Juani, the Marvels of Having a Blog

Juani, the Marvels of Having a Blog / Luis Felipe Rojas
Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.

More than 10 years must have passed since I met Juan Antonio Garcia
Borrero. During those years, I participated in the cinema critique
sessions which, along with Luciano Castillo, would take place in his
native Camaguey. A swarm of youths would move from diverse universities
throughout the country to see some good cinema and to presume that they
spoke better or worse than a critic. The working days were just excuses
to make ourselves believe that there was a second cinematographic
chance, beyond the Havana hustle and bustle and its Film Festival each
December.

But one good day, Juani — as his friends call him — opened the blog "The
Insomniac Pupil" (absolutely nothing to do with the fundamentalist blog
of the former regent of the Cuban Book Institute, Iroel Sanchez), and
his followers from national newspapers and other spaces would delight
ourselves down paths which were less worn than those which some
specialists of the dark camera have us accustomed to.

A few days ago, I was at the presentation of a new entry, an edition of
Cuban Letters for the disconnected (which are the majority) of his posts
from "The Insomniac Pupil…". It was in the city of Holguin, in the 10th
edition of the Documentary Festival, "For the First Time", there were
only ten exhibits for those who were sitting and another set which were
taken down immediately, without explanations. There will eventually be
an opportunity to take it all in with less heat and prohibitions in the
book stores, after all, any book sold for twenty Cuban pesos is
condemned to eternal sleep on a bookshelf.

The best part of the gathering occurred during the presentation and
debate which was carried out by the words and provocations of Gustavo
Arcos when he challenged Garcia Borrero to share what were his scarce
possibilities of connectivity as a member of the UNEAC, or honorable
member of the AHS from Camaguey, respectively. Tell them, said Acros,
how much and who pays you to write your blog.

The interesting thing is that from the intelligence which accompanied
him, as well as his prowl amongst state circles which have tolerated or
authorized his "bloggeries", Juani suffers from the same technological
orphanhood as any independent blogger. Although he mostly writes about
film, he also takes on aspects of everyday life which bombard any
writer. For me, in particular, I really enjoy this fragment of "Surgeons
and Forensics": "I haven't written in so many days that now my words are
heavy, as if they were sacks of concrete, or perhaps it's that the
tiredness of the previous week has started to kick in".

"In the end, lots of pulp for the urgent forgetfulness, due to the lack
of having an independent voice".

But the mistake enjoys lots of popularity, so much so that one can have
the luxury of continuing to demand to be called "writer", without it
having to imply an abuse of confidence towards our friends. On "This
day", a reflection about a television space by the same name, Juani
says: "On today's Cuban television there are nightly brief sections
where we remember the most important happenings of the day. It has
always awoken curiosity in me to know exactly what are the parameters
taken into consideration to determine the importance of these events.
Who decides what deserves to rank among the most important books of
history? Based on which elements do we establish this valuation?"

I always am assaulted by similar doubts — who decides who is a blogger
and who is not? Citizen, intellectual, Cuban, without being weighed down
by such useless epithets and out of style like deserters, mercenaries,
or sell-outs?

A writer at last, Juan Antonio Garcia Borrero is an intellectual who
thinks and lightens our minds up with incomparable effectiveness, with a
tendency for tolerance which makes you want to embrace him. Something
which many autocrats must see as a crystalline map of the Cuba which
most of us dream of.

Translated by Raul G.

29 June 2012

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