Fantastic Voyage

Ileana Fuentes

Have no reservations: go to Cuba.

Take along a cold embrace -Cubans, you know, are simply mad

about cositas from "the North"-

and all your charm para mi gente

cubagente buenagente

nodueñas de su destino

pero sí of their survival.

No confundas la alegría con

"I support the Revolution".

Cubans have always seemed happy.

La colonia, casi happy

independencia, so happy

three interventions, less happy

capitalismo, quite happy

Batista left, very happy

Fidel bajó, requetehappy

¡Paredón! Yankee Go Home, happy

el comunismo llegó

-guat can yú dú?- be happy

a cortar caña, muy happy

en el exilio, recontrahappy

American tourists, act happy

American senators, pero qué happy!

the intelligentsia, so very happy!!

llegó el poeta, ¡Coñoooó! Qué happy!!!

Go and meet their expectations

but first,

prepara bien tu facade for daily hallucinations.

Haz un plagio subconsciente

para cada contraseña.

Do concelebrate the odes to Nicaragua and Vietnam

but never mention exiled poets

ni se te ocurra indagar if there are dissidents in jail:

There's no dissidence in Cuba,

only antisocial lumpen que dejó el imperialismo.

Have no fear: you've earned the right.

You haven't played your colleagues' game

much less played up to the cabrón advantage.

Take the trip, but go aware

that Nuyorican poet kings

of Nuyorican pobres people

are only welcomed from a distance;

que mientras Cuban negras madres

of cubanito soldier children

are never told their sons are buried

héroes de la lucha contra el "ismo"

los nuevo mother-patria-fuckers

are collecting

one hundred dólares a month

for compatriota fighting head

(ciento noventa y dos millones de divisas cada año)

en nombre de la solidaridad

with the African nations.

Cruza el charco: los ahogados te dan permiso.

If introduced to el máximo

macho recontramáximo

remember Silvio Rodríguez

has been arrested more than once

for the audacity of a song,

y que Pablito Milanés

is a former homosexual

cured of his decadent habit

through therapeutic hard labor

and scientifically tested

ass-kicking rehabilitation

for which he truly remains

revolucionariamente grateful.

Si te ofrecen mariguana, turn it down.

It will be said you are corrupt,

middle-class and peligroso

una influencia burguesa on the socialist artworkers

agente del imperialismo

which doesn't jive, doesn't jive!

with being humble poet king

in New York's Lower East Side.

Quench your eyes de arena fina,

Varadero will be fun.

Intoxica la memoria con las consignas de turno

official readings, Cubanacán,

La Habana Vieja, the guided tours,

el grupo de acero, el de Escambray.

Enjoy the tourist first class en el Riviera.

Trafica ideas con Retamar.

Turn down the privilege of buying articles

produced in Cuba

or "Made in Cuba"

rationed in Cuba

to meet demand from friendly nations,

la dirigencia

and visitors' consumption.

Tendrás que camuflagear all the contra contradictions:

there's no room in sunny Cuba

for unintentional naiveness.

Recuérdate del francés Pierre Golendorf,

comunista

y number one fidelista

savored prison hospitality three long years and a month

for the audacity of discontent.

Recuérdate de Oscar Lewis

how he was welcomed to Cuba

"Do your research here in Cuba"

then he was thrown out of Cuba

"judío indecente, maricón, trabajando pa' la CIA"

El coeurcollapse a sus años was simply inevitable.

Play by the rules:

Your every thought and interaction

can be measured to perfection.

Your thirdworldness from El Barrio

can

and will

be used against you.

Ninguno de tus colegas se arriesgará a tu rescate.

(Some may even have no choice

but to disavow your friendship).

Learn the rules before your voyage:

live by them while in Cuba;

fuck by them while in Cuba;

swear by them while in Cuba.

I'll see you when you get back.

_____________
Escrito en 1985 y publicado en la Revista Término (Cincinnati, 1982-1986. Manuel Ballagas y Roberto Madrigal, editores). Dedicado a mi amigo y colega, el poeta nuyorriqueño Miguel Algarín, semanas antes de su primera visita a Cuba.