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For the first time
BY RAISA PAGES—Granma
International staff writer—
HER curly blonde hair tumbled
over her pionera (young pioneer) blue neck
scarf. A few days earlier, she had arrived home from
school to breathlessly announce that she had been
chosen to guard the ballot box.
In her gleaming shoes, Fany took
up a posture conferring a solemn appearance on her
10 years. Her green eyes sparkled whenever a friend
or relative went to deposit their vote. Fany’s
blonde hair, contrasting with her green eyes,
reminded me of the girl dressed up as a sunflower at
the play performed at Fany’s elementary school,
where biographies and photos of constituency
candidates were posted during the electoral period.
Now, I see the same curled blonde
hair, but this time Fany is no longer guarding
ballot boxes as a pionera. In the course of
time, the schoolgirl became an Informatics student
at the Osvaldo Herrera Polytechnic in the Cuban
capital.
I was going to buy bread when I
met her reading the candidates’ biographies, posted
in the neighborhood market, another place where
people can find information on the four Popular
Power delegates standing in this constituency.
Gerardo, a child with lively eyes
and long black arms, who accompanied her in guarding
the ballot box, approached sweating from sports
practice. Greetings between the two peers prompted
him to look at the candidates’ postings too, with
memories of the childhood they shared at the same
school.
“And what does the best computer
specialist in Cuba have to say?” the young man
asked.
“Studying, studying and more
studying. Do you have an invite to Madelín’s party?”
“I can't go; I have to train
very hard this weekend,” he replied.
“See them?” she asked, pointing
at the biographies.
“Yes, but we’re no longer in
pioneros uniforms; now we’ll be dropping our own
slips in the ballot box,” Gerardo rejoined.
“You should have seen them at
home when they came with the lists to verify my
name. My father was so surprised you’d think he’d
been told I was getting married. ‘Fany can vote
already?’ He still thinks I’m a little girl.
“That’s because they don’t want
to accept they are getting old!” Gerardo observed,
looking at the photographs.
“You know how my grandfather’s
obsessed with me. He’s always asking me where I’m
going and what time I’ll be back. Just to tease him,
the other day I asked him, ‘Will you come with me
for my first time?’”
“What first time, kid?” her
perplexed grandfather asked, recalling his days as a
Casanova.
“To vote, grandpa, to vote!”
“Hey, you can vote already?!”he
said with a naughty smile.
“Grandpa!!”
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