CUBAN PÉREZ-STROIKA

It was hard to choose a career in college. We didn't have a lot of choice. I just remember English Translation, Major in Education, and Camilo Cienfuegos Military School. I had the opportunity to catch up at University Camilo Cienfuegos at the Pedagogical Branch Juan Marinello.

The apprenticeship started as a sophomore teaching English to Spanish Students and lasted as long as graduation shortly before 1995. Russian was out of fashion for a long time when suddenly Perestroika gave the Cuban People another chance.

The military schools were brushing up their staff and decided to open up by starting daytime courses in the Russian Language Department. English was the new language within the Military School Rosters. The first breech to corrode the Cuban Socialism.

I was assigned to teach the day part-time course to the Russian Teachers of the Military School Camilo Cienfuegos at Matanzas. By coincidence, I was an eyewitnesses of the Lorenzo-Family, Playa-Mamey, rescue-pick-up near The Military School Camilo Cienfuegos at Matanzas Bay North near the capital Havana.

I could do my part in the Communist Detox of the old russian- indoctrinated-staff.

I still remember my students older than me in the on-the-job training as a sophomore. Green Daddies with a new sigh of relief after having been left behind to rot in a dusty- abandoned-room...

I did my duty. They are all probably the best Touristic Employees in Varadero, East Havana, or the Bay of Pigs. Also the could be the best hand shakers in the webcam in south America or even Asia...

Luis Alberto Alfonso Rodríguez.