La Habana, 08 julio
2010 — Cuba has promised the Roman Catholic Church it
will free 52 political prisoners, slashing the number
held by nearly a third in what would be the communist-led
island's largest release of dissidents since Pope John
Paul II visited in 1998.
Five are to be released initially and sent into exile in
Spain, while the others would be freed over the next
three or four months, said Havana's archbishop, Cardinal
Jaime Ortega.
The deal was announced Wednesday following a meeting
between President Raul Castro and Ortega, with Spanish
Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos also on hand.
"This opens a new era in Cuba with hope of putting aside
differences once and for all on matters of prisoners,"
the Spanish Embassy declared in a statement.
But it was not clear if the agreement would be enough
for a new beginning with the United States. President
Barack Obama's administration has said it hoped to see
an improvement in Cuba's human rights record before
easing America's 48-year-old trade embargo against the
island.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Virginia
Staab said that "we would view prisoner releases as a
positive development, but we are seeking further details
to confirm the facts."
Moratinos and Ortega said they weren't sure how long it
would take for the first five prisoners to be released,
but that the process would likely take days.
This does not open a new era in Cuba because there will
be no new era until Fidel Castro is dead. The article
says that the others will be released in three to four
months and do you think that's so? I believe that those
prisoners are in such bad condition that it will take
three or four months to get them in presentable shape
before being released into the public spotlight. And
after these 52 political prisoners are released what
will change? Nothing because the Castro regime will
continue to arrest dissidents. A new era in Cuba will
begin with freedom of speech and wil culminate with free
and open elections. Is the release of fifty-two
political prisoners a positive development?
Absolutamente it is, any time that happens it's positive
but the Castro regime doesn't release anyone out of the
kindness of their heart or of any sense of compassion
they always do these things because they think they can
receive something in return that will benefit them. Like
most dictatorships the Castro regime's main goal is to
stay in power even at the expense of the basic well
being of the Cuban people. 52 dissidents released? When
will the people of Cuba be released from the chains of
slavery? "Sin libertad no hay vida"
Another Crappy Period in Cuban History
Last month, the Cuban
state-run toilet paper company, Cimex, announced that it
is unable to supply adequate toilet paper to the nation
until at least December 2009. Budget cuts slashed
imports and Cuba has a shortage of raw materials to
manufacture enough toilet paper to meet demand.
Therefore:
"Until more supplies are produced, citizens are
encouraged to conserve toilet paper by tearing off fewer
squares, switching from two-ply to one-ply or using
cigar wrappers."
It's assumed that the guidance referring to cigar
wrappers applies to specifically-grown, broad tobacco
leaves as opposed to the actual people who wrap cigars.
It would be unreasonable to envision having, for
example, Eduardo or Rosita standing by to cleanse human
effluent openings.
Interestingly, reference sources assert that the cigar
wrapper is responsible for 60 percent of a cigar's
flavor and therefore it's highly valued. As such, Cuban
cigar wrappers could be considered, in an odd way of
thinking, as a step up from plain paper toilet tissue,
being more flavorful and all.
Furthermore, Cuban broadleaf tobacco is considered by
many to be the world's finest so individuals using it as
a toilet paper substitute can bask in the knowledge that
they are wiping with the very best.
Meanwhile, people who arguably do wipe with the very
best, Americans, are being criticized for using plush
three-ply toilet paper. Americans prefer and seek
softness in toilet tissue and environmentalists contend
that old-growth forests are being destroyed because of
the preference.
"It's a menace, environmental groups say -- and a
dark-comedy example of American excess.
The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is
usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that
were decades or even a century old. They want Americans,
like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled
paper goods.
It has been slow going. Big toilet-paper makers say that
they've taken steps to become more Earth-friendly but
that their customers still want the soft stuff, so
they're still selling it."
Ultimately, the challenge for the environmentalists is
to convince the American public to adopt a cult-like,
save-the-planet mentality and welcome scratchiness in
toilet tissue -- or -- get a law passed. In fact, I
wouldn't be surprised to hear that liberal special
interest groups are working on a toilet paper law right
now. Hell, the environmentalist crowd got laws passed
for those squiggly light bulbs that don't seem to put
out as much light and laws for toilets that need to be
flushed twice, so it's perfectly reasonable to expect a
toilet paper law sometime in the future.
In any event, the toilet paper situations in Cuba and in
the U.S. have at least one thing in common -- an
underlying utopian philosophy. In Cuba, it's Marxist
utopianism where everyone shares in the sacrifice,
except for those who do the divvying, of course. In the
U.S., it's environmentalist utopianism where everyone
shares in the sacrifice, also except for those who do
the divvying.
In conclusion, one result of utopianism in Cuba is the
people being told to wipe their behinds with leaves,
just like the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon did, and it
could be argued that the environmentalists would be
happy if the same thing happened in the U.S.
I'm not implying that Marxists and environmentalists
want society to return to the Stone Age, but I believe
they would love to goosestep in a pre-Industrial
Revolution society where the hallmark of utopianism,
widespread deprivation, is not unusual.
Once again
the Cuban people have to suffer international
humiliation at the hands of their socialist masters. How
much more will our brothers and sisters on the island
have to take before they are finally free? Viva Cuba
Libre!
What has happened to Fidel?
A
month-long halt in Fidel Castro's regular essays and
recent comments by his friend and ally, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, are raising new questions about
the 82-year-old former president's health.
The
current speculation evidently stems mostly from Chavez's
acknowledgment Sunday of what many people here have
believed for some time: It is unlikely Fidel Castro will
be seen in public again.
This month, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and
Panamanian President Martin Torrijos both made official
visits to Cuba, but Castro met with neither, as he had
with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Chinese
President Hu Jintao in November.
Fidel Castro was sworn in as President on February 16,
1959 I turned 13 on that day and for 50 years I've
wished for him to die. They say "Everything comes to he
who waits" and for myself I feel that millions of Cubans
not only on the island but exilios throughout the world
have waited long enough, hopefully the "cochino viejo"
will pass on to his just reward this year and it would
be a gift from God if he were to die on my birthday.
Would Fidel's death solve all of our problems? No,
because we still have Raul to contend with and there are
other devout upper echelon communists waiting to step
into Raul's shoes should we be blessed with his demise
as well. There will be change in Cuba this year that is
a given, either Fidel will die or Obama will end the
embargo or both...but change will come.
Patricio
15
Jan 2009
Congri Stuffed Cuban Turkey
1
Turkey 8-10 pounds
½ lb.
of dry black beans
1 ½
cups long grain rice medium onion, chopped
1 large
onion cut in rings
8
garlic cloves, chopped
1 large
green pepper chopped
1 bay
leaf whole
3 large
lemons, their juice
10
Bacon Strips, cut in pieces
6 Bacon
Strips whole
½ cup
dry wine
Black
pepper
Oregano
Cumin
Salt
1 cup
Sour Orange Juice
2
teaspoons of virgin olive oil
PREPARATION:
Wash the
turkey, inside and out. Dry well, Make mojo sauce (or
buy ready made) by smashing the 6 garlic cloves with a
mortar and mixing with 1/4 teaspoon cumin, 1 1/2
teaspoon of
salt,
the lemon and sour orange juice and two teaspoons of
olive oil. Marinate the turkey inside and out. Save
about 1/2 cup of the mojo marinade to be served at the
table. Set the turkey on non-metal tray, and place the
onion rings on top. Cover with wax or other non-metal
paper. Place on refrigerator and the marinate for at
least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
Wash the
dry black beans. Soak in 4 cups of water for about 8
hours. Chop the green pepper into small pieces and only
1/2 of it to the soaked black beans. Cook at low
temperature in the soaking water until the beans are
tender. (30 to 35 minutes)
In a
pan, sauté the bacon pieces, the chopped onions, half of
the chopped green pepper until the onions are
translucent. Add the chopped garlic and sauté for 2 more
minutes. Add this "sofrito: to the black beans once they
are tender. Add the rice, 2 tsp. of salt, 1/4 tsp.
cumin, 1/2 tsp of oregano. 1 bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon of
pepper and cook over low heat until the rice is almost
done. (that is, until the rice is a bit hard or al
dente).
If needed, add small quantities of water so the rice and
beans mixture (congri) is always moist and does not dry
up while cooking. The rice will finish cooking inside
the turkey, while in the oven.
Stuff the turkey with the congri and close well.
Pour 1/2 cup of dry cooking wine over the turkey and
place the six strips of bacon across the turkey. Cover
with aluminum foil and place in a preheated oven at 350
degrees. Keep covered with the aluminum foil during the
first 2 1/2 hours. While cooking, baste the turkey a few
times with the
liquid that deposits on the tray. Uncover during the
last hour so the surface of the turkey will brown. Total
cooking time will depend on the size of the turkey and
your oven characteristics. ENJOY!!
19
Nov 2008
Courtesy of
CubanFoodMarket.com
Cuba Hails Obama's
Victory
Cuba hails
Barack Obama's presidential election victory and would
one day welcome an easing of the 46-year-old US trade
embargo, Foreign Investment Minister Marta Lomas said
Wednesday in a statement.
One of the
reasons I don't like Hussein Obama is because so many of
our enemies like him but the main reason is I don't
trust him and I think he is a lying socialist I foresee
Obama as the first U.S. president in office to go to the
island and have talks with the communist government
there then coming back to the U.S. to announce he has
made a deal with Cuba and the embargo will be lifted. I
will keep in my prayers Pedro Díaz Lanz the day after
tomorrow on what would have been his 82 birthday.
¡Viva
Cuba Libre!
Patricio
06
Nov 2008
The Sad Death of
a Hero
Born
in Havana on Nov. 8, 1926Pedro
Díaz Lanz was a Cuban pilot who
helped
supply weapons to Fidel Castro in the
Sierra Maestra mountains of the 1950's.
He was given the task of
smuggling the weapons and ammunition from
Costa Rica for Castro's army. He became the
first Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary Air Force
before breaking with the Cuban leader and defected to the United States on
29 June 1959, where he worked tirelessly for the cause
Cuban Liberty. Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz died in
Miami Thursday the 26th of June from a self-inflicted
gun shot wound to the chest, relatives and
friends said. He was 81 years old. Díaz
Lanz died impoverished and disappointed,
suffering from emotional problems that
had drained his health, according to
relatives and friends.
''He was a patriot, a man who had the
dignity to give all for the liberty of
Cuba,'' his brother Eduardo Díaz Lanz
told a local radio station. According to
Eduardo, Pedro had warned him months ago
that he preferred to take his own life
rather than ``fall into the abyss.''
I met Pedro
Diaz Lanz in the spring of 1965 I had just turned 19
years old a few moths before and when I read in the
newspaper that he was coming to Chester Pennsylvania to
speak I knew that this was something I could not afford
to miss. His speech was filled with passion for Cuba, a
deep hatred for communism and a contempt for those
brought slavery to the island. He had everyone laughing
when he described a speech Fidel was giving at a stadium
and a bunch of pigeons were released when one of the
pigeons flew over Castro and dropped a load of dung
squarely on the dictator. When Pedro had finished I was
more than impressed when he found time to talk to me and
give me his autograph and from that day forward he
remained one of my heroes and he always will be. This
man inspired me and changed my life in a lot of positive
ways and until the day I die he'll live in my heart. I
regret that he couldn't have lived to see Cuba free or
at the very least seen Fidel Castro dead. Patricio
14
Julio 2008
Catholic
Church Protests Support for Gay Rights
Cuba's Roman
Catholic Church on Tuesday protested the
communist government's growing support of
gay rights, including a daylong event
raising awareness against homophobia and
a law allowing sex-change operations.
"Respect for
the homosexual person, yes," said an
editorial in Palabra Nueva, the monthly
magazine of the Archdiocese of Havana.
"Promotion of homosexuality, no."
The editorial
signed by magazine director Orlando
Marquez referred to activities held May
17 by Cuba's Sex Education Center, which
is directed by Mariela Castro, daughter
of President Raul Castro.
The center also
announced this month that the health
ministry has approved a law authorizing
government-paid sex changes for 28 people
who have undergone extensive study after
requesting the surgery.
Prejudice against
homosexuals remains deeply rooted in
Cuban society, as in much of Latin
America. But the government has steadily
moved away from the intolerance of the
1960s to the 1990s, when homosexuals hid
their sexuality for fear of being fired
from work or even imprisoned.
Cuba's parliament
also is studying proposals to give gay
couples the same benefits as married
couples.
OK getting fired
or arrested for being Gay is a bit
extreme and against the law in most
civilized countries but after all these
years of oppressing Gays in Cuba in the
name of some kind of socialist morality
the communists now want to change their
image as champions of Gay rights. Well it
may impress the world's liberals but not
the vast majority of the Cuban people or
the Cuban Catholic Church. both of whom
still retain their conservative values
and freedom for them does not mean
allowing José
or Carlos getting free sex change
operations. The bottom line is that the
communists may no longer be putting
people in prison for being Gay they still
however are imprisoning Cuban citizens
for practicing free speech....forget the
Gay rights for a minority and replace
that with Human rights for everyone. Patricio
25 June 2008
Cuba to Offer Citizens
Free Sex Changes.
This development
is the latest in a series of so-called
reforms in state policies since Raul
"El Chino" Castro succeeded his
brother Fidel in February. Health
officials in Havana said the country's
health minister, Jose Ramon Balaguer, has
already signed the resolution allowing
the operations. Under the new regulations,
the procedure will be offered by the
country's universal health service.
I'm sure this is
one of the freedoms the Cuban people have
been waiting almost fifty years for,
right? Now a man in chains can get an
operation and become a woman in chains....now
that's real progress.
Let's see, since February Cubans can buy
cell phones they don't have money for,
computers they don't have money for, amd
now free sex-changes that most Cubans don't
want. What Cubans want and need are...more
food, freedom of speech, freedom of the
press and free elections.
Patricio 08
June 2008
Remarks by the
President in Recognition of Cuba
Independence Day
THE PRESIDENT:
Siente se. (Laughter.) Bienvenidos a la
casa de todos que -- quien viven en
nuestra grande pais. Welcome to the White
House.
Mr. Secretary, you
were an easy pick. (Laughter.) There's no
question you'd do a fabulous job on
behalf of America. Thank you for taking
the assignment. (Applause.)
Another member of
my team who is here who helps us have a
strong and certain foreign policy is
Senorita Condoleezza Arroz. (Applause and
laughter.) That means rice. (Laughter.)
Senator Graham,
thank you for being here. We're honored
by your presence. I know you're a strong
friend of Cuba's. (Applause.) And, of
course, too -- and it's great that Ileana
and Lincoln are with us, as well. Thank
you. (Applause.)
I noticed when
Gloria sang the Cuban Anthen, that the
first two people on their feet were the
two Congresspeople from South Florida.
And, Lincoln, I did notice that you were
braced at attention, too, I might add.
Proud. So it's great to have you all here.
Gloria, thank you
very much. Sorry you brought your husband
-- no. (Laughter.) We love Emilio. He's a
good man. (Applause.) And, Gloria, thank
you for coming and bringing tu nanita.
Thank you all for being here. We love
your music. Your husband has been such a
good friend of me and my family, and so
have you.
The great poet --
man, you must be a strong person, with a
beautiful heart, and a wonderful,
artistic touch. Angel, welcome to the
White House. (Applause.) And Lizebet,
thank you for coming. I don't think many
in America know your story, that you were
picked up on a raft, and you played The
National Anthem on your violin when you
were picked up. That's beautiful. (Applause.)
And finally -- por
fin -- "la voz" -- (laughter)
-- John Secada. Thank you, John for being
here. I appreciate you very much. Glad
you're here. (Applause.)
It's a great honor
for me to welcome you all to the White
House to celebrate May 20th, Cuban
Independence Day. It's a day when we
honor the warm family ties, the faith,
the history and heritage that unite our
two peoples.
As Angel and
Lizebet and so many others remind us, it
is a day when we pay thanks to the
magnificent contributions of Cubans to
our national life. They enrich every
field, from science to industry, to the
arts, including my favorite performing
art --baseball. (Laughter and applause.)
But mostly, today is a day when we
reflect on the greatnesses of Cuba's far-too-distant
past and the brightness of its future; of
how, together, we can hasten that future's
arrival.
Just last month I
returned from the Summit of the Americas
in Quebec City. Thirty-four democratic
nations committed ourselves to building a
hemisphere of freedom. But one nation was
not there, because that nation has a
leader who has no place at the democratic
table. Indeed, his nation is not free,
but enslaved. He is the last holdout of
the hemisphere, and time is not on his
side. (Applause.)
The Cuban
independence we celebrate today was the
product of the enormous courage of the
Cuban people and the statesmanship of
leaders such as Jose Marti. The tyranny
that rules Cuba today stands as an insult
to their sacrifices. But we're confident
in one fact, Cuban courage is more
powerful and enduring than Castro's
legacy and tyranny.
Our nation has an
economic embargo against Castro's regime.
But today, of all days, it is important
for us to remember that our goal is not
to have an embargo against Cuba; it is
freedom in Cuba. (Applause.)
The United States
welcomes the opportunity to trade with
Cuba when there are entrepreneurs who are
free to trade with us. We welcome the
opportunity to build diplomatic relations
with Cuba when the Cuban government is a
democracy, when the Cuban people can be
free from fear to say what they think and
choose who shall govern them.
The sanctions our
government enforces against the Castro
regime are not just a policy tool; they're
a moral statement. My administration will
oppose any attempt to weaken sanctions
against Cuba's government until the
regime -- (applause) -- and I will fight
such attempts until this regime frees its
political prisoners, holds democratic,
free elections, and allows for free
speech.
The policy of our
government is not merely to isolate
Castro, but to actively support those
working to bring about democratic change
in Cuba. (Applause.) And that is why we
will support legislation like the Cuban
Solidarity Act, and the Cuban Internal
Opposition Assistance Act. (Applause.)
History tells us that forcing change upon
repressive regimes requires patience. But
history also proves, from Poland to South
Africa, that patience and courage and
resolve can eventually cause oppressive
governments to fear and then to fall.
One of the surest
ways to foster freedom is to give people
unlimited access to unbiased information.
The strongest walls of oppression can't
stand when the floodgates of modern
telecommunications are opened. We must
explore ways to expand access to the
Internet for the average Cuban citizen.
And we must strengthen the voices of
Radio and TV Marti, with strong
leadership. (Applause.) And we will
strengthen those voices with strong
leadership and new direction.
Today -- today I
say this to Mr. Castro: If you are
confident your ideas are right, then stop
jamming the broadcasts of those whose
ideas are different. (Applause.) And
until you do, we will look for ways to
use new technology, from new locations,
to counter your silencing of the voices
of liberty. (Applause.)
Last month, the U.N.
Human Rights Commission called on Castro's
regime to respect the basic human rights
of all its people. The United States
leadership was responsible for passage of
that resolution. (Applause.) Some say we
paid a heavy price for it. But let me be
clear: I'm very proud of what we did. (Applause.)
And repressed people around the world
must know this about the United States:
We might not sit on some commission, but
we will always be the world's leader in
support of human rights. (Applause.)
Today, all our
citizens are proud to stand with all
Cubans, and all Cuban Americans who love
freedom. We will continue to stand with
you until that day, hopefully not in the
too-distant future, when all Cubans
breathe the heady air of liberty. (Applause.)
We are proud to
stand with those Cubans who, today,
enrich our nation with their energies and
industry. We're proud to stand with the
farmers and workers of Cuba who dream of
liberty's blessings. We are proud to
stand, too, with those who are suffering
and dying in jails because they had the
courage to speak the truth.
Y aqui en este
Casa Blanca, estamos feliz de cultivar
"una rosa blanca en Julio como en
Enero." (Applause.) Y por fin, viva
Cuba libre. (Applause.) Thank you all. 20
May. 2008
A New Cuba Will Remember
Her Friends
President Bush
chastised most other countries Friday for
"a sad and curious pattern" of
doing little to speak out against human
rights and political abuses in Cuba.
"Unfortunately, the list of
countries supporting the Cuban people is
far too short and the democracies absent
from that list are far too notable,"
Bush said at the White House.
The "small
band of brave nations" speaking out
for freedom in Cuba include, Bush said,
his own administration as well as nations
that were in the Communist bloc but are
now democratic such as the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
"The United
States has not been silent, nor will we
be silent," he said. "When a
new day finally dawns for Cubans, they
will remember the few brave nations that
stood with them, and the many that did
not." 08
Mar. 2008
The New Cuba which
one day will come must not forget those
who spoke out for freedom and against the
Stalinist regime of the Castro mob and
these are the countries who should get
preferential treatment from a democratic
Cuba. The countries who supported the
tyranny that enslaved our people for a
half century should be in the bottom of
the toilet and maybe Cuba should even
have an embargo against them but at the
very least they should receive least
favorable status.
Patricio
Cubafact: Cubans
still live on rations and cope with
chronic shortages of staples like beef.
Salaries average about $12 a month, and
most people spend three-quarters of their
income on food 22
Feb. 2008
Fidel Castro
Resigns As Cuba's President
Fidel
Castros decision to step down as
Cubas ruler brings the country one
step closer to a democratic transition.
Could it also be one step closer to an
economic transformation? Vietnam said
Castro made an "extremely great
contribution to the cause of building and
protecting Cuba over nearly the past five
decades". Vietnam, a staunch ally of
fellow-communist Cuba, praised Cuban
revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on
Tuesday after he resigned as president
for "building and protecting"
his country. 19
Feb. 2008
Resign can
mean a lot of things in Cuba but one
thing is certain old Fidel can no longer
function as a leader. I take this
resignation to mean that the Castrator of
Cuba has resigned to the fact that he is
going to die soon and he is hoping that
his half-brother Raul will carry on the
revolution as it was intended personally
I don't see that happening. Changes will
begin to happen very soon and Raul knows
as well as many others do that Cuba is
going to have to allow some Capitalism in
one form or another to be instituted
probably along the lines of Red China.
Will that mean freedom for the Cuban
people? Eventually, yes! Capitalism
brings freedom and Capitalism with
oppression will not last long, you can
have one or the other but together it won't
work for long. Capitalism is economic
liberty and once the people have that and
begin to appreciate its benefits the
other freedoms will follow. How long will
it take? That depends on how fast
prosperity sets in but it will come as
sure as the sun rises in the east.
Now to
address the comment from Viet Nam. Fidel
Castro "building and protecting"
Cuba is about the most preposterous thing
I've heard in a long time, if one looks
at Cuba today they can see the crumbling
buildings, the potholed roads and streets
that haven't been paved in decades, power
and phone lines hung from trees, people
using horses, mules and chivichanas to
travel from one place to another, not to
mention the lack of amenities the Cuban
people lack. Do you call that building?
And the only thing Castro has protected
is his failed Socialist Revolution and
the power of the Communist oppressors who
have kept the Cuban people in a modern
dark age. When one sees a compliment like
this handed to a brutal dictator one also
has to look at the source from which that
compliment came. The only way Cuba can
truely build itself up is through
Capitalism and the only way it can truely
protect Cuba is through Liberty, anything
else is Slavery!
A Man, A Poet, A
Hero, A Martyr by
Patricio Puentes
On this date
of January 28th in 1853 José Julián
Martí Pérez known commonly worldwide as
just José Martí. This man was no
ordinary soul but a man of great vision,
talent, passion, and genius he is
considered by all as the father of Cuba.
Picture for a moment how Americans would
feel today about George Washington
had he died in battle during the
Revolutionary War instead of surviving
and becoming the first President of the
United States. This is how Cubans feel
about José Martí.
José came from a
large Catholic family, attended public
school as a child and in 1867 enrolled in
Havana's prestigious Professional School
for Painting and Sculpting he had hoped
to become an artist but destiny had
something else in store for him. While in
school he began writing nationalist
patriotic verses and when the Spanish
authorities closed his school before he
had a chance to graduate he resented it,
that resentment sparked a fire within him
that would later turn into a raging
passion to see his island of Cuba free.
Free from the Spanish oppressors, free
from the institution of slavery, and free
from any interference from other outside
powers who wanted to place Cuba under
their heel.
In 1869 at the
young age of sixteen the Spanish arrested
him for sedition and placed him in prison
and sentenced to six years after his
trial several months later. His parents
tried fervently to get his sentence
rescinded because he was a minor even
under Spanish law. When he became
very ill in the Havana prison he was
released, some say due his father's
influence, and sent to the Isle of Pines
sixty miles off the southwest coast of
Cuba, feeling that he was still too close
to home they later exiled him to Spain.
Never one to
neglect his education he studied law and
continued his writing on the Spanish
abuses back home which included "The
Political Prison in Cuba". In 1877
after obtaining his Bachelor of Arts
degree in civil law he returned to school
and received his Doctorate of Philosophy.
He traveled to France and under the cover
of the alias Julián Peréz he returned
to Cuba where he obtained a job as a
history professor. He married a Cuban
woman, Carmen Zayas Bazán, and
they had a son José Francisco.
He was arrested again in 1879 only to be
deported once more to Spain leaving his
wife and son behind in Havana.
In 1880 this
persistent patriot went to the United
States to rally the Cuban exile community
from New York to Florida around the
banner of independence from Spain and
formed the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
Throughout these years José Martí never
stopped writing, he wrote so much that
one must wonder when he ever had the time
for politics. Aside from his patriotic
essays he penned poetry, children's books,
plays, magazine and newspaper articles
not to mention personal letters to his
family, friends and compatriots.
In 1895 José
along with Máximo Gómez who was another
leader in the Cuban Nationalist movement
they published the Montecristi manifesto
which called for independence from Spain
and war against all those who stood in
the way of this goal. Sometime between 10:30
and 11:30 that stormy night of April 11th,
1895 José Martí, General Máximo Gómez
and and a small band of other Cuban
nationalists landed on a beach near
Guantánamo bay, Cuba. José Martí and
his fellow freedom fighters received a
enthusiastic welcome from the local
populace. Word spread like wildfire that
the apostle of Cuban freedom had returned
and thousands of Cubans who had weapons
stashed away began retrieving those tools
of revolution, cleaning and oiling their
guns and sharpening their machetes, the
time had come for the patriots to make
their move to once and for all break the
shackles that had enslaved them for so
many long and tortuous years.
On May the 4th
after walking for fourteen days José
Martí, now a Major General, and Máximo
Gómez met up with General Antonio Maceo
who had an outpost on a different part of
the island. The meeting took place in La
Mejorana where they discussed military
strategy and it was at this meeting that
José was made the supreme political
leader of the revolution and although he
stated that he wanted no political post
after the revolution was successful. This
new position he was thrust into in effect
made him the president of the Cuban
people however unofficial that post was.
Not knowing it at
the time May the 18th 1895 José Martí
would write his last letter and in it he
spoke of how he envisioned a free Cuba
which would a barrier to any spread or
advancement of a new American "Manifest
Destiny" which at the time was a
strong movement that permeated the
political scene in the United States. On
this same day near the town of Jagua with
General's Gómez and Maceo standing by
his side José Martí gave a passionate
speech to thousands of Cuban patriots
assembled at Maceo's encampment their
thunderous cheers resounding throughout
the surrounding countryside as his
oratory inspired and filled their hearts
with hope and fervor for independence and
freedom.
The following day
was to be one of the saddest days in
Cuban history. It was a Sunday and the
hot Cuban sun was directly above those
assembled to battle, the Spanish on one
side, the Cuban nationalists on the other.
José Martí sat on his white horse like
a knight without fear and as he went
forward to engage the enemy he was
ambushed by Spanish troops. After being
shot and falling off his horse José lay
on his back wounded, the Spanish finished
off his life with machetes hacking away
at the now defenseless patriot. The man,
the poet, the hero, and now the martyr
lay bloodied on the Cuban soil with his
face to the Cuban sun. He died as he had
once poetically and prophetically
written "I am good, and as a good
man, I will die facing the sun." Posted: 01.28.08
Author Exposes
Cuban Healthcare Myths
Before Katherine
Hirschfeld went to Cuba for post-graduate
studies, she read dozens of academic
research papers on the country's
healthcare system. All were glowing
reports about how the Castro government
offered good care for everyone, and that's
what she expected to find. Then she went
to Santiago de Cuba for an extended stay
and saw the system for herself, including
three days in a hospital when she came
down with dengue fever. The result is a
highly critical book -- Health,
Politics and Revolution in Cuba since
1898 -- which she will discuss
Thursday night at the University of Miami.
Her stays were
mostly in Santiago, from 1996 through
1998, when she was a graduate student at
Emory University and Cuba was in the
midst of a dengue fever epidemic that the
government tried to hush up. When she
experienced the symptoms -- aching joints,
fever, nausea, sore throat -- she was
taken to a Santiago hospital and placed
in a large ward guarded by a man with a
gun. She asked to make a phone call to
tell people where she was. The guard said
there were no working phones.
"Oh my God,'
I thought to myself. 'This place doesn't
exist,'" at least not officially,
because the epidemic was a state secret.
During her stay, she says she never saw a
doctor. She was given one pill -- a
vitamin. Fortunately, she had a mild case.
Because there were few nurses, she and
other patients who were able did what
they could for the sickest, especially
those who were bleeding or vomiting.
Now an assistant
professor of anthropology at the
University of Oklahoma, Hirschfeld says
living with a family in Santiago while
doing her research made a big difference
in her viewpoint. 'Most academic work
about Cuba is based on little or no field
research,'' Hirschfeld said. U.S.
academics often rely on official
government studies or do short stays on
the island, spending perhaps two weeks,
sleeping in government-approved
facilities.
She found women in
Santiago gravitated to the kitchen, where
she learned that even preparing a meal
was revealing about the economy. ''Lunch
is sometimes a counter-revolutionary
event,'' because of how the family had to
scramble outside the rationing system to
find enough to eat. Hirschfeld found even
more basic public health problems, such
as a lack of running water in the city.
Residents compensated by catching rain
water in barrels -- breeding grounds for
mosquitoes, which transmit the dengue
virus. Cubans who needed treatment often
used social networks or bartered favors
to have doctors see them outside the
official clinic settings. If people had
to go to the hospital, they tried to
prepare in advance, getting surgical
thread and bandages on their own, even
obtaining drugs from the United States if
they could.
When she finished
her doctorate dissertation about the
problems in Cuba's healthcare, she says
it was not initially well received by her
review committee, which pointed out that
most other academic researchers disagreed
with her. She believes her unusual views
delayed her getting her doctorate by at
least a year.
Since Hirschfeld
did her research, most experts say Cuban
healthcare has gotten worse, primarily
because 36,000 doctors and other
healthcare professionals are now working
overseas, many of them in Venezuela,
according to official figures. A
dissident doctor in Havana, Darsi Ferrer,
told The Miami Herald last year that
because of the shortage, ``One doctor now
has to take care of four or five offices.''
The situation has become so bad that last
month the vice minister of public health,
Joaquín García Salaberría, took the
highly unusual step of admitting on Cuban
television that there were shortages of
doctors and nurses. 'It's not guaranteed
that doctors and nurses will remain in
the doctors' offices, as had been
promised,'' García said. Posted:
01.10.08
I'll be willing to
bet a bottle of Mantusalem that Michael
Moore won't be commenting on this
revelation. The inmates in American
prisons get better health care than our
brothers and sisters in Cuba and now it
appears that the Venezuelans are getting
the health care which rightfully belongs
to Cubans but the Castro commie brothers
have to pay Hugo Chavez something for the
oil he is shipping to Cuba and since they
have no money they send doctors and
nurses instead. How much more can the
Cuban people take at the hands of their
socialist masters? Surely there are more
people praying for Fidel's death than are
praying for him to live...so why doesn't
the "Hijo de Perra" die already?
Maybe things won't get better with his
death but can they get worse? Even his
death would be a change of some sort on
that island prison.
American
Traitor Dies in Cuba
HAVANA
- Former CIA agent Philip Agee, a critic
of U.S. foreign policy who infuriated
American intelligence officials by naming
purported agency operatives in a 1975
book, has died, state media reported
Wednesday. He was 72.
Agee
quit the CIA in 1969 after 12 years
working mostly in Latin America at a time
when leftist movements were gaining
prominence and sympathizers. His 1975
book Inside the Company: CIA Diary,
cited alleged CIA misdeeds against
leftists in the region and included a 22-page
list of purported agency operatives.
Granma,
Cubas Communist Party newspaper,
said Agee died Monday night and described
him as a loyal friend of Cuba and
fervent defender of the peoples
fight for a better world. Bernie
Dwyer, a journalist with state-run Radio
Havana, said in a Tuesday message posted
to a Cuba e-mail group that Agees
wife called him to say he had died after
ulcer surgery in a hospital where he has
he been since Dec. 15. He had
several operations for perforated ulcers
and didnt survive all the surgery,
Dwyer wrote, adding that Agee was
cremated Tuesday and that friends planned
a memorial ceremony for him Sunday at his
Havana apartment.
Agees
U.S. passport was revoked in 1979. U.S.
officials said he had threatened national
security. After years of living in
Hamburg, Germany, occasionally
underground, fearing CIA retribution,
Agee moved to Havana to open a travel Web
site.
The
site, cubalinda.com, is designed to bring
U.S. tourists to Cuba, offering package
tours and other help that is largely off-limits
to Americans because of the U.S. trade
embargo. Agee opened the site in 2000
with European investors and a state-run
travel agent as his partners. There was
no mention of Agees death on the
site Wednesday. The author of several
other books besides Inside the
Company, one of Agees last
essays was published in Granma
International newspaper in 2003 and came
shortly after a Cuban government
crackdown led to the arrest of 75 leading
dissidents and political activists.
To
think that the dissidents were creating
an independent, free civil society is
absurd, for they were funded and
controlled by a hostile foreign power and
to that degree, which was total, they
were not free or independent in the least,
he wrote. Agee has been accused of
receiving up to $1 million in payments
from the Cuban intelligence service. He
denied the accusations, which were first
made by a high-ranking Cuban intelligence
officer and defector in a 1992 report. Posted:
01.09.08
When
they say he didn't survive all of the
surgery does that mean he survived some
of it? So much for superior Cuban health
care which makes me wonder that if
Michael Moore needed an operation would
he go to an American hospital or a Cuban
one? I think we all know the answer to
that one. Now let's look at the statement
that Agee was a
loyal friend of Cuba and fervent defender
of the peoples fight for a better
world.?? What a load of
mierda...he was friend of the Cuban
communists only and not a friend of Cuba
or the Cuban people, there is a
difference. As for fighting for a
better world he could have better served
that purpose by staying in the United
States and working for democracy but
instead he went over to the forces of
darkness and the embodiment of evil which
is Fidel Castro and his communist storm
troopers. I feel nothing but gladness
with the passing of this traitor and I
say good riddance you commie loving
bastard!
CIA honors Bay of Pigs
vets at its art gallery
Alabama: The Bay
of Pigs invasion has been a low point for
the U.S. government since its failure
more than forty years ago. Now, the men
who volunteered for the mission were
remembered at an art gallery at the CIA,
which plotted the clandestine operation.
Veterans of the
ill-fated attempt to topple Fidel Castro
-- Cuban exiles, CIA contract pilots and
the families of four Alabama Air National
Guardsmen who died in Cuba gathered
Thursday October 18th 2007 at the
Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham,
Ala. There, an oil painting was unveiled
that depicts one of the successes of the
covert operation: an April 1961 aerial
attack on Castro's forces that took out
an estimated 900 soldiers.
''It has been
viewed as an embarrassment, but the
modern world is recognizing it's part of
our history. That's all there is to it,''
said Jorge Del Valle, 63, who was 15 when
he walked into a CIA recruiting office in
Miami to sign up for the venture. "We
have gained acknowledgment worldwide.''
The painting,
commissioned by a North Carolina man with
an interest in honoring the lost-to-history
covert operators who were trained by the
CIA, will be donated to the Central
Intelligence Agency. It will go on
permanent display at agency headquarters
in Langley, Va., in a new art gallery
that gives a tip of the hat to the secret
agents who worked for the agency and its
predecessor, the Office of Strategic
Services.
The gallery is not
open to the public, but visitors to the
CIA building are allowed to visit the art
gallery and a museum, which contains
artifacts of CIA missions, including a
matchbox camera.
''We venerate our
leaders with fine art portraits, our
historical moments with paintings,'' said
Jeff Bass, the Pensacola artist who spent
a year interviewing pilots and Bay of
Pigs veterans to create the piece. "But
while we tend to commemorate those in
uniform, the clandestine services haven't
gotten that kind of recognition.''
That's beginning
to change, thanks to Erik Kirzinger, of
Madison, N.C., whose uncle died in a
covert operation in China in 1952.
Kirzinger helped get his uncle's remains
repatriated to the United States and
during that time visited the Pentagon and
other government agencies, where he saw
art commemorating various operations. ''I
got to thinking, there's nothing like
that at the CIA,'' he said. Calling it
his ''passion,'' Kirzinger got in touch
with the curator of the CIA's museum to
gauge interest. He found a receptive
audience.
Kirzinger, who
works with private individuals and
corporations to raise money for the arts,
said the agency has suggested it is open
to illustrating any chapter in its
history -- if it's declassified.
The Bay of Pigs
painting, paid for by Compass Bank in
Alabama, will be the fifth to hang at the
CIA gallery and Bass's third; he did a
portrait of Virginia Hall, a World War II
spy, and a painting that depicts agents
who died flying supplies to French forces
in Indochina in the 1950s. (Bass also
painted former Gov. Jeb Bush's official
portrait, showing him with a Bible and a
BlackBerry.)
A CIA spokesman
said it welcomes art ''related to the
work of the agency'' -- even work that
illustrates not-so-successful chapters in
its history.
''The fact that
the overall [Bay of Pigs] operation didn't
achieve its objectives in no way
diminishes the lasting example of courage
of those who risked -- and in some cases
gave -- their lives to support it,''
agency spokesman George Little said of
the Bay of Pigs painting.
Titled Lobo Flight,
the 40- by 30-inch painting shows a
vintage B-26 twin engine bomber flown by
Connie Seigrist -- the lead pilot of a
convoy of B-26s painted to look like
Cuban aircraft -- dropping bombs onto a
column of Cuban troops heading to the
beach, where a group of CIA-trained Cuban
exiles had landed to attempt to overthrow
Castro.
The air flights
succeeded, but President John F. Kennedy's
support for the operation, tepid from the
beginning, weakened further and Cuban
forces quickly crushed the invasion. It
would go down in history as one of the
United States' biggest strategic blunders.
But for the Cuban
exiles who volunteered for the mission,
the two CIA contract pilots, Seigrist and
Doug Price, and the families of four
Alabama Air National Guard members who
trained the exiles on the B-26s and who
were killed during the invasion, the
portrait is sweet, if long-delayed
recognition.
'You always hear
of the Bay of Pigs, 'Oh that was a fiasco,'
'' said Janet Ray Weininger of South
Florida, whose father, Thomas ''Pete''
Ray, was one of the pilots shot down, his
body desecrated and put on display in a
Havana morgue for 18 years before it was
shipped back to his family. "That's
not what it was. It was a tragedy,
especially for those who fought and their
families.
''But for the
agency to embrace something that has
negative connotations for them, it means
a great deal,'' said Weininger, who
helped to organize the ceremony and was
bringing nearly 20 exiles to Birmingham.
"It means a lot to have the agency
embrace its history.'' Posted:
01.08.08
It was a long time
coming but late is always better than
never. For forty years I've stated that
we invaded the wrong place at the right
time that we should have went for the
Isle of Pines and not the mainland. We
cannot change the past and now we can
only honor those fine patriotic Cubans
and Americans who struck a blow for
liberty. One day in the not too distant
future there will be a museum and
memorial in a free, democratic Cuba
dedicated to the 2506 Brigade. Let us
remember these brave fighters and their
families in our prayers as well as in
their memorials. ¡Viva Cuba Libre!
Cuban revolution
victims listed online
The last time Juan
Mario Gutiérrez spoke to his grandfather,
the 10-year-old held up a homemade
fishing rod fashioned from a tree branch
and promised to catch a whopper of a fish
during his refugee crossing from Cuba to
Miami.
The boy died
shortly afterward in a clash with the
Cuban Coast Guard just eight miles from
Havana Bay, his 1994 death becoming case
No. 8500 in a newly released database of
victims of the Cuban revolution.
Juan Mario shares
space with 9,093 other people who lost
their lives fighting for, battling
against -- or simply fleeing -- the Cuban
revolution.
After more than a
decade of painstaking research by two
Cuban exiles with the nonprofit group
Cuba Archive, for the first time their
results are available in a searchable
database on the Web. The Truth and Memory
Project database at www.cubaarchive.org was
launched Jan. 1, thanks to a $52,000
grant from Freedom House, an advocacy
organization founded by Eleanor Roosevelt.
''This is one more
way to shed light on something a lot of
people do not know about,'' said Juan
Mario's grandfather, Jorge A. García Mas,
who arrived here from Cuba in 1999. ``The
first thing I did was look for my family's
names. How is it not going to hurt to see
their names on there?''
García lost
several members of his family in July
1994, when the tugboat 13 de Marzo,
loaded with would-be refugees, was rammed
and sank. The database includes García's
son, four in-laws, five nieces and
nephews, and three cousins.
It also chronicles
the deaths of people shot by firing squad,
killed in prison, drowned at sea, killed
by terrorist bombs and other causes.
''The nature of
the crimes is horrifying,'' said Maria
Werlau, executive director of Cuba
Archive. 'You don't need to say anything.
You don't need to editorialize. Here it
is. It's like that news network that says:
`We report it. You decide.' ''
PROJECT'S
INCEPTION
The database was
born more than a decade ago, when
economist Armando
Lago was struck by paralyzing strokes. 'I
thought, `What am I going to do with the
rest of my life from this wheelchair?' ''
said Lago, a former champion swimmer. ``I
found what I could do.''
He started combing
newspaper archives, history books and
Cuban media for documentation of anyone
ever killed in the name of Fidel Castro's
revolution. He said his work is different
from other such lists because he insists
on two sources of documentation.
Lago's tally
begins with fighting between Castro
supporters and forces loyal to dictator
Fulgencio Batista.
The list includes
300 killed by anti-Castro forces, 4,090
executed by Castro's firing squads, 13
who died by hunger strikes and 196
rafters killed by Cuban forces while
trying to flee.
The original list
Lago compiled was much larger, but some
categories such as combat deaths in
Africa were eliminated due to lack of
specific information.
''My fear is that this work
will never end,'' he said.
THE
PARTNERSHIP
Lago, 69, refuses
to use the Internet (he's afraid of
viruses), does not have e-mail and uses a
computer so old he doesn't have Microsoft
Excel.
He joined forces
with Werlau, a New Jersey-based former
business consultant whose father died in
the Bay of Pigs invasion, and who worked
on the project full-time for four years
to secure the funding needed to create a
usable database open to the public.
She said between
her time and Lago's, the project was
worth at least $500,000.
''It's very
important everyone have access to this,''
she said. ``It's not just names on a list.''
Posted: 01.04.08
It's pretty much a
given that this work will end when
freedom returns to Cuba. The problem at
hand is Fidel Castro, he's still alive
folks and I have no doubt that the Cuban
communists will use electric motor
implants, embalming fluid, and whatever
else it takes to keep this mummy walking.
Why doesn't someone just give him a
lethal injection and put him out of our
misery.
Fidel Castro
Hints at Retirement Once Again
In a
letter read to Parliament, President Fidel Castro said
that as a young man he had hoped to cling to power but
had long since outgrown the urge. It was the second time
this month that he publicly, and ambiguously, hinted that
he might be weighing retiring from office.
Excuse me
but I think this is the biggest bucket of bull spit ever
to come out of the demented mind of this master liar.
After 49 years as an absolute dictator and death is just
around the corner this jackball has the audacity to say
he has long since outgrown the urge to cling to power...since
when? Last year? Yeah, he's weighing retirement alright....when
he's in his coffin and my prediction is he'll be joining
his friend and fellow criminal Che Guevara in 2008. Posted: 12.29.07
Rompe
el silencio ~ Break The Silence
Secretos
de Cuba pide a todos los sitios web relacionados con Cuba
y que estan en favor de la libertad publiquen este
mensaje en primera plana. En Cuba, el dia 8 de enero del
2008 a las 8pm suban el volumen a la musica, al tv, al
radio, no importa lo que esten poniendo, ni la musica que
sea, el noticiero, aunque sea la mesa redonda, Lo que sea
subanle al volumen. Si ese dia hay fiesta mucho mejor,
suban el volumen a todo lo que da. Si tienes miedo
callate y escucha por tu ventana como otros lo haran. Lo
unico que pedimos a todos los que tienen blogs, foros,
etc... publiquen este mensaje en primera plana hasta el
dia 8 de enero a las 8pm. CORRAN LA VOZ. SUMATE. Queremos
cambios a favor del pueblo. Mejoras salariales, tener mas
derechos que los turistas, Libertad. NADIE VA A INVADIR
CUBA, ESO ES UNA MENTIRA CREADA POR EL GOBIERNO CUBANO.
SOMOS NOSOTROS, EL PUEBLO LOS QUE TENEMOS QUE RECUPERAR
LO QUE POR DERECHO NOS PERTENECE.
To
All Cubans and our friends in Venezuela, Italy, Spain,
America and around the blogosphere. On Tuesday January 8
at 8pm In Cuba. Please join us and Secretos de Cuba in an
act of volume against Castro 's secret police by raising
the volume of anything that you have or may be listening
to at the moment on Tues 8 Jan at 8pm 2008 to it's
highest level in a spontaneous act of civil resistance
demanding a comprehensive change (cambio) in Cuba -- by
the people for their freedom from the cancerous Castro
Cosa Nostra.
To
all of Cuba's society : Disobey, do not cooperate with
Cuban authorities, stand up for your rights , believe in
your right to freedom of expression. Break the silence of
fear of Castro's "omerta" over our valiant
people of Cuba. let your voices, radios, televisions, and
instruments be heard! If you still have fear just listen
out your window that night at the hour and listen to how
your neighbors do it then take courage and join in. Turn
everything on at full blast and enjoy another successful
civic resistance against Castro's informers and local
enforcers.
Cambio
para Cuba Sin "Omerta" . People of Cuba , The
Silence of fear can be broken by raising your voices and
devices to full on Tues. Jan. 8 at 8pm. Rompan el
silencio contra el desgobierno criminale de Cuba tanto
electronica como organicamente. Exigen Cambio! Fuera !
Basta ya! a la Mafia Castrista. Don't believe the Castro
lies that we are going to invade. United from within the
island all Cubans can regain their human rights against
oppression. We can help one another by spreading this
information on our blogs until the day. Please post on
your blogs and websites until Tues. Jan 8th 2008 Posted: 12.27.07 courtesy of Cuba
Companioni
What
Could Have Been
The
1961 Isle of Pines Invasion was a total success. The
invasion by armed Cuban exiles in southwest Cuba was
planned and funded by the United States, to establish a
free Cuban government to counter that of Fidel Castro's
communist dictatorship on the mainland.
On
the morning of April 15, 1961, three flights of B-26B
Invader light bomber aircraft displaying Free Cuban Air
Force markings attacked the military garrisons on the
Isle of Pines leading the way for a pincer attack on the
island by Cuban exile expeditionary forces. Meeting with
little armed resistance the island was taken in less than
12 hours and on April 16th the Provisional Cuban Republic
was declared and recognized by the U.S. government.
Just
one week before it's commission the aircraft carrier USS
Kitty Hawk was sent from the Guantanamo Naval Base to
offer protection for the newly declared republic.
Taiwan
and Israel recognized the Free Cuban Republic also called
Nationalist Cuba, on the 21st and 22nd of April 1961
respectfully with other countries following suite later.
With aid coming from the United States government and
private parties and the strong work ethic of a free
people Nationalist Cuba has become the pearl of the
Caribbean whereas the slave state of Communist Cuba has
become the Caribbean's trash bin. Posted: 12.27.07
Reports:
Castros Health Deteriorating
Two
reputable Spanish-language newspapers are reporting that
Cuban leader Fidel Castros already precarious
health has taken a turn for the worse.
The Madrid paper Hechos De Hoy and the Mexican newspaper
Reforma both say Castro can no longer eat solid food and
is hooked up to an IV after recent emergency surgery.
Reforma also reported that Castro has lost a great deal
of weight and does not want to walk or receive visitors.
Several other developments seem to confirm that Castro is
severely ailing:
Castro did not appear in public on his 81st birthday, on
Aug. 13, and there were no major celebrations to mark the
event. He has not appeared in public for over a year.
Cuban
Vice President Carlos Lage telephoned Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavezs talk show on Sunday, Aug. 5,
to fill in for Castro, who usually phones. Lage did not
explain why Castro did not call, the Miami Herald
reported.
Cuban
dissidents say that Internet access has been curtailed
for the very few Cubans who have it mostly trusted
journalists who work for the regimes
official publications. Their correspondence is now routed
through one government-monitored Web portal.
The
Spanish news agency EFE quoted Mariela Castro
daughter of Fidels brother Raul and a Castro family
spokesperson as saying: The concern that we
all had about losing our leader is now closer to us.
She
also reportedly said: For the first time, the
people are taking stock of [Fidels] process of
aging, the process that the revolution has to continue
without him, be it with my father or with other leaders
who will come.
OK, so
this article is a few months old but most Americans aren't
aware of how bad this monster's health really is. It has
always been a thorn in my side that this SOB was sworn
into office on my 13th birthday and ever since he
declared himself a communist I have been wishing and yes,
praying for this creep's death. But I'm not the only one,
the entire Cuban exile community has been as anxious as I
am for Fidelito's demise the only difference being that
they would celebrate every time he tripped, stubbed his
toe or went to the hospital for a check up. Myself I'm
tired of all of the let downs, just when I think the
monster is at death's door he comes back again just like
Jason in a bad Friday the 13th movie. It just seems like
he cannot die but you and I know he will, the big
question is "How will his death affect Cuba?"
Well I don't think things could get any worse and his
death will in all probability have some kind of a
positive change. It will be up to his brother Raul as to
how far and how positive those changes changes will be.
One thing I know for sure is that I haven't had a drink
in a year and will not touch a drop of alcohol until
"El Caballo" dies and that's the day I buy my
next bottle of rum for one large Cuba Libre.
Posted:
12.20.07
The
Fading Jewbano Community
After
downing three cafes con leche at an Eighth Street café,
Rhonda Mitrani's conversation accelerates into a mix of
views about her Cuban-Jewish heritage, the movie she made
about it and the message it conveys to people who catch
it on TV this week.
Invoking
a Woody-Allenesque anxiety, Mitrani toggles back and
forth between hopes for the future of Cuban-Jewish
traditions and sweeping assertions of their imminent
demise. Her cultural background -- a mélange of Cuban
and Sephardic Jew with a dash of Argentine blood -- both
defines and, at times, stumps her, and it is what she
drew upon to make her documentary, Cuba Mia (My Cuba).
''The
Cuban-Jewish community I grew up in doesn't exist anymore.
It's done,'' Mitrani, 32, asserts. Then she backtracks.
``Well, it does exist. It has changed.'' Cuba Mia is an
award-winning documentary Mitrani first exhibited at the
2002 Miami Film Festival; it tracks her parents and some
Jewish friends as they return to their childhood
neighborhoods in Cuba after 40 years.
It
will air on WPBT Channel 2 at 9 p.m. Wednesday Oct. 05 in
honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and the Jewish New Year.
Cuba Mia's chronicling of the 1998 trip, sponsored by the
Jewish Solidarity Foundation, finds its protagonists on
an emotional stroll through their pasts, visiting
childhood homes, neighbors, businesses and temples of
worship. Many of those places are now either in ruins or
frozen in time without as much as a new coat of paint. In
the 1940s and 1950s, there were an estimated 10,000 to 12,000
Jews in Cuba, most of them of European or Russian
ancestry. Today, there are only a few hundred Jews there.
Most have left.
Mitrani
hopes her movie serves as both a way to preserve the past
for future generations and as an educational tool for
Cuban Jews who want their traditions to prosper. "The
stories in the movie are universal,'' Mitrani said. ``They
are about finding your roots.''Bell ''Cookie'' Stabinski,
56, and her husband Luis, 60, were part of the group that
traveled to Cuba. Cookie Stabinski described the trip as
''sweet and sour.'' She said it was ''beautiful'' to see
Cuba through the eyes of her childhood, but ''devastating''
because of how decrepit everything was.
Her
parents, she said, scolded her for going to Cuba while
Fidel Castro was in power, which made her feel guilty
about the whole thing. But she doesn't regret it. ''The
Cuban-Jewish community was very close-knit. Everybody
knew each other and went to the same synagogue,''
Stabinski said. 'It translated here at the beginning of
el exilio, but our children's generation seems to be
completely blending into the American way. They are
American and they are Jewish. The `Juban' thing, sadly
for us, is finishing. As we age this is all going to
really disappear.''
As
in Cuba, Miami's Cuban Jewish diaspora is fading. Miami's
oldest Cuban Jewish synagogue, the Cuban Hebrew
Congregation, Temple Beth Shmuel, at Michigan Avenue, may
not be able to survive for long because it has been
losing members for years, said Bernardo Benes, a member
who co-founded the synagogue more than 40 years ago. ''We
don't have a future,'' Benes said. ``If there's someone
that wants this organization to survive, it's me. But you
have to be realistic when you see all the members
disappearing.'' In the 1960s, the Cuban Hebrew
congregation included about 825 paying families, but has
since steadily shed members.
Today,
only about 400 families belong to the synagogue, and only
about half of them attend services, Benes said. He thinks
the synagogue will soon have to merge with another one.
Amalia ''Male'' Nick, 54, is one of the women featured in
Cuba Mia. She thinks the film is a priceless educational
tool for future generations. But she, too, doesn't think
her Cuban-Jewish heritage will survive much longer. ''Most
of our children are assimilating, marrying Americans,''
she said. ``I don't think they are really going to keep
that Cuban heritage much longer, unfortunately.' 'Many
Cuban Jews are now part of congregations that were once
more Americanized but have opened their doors to Latin
Jews. Elias Mitrani, Rhonda's father, belongs to Temple
Menorah, a conservative congregation in Miami Beach.
He
keeps a kosher house and hopes to pass his religious
traditions to his children. Rhonda's mother, Aida, is
Argentine. "The movie is Rhonda's little baby,''
Mitrani said. ``Even though the United States is my
country, I've always felt I'm a Jewban, very Cuban and
Jewish.''Mitrani moved to Florida in 1955, before the
revolution that brought Castro to power. He says his
family left for economic reasons, not political ones.
Rhonda Mitrani said she is not very religious and doesn't
practice much Judaism, but she still honors some of the
traditions such as Shabbat dinners on Fridays. Rhonda
Mitrani's strong family ties are one of the reasons she
chose to move back to Miami after living for several
years in New York, where she did a stint at Miramax films.
As
a young filmmaker, she has a bit of an activist streak.
She is currently working on a documentary about dolphin
strandings along Florida's coasts, and a romantic comedy
about a fair-skinned Latin girl living in New York who is
drawn back home to Miami for family reasons. Mitrani
stares into the cup she is sipping from at the Eighth
Street café. It's too much caffeine for a single morning.
''I'm proud of this first piece,'' she said, thinking
about it a bit. Then she corrects herself, displaying an
artistic humility. ``I'm not proud. I'm happy.''
It
would be a great loss to see the Cuban-Jewish community
disappear. They are an important part of the multi-colored
fabric which makes up the beautiful pattern of Cubanismo.
Think of a beautiful quilt with one of the patches torn
off. The Cuban-Jew is yet another in a long list of
victims of the socialist cancer which infects our
precious Cuba. But there is still hope, with the removal
of the Castro tumors and a healthy inoculation of liberty
the cancer can go into remission. Posted: 10.04.05