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“Spiderman” Represents Catharsis in Cuba

HAVANA TIMES – Cuban athlete Javier Martin Gutierrez, known as “Spiderman” and a former champion of the Cuban Fighters League (mixed martial arts), released a letter in recent hours from the maximum-security Combinado del Este prison, where he is serving a sentence for expressing his dissatisfaction with the situation in Cuba.

His crime was shouting from the balcony of his home about the many miseries we endure every day, but when the video went viral, the regime took action and put him behind bars for alleged public disorder.

Beyond the former athlete’s current situation, which is also shared by hundreds of Cubans imprisoned under similarly trivial pretexts designed to avoid recognizing them as political prisoners, I want to examine the phenomenon of catharsis—of exploding when you get the chance, of letting out what you have been carrying inside, in our case for decades, even if it serves no purpose other than expanding your lungs and filling you with adrenaline.

Those internal explosions sound like a magic remedy, an ancient cure for our deepest afflictions. They are basically a glorious moment: the eruption of that inner volcano you have kept bottled up for years, like someone keeping old, smelly clothes in the closet because “they might come in handy someday.” Spoiler: they won’t, but there they are.

Imagine this: you’ve spent years accumulating frustrations, grudges, annoyances, and enough drama to fill a seemingly never-ending Brazilian soap opera in the purest O Globo style.

You say nothing. You’re strong. You suppress every urge to scream, cry, kick the couch, or tell your boss, your ex, your neighbor, or the government (the classic emotional punching bag) to go to hell. But there comes a moment when your body tells you, “Enough,” and bam, you explode.

It doesn’t matter whether it comes........

© Havana Times