They deny milk to children, why not toys

I recall that it was 1964 or so, I was 5 years old, when Los Tres Reyes Magos started to become rather stingy. It seemed that with every passing year, my list was simply being ignored, and the things that I asked for kept going missing. Something was wrong! By 1970 when my family was told to leave the country, the Wise Men of East were nothing but a distant memory, they were no more. It seems that there is a resurrection of some kind in Cuba, and Magos are coming back, the people are remembering, and the government is worried.

In a two-page spread, the Juventud Rebelde reported on the revival of "Three Kings Day," a Latin American tradition of giving gifts to children on Jan. 6, commemorating the arrival of three wise men who offered the newborn Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

"A tradition that seemed extinct in Cuban society rises again," the state-run newspaper said. "Although no one sees celebrating the millennial festivity of the Three Kings as heresy, the danger could be in (the holiday) accentuating consumerist habits and social differences."

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