MAY THE WIND TAKE US TO INFINITY

Some Latin Americans are very comfortable with the fame of latin america as an exotic place, and, in particular, some Colombians are very much so about the popular idea of the magical realism as a particularily colombian feature. To be honest, I am not. Gabriel García-Márquez did mean a lot to me once, but he was relegated to a second line by other writers I discovered later.
But, however, some things about latin america are certainly pintoresque. And I am going to talk about one of them.

Some weeks ago, on sunday 29th of January, there was a mass in the primary cathedral of Bogotá, on behalf of the health of commander Fidel Castro, leader of the cuban nation, confessed atheist and beligerant defensor of the communist ideas (or let us say, a certain version of them). Given the fact that the colombian church is mainly conservative (very conservative, indeed) and the cathedral is such an important Catholic venue (I guess, even thought I do not know a lot about the Catholic scene) I found the fact rather intriguing.

Agent 1 (A1) - Ready! Turn on the amplifier for me... ready.
Agent 2 (A2) - Is it receiving?
A1- Aye... Let's just see if it isn't the neighbours.
Female voice at the speaker (F) - Well, the exception was worth it, so I have the report for you.
Male voice at the speaker (M) - But, What kind of people where there?
F - As it is to be expected, the eternal "Proletary Voice" seller at the entrance, and other identifiable lefties (use here a less benignous expression)
A1 - Ha! tell ya' They're
M - I guess there were not lots of them...
F - Quite on the contrary, there was a hugh assembly; all the seats were taken.
M - And, what did the priest say?
F - He began making clear the strictly religious characteristic of the event, puting an emphasis on the fact that it is normal to pray for anybody's health.
M - aha
F - I thought the tone was going to be like that all along the mass, but during the sermon, the prist started using terms such as "social structure", "opresion", "domination", "justice and equity", "egoist system vs. solidary system", and so on.
M - hahahaha... I can picture the sermon
F - The sermon was leftie enough, but avoiding concrete names, of course.
M - Yes, lefty priests are never missing.
F - A little bit in the style of Hugo Chávez, "Christ was the first socialist"
M - Clowns. So, Everybody, very catholic, ah?
F - Later if was time of the credo (the statement of faith) and the priest improvised one, which was about following Christ's life, fight for social justice, and all that
M - Is that even possible, in a mass?
F - I guess.
M - What about the music?
F - It was a camera group, and some sopranos.
M - I see... fair enough.
M - Were you able to see characters in the living time?
F - So far, *** was alredy bored, and we left. It was very amusing to see the characters: a good percentage of the assistants wore Che Guevara T-shirts, or cuban flag ones. And there was a guy with a small parrot on his shoulder
M - They are so well depicted...
F - But they have public, don't them?
M - Bah, our left has been a parish one, of cults to personality, religious in essence, and therefore sectary!
F - So, it does not suprise you
M - In the end, they are more conservative than dialectic. That is why a lot of them still believe that FARC and ELN still are revolutionary (if they were so ever)
F - But we have to reckon that it was at least pintoresque.
M - Definitely, in a country where they say a mass for a confessed marxist, and therefore atheist, filling the cathedral with supposed revolutionaries, is also a country that could believe that people like Uribe is a statemen that deserve to be reelected indefinitely.
A1 - Bah, *uck'em. I'm already hungry
A2 - Aye, let's move on.