14ymedio, Havana, 24 December 2023 — If instead of choosing faces, at the end of 2023 we had compiled the objects that best represent Cubans this year, we would have included in the list a suitcase, some police handcuffs, a baseball, a judge’s gavel, a keyboard, a microphone and graffiti on some facade.
Every presence leaves traces and the protagonists of these 12 months that conclude could also be followed through the tools, supports and infrastructures that they have used. But this is the list of the protagonists, not their things. We are not compiling the tools they used but rather their personal responsibility for certain events. It is not even the mural of the victims or the perpetrators, but the canvas of those responsible who drew the lines of what we have experienced.
For this reason, we have focused on the people who left a mark, sometimes light and beautiful; others heavy and destructive. Nor is this a “doomsday” glossary, but rather a list of those who impacted our lives this year, for better and worse. Sometimes they helped us fashion wings and other times, unfortunately, they built anchors that made it more difficult to regain civic, economic and personal flight. But, in addition to their intentions, the snapshot we have captured of their faces and their stories forces them to share space.
In these 14 faces there is everything. Those who promoted and those who blocked. There are those who entered the list because they were fully exploring life, and others because they left this existence just in time
Most likely
