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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://resumen-english.org/2026/08/cuba-what-they-didnt-anticipate-our-animalization/">resumen-english.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">What They Didn\u2019t Anticipate: Our Animalization</h1>
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<p>By Laidi Fernandez de Juan on August 6, 2026</p>
<p><img src="https://i0.wp.com/resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/6-25-bandera-cubana-centro-habana-pabellon-cuba-580x442-1.jpg?resize=300%2C229&ssl=1" alt="" width="300" height="229"></p><p>Amid
this chaotic situation we\u2019re living through\u2014where survival is
paramount, and resilience, resourcefulness, and a resigned acceptance of
the inevitable prevail\u2014we\u2019re gradually acquiring qualities we never
imagined. Those who push us to the limit, impose cruel restrictions on
us, and force us into a permanent state of vigilance that wears down our
central nervous system\u2014that is, our entire body\u2014failed to calculate the
intrinsic nature of the Cuban people: <strong>the stubborn strength to invent, to stay afloat, to transform mechanisms and things that were previously unimaginable.</strong>
This kind of resilience isn\u2019t found in any manual. It\u2019s something we\u2019ve
gradually acquired over many years of deprivation and the resulting
workarounds.<span id="gmail-more-36067"></span></p>
<p>I\u2019m not going to compare one period with another\u2014this crisis with the
previous one\u2014or talk about how much we\u2019ve sacrificed, because that
would undermine the current sense of urgency in the face of the
precariousness of our existence.</p>
<p>If half a year ago it seemed unimaginable to us to be without basic
services for 4 or 6 hours a day (water supply, essential electricity,
cooking gas, digital or landline telephone service), we have now reached
the point where we have access to these services for barely an hour
each day\u2014which forces us into a gradual return to a more animal-like
existence, requiring skills we never planned for or even imagined
possible.</p>
<p>This does not in the least mean that we are pleased with or willingly
accept these changes\u2014quite the opposite. Everyone\u2019s nerves are on edge,
raw and frayed, with a tremendous irritation that explains why we fight
like beasts over a piece of bread, the right of way, or a simple bucket
of water. Among other reasons, because nothing is simple or
dispensable.</p>
<p>We all need water, food, electricity, gas, and medicine at any cost,
even if that entails the gradual descent into animal-like behavior I\u2019m
referring to. There are many examples; I\u2019ll limit myself to just a few.</p>
<p>Although it defies the laws of human physiology, we\u2019ve already
developed a certain kind of night vision, as if we were cats or bats.
Having lived in semi-darkness for the past six months, in the early
morning we can make out the silhouettes of the dining room table,
identify the living room armchair and the nightstand without stumbling.
Our hearing has acquired new capabilities, also unimaginable before this
war we wage day after day. We\u2019re no longer startled by the fluttering
of a stray butterfly that can\u2019t find a window to escape through.</p>
<p>Those striking tataguas\u2014or witch butterflies\u2014that sometimes sneak
into our homes wander about without us swatting them away with a broom,
as we used to. They no longer frighten us, nor do we believe they
portend bad omens. We already have enough of those.</p>
<p>Mice gnaw at the corners of the rooms and the edges of the baseboards
without us paying them much attention. Not only because we\u2019re exhausted
after fighting battles all day, but also because, on our new scale of
values, sensing (hearing or seeing) rodents or flying creatures is of no
consequence.</p>
<p>Chicken eggs explode due to the intense heat and lack of
refrigeration. I can attest to the noise they make when they burst, but
we already know that it\u2019s not a bomb that\u2019s gone off in the kitchen, but
an egg, and although it\u2019s a misfortune, it\u2019s not the end of the world.
At least not the world we inhabit right now.</p>
<p>As if we were crocodiles, we bleed very little, if at all. The other
day, an extremely heavy flashlight fell on one of my eyebrows. Under
normal circumstances, blood would have gushed from the injured brow
ridge, but not now. As if the body, the platelets, and the physiological
cascade of coagulation understood that there are no suture threads or
needles, no disinfectants, no cotton, no gauze, and no light at the
clinic, the forehead, the eyebrows, and the entire face hold back, and
not even a bump bears witness to the trauma. We are reptiles, cats,
bats.</p>
<p>Like wise elephants, like gentle dolphins, like multicolored
butterflies, we\u2019re coming to accept a new way of life\u2014one that\u2019s
constantly changing, too.</p>
<p>It may happen that the blessed hour of electricity arrives in the
middle of the night. In a state of constant wakefulness, we don\u2019t even
make a sound. Every member of the family leaps out of bed with the speed
of a cheetah because we know that in a matter of minutes we have to
charge the few devices we have\u2014our cell phones, our fans\u2014as well as do
the laundry, cook, clean, and maybe even iron, even if it\u2019s 3 a.m. <strong>We look like anxious mice doing everything at once, in a frenzy.</strong>
Then, like sleepy koalas, we spend the rest of the day, only to regain
the tactile sensitivity of a mole when darkness (both metaphorical and
real) falls.</p>
<p>I\u2019m convinced that our oppressors didn\u2019t anticipate that these
unusual and unnatural adaptations would enable us to survive. The vast
majority of us now belong to the so-called \u201cordinary Cubans,\u201d and we go
to the market as if we were members of a flock of ducks, geese, or
ants\u2014in silent single file to procure food, dragging wheeled carts or
wooden boxes adapted for that purpose.</p>
<p>No matter how harsh, difficult, cumbersome, and suffocating our
corrosive daily life may be, no matter how much we\u2019ve been reduced to
animals, and no matter how distant hope may seem, <strong>we will not let ourselves be defeated.</strong></p>
<p>Because our conviction as an unbeatable people\u2014to put it
bluntly\u2014compels us to know that no matter how bleak the outlook may be
(and it certainly is), the sun\u2014whatever form it may take\u2014will rise every
morning, every day. Even if it\u2019s just to tell the dolphin, the rabbit,
the cat, or the crocodile who we are: \u201cGood morning, here I am.\u201d</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2026/08/05/lo-que-no-calcularon-nuestra-animalizacion/">Cubadebate</a>, translation Resumen Latinoamericano \u2013 English</p>
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