Victory?

Here we are, and what can I say? Yesterday, Val and George agreed with me about the savage treatment of Cuban refugees by the U.S. Coast Guard. Today, Henry and George agreed with me about Gloria and Emilio Estefan. As my readers will recall, I was booted from Babalú for expressing disapproval of the Estefans in far less personal and more diplomatic language than they have used. I, for one, never accused them of being a "traitors." The Estefans were never so important to me as to merit that sobriquet. Money-hungry, unprincipled, opportunistic and divorced from their roots and their people, yes. But let the Babalunians call them "traitors" now; it will balance out very nicely Val's former praise. You remember, Val said that the Estefans had done more for Cuban freedom than all the rest of us put together. Such hagiography has not been seen since courtesans courted the Medici.

Acute observers such as Agustín Fariñas are of the opinion that they are courting my approval or my pardon. It would be honorable on their part if they were, which is precisely why I don't think that they are. On the contrary, they have become aware that Babalú is a ghost town, where, as I have noted previously, there are no comments hitched to the posts. This must have alarmed and alerted them to the fact — at long last — that their points of view are at variance with those of a majority of their readers and that Babalú's decline is attributable to that fact. If they were to save Val's creation, they would have to modulate Val's fanatical positions, which, at their root, were vastly un-Cuban positions.

Of course, this puts me in an awkward position myself. What is a critic to do when there is nothing to criticize? As I wrote to Agustín:

I think they are trying to put RCAB out of business by agreeing with everything I have ever said.

Their new strategy is to out-Tellechea Tellechea; that is, to become me.

Is it time to call it quits, after all?

Is this Victory?

Is my mission accomplished?

Should I silently fade away?

Or is retrogression on their part inevitable and my services still of the essence?