The actor and humorist Ulises Toirac asked this Saturday those who try to disqualify Amelia Calzadilla with arguments about her supposed economic level, if perhaps “those who travel in Audi do not have morals?”
Toirac responded thus, with a series of rhetorical and ironic questions that point to the luxurious standard of living of Cuban leadersto a user who accused him of whitewashing Calzadilla, the Cuban mother of three who went viral after publishing an emotional and desperate direct in which she criticized the Cuban government for the precarious economic situation in which it tries to survive.
For user Nayade G. García, Calzadilla allegedly “has a tremendous house, better than people who live outside of Cuba. How am I going to have false nails on, with how expensive they are in Cuba, and my children starving. And Ulises Toirac knows that and plays crazy !!!!!!!”
Toirac responded to this comment, which attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Calzadilla’s protest, for allegedly having falsified its economic reality, putting the finger on the sore spot on the privileges of the Cuban ruling class and questioning whether this does not disqualify them from giving their opinion on the reality of the town.
“According to you, Audi riders have no morals…Those with thousand dollar smartwatches have no morals…Fat people can’t have morals…Those who don’t have blackouts have no morals (although they are put the heart in scrubbing mode). Those who eat their three meals a day have no morals and those who wear expensive clothes designed abroad… No, honey, I’m not being crazy… I just want you to rethink what you say… Or ask someone close to you who has a brain,” Toirac countered.
To the Cuban humorist, García’s arguments seem to be put forward “IN THE MOOD OF DISPARING THE OPPONENT (an old tactic that demonstrates not tolerating the exchange of ideas)”.
Last Friday, Toirac warned that Calzadilla, who exploded on social networks against the island government, “not the enemy”.
“To Whom It May Concern: Amelia Calzadilla is not the enemy. ‘I deliver her alive’ ”, the actor wrote in a Facebook post, in which he used a reference to the film Clandestine.
Given the scope of her complaints and the well-known reprisals that the island government takes against its critics, Toirac made it clear that she is not the one they should persecute.
Last Thursday, the video in which Amelia Calzadilla attacks the Cuban government and makes him responsible for all the needs that the population is going through exploded like wildfire on social networks and became the main topic of conversation in the Cuban public space.
The mother of three children denounced that her children have no food, clothes, or toys, and accused the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel and his ministers of leading a life of comfort at the cost of the sacrifice of the people.
The trigger for Calzadilla’s catharsis was an abusive electricity bill of more than 5,000 pesos that the woman did not see how to pay.
In his direct, Calzadilla aimed directly at the Cuban ruling class.
“I have three [hijos] and I can’t leave because I don’t have money to leave, neither legal nor illegal. Nor do I have to do it because I was born in this country just like you. The rights of citizenship that I have are the same that you have, the same. And my children have the right to grow up here, to work here, to form a life here, to eat the food here, and everyone has to respect that. Until when?” she questioned.
The despair and anger of this mother have gone viral for, among other things, clearly capturing the frustrations of broad sectors of the Cuban people.
“We don’t want to make more queues for chicken, which is shit, it doesn’t feed, neither for the dog, nor for the hash. We want to live with dignity, with decorum. Even when? People, when they don’t work, are fired for lack of suitability and you are not suitable. They are not,” he claimed.