The Gray Five Year Period refers to the period between 1971–76 in Cuba when cultural affairs were administered directly by the Communist Party. Many luminaries of Cuban literature and the arts were relegated to internal exile, unable to publish, work in their fields, travel, or present themselves in public.
“Paquetes” (literally “packages”) refers to flash drives filled with pirated foreign television shows and movies, computer games, popular music, and print media that are sold illegally throughout Cuba. A paquete costs 2CUC ($2.50). Cuban state officials frequently speak out against them as crass and immoral, but their widespread popularity has contributed to a decline the in viewing of state media.
The “parametración” refers to laws and actions taken in the early 1970s in Cuba that essentially criminalized homosexuality and forms of behavior considered antisocialist. Following a 1971 speech by Fidel Castro in which he suggested that artistic and intellectual circles gave homosexuals dangerous opportunities to influence Cuban youth, laws went into effect that led to the expulsion of scores of artists, professors, teachers, and other professionals from their jobs.
“Desmerengamiento” is a term coined by Fidel Castro to refer to the collapse—or desmoronamiento—of the Soviet Union. It stems from the word “meringue” and, as with a failed meringue, it implies collapse, for it was the same hammer and sickle that broke down the Berlin Wall. In other words, it went to the disbelief and dysfunctionality of the Soviet model, in which lay—worn out and worm-eaten—the revolutionary essence of its origins.
“Ukas” is Russian for edict. “Diktat” is an order or decree imposed without popular consent.
There is the official claim to legitimize institutions eroded by a future that has exceeded its capacity for functional rehabilitation in order to respond to new demands imposed by a present quite distinct from that which motivated its origins. See the documentary Que me pongan en la lista …
Translated by Ezra E. Fitz.