Restaurant Owner Refuses to Remove Anti-Communist Sign After Threats

José Revilla-Albo, the proprietor of Miami’s Café Papillon, told the Spanish news network América Teve on Wednesday that he would not back down after the building hosting his restaurant had requested he take down an anti-communist poster featuring profanity.

Revilla-Albo decorated his establishment with Cuban flags and signs bearing slogans against the nation’s communist regime in solidarity with protests that began there – and reportedly continue, though the government shut down access to the internet – on July 11. Among the signs posted was one reading “Díaz-Canel Singao,” which roughly translates to “Fucker Díaz-Canel.” Miguel Díaz-Canel is the president of Cuba, a figurehead for the ruling Castro regime who answers to the Castro family-dominated Cuban military.

The profane phrase has become an international rallying cry for the anti-communist movement, particularly after Díaz-Canel appeared to express annoyance with it following the publication of a video of social media influencer and former adult actress Mia Khalifa using the insult. The belittling nature of the phrase has made it especially popular as a way to express a loss of fear of the Castro regime that is now, at least superficially, in Díaz-Canel’s control.

Thousands of Cubans protested in dozens of major cities nationwide on July 11 calling for an end to the regime. The protests, the largest simultaneous events of civil disobedience in decades, were the product of multiple civil society groups organizing dissidents for months. Groups like the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) and the Ladies in White persisted in protesting, often on a weekly basis, in the aftermath of the 2003 dissident crackdown known as the Black Spring. More recently established youth groups, most prominently the artist collective the San Isidro Movement, also began organizing hunger strikes and other acts of dissent in the past year, encouraging mass resistance to communism.

Revilla-Albo adorned his restaurants with a poster carrying the phrase as well as one reading “patria y vida,” or “fatherland and life,” a pro-democracy retooling of the communist slogan patria o muerte (“fatherland or death”). Shortly thereafter, he received a text from an individual reportedly representing the building ownership, reading, “I received complaints in regards to a sing [sic] with fault [sic] Verbiage ‘Singao’ please remove since the city may give you a violation.”

Revilla-Albo refused. The next morning, he told América Teve, he awoke to one of his Cuban flags stolen from his restaurant property.

“We don’t understand how they are asking us to remove something that is everywhere, it is all over the world,” Revilla-Albo told the network. “Cubans all over the world are demonstrating and they are demonstrating with the phrase which has become popular whether people like it or not.”

The restauranteur acknowledged the vulgar nature of the terminology, but asserted that the context of 62 years of brutal, mass-murdering communist rule justified the intensity.

“I wouldn’t let my daughters use the word in another context, but in this one we have to use it,” he said. “We said we are not removing it, I don’t know what would happen or what the second phase would be. We’re not removing it.”

The term singao comes from an almost uniquely Cuban term, singar, which is the verb version of “to fuck.” It is considered highly offensive in Cuba and, prior to the current protests, was rarely found outside the Cuban community. Its prevalence in the ongoing protests has caused controversy in Latin American media, ensnaring the network Univisión last week.

During a broadcast of the Premios Juventud 2021, a music awards show, the Puerto Rican reggaetón artist Farruko appeared on stage wearing a t-shirt bearing the Cuban flag and the protest slogan in solidarity with the protesters and as a statement against communism. Univisión censored the bottom half of the shirt with the offending language on it, outraging many viewers who considered the gesture tasteless given that the protests in Cuba are largely about the Communist Party denying its people freedom of expression for over half a century.

Univisión hosts explained on the air the next morning that they censored the word because the network is subject to FCC regulations and wished to avoid violating American law.

“It is not that we disagreed with the message, it is that the word as such cannot appear on television and it is a rule that applies for any television network,” the hosts reportedly explained.

The Café Papillon sign raises similar issues to another case of political profanity on display resolved this week: the case of New Jersey homeowner Patricia Dilascio, who decorated her home with several political signs, among them one reading “fuck [Joe] Biden.” Her municipality, Roselle Park, sued her after she refused to take down the sign; a local judge threatened a $250-a-day fine if she did not remove it.

Roselle Park dropped its lawsuit in part after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) intervened, arguing that the constitution protects political speech from government censorship.

“The First Amendment exists specifically to make sure people can express strong opinions on political issues – or any other matter – without fear of punishment by the government,” Amol Sinha, the executive director of the New Jersey ACLU, said following the decision this week. “Today’s decision confirms that our position was correct: Roselle Park had no grounds to issue fines for a political sign and the town’s use of its obscenity ordinance infringed upon fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment.”

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