May 30, 2006
Are your ears ringing, Ana?
Looks like it wasnt just us bloggers that took humbrage with Ana Menendez's tear into the Cuba Nostalgia Convention. I just received the following via email:
Dear Ms. Menendez:First of all a disclosure: I am a contractor that is employed yearly by the organizers of CubaNostalgia to help set up and dismantle the event.
For some time now I have been reading your column and that has brought me to the inescapable conclusion that you are the typical card-carrying liberal, knocking down everything others do but not offering solutions or alternatives. For sometime I have been tempted to write to you but was never motivated enough to do it until now. Obviously my motivation, this time, has to do with the fact that I know the event CubaNostalgia and its organizers pretty well and have seen its effect on the thousands that go to it every year.
How do you think events get done? Do you think that a little fairy shakes her magic wand and voila! there it is? Events take imagination, creativity, planning, coordination, hard work and MONEY. Where does the money come from? It comes from gate and sponsorship (someone of your leftist persuasion would probably preferred it came as a hand out from the government).
Without the money there would be no event and there would be no seventy-something Cuban reminiscing about his/hers good time in the Tropicana There wouldn't be a sixty-something crying while listening to the song he proposed to his late wife at the Malecon in Havana. Nor a fifty-something, that came from Cuba recently, finding out about the good work that Jorge Mas Canosa did in exile, How about a forty-something, named Fidel, that only knew Castro's version of the Bay of Pigs invasion finding out the "real truth" at the 2506 Brigade stand. As important as all of that is, even more important is the fact that you would not see a thirty-someting Cuban American looking at a map of Santiago de Cuba with his grandmother and looking at the street where his family lived before liberty died in their country; or maybe a twenty-something buying, yes buying-why not?, a guayabera to emulate his beloved father. How about a ten year old kid learning who Antonio Maceo, the one you mention in your article, was through a pamphlet given at the event. Many of those people would also have the opportunity of seen at least the beautiful facade of the Colon cemetery since they did not have the privilege of seeing the real one as you probably have or will eventually.
Other brief points:
-As a reporter, you should get your story straight before you write it; the wheel with prizes was not at the Colon Cemetery and had nothing to do with it (it belonged to a Bank next door). I know, I know, it sounded cute (the Wheel of Fate vs.. The Wheel of Umbrellas and Visors, ha, ha) but you are supposed to be accurate, not cute.-I agree with you, here we can sell a T-shirt with Che Guevara with a bullet hole in the head. Try that in Cuba and see what happens!
-Since you consider a $12.00 entrance a rip off. You need to ask the Herald for a raise in salary.
-Other than just roam around looking for fodder for your negative article, why did you not approach the organizers and ask them about their motivation to do the event?
-You say you saw people looking delighted or stunned. I guess "it is in the eye of the beholder" for all I, and others who made comments, saw was happy people.
-I imagine you do not think much of the judgment of Cubans and Cuban Americans since you feel the event is grossly offensive and yet attendance is up yearly.
-Before writing of the "Exile Bazaar" you should try and learn the true meaning of exile, what it entails and what emotions an event as CubaNostalgia arouses.
Ms. Menendez, other than write critical articles in the paper, what have you done in your life? Have you ever come up with a bright idea? Have you ever executed that idea? Have you ever been successful in executing the idea? I have yet to see one article you have written where instead of negatively criticizing something or someone, you instead offer solutions to the problem at hand.I encourage you to continue along the same path, for that attitude of yours is precisely the one that has put the liberal camp in disarray and the reason that the conservative cause has gained so much ground in the last few decades. Please continue writing.
Ouch.
Update: Robert's doing a little Ana Menendez spanking as well at 26th Parallel.
Posted by Val Prieto at May 30, 2006 09:29 AM
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Comments
What has she done in her life?
She is going to say she lived in India and Afganistan and wrote for the MSM, wrote a book about a German Shepard and Che, and had a lot of casual sex.
I know a lot of Cuban American women like that who don't really like where their parents came from.
Posted by: mandingo ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 30, 2006 10:19 AM
OHHH...
" a little Ana Menendez spanking"
I wouldn't mind that - she is kinda cute. Kinda. But this is family site so I won't say more.
Posted by: mandingo at May 30, 2006 10:24 AM
mandingo,
Ana strikes me as a "Rolex checker". The kind of chick that asks for the time just to get a glimpse of the wqtch your wearing.
Posted by: Val Prieto at May 30, 2006 10:27 AM
I raise my colada and say CHEERS! for that brilliant email.
Menendez is one more cubanaza arrepentida who, like the leopard, can't change her spots, and can't help being born into Cuban heritage. What a loser. No dirt under that chick's fingernails -- pontificating fool.
Posted by: Gigi at May 30, 2006 10:49 AM
This is the same Ana Menendez who signed the petition calling for the obnoxious pro-Castro Jim DeFede to be rehired at the Miami Herald after he got fired for being unethical. Birds of a feather flock together.
Posted by: delacova at May 30, 2006 11:56 AM
Yep, Ana Menendez is another Cubana Repentina [i.e. self-hating Cuban] and she's getting her browning points by attacking her own people. She knows that if she separates herself from those "repellent" Cuban Americans and proves that she feels no nostalgia for the old country [remember, Cuban Americans are the only people who are not allowed to feel nostalgia for their former homeland] then she might move on up and get a job at a major newspaper like the New York Times, or the Washington Post. It's all a matter of marketing yourself JUST RIGHT and she is doing just that by writing her prejudiced articles and disgusting books like "Loving Che."
I saw Ana Menendez at a conference once and you can tell that despite being a Cuban American, she does not have a single drop of CUBANIA in her.
Posted by: Ray at May 30, 2006 12:01 PM
I didn't read her piece, but the email is very well written and I'm sure very VERY well deserved.
Posted by: La Ventanita at May 30, 2006 12:07 PM
Regarding the article at the 26th Parallel: This lady should be ashamed of herself for using the murder of a little boy to push her agenda.
I think Robert's response was right on the money.
Posted by: barrocas at May 30, 2006 12:12 PM
Good bitch (duh!) slappin' on a Tuesday!
Posted by: Alberto-Q at May 30, 2006 01:52 PM
Let's just hope doesn't make Ana start her own blog, otherwise I am going to need about three of me to keep up with her ridiculousness.
Posted by: Robert at May 30, 2006 04:16 PM
Now, that's a spanking! LOL
Posted by: benning at May 31, 2006 01:49 PM
Since you consider a $12.00 entrance a rip off. You need to ask the Herald for a raise in salary.
Wouldn't she need to improve the quality of her work to justify a rise in pay?
Posted by: aelfheld at June 1, 2006 12:20 AM
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