Triumph of the Revolution 2G

Apparently yesterday was a national holiday dedicated to children, a national day for the next generation of Cuban revolutionaries.  I didn’t realize it until I found myself at a youth concert of entirely Van Van (popular fusion group) songs in that late afternoon, with hundreds of Cuban children and parents. As the sun set on the hundreds of giant Cuban flags behind the Anti-Imperialist monument, almost entirely blocking the ex-US Embassy next to the Malecon, a woman called “mani” “peanuts”, and the audience clapped along to the five year olds singing on stage. They wore white outfits with red ribbons, and with microphones larger than their heads in their hands, sang songs of national pride. I was filled with a sentiment of community, of real, live socialist action. I envisioned these five year olds as poster children for the 54^th year of the revolution, a revolution that still taking place. It represented the stark generational gap between lived experiences of those who were young during the 50s, and those that are the youth of today. For youth today, who grew up during the special period, the revolution is just frustrating. They never experienced Fidel and Che riding into Havana to liberate it from the bourgeoisie, and never experienced the excitement of national progress immediately following the fall of Bautista. For them, the revolution was equivalent to a majority of their school falling into ruin, not enough food, and only left with dreams of leaving the island, but of course coming back again. The strong sense of Cuban pride never ceases to amaze me. Cuban flags, boteros painted with Cuban colors, people wherever I go supporting Cuba. I spoke to it a minimal amount in another post, but there exists a hope for national growth here in Cuba I have never experienced before. This concert, and the image of a new generation of small Cubans clapping along to the songs of their fathers and mothers, are keeping the torch aflame for their children to do the same.