May 25, 2007
The Menendez Smackdown
Want to read a thing of beauty? El Nuevo Herald journalist Mercedes Soler puts the smackdown on Ana "I hate my heritage" Menendez in today's Miami Herald:
The exile debate: Add and multiply, never divideBY MERCEDES SOLER
mercedesenelnuevo@gmail.com
I do not consider myself a reactionary person. Nor do I allow myself to be carried away by what society considers politically correct. I try to analyze beyond frivolities before I take a position. I am not interested in attacking persons or groups. I prefer to adhere to the motto of José López-Neira, a 90-year-old reader who writes to me daily and signs off saying: ``Add and multiply; never divide.''
I consider that my 20 years in journalism give me the authority to speak about the responsibility required by the right to free expression. I defend the free press, a fundamental pillar of democracy. Opposing, controversial and dissenting opinions must have a place in any open society. But cannibalism long ago ceased to be tolerated in a civil state.
In a recent column, my colleague Ana Menendez offends the Cuban-exile community. She trivializes the suffering, sacrifice and struggle represented by our 48 years in exile; she stains the memory of the 41,700 people who, according to The Cuba Archive, lost their lives because of the Castro government, plus the other thousands of men and women who have served and continue to serve prison sentences for demanding the freedom of expression she so frivolously squanders. She also embraces the communist rhetoric when she addresses us as the Cuban Mafia.
She orders us to swallow our pain. All this she does in English. Because if her parents hadn't been exiles, she probably would not have been born in the United States and would better understand her forefathers' history.
It is not my place to reply in the name of the exile community, the community of my parents and hers. Instead, I do so in the name of our own generation, the one in which she obligatorily was born or reared, kept away from her ancestral land because those old people -- the ones she today calls tired, dispossessed and reduced to pathetic acts of self-parody -- once were brave enough to leap into the void, abandon their loved ones and start a new life without money or knowledge of a new language.
Those same old-timers, in the most tragic of cases, even sent their children to Miami by themselves, in Operation Pedro Pan, just so their children could have -- like she now has -- the opportunity of thinking freely.
For those who prefer not to delve deeply into the meaning of the word exile, which not even remotely approaches the word immigrant, we Cubans here are an easy target of ridicule. Not a day goes by that I don't hear another Hispanic fake a Cuban accent and mockingly spout an ''oye, chico, qué volá,'' [''Hey, man, what's happening''] to conceal rivalry behind solidarity. Everybody wants to unseat a winner.
The fact is that the Cuban community, most of it, has come to the United States to integrate into its educational, labor and political processes. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, we Cuban-Americans represent almost 4 percent of the 45 million Hispanics in this country. Yet, our average annual income is higher than that of Anglos, and more than 50 percent of the wealthy Hispanics in this great nation are Cubans.
Our influence is palpable in the media, science, the arts, finance, Congress, the Senate, the country. And all this was forged in fewer than 50 years, under adverse conditions. We could have achieved more in a democratic Cuba.
Throughout the years, I have read with admiration, even devotion, the writings of many English-language columnists. Anna Quindlen of Newsweek speaks to my condition as a woman. Ana Veciana-Suarez touches my heart as a mother. Dave Barry puts me in touch with the girl inside me.
Leonard Pitts is my conscience in the face of racial injustice. And when Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize winner, deals with the negative aspects of the African-American community, he does not engage in mockery or vituperation. He broaches it with brotherly concern.
To criticize the nostalgia of the generation of Agustín Tamargo, Guillermo Cabrera Infante and so many others who live or died clinging to the idea of a democratic and sovereign Cuba is an act of cruelty. It is not a question of agreeing or disagreeing with those who want to boycott something that offends them, but to acknowledge that they have a right to do so here, knowing that in Cuba that act would land them in jail. To criticize those who are not brave enough to face off multinational corporations is simplistic. The exile community has defied Benetton, CNN, the Melia hotel chain and many others.
For someone named Menendez and someone named Soler to come to blows over this is fratricidal. A bitter postscript to another May 20 -- Cuban Independence Day -- in exile.
H/T Robert.
Posted by Val Prieto at May 25, 2007 08:15 AM
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Comments
Wow - smackdown indeed.
-Anatasio
Posted by: CubaWatch ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.babalublog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 25, 2007 08:43 AM
What a smack down square on the back of her ugly horsehead! I'm sure that babalublog's role in bringing attention to Ana's self-hating diatribes played a role in inspiring that article. I don't remember anyone writing a similar article about Ana's predecessor, the equally self-hating, Max Castro. By the way, what is it with the Miami Herald? They always have to hire some self-hating Cuban American. One retires, Max "cara de cotorra" Castro and they hire another one, Ana "cara de caballo" Menendez.
Posted by: Ray at May 25, 2007 08:59 AM
Boy, she cut her overies off and handed them back to her on a platter!
Posted by: LaConchita at May 25, 2007 08:59 AM
I first read Mercedes' excellent column in Sunday's El Nuevo Herald and I am glad to see they finally ran it in English so that Ana Menendez can understand it. I think many of us Cuban Americans can benefit from remembering the words; Add and multiply, never divide.
Posted by: Jose Aguirre at May 25, 2007 09:18 AM
What Menendez needs - and truly for poetic justice's sake - is to become an "Hermana al Rescate." Where she finds un buen Cubanazo balsero recently arrived and ... well... you get the picture.
Posted by: Val Prieto at May 25, 2007 09:32 AM
Val:
A Cubanaso Balsero is TOO GOOD for Ms. Menendez.
Ray:
The Herald will continue to hire and promote people who insult our community UNTIL WE INUNDATE THEIR ADVERTISERS WITH E-MAILS AND PHONE CALLS PROTESTING AND BOYCOTTING THEIR GOODS AND SERVICES! THIS IS AMERICA, HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS $$$
Posted by: Jewbana at May 25, 2007 09:49 AM
Braviiiiisimo!!! At long last, a Cuban-American journalist babe with testosterone.
She gets my colada of the day for taking on the #1 arrepentida in Miami.
Posted by: Gigi at May 25, 2007 10:02 AM
Excellent response by Ms Soler to anyone who behaves in a boorish manner toward Cuban exiles. Some of you, apparently, still don't get it.
Posted by: mamey at May 25, 2007 10:12 AM
It would be nice if Soler's response somehow got through to Menendez (sic) and others like her, but I think that's very unlikely. I think this is a case of throwing pearls before swine. My approach in this particular matter remains "Al bagazo, poco caso."
Posted by: asombra at May 25, 2007 10:48 AM
WOW! Thank you Mecerdes Soler. THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Posted by: Henry Agueros at May 25, 2007 10:57 AM
Finally, a Herald writer with chutzpah! Ms. Soler put ms. arrepentida where she belongs, right next to the castroits! Good Job Ms. Soler.
Posted by: ORGULLOSADESERCUBANA at May 25, 2007 11:24 AM
Mercedes' article touched on the success of the Cuban community. Bravo!!! Yet, I just had a 'soft' debate with someone about Ana Melendez' freedom to write the article Mercedes spoke of. As a defender of our great constitution, I do indeed defend her right and I am sure Val, Henry, George and the rest of the contributors here would join me "con el machete en mano" in that defense of our and her freedom of speech and expression. (Geez what a visual.) However, I agree with Jewbana above about how to send a message to the Herald that, while we can deal with constructive criticism or truthful and fair dialogue about problems, the spewing of hateful and tendentious rhetoric will not be tolerated. People forget that the first amendment is about the government not passing laws against my freedom of expression. It does not say that a community cannot affect the quality of what is written about it by protesting. Not all speech is allowed. You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater. Boycotts by people is not the equivalent of the government impinging on my rights. Our wallets, pocketbooks and voices can help keep things in check.
Abe "El Consigliere" Cardenas
Posted by: Abe Cardenas at May 25, 2007 12:12 PM
OMG! Ms. Soler gives Ms. Menendez one more reason to wear a paper bag over her head.
Posted by: omar at May 25, 2007 12:23 PM
Right on Consigliere. Ana Menendez has a 1st-Amendment right to say what she says and we have the same 1st-Amendment right to protest it.
Posted by: jluix at May 25, 2007 12:23 PM
What an apropos reading to head into Memorial Day weekend by! Nothing epitomizes American patriotism better than the Cubano community that ana menendez has seen fit to pour her derision upon, gratutitously, time and time again. That righteous smack in la boca was long overdue and I couldn't be happier after having read it!
Posted by: Chuckwalla at May 25, 2007 12:57 PM
Gee, is funny how ana menendez just seem to parrot the same phrases that the "Invisible One" has used so many times depicting the Cuban-American community of Miami? There is a commonality of language here that leads me to believe she is reading her useful idiot manual too intensively! What is that saying about if it walks like a duck, QUACKS like a duck and swims like a duck....is a duck! Her self-loathing driatribe is proof perfect that the Herald is completely out of touch with our community. I stopped many years ago buying the rag and even in the barber shop when there is nothing else to read, I avoid it like the plague.
Posted by: Cubamoto at May 25, 2007 01:49 PM
Jewbana,
I agree 100% with you. The best way to protest Ana and her ilk to by boycotting the Herald. I personally, never buy the Herald. Until we send a message to the Herald that will hurt them in their pockets, they will continue to fill the ranks of their sleezy newspaper with self-hating Cubans like Ana Menendez spewing garbage.
Oh, by the way, and this is just a general comment to everyone, "Cara de Caballo" has a right to her free speech, but she doesn't have a right to her "facts."
Posted by: Ray at May 25, 2007 01:55 PM
A well deserved "OUCH".
Posted by: lourod at May 25, 2007 02:26 PM
Abe and Ray,
Ana Menendez has the right to write her "opinions," but referring to Cuban-Americans as the Cuban Mafia is slanderous. Don Imus (who by the way apologized for his comment) was crucified by the MSM and fired for much less.
Posted by: Firefly at May 25, 2007 05:51 PM
Firefly,
I agree with you completely! Ana Menendez is slandering us; i.e. using hate speech against Cuban Americans. What I meant to say--which may not have come out to clearly---was that while she has a right to her free speech [like we all do], she doesn't have a right to her facts; i.e. calling Cuban Americans a mafia is a distortion of a fact. When she lies the way that she does, when she employs irresponsible journalism, she becomes a liability to her profession and to her community. She is one of the reasons that the Miami Herald is a rag.
Posted by: Ray at May 25, 2007 07:40 PM
Said another way, the US constitution guarantees Ms. Menendez her right to free speech. The constitution however, does not guarantee her the use of a bullhorn with the reach of the Miami Herald.
She can get fired from the Herald for dragging down their profits and still retain all of her free speech rights.
Please make a note of this.
Posted by: cheomedalla at May 25, 2007 08:20 PM
un galletazo en la cara bien dada on behalf on Ms. Soler
Posted by: Felix Ricardo at May 26, 2007 01:43 AM
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