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Monday, January 13, 2025

Kafka and the Travelling Cubans

the AZEL

PERSPECTIVE

Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 391 B
 
José Azel's latest books "On Freedom" and "Sobre La Libertad" are now available on Amazon. 

Kafka and the Travelling Cubans (Previously published)

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Kafka and the Travelling Doll is a beautiful story written by Spanish writer Jordi Sierra i Fabra about an enchanted encounter between the writer Franz Kafka, and a heartbroken little girl. Kafka is widely regarded as one of the major literary figures of the 20th century, and his work typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments, and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. Among his most notable works are The Metamorphosis and The Trial where he explores themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. 

Jose Azel

As the story goes, Kafka was walking through Steglitz Park in Berlin where he meets a little girl who was crying because she had lost her doll. To calm her down, Kafka tells the girl that the doll was probably away on a trip, but not to worry as he was a postman and the doll will surely send her a letter. He arranges to meet the girl the next day to deliver the letter. 

That night, with the intensity that he applied to all his writings, Kafka composes a letter from the doll to replace the girl’s loss with a different reality. The next day, in the park, he reads the letter to the little girl: “Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.” 

For three weeks Kafka continues to write letters from the doll recounting her adventures and reads them to the little girl. The doll grows up, goes to school, meets other people, but always reassures the little girl of her love while complaining of the obligations of her doll-life that prevent her from returning to live with the little girl at this time. By the end of the three weeks, the little girl no longer misses the doll. Kafka has given her a new reality curing her of her unhappiness. 

As a last gift for the little girl, Kafka gives her a new doll that obviously looked different from the original doll, but an attached letter explains: “My travels have changed me...” 

Many years later, the now grown girl finds a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll: In part it reads: “Everything that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.” 

For some reason, as a Cuban exile who lost his country as thirteen-year-old boy six decades ago, I relate intensely to this story. The loss of country was certainly agonizing for me, as it was for my fellow exiles. Like many of my exile generation, I have never returned, and I have never been able to visit my parents’ grave in Havana’s Colon Cemetery. For years, Kafka’s themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity were very real to me. 

And, those of us that fought the Castro regime in the underground resistance and from exile, often felt like Kafka’s isolated protagonists facing bizarre and surrealistic predicaments, and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. But, like the little girl in the story, I have now learned not to miss my country of birth because I live happily in a new reality. I have gone, with the doll, on an extended trip to see the world and to write of my adventures. 

And yes, “My travels have changed me...” My new reality has cured me of my unhappiness. I have learned to cherish our individual birth rights of life, liberty, and property. I have sought to pursue the learnings of freedom, and to delight in the protections of the rule of law which is the legal foundation for liberty. I aspire to enjoy the prosperity obtainable by contributing my talents in a free market economy, and to proudly build a future in liberty, and of liberty for our children and grandchildren. 

For Kafka, writing was a “form of prayer.” And these many years later, like the little girl in the story, I too have found, in a previously unnoticed crevice of life, that even though I once lost the country I loved, love of country eventually returns in a different form. 

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Abrazos,

Lily & José

(click on the name to email Lily or Jose)
José Azel, Ph.D.

José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.  

He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami, Jose Azel has published extensively on Cuba related topics.

In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.

José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp.

They cycled St. James Way (
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary and throughout southern France.  They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast and in the Galapagos Islands. Most recently, they rafted for 17 days 220 miles in the Grand Canyon. 

Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them. 

Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro.

Books by Dr. José Azel
José Azel’s writings are touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone who wishes to understand why countries do, or do not, progress will find in this book the best explanations. And, from these readings emerge numerous inferences: How and why do the good intentions of leftist collectivism lead countries to hell? Why is liberty not a sub product of prosperity, but rather one of its causes?

If it was in my power, this work would be required reading for all college and university students, and I would also recommend its reading to all politicians, journalists, and policymakers. With his writings Azel accomplishes what was achieved in France by Frédéric Bastiat, and in the United States by Henry Hazlitt: Azel brings together common sense with intelligent observation, and academic substance. Stupendous,

Carlos Alberto Montaner
                                                                   BUY NOW
Los escritos de José Azel están tocados por la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquiera que desee entender por qué los países progresan, o no, encontrará en este libro las mejores explicaciones. De estas lecturas surgen numerosas inferencias: ¿Cómo y por qué las buenas intenciones del colectivismo de izquierda llevan a los países al infierno? ¿Por qué la libertad no es un subproducto de la prosperidad, sino una de sus causas?

Si estuviera en mis manos, esta obra sería de obligada lectura de todos los estudiantes universitarios, pero además, le recomendaría su lectura a todos los políticos, periodistas y policy makers. Con sus escritos Azel logra lo que Frédéric Bastiat consiguiera en Francia y Henry Hazlitt en Estados Unidos: aunar el sentido común, la observación inteligente y la enjundia académica. Estupendo.

Carlos Alberto Montaner
                                                           Compre Aqui
"Liberty for beginners is much more than what the title promises. It is eighty themes touched with the wisdom of a master, and the charm of an excellent communicator. Anyone that wishes to understand why countries do, or do not progress, will find in this book the best explanations. Stupendous"

Carlos Alberto Montaner

"Libertad para novatos es mucho más de lo que promete el título. Son ochenta temas tocados con la sabiduría de un maestro y la amenidad de un excelente comunicador. Cualquier adulto que desee saber por qué progresan o se estancan los pueblos aquí encontrará las mejores explicaciones. Estupendo."

Carlos Alberto Montaner

Compre Aqui

In Reflections on FreedomJosé Azel brings together a collection of his columns published in prestigious newspapers.  Each article reveals his heartfelt and personal awareness of the importance of freedom in our lives.  They are his reflections after nearly sixty years of living and learning as a Cuban outside Cuba. In what has become his stylistic trademark, Professor Azel brilliantly introduces complex topics in brief journalistic articles.
En Reflexiones sobre la libertad José Azel reúne una colección de sus columnas publicadas en prestigiosos periódicos. Cada artículo revela su percepción sincera y personal de la importancia de la libertad en nuestras vidas. Son sus reflexiones después de casi sesenta años viviendo y aprendiendo como cubano fuera de Cuba.  En lo que ha resultado ser característica distintiva de sus artículos, el Profesor Azel introduce con brillantez complejos temas en  breves artículos de carácter periodístico.
Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future.
Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish.
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