When Sonia was 13 years old, while the Soviet empire and the Berlin Wall were still standing, she went on vacation and discovered the “spectacular waters” of southern Crimea. Holidays, more or less: I was in a “holiday camp”, yes, but it brought together thousands of young people in the Soviet Union, children of communist parents, first in Moscow and then in Crimea, to exchange “experiences” and gain political training . In a “country full of rules”, Sonia, the daughter of communist militants, learned not to dive without supervision: “They warned us not to put our heads under water for too long. If something happens to a child in the United States, he is watching the movie… ”, she jokes.
38 years have passed since her stay in Crimea and Sónia Maria Santinho Cachapa, now 51, remembers this story sitting at one of the tables in the international space of the Festa do “Avante!”she focused on the bowl of fried rice and the plate of small Vietnamese pancakes in front of her.
Also in front is an older woman who, at first glance, is her photocopy: the same very blue eyes, the same aquiline nose, both tanned. It’s not hard to see what they are mother and daughter —or if it weren’t for the mother, Maria de Lourdes, who became a communist militant while the party was underground, who still remembers the details of the “holiday camp” in Crimea.
Despite being interested in exploring Vietnamese cuisine (the country’s communist party is one of the 14 that sell foreign specialties in the international space of “Avante!”), Sónia and Maria de Lourdes are sitting on the terrace of the Yuri Gagarin Association, which sells Russian delicacies and handicrafts. But when asked about the party’s position on the war in Ukraine – which is why they remember talking about “holidays” in Crimea, a region that is now Ukrainian but annexed by Russia since 2014 – they hesitate.
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Source: Observadora
