42: L is for 50

In Cuba, the letter L, raised high, is synonymous with Liberation. The Christian Liberation Movement and later the Ladies in White civic movement adopted the L in their peaceful wars against the Castro regime. The consonant has become part of a mute language; there is no need to add anything when forming this right angle with thumb and forefinger: L…

The martyred founder of the Christian Liberation Movement, Oswaldo Payá, and the leader of the Ladies in White, Laura Pollán died because of the criminality of a regime that coerces doctors and attacks cars on the highway. The L that both bequeathed to Cuba needs to be picked up like a baton or a torch, if we are to live in a future where our pro-democracy leaders survive and the Revolution’s executioners are dealt with in court.

That of the powers-that-be is a Roman L. The Cuban State, that empire of impunity, shows no signs of learning of its fall. An L overtook the figure of the Revolution’s fifty anniversaries and now threatens to convert itself into a C—not only the Cuban C of Castro but also the Roman C of one hundred.