By: Randy Alonso Falcón on March 20, 2023
Cheerleader and friend of Posada Carriles, Miguel Saavedra gave his anti-Cuban show outside Versailles restaurant on Saturday. photo: Miami Herald
There is nothing worse than a soul full of hate. It closes minds, strips identities, makes people act without reasoning. It was already portrayed in words by the great Tenessee Williams: “…hatred is a feeling that can only exist in the absence of all intelligence.”
This absence of everything and this excess of hatred was shown by some people this Sunday in Miami. They were the same as always, the former shysters and the soulless ones of today; united in that abominable franchise of aversion and bitterness.
Few people in the world deny their homeland and are capable of hating their sports teams on the field or in the stadium like the anti-Cuban haters. They are unique specimens on Earth.
Mexicans, Venezuelans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, of all creeds and ideologies, went these days to the stadiums of the World Baseball Classic to support their own, those of their homeland, even though they no longer live there.
Quite a few Cubans also went this Sunday to the Little Havana stadium to cheer for the men who proudly wore the four letters of their country, no matter where they lived or where they played. They represented a proud nation; they represented millions who have baseball as their passion and culture.
But the haters did not. There was the veteran organizer of the anti-Cuban street cheers and friend of terrorists in front of the Versailles trying with his mini-planner to pound his anger on the face of Captain Despaigne and a couple of bats and balls; there was the digital hater of the pamela with his bodyguards and coryphaeus distilling rage and more; there was the sponsored upstart with the foul mouth, just arrived but already dressed in the suit of the adversary, because that of Cuba would be too heavy for such a small soul.
If anyone had any doubts as to how much these characters love Cuba, the World Baseball Classic came to be a matchless theater to undress them on stage.
“Hate barks and does not work. Only love builds”, José Martí said. That hatred can be called Balart, Saavedra, Otaola or similar. Is that what we want for Cuba?
Our team lost on the field against a formidable opponent that showed its offensive power; but the real losers of this Sunday night in Miami were those with poor souls, the champions of hatred and lies, the inquisitors and spoilers, the eternal sowers of poison (as the poet said). They lost what they have never really had: a people.
Today, Cubans will give an emotional welcome to our ballplayers, who played with joy and fortitude, who fought for every out and made it to the big four in a tournament with an ever-increasing quality and level. We are proud of them.
Special gratitude to those who, above hatred and pressures, put their talent, will and soul around Cuba, their homeland, and made us dream. They will not be able to come to receive the warmth of this people, due to the restrictions they have in their contracts, but they will feel in the distance the satisfaction of the love and the good work that their compatriots recognize.
And they will continue working to improve our baseball, to make it more modern, of higher quality and also with more spectacle. To look for new talents and new successes that will gladden the souls of those of us who have baseball in our blood.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – US