Posted on 04/22/2003 10:57:04 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
It is said that Monterroso’s short story is the shortest one ever written. Textually it reads: “When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.”
It is true that it is very short, what I fail to understand is why people insist on calling it a story. But let’s leave it at that, it isn’t my intention to discuss this very famous, and very short, story.
I intend to write about the most frustrated, and short, individual in this world; at least that’s how those of us who have suffered through his bouts of frustration and quirkiness have come to see him.
This malcontent had one thousand and one opportunities to gain notoriety but never did. He was a mediocre magician, and also tried to be an actor. He was a policeman, a bad artist, a deficient art teacher, even tried to be a gigolo, but lacked the looks. Then, he found out that there were dissidents in Cuba, and understood that somehow, he could achieve fame.
He searched and dug around in a thousand places, and understood that by being a dissident, he could get people somewhere to talk about him. He became an independent journalist.
One can very easily become an independent journalist, the best thing about it is that you don’t have to be a journalist at all, and by either luck or misfortune, what you say can be read or heard nearly anywhere.
In this, the frustrated man was pleased. Some of his mediocrities were read or heard overseas, but pleasing a frustrated individual is a difficult thing, and he wanted more. He was not satisfied with the sporadic mentions he received in the radio; his occasional appearances in Miami newspapers did not satiate his thirst for fame; he aspired to so much more recognition. He decided to become the most famous dissident in his province, but not by working, he would achieve his fame as a professional schemer.
He turned his house into the Devil’s cauldron. Gallons of café were consumed and tons of nicotine inhaled in an insecure and damaging blend of gossip and intrigue directed at the very brothers at arms of Cuban dissidence. Now, the frustrated man is famous. Every scandal that surfaces against someone is born there, in the macabre and obscene social events elaborated by himself and his unconditionally manipulated supporters. Discrepancies among members of organizations, dissolution of political movements, arguments, and disappearances of projects created with fine intentions are the fruit of the labor, and the shame of this individual.
Now, nearly every one of us fear his entanglements, and the truth is that what we have become is a group of frightened and confused brothers, and that brings me pain.
I hope this story serves as a warning, and maybe it will become the shortest story in the world, but I can’t write anymore about such a frustrated man. Fear not, for there is always hope remaining for us, even in spite of those who seek to do us harm.
But it is very sad however, every morning when we awake, the dinosaur is still there.
Hoy que mi pueblo vive ilusionado
yo me siento inspirado y un son estoy cantando
anunciandole a todos mis hermanos
que nuestro día ya viene llegando.
All four of my abuelos are buried in American soil, they will never see that day...but I'm going to dance on Fidel's grave for them.
We'll have to take turns! LOL!
My grandfather is buried here too. He was very proud to be an American. In fact, mi abuelita has so many American flags around our house, it almost looks like wallpaper!
But that hope for what Cuba could be never, ever goes away. It's in the blood.
I still mourn for Elian & his Mother. A mother willing to lose her life in hopes her son would live free. At least she never knew it was a lost cause.
Just wanted you to know,I'll never forget.
Thanks Luis
Yup. Not often mentioned, but a few Cuban American votes less and there would have been no recount nightmare.
I've got the same problem. Can someone get this Barney tape out of my VCR!!
April 24, 2000 - Useful Idiots Hard at Work*** On April 15, at the Cuban Diplomatic Mission in Washington, DC, America got a glimpse at how Juan Miguel's hosts deal with dissent. Annoyed by a crowd of Cuban-American protestors, a group of fifteen men inside the mission ran outside and pummeled the demonstrators so severely that several required treatment at a local hospital. According to the Associated Press, US Secret Service agents, who are charged with guarding the mission, had to strike the attackers with batons to subdue them.
Now that's a "state of imminent danger" to one's "physical and mental well-being." Not that Dr. Redlener will take note. Like Janet Reno and Greg Craig, he is a diligent minion of Castro's totalitarianism-a useful idiot, as Lenin once called his Western accomplices. For Elian Gonzalez to stay in the US, he will have to overcome a vast force of useful idiots-starting with the contingent that occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.***
Cuban Embassy in Canada *** To access the web page of the Embassy of Cuba in Canada, just make a clic on this master piece of one of the most famous Cuban painters, Carlos Enríquez, "El rapto de las mulatas"***
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