In a country where the leadership seems increasingly devoid of sense, the state-run propaganda machine never fails to find new depths of absurdity. This time, it's the Union of Young Communists (UJC) in Santiago de Cuba that has taken the spotlight. On August 13, in an attempt to honor the "legacy" of dictator Fidel Castro, they decided that a beach day at El Berraco was the perfect tribute.
A post on Facebook by the organization proudly announced that 300 young participants from the Summer Camp enjoyed "a refreshing swim" at one of the province's most cherished beaches. "With activities like this, the camp aims to offer healthy recreational alternatives to the new generations, while honoring the legacy of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro," stated the UJC in their publication. Seriously?
The situation in Cuba is becoming increasingly difficult to decipher, even for the likes of Alan Turing. Neither mathematicians nor fortune tellers, nor even algorithms can make sense of what goes through the minds of the ideologues, communicators, and propagandists of the so-called "revolution."
A tribute to Fidel Castro at El Berraco beach? For less than that, the man being honored might have sent you off to cut sugarcane for life, preserved you in formaldehyde, and added you to his collection of those who dared to be original but ended up twisted in Villa Marista, where MININT's make-up artists would leave you with a blissful expression pleasing to the nefarious Don Berraco in Chief.
Perhaps in Santiago, people no longer speak the Cuban slang of old; perhaps the younger generations have a new term for describing someone clumsy, useless, arrogant, and full of ego. A fool, a berraco who goes around making a mess of things, launching energy revolutions, failing at 10-million-ton sugarcane harvests, constructing the Havana Greenbelt, and sparking missile crises.
The decision of the communist youth to honor Fidel by swimming at El Berraco is, therefore, a metaphor so precise that not even the best satirical writer could invent it. The berraco as both a place and a symbol: a male inflated with ego, proud of himself despite a bad odor (like a boar, from the Latin "verres," male pig), whose sole contribution to the species has been to generate misfortunes.
The UJC presented it as "a day of leisure" offering "healthy recreational alternatives" to the younger generations, conveniently leaving out that for most young Cubans, true alternatives involve emigrating or surviving the daily hustle, not chanting slogans between waves.
Yet there they are, smiling, fulfilling the agenda of "continuity," while the country sinks into misery and power outages threaten to darken every last corner of the island. All in the name of a legacy that has paradoxically left the youth with less future than an old berraco on a farm without sows.
And so, amid crystal-clear waters and outdated slogans, El Berraco beach enters the grand stage of Cuban political imagination: the perfect setting to celebrate the work of a historical berraco... and all the berracos who follow in his footsteps.
Understanding Fidel Castro's Controversial Legacy
Why did the Union of Young Communists choose El Berraco beach for this tribute?
The Union of Young Communists likely chose El Berraco beach as a symbolic location for their tribute to Fidel Castro, using it as a metaphor for honoring his legacy, despite the underlying irony of the setting.
What does the term "berraco" imply in this context?
In this context, "berraco" is used ironically to describe someone who is arrogant and full of ego, drawing a parallel between the location's name and the characteristics attributed to Fidel Castro's leadership style.