A few days later, I was standing in
front of our house. By 1969 life had become so dull that there was nothing else
to do. Fidel had eliminated anything and everything that could bring
entertainment or joy to the human soul. Even
radio soap operas were laced with propaganda.
While
I was standing there, the chivato appeared, catching me by surprise. “These are
for you,” he said, handing me a cluster of bananas. His voice seemed to say, “I
am sorry you found out the kind of person I have become.”
He
scrutinized my face, trying to detect whether I had told anyone. I felt bad for
him. It seemed to me there was sadness in his expression and demeanor. He knew
how much our family had suffered under Fidel’s iron fist, and he had always
been respectful and caring every time he saw me and always said hello.
I
walked inside and handed my mother the banana bounty, and she hung the entire
cluster in the back of the house by the laundry area. A few days later I was
helping her do laundry by hand, as was the custom, when she asked, “Why didn’t
you tell me you were supposed to share the bananas with the neighbor’s
daughter?” Perplexed, I looked up at my mother. I had no idea what she was
talking about. She said that Judas Goat had told a neighbor that the bananas
were for both her daughter and me.
“He
told me the bananas were for me. He didn’t tell me I was supposed to share them
with anyone.” I was furious. The snitch was trying to make a liar out of me. He
was hoping my mother would not believe me in the event I told her about his
spying. How little did he know my mother! Had I told her about the incident,
she would have found him and would have given him a piece of her mind, a good
spruce, as she did with every snitch she discovered. I don’t think his family’s
connections to the party would have held her back. In my mom’s eyes snitching
on your fellow Cuban was a cardinal sin. She was right, of course; but people
are people and people often make bad decisions, especially when they are afraid
or want to belong.
Copyright Dania Rosa Nasca, January 16, 2016
