I forgot to mention that I was interviewed the other day for an article on Blogs in this week's Miami Sun Post by Tiffany Rainey:

The ‘Cubiche’

Blogs first came to the attention of Valentin Prieto, editor of Babalú, when he heard an MSNBC report on the trend almost three years ago. But, according to Prieto, he could find no blog about Cuba anywhere on the Internet. So he borrowed a term made famous by Cuban, I Love Lucy character Ricky Ricardo, and started his own.

“Cubans in Miami have been voicing the crimes of Castro for years in Spanish,” Prieto, who only blogs in English, said, “but if you don’t do it in English then you don’t reach the people that can help.”

Babalú, which runs a mixture of culture and politics from a strictly Cuban perspective, draws readers from throughout the world, including the occasional coveted Cuban reader, and gets around 200 to 300 e-mails a day, Prieto said. Luckily the blog has a loyal following of readers who send links daily and is one of the few Miami blogs that has several staff writers, all with nicknames. Prieto is “El Bárbaro”.

“I’ve gotten a lot of support from fellow Americans,” he said. “They thank me for giving a different perspective that they don’t get from mainstream media.”

But, while Americans may applaud Prieto’s efforts, the Cuban government isn’t so happy. According to the blogger, the government in Havana monitors his and other political Cuban sites, many of which he refers to as his “blog kids,” on a daily basis.

“They can’t afford not to,” Prieto said. “The one thing Fidel can’t lose is control of information. I don’t know how big of a dent we’re making but we are getting it out there.”

Babalú can be found at www.babalublog.com. See also: http://the26thparallel.blogspot.com and http://cubanamericanpundits.blogspot.com.