[When I heard the news of Tocororo's death, my first reaction was to search the internet for his blog. But Spanglish a lo cubano had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed. Killcastro and Charlie Bravo were also searching on their own, but encountered the same luck as I did. Killcastro explained that Tocororo had deleted his blog in a moment of despair, thinking perhaps, as Bolívar did, that he had ploughed the seas. It is not surprising that such a humble man should think so little of what others valued highly. His death, however, made the recovery of his writings a debt of honor for all who cherished them and their author. Nothing ever dies in cyberspace and I believe that eventually it will be possible to unearth and preserve his entire legacy for all Cubans and particularly for his own children. As they grow older his writings will become a passageway into the mind and heart of their noble father.
This is what remains: one of a dozen posts, saved by the Web Archive (or Wayback Machine) as it crawled cyberspace. One of many pages but all that remains for now. Sadly, Tocororo's words are all to true today and hold valuable lessons for us. We have reproduced it exactly as we found it:]
Thursday, December 15, 2005
the plague
Since the beginning of civilization we always had plagues, many plagues had torture the earth, many have come and go, and others come and go and reappear again to cause more trouble.
The only plague that has managed to stay with us and disguising herself as a truthful human is the snitch plague.
I have suffer at first hand the destructive power of the chivatos,the lingering battle between the good and the evil in Cuba can’t never be won until that plague comes near extinction.
The chivatos are responsible for most of the cubano suffering, in fact; the old cock sucker will have fall long time ago without the help of los chivatos.
I picture him with out the chivas a marionette with broken strings.
The snitch has no friends, no family, and no morals.
Thousands incarcerated and murdered due to the chivatos sneaky activities.
Many more of the chivatos penetrate the resistance; they become leaders to their fellow fighters, and when they strike, the whole cell ends up in jail doing 20 years or plus.
That is why my friends Cubans are so mistrustful, paranoid and afraid.
Many of the chivas sometimes change their minds and decide they have cause enough damage or le han pisado un callo y brincan and next thing you know, the chiva is living in the states.
Rats nothing more than rats, when they don’t find that piece of cheese, they move to the next door basement.
http://web.archive.org/web/20051216135613/http://spanglishalocubano.blogspot.com/
He was so right, the chivas, the committies for defense, every body spying on everyone, poor Toco seems he was a tortured soul, he suffered in Cuba, it's so obvious
ReplyDeleteManuel,
ReplyDeleteI should point out that there is a typo in the second heading for the story for Tocororo's Blog.
It should read Tocororo. You may want to change it before the Phamtom Nemesis gets to read it.
I haven't been able to get any thing from his blogs, other than what Manuel dug out.
ReplyDeleteI think that he erased his posts, more than once, and that this was all that survived. Sadly.
Charlie:
ReplyDeleteThere's one last possibility. I believe that Blogger doesn't really delete anything for good; somewhere a record remains. Perhaps if Tocororo's widow e-mailed Blogger and explained her special case they might be able to recover and republish Tocororo's blog. I would volunteer to write the letter for her if she is unable to do so now.
It is also possible that Tocororo saved on his own computer the deleted posts. It is obvious that he loved the scratch of pen on paper, and as we who also love that sound, I do not think that he would have obliterated completely the product of so much love and labor.
I understand that Tocororo at one time had a second blog. I do not recall the name. Do you?
Yes, it was "Suelto y sin vacunar". He had some trouble with the url, and it was sueltoysincvacunar.blogspot.com (notice the c between "sin" and "vacunar". That blog was his second effort after the erasure of Spanglish a lo Cubano.
ReplyDeleteNO! are you guys telling me that Tocorroro Libre was Tocororo frikki? they were one and the same?
ReplyDeleteThe one and the same Vana.
ReplyDeleteYou fellows are wonderful! Thank you for your efforts at recovering Tocororo's writings. It has become even more important to me. Last night I spoke with his wife and she was very sad, telling about the problems she's had with his computer. It seems it has a virus and in an effort to clean it up a friend had to erase the hard disk and reinstall everything. They were not able to save much. She's hoping that Tocororo saved his stuff on CDs and that she'll eventually find it all in a drawer right at home. For now though, you guys are my hope of recovering anything. Manuel, you volunteered to write? Please, please, please, go ahead. We'll appreciate it. Remember, my sister-in-law and I are both busy mothers with limited knowledge of the internet and computers in general.
ReplyDeleteGratefully,
Adela
Adela:
ReplyDeleteI will write the letter and e-mail it to you. Then you must send it to Blogger signed by your sister (Tocororo's widow). She is the only one who has legal standing to make the request. She will probably be asked to furnish a copy of the death certificate, last will and testament or an order appointing her the executrix of his estate to establish that she can indeed speak for Hugo. A request sent in my name or yours would have no legal standing.
I have collected the articles that I wrote in tribute to your brother-in-law and posted them on your website. Let me once again extend to you and all his family my sincerest condolences and offer you whatever assistance it may be in my power to give.