Young Cubans in Times of Covid

None of those who are young in Cuba today will forget these times, marked by unprecedented events for this country and for the world.

For this reason and because today is the International Youth Day, it’s worth stopping along the way and, next to social sciences, attempt - just attempt and in bold strokes - a panoramic view to what this pandemic has meant for young Cubans, which for the first time in history, made the young generations who live in this island face such complex dilemmas that walk on the edge between life and death.

It’s not far fetch to say so. At this point, there are few Cubans of all ages who have not been, in one way or another, marked by a near threat of contagion and even by the death of a close one, a friend, neighbor or acquaintance.

This, while absolutely all of us have seen our lives and projects modified, in many cases radically.

But, despite the dark clouds that undoubtedly accompany what’s described, not everything has had a negative omen.

A group of researchers, led by the Doctor in Science Ana Isabel Peñate Leiva, professor and senior researcher of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences FLACSO-Cuba Program, at the University of Havana, released the paper Cuba: social participation and practices youth in times of COVID-19, published online in April this year, and from which can be summarized the pros and cons that have marked the Cuban youth in these times of pandemic, accompanied by break-ups, hurt, and also growth.

Not Staying Idly

Despite the social and personal confusion triggered by the pandemic, as a trend, young Cubans didn’t sit idly by, but “have reaffirmed themselves as active subjects in the process of social transformation. To the extent that they were aware of their role in society, they created, exercised, and evaluated initiatives in favor of people at risk of contracting the virus.

The researchers' approach points out that “The youth experiences, despite differing by the identities, the organizational methods, and the interests they represent, kept shared features:

Its social objective was focused on contributing to the control of the disease, and helping vulnerable people as well as those at risk of contracting it.

The drive of the youths was the protection of the health of people at risk and in isolation in the territories.

Their activities were related to food, medicine distribution, and any errand that vulnerable people may need.

This youth participation was carried out in the community environment, once again showing itself as the right space for participation in social transformation.

The youth institutions mobilized them to solve problems caused or increased during this stage of Covid-19, especially in relation to scientific activity, food production, and support to health activity in the face of the pandemic.

They had more work on top of all these tasks of social impact like messaging for vulnerable people, assistance in isolation centers for suspected or positive patients, and participation in research and projects related to the virus. The Young Communist League, and the University Students Federation stood out, in the case of this work for social wellbeing.

The federation, according to the text, promoted, among other initiatives of high youth participation, the mobilization of students of Medical Sciences to participate in the investigation, support in designing forecast models by students from the Math Faculty at the University of Havana; those of Computer Engineering, the CUJAE University and the UCI; while those of the Geography Faculty elaborated cartographies to illustrate the incidence of cases in the national territory.

On the one hand, the students of the Faculty of Communication and the Higher Design Institute (ISDI) were involved in the design and implementation of educational campaigns, while they were inserted in telecentres, radio stations, and social networks to contribute to its diffusion. Meanwhile students from the Psychology Faculty provided psychological care and guidance through WhatsApp groups and other non-face-to-face means.

They were also young people who helped to package chlorinated solutions, to make masks and other means of protection, donated blood, helped with the construction of houses, the organization of public transport, and supported e-commerce among other initiatives to help families in their daily lives.

In the case of young people under the Hermanos Saiz Association, they created or promoted cultural products in a non-face-to-face way through online concerts, poetry recitals, theater, and virtual galleries, while also deploying critical reflection from forum-debates online about the role of culture in times of pandemic.

Beyond purely student or youth organizations, the new generations of Cubans also projected themselves in the workplace and other spaces. What to say about those belonging to the health sector, those who give their contribution from research centers, and also from services and production.

Social workers offered, and still offer assistance to vulnerable people the either in the health field as in other sectors; in turn, self-employed workers created new products, donated masks, and focused on home delivery, among other things.

Unfortunately, there will always be someone who is not reflected in these lines. Because also the young teachers and professors kept in touch with their students and families, the professional drivers, both state and private, give their contribution, to the point of some putting their vehicles at the service of very affected territories like Matanzas.

And on the other hand, young people like children or grandchildren, subordinated all their interests to the care of the family member in need, like the young mother or the young father whose fundamental mission has been to protect their baby, all from the responsibility and care.

In addition to participation through institutional or organizational mechanisms, young people stepped hard in their community spaces.

Both experiences the institutional and the community ones, “contributed, says the researcher, to merge individual fulfillment with the needs of the Cuban social project, since they knew how to bring together its humanist vocation with the ethics and moral values ​​of the youth population involved”.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff