Cuban Skater Crisis

In this picture I see a large group of people circling around a few people. It looks as if the people in the middle are handing out skateboards to the group of people surrounding them by means of a sort of assembly line pass down the line deal. And the ones who are receiving the skateboards look excited to be getting one, and the people waiting in line to get one look like their turn cannot come soon enough.

I think the picture is trying to say that skateboarding can bring happiness to so many people, and even though they may not know each other, they work together to help spread that happiness amongst all of the people who congregated there. And the ones handing out the skateboards seem to be almost like celebrities or heroes by the looks on the peoples’ faces.

In reality this is a picture of a few professional skateboarders who snuck into Cuba. They went there in response to a chain of emails about how the kids there could not get any decent skateboards or skateboarding shoes due to the embargo between Cuba and the United States. The kids were skating on slabs of wood with square wheels nailed on, and the shoes they were using were more comparable to flip-flops than actual shoes. So the skaters smuggled in with them hundreds of skateboards and shoes, and after hours of being interrogated by Cuban police about their motives and their entire luggage searched they handed out the skateboards to the kids in the local skatepark. The people who handed out the skateboards said that the kids were in tears of joy to finally be getting a decent set of tools to enjoy their favorite hobby.

This helps my paper by saying that a simple skateboard can defy years of hatred and refusal to communicate with a neighboring country, and come over and bring happiness to the kids of that country. The pathos appeal in this picture is good for the fact that it really helps to show that a simple piece of wood, some metal, and some wheels can bring so many people together to work together, and to bring happiness. And that is not a thing that many people can really visualize on their own.