Georbanelis Betancourt

“Here, what you can see the most, is that if you don't have money, you don´t go ahead, if you don´t have a lever - you don´t start a car, if you don´t have a godfather - you don´t get baptized. Do you understand? You must have someone in the branch of music, in the cultural centre, some cultural music promoter, or to have enough influence, or monetary income, to be able to advance. If not, then you do not go ahead, you are nobody. ´So, from what you say, money is more important than talent?´ Yes, if we refer to this province, yes. Here where I live, in Guantánamo, yes. From my point of the view yes, if you do not advance, you cannot take this big step, because it requires a lot of money. You want to record a song, you need money; you want to record a video, you need money; you want a guy to represent you or to be included in culture centre – that is practically all state’s matter. Anyone who is a professional now, is already a professional and has no problem. The one who is now trying to come up from the zero, should have either someone who sends him money, or should have some important business that provides him enough money, so that he can continue with his plans, but even with all that I mention, it is not easy to get through.”

“I oversaw taking preventive measures. We were visiting people, who by that time had a fever, we went to their houses with a sprinkler and deposited the chlorine, in this case in the toilet bowl, or to the handrail of the seats, straight on the seats, on the bed shovel etc., wherever we could. In the case of cholera, we took measures like that. Spreading chlorine, when the cholera epidemic hit, when was needed to wash their hands with chlorine frequently - as the containment was really high. There were some cases, quite many critical cases, that ended with death. The impact of contamination was huge. I also reached some places, they took me to a faraway destination by car, where conditions of people were really critical.”

“Above all the need. When someone becomes to dedicate himself to pickpocketing, to vandalism, or to assaults, it is because this person lacks something, he has some need. His parents do not have a manner how or where to get things, to buy a pair of shoes, to buy good pants. So how do you live, when you see that someone can dress well, and I cannot - that person is looking for the easiest way how to gain these things. The easiest way in this case is to get into a patio, to steal some clothes, to assault someone late at night, as in many cases they have assaulted.”