"It doesn't matter if he's there or not"

The exact state of Fidel Castro’s health is a mystery, and signals about his possible return to office seem to go in both directions.

If you are trying to figure what to make of his absence from yesterday’s May Day event, consider this item that greeted Cubans on the front page of today’s Granma. It bore the initials of writer and political commentator Lazaro Barredo. Here’s the entire item, titled “Dialogue in the Plaza,” translated into less-salty language. In the last line, “Caguairán” is a nickname for Castro; it is a super-hardwood tree from eastern Cuba.

– Hey, will el Jefe be there today when we pass by? If he’s there, this will never end, it will be hard to get people not to crowd in front of the speakers’ platform…

– Damn, I hope he’s there, I really want to see him dressed again in his commander-in-chief’s uniform. The Mafia [Miami] is going to lose it when they see him again…

– Hey journalist, you who are on the Mesa Redonda [political tv talk show], do you think we will see el Jefe there, when we pass by?

When I respond with a smile, I hear a voice that, like a thunderclap, catalyzes the group.

– Gentlemen, it doesn’t matter if he’s there or not. He has to be cared for so that he stays with us longer and acts like the wise man that he is, with so many ideas like those published today in Granma. The important thing is that el Caguairán be inside each one of us…