Y por que?
And why?
I wake up every morning and my first thought is What will Babalú have to say today? I then walk over to the media room, sit down in front of the pc and start reading. Emails. RSS feeds. Blogs. News sites.
Some days are better than others. Ill have a few emails from readers sending links of interest. A few other emails from folks who've just found the blog thanking me. Some days the news items are positive: a few more Cubans managed to escape the island prison; a reporter for some newspaper will have written a scathing piece on fidel castro's Cuba; a European government will have criticized the castro regime.
Yet those days are few and far between. Most days it's all pro-fidel propaganda all the time in the news. A whole lot of journalists who disregard the truth, overlook the obvious, and write gushing little pieces on the bearded savior of Latin America.
Meanwhile, an entire island of serfs and slaves are awakening as well. From their nightly dream to their daily nightmare. Oblivious to what those foreign journalists deem a paradise. That daily nightmare they live - Where will they find milk for their children today? Is today the day they come for me because someone smelled chicken frying in my kitchen? Did they hear me criticizing my government last night? - is ignored by those who portend to speak for truth. The slaves have no truths to speak of. Or too many duplicitous ones to mention.
It's frustrating for me to witness this from the comfort of my life in freedom. Y pa' que? Ill think on any given early morning when the news is blatantly false and negative. And for what?
Why do I wake up early every day and live through this? Why do I spend hour upon hour upon hour scouring the internet and other sources for information on Cuba? Why do I spend such a large portion of my day reading and writing and arguing and debating and discussing and angry? Why voluntarily battle windmills, day in and day out?
I dont know. I wasnt raised with any political ideology in mind. I wasnt drilled on things Cuban as a child. I was raised American. A product of American public schools. A product of free thought. I am, in no uncertain terms, a true example of the American dream.
My father never made me hate fidel castro. My mother never sat me down and taught me the horrors of communism. No one in my family lost anything tangible in Cuba that couldnt be replaced. Politics were never spoken in my home. If anything, talk of Cuba and politics and fidel castro and communism was kept from me. My parents didnt want to pass on that burden. They didnt want to pass on that pain. That disdain. That darkness that overshadowed their lives. I was raised to be free of all that.
Im not a journalist. Im not an intellectual. Im not a teacher or a professor. Not a lawyer. Not a politician. Nor do I aspire to be any of those things.
Y pa' que? entonces? Why then, do I do this every day?
I could devote the long hours to my family. To my job. To myself. I could apply all the hard work and determination to make money. To further my career. To improve my home. Take my mother to the beauty parlor. Play with my dog. Go fishing. Grow tomatoes.
And I dont have all the answers either. Heck, I dont even know all the questions. I'm just a guy who happens to have been born in Cuba. It's not my fault. Not five minutes ago I replaced the American flag from the flagpole at our office building. I took the old faded Stars and Stripes down, folded her with care, like I was taught by my Cuban father, and I hoisted a new Old Glory up. She's flying out there as I type this. All nice and new and beautiful and dignified.
So why this single mindedness about Cuba? Why this obsession? Why do I work so hard at writing about what I cannot remember personally? Why dive into this pool of stress every day? Why try to maintain composure when I sometimes just want to scream? Why the cause?
It would be easy for me to give you a simple answer: I dont know, and be done with it. Continue this daily battle against windmills, knowing exactly why there must be a battle but not knowing exactly why it must be me who's to be wielding the sword.
But I'd be lying to you. I answer that why question to myself every day.
Because I can. Because the country whose flag I hoisted not five minutes ago grants me the privilege to do so.
And so I will. We will. And we may or may not make a difference in the long run, but we have exercized our rights as Americans, as free human beings, to give others the right to the same.
It's not a battle against windmills. The battle against totalitarianism has worked in other places - look at eastern Europe, Ukraine, even the beginnings in Iraq. It's long and hard but freedom will win out.
You are an inspiration Val. You are IT when it comes to young Cuban Americans fighting against castro.
Why fight?
I will tell you why I fight for a free Cuba.
Because when I was a child my father told me that communism kills the human spirit.
Simple - concise.
Two quotes from Theodore Roosevelt that sum up what you are saying:
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
Why? Because there are 11,346,670 people 90 miles from you QUE NO PUEDEN. They need a voice. That's you. I for one have learned a lot from this blog.
I know exactly what you mean. I was born in Miami but my parents made it a point to keep the horrors of Cuba away from my brothers and I when we were growing up. I was a Cubano arrepentido while I was growing up, I didn't like Cuban music, big family parties, etc. And this was reinforced by the fact that I do not look Cuban at all; when I tell people my heritage they are left in disbelief. But as I've gotten older, I've grown to embrace every part of my Cuban heritage. I want to learn as much about Cuba as possible, including everything that was not told to me as a child. This is an amazing website. Some days I have to pull myself away from the computer because I get so pissed that I can't read any more. (i.e. 'repellent cubans') But most of the time this website fills me with hope because it shows me that there are people out there who get it; who understand. And who better than these enlightened people to raise awareness of the situation in Cuba.
"Because I can. Because the country whose flag I hoisted not five minutes ago grants me the privilege to do so."
~~
Amen!!
Val,
Believe me ... your blog is indeed making a difference ... thank you to you and all your contributors for keeping the truth alive ...!
I wish you well/Melek
~~~
"Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence."
What a great post Val!!! I am sure your writing inspires many to also do whatever they can, su granito de arena. You do it because Guillermo Farinas Hernandez can't, and he is willing to die for the freedoms we here take for granted.
Keep up the good work, you are a voice that castro can't silence!
Bravo!!! Applause!!!
Exercising your full rights of freedom, freedom that all in this world do not share. You do it well.
Even though I am not hispanic, I am an American born caucasian of European origins, who happens to have been born, raised and still reside in SE Florida. I have seen the changes to this region over the past 40 years and do not rebuke hispanic culture as many of my counterparts do. I embrace it.
I read your blog daily. I know the battle you wage will be won someday. One day you will look back and realize that all the stress and anxiety that you have spent on this blog will have been worth it.
God bless you and God bless the United States of America!
"In all labor there is profit ..."
King Solomon, circa 961-922 BC (@ Prov. 14:23).
Stay at it. It will come.
I want to thank all of the Cuban Americans [and non-Cuban Americans like the fabulous Ziva!] who instead of idling their time away doing a million different things like a certain 2nd rate author suggested, do the opposite, and dedicate their spare time to Cuba--time that they could spend "playing with their dog, fishing, or growing tomatoes". They spend their time on this because it is a just cause, because Castro has been in power for 47-election-free years, because it is a way to combat tyrant's lies, slanderous, hurtful lies that his immense propaganda machine has spread like a black cloud of toxic fume in international forums around the world, in Hollywood, on TV, in the printed press and in the halls of universities.
Not only is Babalublog a contrasting source of information, it, also, brings together a community of people from different parts of the country that have a common goal and a common desire: to see Cuba free. Not surprisingly, as we have seen, it encourages others to create their own Cuba blogs! And that is wonderful! A network of blogs filling the information gap created by the MSM.
I'm happy that there are people like Val who spend their free time on projects such as Babalublog. If one goes through life in a state of self-absorption without ever having fought for a just cause, without ever having tried to make a positive change in the world, then our lives were not worth living.
Maybe all of us don't have the time to write a blog, but there are a million different things that we can do, and they are our little grain of sand. It could be something as minor as speaking up when the jerk next to us repeats the same lame lies about Cuba's "wonderful health care and education," it could be something as small as contributing a few dollars to the creation of anti-Castro institutions like the proposed Bay of Pigs Museum, it could be something as small as writing a letter to the newspaper with the pro-Castro editorial, or supporting Cuban-American culture, i.e. by buying books by talented anti-Castro Cuban authors like Fontova, Daina Chaviano, Zoe Valdes, Reinaldo Arenas, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Raul Rivero, Heberto Padilla, or Willie Chirino's music.
What can we do in the immediate future? Go to see "The Lost City," and buy an extra ticket for that aunt, uncle, or friend who may otherwise not see it. Remember, the media will likely rip into "The Lost City," but don't forget that they respect the box office. If Hollywood sees that it makes money, they may be a little less resistant to the next Cuban American producer who wants to make an anti-Castro movie, what is more, it will give Andy Garcia more leverage, so that he can negotiate his next project.
Y por que?
Hey Val, how 'bout: "Porque me da la gana!"
You have the DESIRE to do this. But as you also pointed out, you have the freedom to do it. I was wondering if the two can be separated...perhaps, but not for long. DESIRE always wins, especially when it is pure. The people of Cuba are refining their DESIRE for the freedom to do "lo que les da la gana," and it will win one day soon. Freedom needs to be DESIRED, and DESIRE is freedom. Babalu is a part of this dynamic.
Whatever the reason, Val, we are all grateful for your work, which is often both moving and uplifting. Thanks for the sacrifices you make to bring it to us. God bless!
Shucks, I know what Babalu is going to say in the morning.
"Guau guau."