Wow

Well that little girl must told that the platillo volador can be found here at many places and the mop!! give me a break.......i have also heard of people getting things from Cuba....un pajarito nativo de alla, pre 1958 bills.....but un platillo volador...c'mon.....she must be a recent arrival....cubanfoodmarket.com has it all!!!!

I have gotten into situations like that all the time in NYC! Everything from so called Cuban Americans living here in freedom and boasting how they go to Cuba and have a blast of a time.

One time there was even this girl at a job I was in that was dating a Cuban guy. She found out that I was Cuban and she asked me what I thought of the whole Cuba thing. I told her that I did not like Castro and what he has done to the Cuban people. She looked at me like I had two heads and she said that when she went to Cuba with her b friend and stayed at his family's house - that they HAD EVERYTHING! She said what the hell I was speaking about because she saw how good the Cuban people lived. I said that wasn't true and that maybe her boy friends family was in the Cuban communist party! She thought I was nuts. I hated that bitch from that day on.

I am sure that there are Cubans on the island that dont work for the government that do have many luxuries. The Black Market being their source and a little cuban ingenuity and resolve to get those item from it. And I have heard of things being sent from Cuba, but only personal items like photographs or a family heirloom, etc..

Never have I heard of anything like a balleta de trapear being sent here from Cuba.

I suppose it's possible, of course, that this womans mother doesnt work for the government, but I trust my wife's instincts and if she believes that this girl was a full fledged pionera, then I believe her.

Val I suppose you would get those things with hard currency. Maybe they even had mops for moneda nacional?
The girl's family probably sends mami the dollars and mami is doing some bisne?
Maybe mami rents out a casa particular? Lots of possibilities.
Does she really have to work for the government?
Of course you never know.

I think this represents is one of two scenarios:

Scenario 1: A small group of Cubans who have come to this country have some sort of an inferiority complex. (They should not; just leaving the prison island and coming to freedom should be considered a life achievement.) However, the ones that do, may feel that they are somehow belittled by us old-timer exiles and want to get back at us in some way, like saying that Cuba is no different than here, and that they can get whatever they want from the island -- which is total BS, of course.

Scenario 2: They are professional disinformation disseminators -- agent provacateurs -- sowing seeds of desire for the Cubans here to travel to the island and spend the badly needed dollars over there.

That's my take. I would have been a little ruder than Val in my response, but that's just me. I would have asked her, politely of course, to get the fuck out of the US if she could have it so good back in Cuba.

And one last thing. Val made an interesting comment to me: A good question to have asked this young lady would have been "if it's so great over there, and if you can get everything you need, then why the fuck are you a cashier at a Cuban supermarket here in Miami?"

Enquiring minds want to know...

George,

I wrote this post as food for thought. There were a couple of elements to the conversation that I left out purposely.

Both of your points above may be correct. However, from my wife's explanation of the encounter, I do not think that the girl had an inferiority complex. Of course, her mother may not be a part of the communist party, either.

But chewing on this a bit more, I think I retract what I said about her working behind a counter at a timbiriche and hot staying behind in Cba if she had all of those tings mentioned above. There is one thing that will make a person leave it all behind and start at the bottom of the totem pole: freedom.

Una mujer valiente que habla para la verdad, que mucha buena señora. I'm amazed at your self control. If things are so great in Cuba, why is she here working in a store?

I think that Cuban exiles who are here for political or economic reasons are here for a basic, human need: freedom. Whether it's freedom to express a political view or freedom to make your living any way one sees fit. I've told many, many folks here in the US, that your worst day here is better than your best day there.

If she said what she said to be "cute," or if she was just being young and stupid, then, OK. I hope you are right that her rationale for coming here was about her desire for freedom. I would not have as nice as your wife in my response...

We MUST keep telling ourselves "Just because they are HERE does NOT mean, their agenda and allegiance doesn’t fall someplace else"

There are a TON of Cubans in the USA (and around the world) who are outside Cuba with the exclusive purpose of earning a Capitalist salary and sending up to 95% of it back to KaSStro.
This is a well known fact in Cuba. Some of these "I am going back to Cuba to get my teeth fixed”, or "I am getting my perfume from Cuba" are highly suspicious elements because they are left with practically NOTHING to live on.
I just met (on line) a Cuban living in Sweden and working for SonyEricsson and I wondered how the hell he wound up in Sweden. Pretty much he was "sold" as slave labor (technical writer for Spanish documentation) He was told "you're going to Sweden. And you go to the Cuban embassy every month and give us 97% of your salary! 97%!!!!
And this is a guy IS a ñangara! But after a few months he is "coño chico , pero estoy viviendo como un perro callejero"
I had a similar experience with TWO recent arrivals to New York, who called me saying they brought some letters for me from my family , as I spoke to them on the phone , these fuckers were NOT at all anti-Castro ! a lot of “Well you know the revolution has done a LOT of wonderful things…” FUCK YOU ! I have SEEN what the revolution has done and NONE of it is wonderful !
Needless to say I never saw them again nor the letters that they were supposed to give me.
So, OJO !

My first impression is that moms are moms, and for all we know this girl could have been homesick and missing her mom. And maybe her mom gave her the only trapo she had because it's cheap and on the black market, and it's a way to stay connected with her daughter. Maybe I'm being slightly sexist here, but in most Cuban house holds women generally mop and here are two women exchanging woman things. And trapo fits with the latest maxim coming out of Cuba: Somos pobres pero limpios.

HOWEVER, what I found jarring and repulsive, is this little girl's nonchalantness about the Plato Volador maker and her comment about the Perfumes being better in Cuba. There is a certain disturbing ambivilance and immaturity at play here. And black market or no black market these things cost money, money that an 11 dollar a month pay check will not support. And so her mom is either getting her things from "Roberto," from her daughters paycheck, or in agreement with your wife she's some how connected to the Communist party.

And like George's comment I would have done what your wife did and even go further to tell her that if things are so great in Cuba, then have her mom send her a one way plane ticket back to Cuba.

I have one of those mops. (un palo de trapear). They work great and you can get them at any Sedanos or Navarro. That chick was una ñangara.

Now that I have read a few more commenters, I want to point out the utter absurdity and inanity of someone here in Miami praising a Red Chinese mop.

Maybe the reason she didn't respond to the comment was because she's at her place of work and arguing with a customer is not appropiate, no matter how rude or insulting the comment?

I don't know why getting so worked up over a few items that represent nothing but nostalgia. Maybe it's been too long since any of you longed for the things that used to make your everyday life back in Cuba (those of you who actually lived there), but small stuff like that can have as much of an emotional impact as a book or a tape or a photograph. Understand she's not saying her life was better back then - it was just her life and she's happy her mom can help her bring a bit of it to her new home.

I'm especially appalled at comments of the "if it was so good get the hell out of here" kind. I used to hear those exact same words - over there.

Gansibele, if you are here, and you came from there, there must be a reason. Economic? Political? Religious persecution? Convenience? It's one of these. Many Cubans choose to stay in Cuba; others choose to leave and rebuild their lives elsewhere; and yet others choose to stay and fight the regime as they can and become dissidents. My point is that if you are here -- in the US, where you can get anything you want -- feeling nostalgic over a communist Chinese made mop is a slap in the face to all of those who long to live in freedom. Simply walk down the aisle of any medium sized grocery store in the United States and then tell me that someone who sees that cannot feel awe at what this country is. Buy a Swiffer, or an O-Cedar, or go and buy a palo de trapear at any Cuban grocery store. You cannot tell me that a Chinese mop is better. Sorry.

Now, you can be "appalled" all you want at "if it was so good get the hell out of here" and decry such language, but the bottom line is, that if you are here, shut up and enjoy your freedom, or get the hell out. I say this, not just to this young lady, but to any hypocrite or low-life ingrate (like the Michael Moores of this country) who constantly bite the hand that feeds them and criticize this country. They are incapable of appreciating the good fortune they have to live here.

"someone here in Miami praising a Red Chinese mop."

Well, since you put it that way George...

HAHAHAHAHAHEEEHEEEHEEEHEHEHEHEHE...

yeah it is kind of funny...

George Moneo, let me tell you one thing my friend: I'm here precisely because nobody can tell me to "shut up and enjoy my freedom". Because the number one reason that freedom exists is that some people with very big stones at one point felt the need to ensure you, me, Michael Moore and that girl will always have the right to say lo que nos dé la gana. You think criticism makes the country weaker. I think it makes it stronger.

So she likes the one she's used to, big deal. You can feel awed at the abundance here (and believe me I appreciate it) and at the same time feel nostalgic for what you left behind. The two can coexist, life is not black and white and consumerism isn't everything, buddy. To think that preferring a piece of wood over a Swiffer is a symbol of communist sympathies, that's just idiotic. Bottom line.

I'll make sure next time a viejito tells me that "the air in Cuba smelled better" or "the palms grew taller" or "the coffee tasted better", that one George L. Moneo says to "shut up or get the hell out" if you can't appreciate what you have now.

Gansibele, you're funny. You and that girl, and Michael Moore are free to say and think whatever you want -- even when you are wrong.

However, feeling nostalgic over a lost country and a great and vibrant culture that existed before fidel destroyed it, is very different from feeling nostalgic over a mop made by the fellow socialist proletariat in Red China. She DID NOT come from the abundance that existed in Cuba before the revolution; she came from a wretched hell-hole made that way by the motherfucker fidel and his minions -- WHICH IS PROBABLY WHY SHE IS HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

If she still pines for what Cuba is today, then her "nostalgia" is an implicit and/or explicit paean to fidel, whether she (or you) wants to admit it or not.

George Moneo you are so right about Michael Moore. I met him personally during my graduation ceremony, where he was invited. El no es mas que un gordo acomplejado y mediocre, and with no talent for film!

When I see poeple talking shit about this country, Cubans saying this country this, this country that...yo los mataba chico!!
I came to this country from Spain, were I lived the first 10 years of mi exilio, and were I had absolutely no future to look forward to. Here, I was allowed to continue my college years without a visa or a single legal paper, while my papers where in progress (and right after 9/11!!!!). They gave me financial aid, I could find a job in my business relatively easily without knowing the language at the beginning...and in NY everything is more difficult! I did more things in 1 year here than in 10 years in España, En que pais del mundo pasa eso aparte de este? NINGUNO, NONEEE...

I am very aware of how incredibly lucky I am! I which I had come from Spain before!!

Geoge Moneo, you're so right, I have a cousin who arrived here a year ago due to the lottery thing.

First thing the little asshole tells me after being here two weeks, just two fucking weeks! is that "en cuba se pueden hacer negocios mejor que aqui". How pathetically ignorant or idealogically brainwashed!

Here is a "jovencito mocosucio" lecturing me, ME, that has been here 43 years, am a proffesional, about the merits of cagastro's disastrous demand economic system, against the over 13 trillion dollars a year gross national product we enjoy here.

Needlesly to say, I basically disowned the little bastard on the spot.

Sorry Tia, I guess I'm just a hardnosed SOB yankee capitalist at heart after all.

Perfidious shop girl agents of disinformation,
spreading lies to lure dollars to Cuba?

You must look at your parents sideways
when they sing the old songs.

GuestAgain (I see you hide behind a bogus alias and a bogus email address), if you do not believe that we have fidel's agents of disinformation all around us, and not only in positions of stature, then you are naive indeed. The Soviets did it here for decades; the islamists are doing it today. People like you were and are fooled again and again, much to the West's peril.

Oye George, anyone who needs to hide behind bs names and emails doesn't deserve attention.

In one thing we agree Moneo - wrong or right, we can say whatever we want. Must be nice to have the absolute truth.

So one can only be nostalgic about abundance? You really believe that in the middle of all that desolation people don't live lives worth remembering in some measure? You think everybody is happy here because they can buy a Swiffer? There's no rich and vibrant culture in Cuba today, as repressed and regulated as it is? I guess all those writers, painters, filmakers, musicians born after 1959 suddenly became talented after leaving?

There's 12 million of us allá and only 2 million here. Most of them grew up with Castro. Doesn't mean they support him - they just don't know better and are too busy trying to survive. Learn to differentiate politics from people. Porque se ve que no tienes ni idea de lo que pasa allá.

The Chinese mop was probably no better than the ones you get here, but maybe she was missing the place and a bit of a fantasist and started imagining the mop was actually better.

Cubans in the island are sometimes unbelievably dense (or naïve) in their perception of the world.
They see the Cuban-American show up with dollars and gold chain and a nice watch and some think we just kicked up a sack of shit and this stuff came flying out.
"No es facil" the MOST defeatist phrase uttered by anyone anywhere anytime and it is the war cry of the Cubans in Cuba.
I have also the odd relative that was appalled at how difficult it was for him to work here.. "BRODER estoy lavando cuartos en un hotel" tu te imaginas?!
Yeah, and my mother packed pickles for 6 years, so what is YOUR point !
And yes any of those who will tell me "it is hard here, in Cuba was easier to "resolver" they are out of my speed dial in a flash.
And THAT is one thing I fear about a KaSStro fall, that a lot of the ones in Cuba who live "resolviendo" will begin DEMANDING (now that they will be able to DEMAND) this shit and that shit..
Case in point.
A few months back when because of the atmospheric conditions , American TV was being watched in Cuba 24 hours a day .. CNN interviews some bitch that ACTUALLY complains ..."yes it is good but SO MANY COMMERCIALS"
I wanted to strangle this bitch . Now what can we expect from THAT attitude in a FREE Cuba.
Or the "Failure" story in "BALSEROS" where the girl complained" Hay mijo en Cuba yo me iba a bailar to'los días , aquí nada, que mierda"

There are a LOT of Cubans in the island to whom Capitalism is going to be one MOTHERFUCKER of a shock!

Easy on the alias usage.(not that I'm defending his position) It is because of my work in Cuba and their "surveillance" into Cuban-American websites that I use mine. Its a shame that I can't speak my mind with my name in the US because of what will happen to me and what I do in Cuba.