THE IDIOSINCRACY OF THE URUGUAYANS AND THE CUBANS GUAJIROS OF EASTER REGION.

   THE IDIOSINCRACY OF THE URUGUAYANS AND THE CUBANS GUAJIROS OF EASTER REGION.

  There is only the meeting at a bus stop between several mature Uruguayans and Cubans from the East. Everything is very interesting. The spontaneity of the Uruguayan, his kindness and the almost visceral need to know or find out everything about the lives of others.

   Cubans from the mountainous east, timid, rather remain silent unless they are asked directly, where they are from, when they arrived, how long they live in Uruguay - even if they have spent 25 years as emigrants in the small country, and how they have gone in life, especially economically.

   I do not deny that there are Cubans who are interested in a Uruguayan to see if they can find work, housing or how to live from the story, as we say in Cuba. Almost all come from the western provinces and are more open, interested and when you least expect it they invite themselves to some house of a good-hearted Uruguayan.

  The other day at a bus stop there were many people, especially older Uruguayans and only two Cubans from the East, quiet and shy.

   -Well, the sister of my sister, may God preserve her in glory, had eight children and three husbands. And do you know how it ended? Alone and living with another sister with a miserable pension and always with the help of the BPS.

   -Well, that's nothing. My husband worked as a carpenter all his life and that's how he got old. Thank God he gave himself time to make his own coffin. And I was a widow, but still young. I joined a black man from Gana who was a good lover but in the end he ran away with all my savings and my few jewels, luckily I had a good pension to survive.

   A Lord intervenes in the conversation

  .-My youngest daughter is a professional dancer and she spends her time traveling the world. From time to time she sends me a postcard from Budapest, Milan or Moscow. She does know how to enjoy life. Now she wants to take me to Israel, to the holy places, but I feel very old to take a plane on a flight of about 25 hours. I would not resist it. I stay in Montevideo, which is the most beautiful place in the world.

   Another old woman intervened:

   -I lived in Tacuarembó in a beautiful farm. We cultivated vegetables and raised sheep and cows without any luxury or toys. Now my grandchildren, I'm like 17, they just want Play Station and the latest cell phone model. It's not fair. My mother corrected me with a flip-flop and made me do all kinds of seams with only threads, needles and good cloths. Now everything comes from China, cheap and of poor quality. These guys of today do not know about sacrifices.

   And the two eastern Cubans in silence, listening attentively and sympathetically to the mature.

   - And you, it is seen that they are not from here, I mean Uruguay?

  -No, we are Cubans.

  -Cubans! What happiness, with the beautiful beaches you have and sun all year round. In addition, it is a happy and peaceful town, no         demonstrations or strikes, as there are here in Uruguay.

  .-But we live in a dictatorship, without freedom of the press or of expression or market economy like you. There is hunger, bread is scarce, oil and beef have not tasted for years, "said the younger Cuban.

  -But what does it matter if there is hunger, we can spend days eating chard, beet or spinach pies. True friends. There is so much insecurity that we prefer communism with hunger but calm.

 - It is that there is something that you take for granted since you were born-said the other Cuban- the freedom. That is a desire of every country and that we do not have for 60 years...

 "SO MUCH!"

   They answered in unison.

  -Yes. And we are already fed up.

  -And why do not you fight  like in other countries? -they asked.

   -Because we are cowards and we fear to face the military and the government that do not pass the needs of the people.

  -Poor That's why they flee through the Brazilian jungle to our country that is open ... By the way, in Montevideo there are Cubans who have taken pensions where they live badly and form tremendous parties and do not look for work, -"said a woman.

.-These are not true Cubans who seek freedom in another country, but enjoyment and sniping agents of the Cuban government to give a false image of the Cuban emigrant. They have more Sandunga - the younger Cuban added again.

 -And you, what were you in Cuba and if you already got a job in Uruguay?

  -I'm an obstetrician and mine engineer. We already get work in a restaurant, waiters or cleaning bathrooms. We pay floor fees as you say.

  -Ayy ...! What a barbarity, an obstetrician and an engineer cleaning bathrooms ..

. -And you, calm with their precarious pensions and dreaming of exotic beaches and lots of sun. We prefer, for now, a democratic society like yours.

  The men and women fell silent. They did not know the free country, bad or good, in which they had to live. We Cubans must start from scratch but now with hope and yes with "a bright future" in another country and not with promise as always Fidel said durring years.

 A woman of about fifty years old with wide-eyed and bright approached and asked the two Cubans in a low voice:


   - And what does it mean that Cuban men have a great "Sandunga?

                         Orlando Vicente Álvarez