By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – If there ever was a surprising departure of a Cuban athlete to another country it was that of chess player Leinier Dominguez in 2017, after he represented Cuba playing chess in nine Olympiads and winning the national championship five times.
Slow and measured, not so common in this sport, the Dominguez was a beloved and respected figure in his country in every way, and he had a better quality of life than your average Cuban. Yet, his sporting ambition had reached a limit.
This was why he decided to leave Cuba and settle in the United States, the country which he has been competing for internationally since 2018.
However, this week, the Cuban Chess Federation announced that it has opened its doors for him, Lazaro Bruzon and Yuniesky Quesada to join its ranks again.
According to Carlos Rivero, the national commissioner and president of the Federation, “every chess player belonging to the Cuban Federation” will be able to defend the colors of the Cuban flag “no matter where they live”, a measure that will come into effect next year, with the celebration of the next National Championships.
“If they obtain this right, they will form part of the national selection. They need to take part in the National Tournament to do this. Their performance at the Capablanca Memorial will be taken into consideration, in exceptional cases.”
The latter will surely apply for all three, if they are interested, because competing in the Cuban tournament would mean losing points in their respective Elo rating, the global chess ranking.
But it gets interesting later, when Rivero added: “Those representing other flags, will have to make the change, making an application according to the International Federation’s regulations, and request to join the Cuban Chess Federation’s ranks again.”
Specifically naming the island’s top three players in the last decade, the official recalled that they emigrated with an ordinary passport and can make the application, although he stated that in Bruzon’s case, “we don’t think he’ll be interested because he’s been disrespectful with the Federation and INDER.”
He’s totally right. Unlike his two fellow countrymen, Bruzon has expressed his criticism on more than one occasion of not only the way sports authorities work, but also his general discontent with the country’s political situation, especially after the repression that came after the July 11th 2021 protests.
In 40-year-old Dominguez’s case, it would be a well-thought-out move from the Federation because he is currently one of the best players in the world.
Nevertheless, they’re forgetting that even though he began to win awards in this sport from a very young age (he got his first Grand Master Certificate at 15 years old and won the Grand Master at 17), he reached a limit in his native country and it wasn’t until he emigrated that he was able to have access to the best trainers and experts to perfect his game.
Nor can we sidestep the fact that in order to register as a player of the US Chess Federation in 2018, the native from Güines, Mayabeque, couldn’t take part in official FIDE events for two years, which is a requirement for any player who wants to change flag.
Once that two-year period was up, he took part in the US National Championship, where he came in second place, and he represented the US in the Chennai Olympiad, in India, and in the fight for the World Cup, where he advanced to the quarter finals.
The chess player gained US citizenship after four years living in that country, so it doesn’t seem like a wise decision to give up the institution that took him in to go back to one that won’t give anything but national pride.
Let’s get to what the decision they’re being given actually means, because let’s generalize about all the Cubans who go through hardship and trauma and manage to come out with their dignity and head held high, will they also want to get them back?
This somehow means that the dictatorship does in fact rely on the emigre population, because if they all say no, it could be the end of this Government who is having its life support cut now that it doesn’t have any other international allies.
Big Freedia’s proposal
For example, US artist Big Freedia/Queen Diva, born in 1978, called for all of her peers from every country to flock to Cuba, when everyone here is trying to leave.
The queen of bounce, a subgenre of hip-hop from New Orleans, her hometown, was in Cuba up until Saturday, where she met with members of the LGBQTI+ community, Cuban entrepreneurs, and artists, but it seems she isn’t aware of the regular attacks homosexuals and transgender people suffer in Cuba. Even though the island pretends to be a reference of modernity with its progressive Family Act, it dodges other freedoms as important as sexual identity.
We could say this is ignorance on her part, but really, it is indifference, because you just have to type in Trans and Cuba into Google and you’ll see the harassment that these people often suffer here on the island. With 99,000 followers on X, the artist can easily inform herself about Cuban reality, but she prefers to join the chorus of accomplices, getting excited by some friend in Cuba who is directly or indirectly tied to an official institution, I have no doubt.
In Havana, Big Freedia visited cultural ventures and private businesses, offered music sessions and exchanges with other artists, and twerking classes, and attended fashion parties, tastings, and talks.
“I love Cuba. Being here has been a wonderful experience. Getting to know the culture, music, the passion, the way people are on the street; has been incredible,” she told online platform OnCuba on Thursday, after meeting with business owners, as if she were an expert on Cuba.
A ray of light within all of this pantomime of sequins was this phrase: “Even when the Government has control, people always have power, and in their determination to do what they need to they carry on,” but it got buried, deliberately, with all of the paraphernalia set up around her.
It doesn’t matter if we don’t have bread, shoes, milk, or chicken, we have the Chanel cruise, Tekashi 69, the Santa Maria Festival and other similar inventions to keep the smokescreen up.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.
