26: The Capitol of Capitalism

The Cuban Capitol began as an imitation of the one in Washington DC and ended up being our scrawny imitation of democracy. Opened in 1929, the Capitol was vacated in the stampede of its thirtieth year, when Fidel Castro’s armed bearded ones entered Havana and the whole Senate of the Republic, as corrupt as could be, emigrated without resistance.

For its upcoming eighty-fifth birthday, after being relegated from the Realpolitik during Fidelism, the Capitol could become the site of the National Assembly of People’s Power, which the foreign media insists on comparing to a parliament. It’s the beginning of Raúlpolitik. There are rumors that its dome will be ostentatiously gold plated and that the second generation of Castros will preside over our nation there. The heir—possibly Alejandro Castro Espín, Raúl’s only son—could then construct state capitalism or communism with capital. In any case, it would be by edict and never by plebiscite or universal suffrage. Cubalea iacta est. The aspirations of continental hegemony will perhaps be managed between the two cloned capitals from Washington DC (District of Columbia) and Havana DC (Doubled Castro).