At 25th & I Street, in a well known corner in Vedado, Havana, beside the trash can and rubbish were some boxes of abandoned books.
Curiosity or maybe the sorrow to see something so valuable as books abandoned, moved about twenty bystanders to bend over and remove the books from the boxes right there at the corner of the street.
There, before their eyes, unexpected titles of books exposed to which time has given validity or decline.
In the hands of the bystanders - searches of a rare bibliographic treasure - emerged soviet novels from the soviet realism, like Chapaev and One Man's Destiny; works of Lenin and volumes of manuals of historic materialism, all mixed together with the dust at that corner.
Joyful expressions and laughter came from the crowd of nosey people addicted to titles like: "Lenin, Who remember that? We have one here just like him . . .", "Historic Materialism, no one here is any more for communism", "Get out of here! Communism! Until they come to the conclusion: "That is why the books were thrown away, they belong to a prehistoric age."
They left the books right there, among the broken boxes and the dust, the books that once were imposed lecture for many cubans, but today many refuse to even look at them.
Times have changed. There are other concerns. Personal projections and values have suffered changes due to the experiences lived during these years. Few want to know or even discuss communism, historic materialism or Lenin.
In many cases, rough skepticism filled the emptiness left behind, in others who have forgotten religious faith, it rebirth, and finally to others, the drive to obtain Dollars, whatever the means, is such that is the only thing they care about.
We live in difficult circumstances to which none is a stranger, including those who hide behind a mask of conformity cannot withhold their despise for the official ideology.