Boy Who Said No : An Escape to Freedom (9781608090815) by Patti Sheehy Page A

and tapped it with his finger, sending a piercing shriek around the room.
    After conducting some minor administrative business, he announced that the position of president of the Communist Youth Council had been awarded to Antonio. An excited murmur ran through the gathering as students began nudging and whispering to each other. There was scattered applause. Antonio stood, looking quite pleased. He walked to the center of the stage to receive an armband that proclaimed his position. The principal asked him if he wanted to say a few words, but he declined.
    My cousins and I looked at each other with unease. Since we’d been so open in discussing our anticommunist views with Antonio, I didn’t have a good feeling about his appointment. I feared we were in for big trouble.
    It didn’t take long before Antonio and I began to disagree. Much to my chagrin, Antonio had started picking on Magda, mocking her behind her back because her parents were wealthy. To him, anyone who had any money was suspected of being a counterrevolutionary. I told him that Magda’s parents were good people, but my arguments bounced off him like a ball off a wall.
    Conflicts also arose over student activities. Antonio cancelled dances and sporting events so students could attend Fidel’s speeches and rallies. He tried to get Miriam to accompany him on these outings—but she seldom complied. When she did attend, she returned looking depressed.
    One day after school she confronted Antonio. “Are you out of your mind, Antonio? We don’t know Communists. We don’t know Fidel. We grew up together. That’s where our loyalty should lie—with each other, not with some wild-eyed radical whom none of us ever met.”
    â€œYou don’t understand,” said Antonio. “Communism is not a fad,it’s not an idea dreamt up by Fidel. It’s an international movement to shift power to the People. It will help save the world.”
    â€œI don’t want to save the world. I just want to have some fun with our friends.”
    Sometimes when Miriam and Antonio argued, he would just turn his back on her. He pretended not to care what she thought. But whenever she scolded him, a muscle danced on the side of his jaw.
    The Communist Youth Council quickly gained an alarming amount of power. They helped with the collection and destruction of textbooks and the distribution of ones espousing the communist cause. Books about politics were pulled from stores and library shelves. Even books that had nothing to do with these topics disappeared from view. In short order, history was rewritten. Falsified. Censored.
    The list of forbidden books changed frequently, and you were never quite sure whether what you were reading was banned by the Party. Many books were considered subversive—a corrupting influence—especially on the youth. But the definition of “subversive” was strange, subjective, and ever-changing.
    Culture—as well as freedom—was being decimated, disbanded, discarded. You could feel it in the air. It was so palpable you could almost taste it.
    At least once a week Antonio arranged for buses to transport students to hear speeches by Fidel and other
Fidelistas
. Behind the school, trucks lined up like crows on a wire to take students to see movies about Lenin and the Russian Revolution.
    One day Antonio announced that the Youth Council would issue communist report cards that would coincide with the distribution of academic ones. Students would receive a “citizenship score” that reflected their attendance at political events and rallies. We would also be graded on our knowledge and views about Fidel, communism, and the revolution.
    Antonio and I went head-to-head on this issue, while the teachers remained neutral, seemingly reluctant to speak up. I eventually lost this battle, and the report cards were issued. Since everyone was afraid of not getting a good citizenship score, it