ABSTRACT
Edilberto, the main character of this chapter, was 13 years old in 1959 at the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. At the time, many casinos and gambling houses operated in Cuba. But the lottery, casinos, entertainments, and prostitution did not correspond to the new ideal socialist society Fidel Castro aimed to establish. One month after the triumph of the Revolution, Castro decided to supress the national lottery, which he considered a social parasite. Even if the lottery or bolita is now illegal in Cuba, Cubans play bolita all the time. During a daily afternoon nap, Edilberto had a powerful dream that he interpreted as a revelation. It was time for him to play bolita. Many Cubans use revelations to identify the numbers to play bolita. Once a player recognises that they had a revelation, they find the associated numbers according to a list known as the charade. Currently drawn in Miami, bolita winning numbers are transmitted through aerial spaces. The most common way of charting the numbers is by listening to a radio programme transmitted by “Radio Martí” based in the U.S.A. This chapter is about transnational imagination that emerges thanks to the lottery system and the radio waves; it is about luck and hope of what comes from elsewhere.
