August 12, 2004
BlogCuba - Beautiful Horizons
This next excellent entry for BlogCuba comes from Randy of Beautiful Horizons. While he and I have had our share of debates and disagreements, I believe, when it comes to Cuba, we both want the same thing for her: freedom. Randy, gracias mi amigo, algun dia nos reiremos de nuestros desacuerdos.
The Norteamericano Gets Religion
When I was about 18 months old in 1958, my family moved from New Jersey to Miami. This, of course, was before the start of the Cuban Diaspora. Miami was a remarkably different town, just starting to attain some of the housing sprawl to accommodate the northerners fleeing the brutal winters and the high real estate prices of the Northeastern US.
After a couple of years living in a few areas of Miami, we settled in a neighborhood of tract homes (six designs on every block) called Coral Way Village. Cuba never really played a role in my life in Miami until I was in the first grade. In October 1962, the Cuban Missle Crisis erupted on the world's headlines. I was five years old and knew nothing abot geopolitics. I can remember walking home from Banyan Elementary School the four blocks to my house accompanied by National Guardsmen oblivious to the possibility of the imminent destruction of the world in a nuclear holocaust. In fact, I thought the entire spectacle was actually rather interesting. My father had died the year before and my mother, fearing that we had have to live in a tightly enclosed space until the nuclear fallout cleared, made a point of lavishing me with toys to keep me amused - just in case, of course. I got to keep the toys and, in my blissful, five year old ignorance thought the near destruction of mankind was a great way to get the latest toys.
My neighborhood changed shortly thereafter. The passage of the Cuba Adjustment Act in 1966 changed my neighborhood. Soon the smell of black beans in garlic wafted out of our neighbors kitchen windows and seeing my new friends eating Moros Y Cristianos became a common sight while I pleaded with them for just a taste of that delicious Cuban Sandwich. I couldn't speak Spanish at that time, but I was curious and intrigued as to why these people have fled, although my understanding of geopolitics was still so limited as to leave me largely clueless when we moved from Miami to Alabama when I was 12.
Cuba then rather quickly fell out of my orbit except as a distant place in Latin America ruled by a dictator. In my teenage years it seemed like so much of Latin America was ruled by dictators: Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala. The political situation in Cuba became very much an abstraction for me: I read about it in the newspapers, I tried to consider both sides, but then one day I came across the name Huber Matos.
In my naïvete I was puzzled as to why someone who had fought alongside Castro against Batista would be treated this way. I have a natural instinct for research and started devouring whatever I could find about Cuba. I soon learned that the Revoluton feasted on its young and among the victims were writers like Herberto Padilla. So this Norteamericano learned to dig a little deeper to find out the buried pain and the yearning for their homeland that his former neighbors suffered so stoically, unlike his own father who joyously fled Kiev glad to start the next generation free of both the Czarist and the Soviet oppression.
The irony now is, living so far from the center of the Cuban Diaspora, I yearn to see Cuba. I do not agree with my government's policy of embargo and travel ban. I long to visit Cuba with a suitcase filled with copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I know that there are those who may disagree with me, but if our means are different, our end is the same. Above all, however, I long to stroll along the Malecon in Havana listening to a mother and father singing the lovely lullaby "Drume Negrita" to their infant knowing that their baby can grow up and read whatever they wish, vote for the candidate of their choice, express their opinions without fear and live in a just, free society.
Posted by Val Prieto at August 12, 2004 01:00 PM
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Although Val Prieto, who created and runs Babalublog and I come from markedly different points on the political spectrum, we do agree on the cause of freedom for Cuba, even if we may disagree on the means. To his everlasting [Read More]
Tracked on August 14, 2004 02:03 PM
» Randinho's Latin America Briefing: 2004-08-18 from Winds of Change.NET
VENEZUELA'S REFERENDUM; Dominican Republic has a new President; Colombia; Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo places first; Castro celebrates his 78th birthday; Some bloggers celebrate Cuba while excoriating Fidel. [Read More]
Tracked on August 17, 2004 12:52 AM
Comments
Well said, Randy. But wouldn't the Cuban customs officials conviscate the UDHR documents for their counterrevolutionary content?--s
Posted by: j.scott barnard at August 12, 2004 02:36 PM
Well, that's certainly a possibility, but if I didn't bring them they certainly wouldn't get read either. On the other hand, if they got confiscated think of the PR black eye it could give Castro.
Posted by: Randy Paul at August 13, 2004 07:46 PM
Frightened of going and trying?????? I don't think the Cuban Customs goves much of a damn about people with tracts - they are pretty sure that they already have the Human Rights that matter - health, eddiccation, personal security, work, etc. And compatred to most deformed capita;list countries in Latin America, they are right - life for 80% of the population is much better
Posted by: Guillermo Blanco at August 14, 2004 10:15 AM
Guillermo,
You obviously have some issues with people progressing. If you knew anything at all about Cuba you would see how foolish that comment about its "healthcare" is. Yu swallow Castro's propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Te tirastes, y no das pie.
Posted by: Val Prieto at August 14, 2004 10:45 AM
