¡Feliz navidad!, Yusnaby

 Hoy que tengo 25 años pienso en la cara de mi madre aquel día que le dije -“Mami, quiero un arbolito de navidad”- y se me estruja el corazón. De sólo imaginar los artilugios que ella tenía que hacer para que yo viviera la fantasía navideña sin que los vecinos se enteraran, me hace quererla muchísimo más.

That's Cuban blogger Yusnaby Perez writing of his Christmas story, roughly;

Now, twenty-five years later, when I about think my mother's face that day I said - "Mommy, I want a Christmas tree." Just imagining the things she had to do for me to live the Christmas fantasy without the neighbors finding out, makes me love her so much more.

The problem being that the Castro brothers looked on Christianity, and Christmas, as competition for their religion. So the Christmas tree Yusnaby got had to be hidden away and only illuminated for an hour a night, after all the windows were covered so the neighbors couldn't see in.

Besides, there was sugar cane to be cut.