The forbidden photo

Havana/The employees of the state warehouse on Factor and Conill streets, in Nuevo Vedado, have been oriented Let them cover the fence around the corner with sacks. The order seeks to prevent residents from taking photographs of the immense mountain of garbage that grows in the place every week, with as a background the bust of José Martí and the Cuban flag that are located in the gardens of the product collection center, destined for the rationed market. However, from the heights of my building you can see the triptych that makes up the Apostle, the lone star and the waste.

The scene has something of slapstick theater and involuntary comedy. While the sacks have been hung diligently, as if it were a national security operation, the flies continue to enter and leave without asking permission, and the smell of decomposition rises through the windows with a punctuality that public transportation would like. Trash, undisciplined and stubborn, does not understand directions or improvised curtains.

One would think that the problem is the waste pile, but it seems not. The real enemy is the photo. The image that circulates on WhatsApp, that sneaks into social networks and that refutes the official discourse seems to be the greatest concern of officials and bureaucrats.

From the balconies of our building, the view is complete: the sculpture of a head, to which a stone path leads that no one takes, the blue stripes with their red triangle and, a few meters away, a string of torn bags, wet cardboard and plastic remains that are scattered covering the sidewalk. An involuntary monument to apathy. An altar where the country coexists with abandonment.

Appearances are so important to this regime that it is capable of spending time, energy and resources covering up an image and preventing a frame, rather than using these means to clean the city and prevent the diseases that spread from these open-air landfills. In the end, it’s not about eliminating trash, but about hiding it. Like so many other things in this country.