Comments on: From Our Friend Carlos Eire

By: Honey

Honey — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:21:19 +0000

Chris,
Ditto, inc.

By: Chris41Ohare

Chris41Ohare — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:46:28 +0000

I just finished my second reading of Mr. Eire's book "Waiting for Snow in Havana" and am overwhelmed by his honesty and sensitive perception. I know from experiencing my own losses and injustices, though insignificant compared to Mr. Eire’s and his family’s, how the resulting pain and anger can be overwhelming and become a steering current to a person’s life course. Mr. Eire is rightfully indignant about most people’s unquestioning acceptance of the glossed over version the world seems to have for the fate of Cubans. These people must be half conscious to ignore the slavery and suppression of the Cuban people. I thank Mr. Eire for his insightfulness and courage. I hope his words can wake up some of these people.
Pardon me for borrowing a phrase from his book but I think I have found another “proof of God's existence”-, it’s Carlos Eire.

By: Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » The last Monday in June Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:49:02 +0000

[...] CUBA A fine day in Geneva, with Che’s ghost [...]

By: Mr. Mojito

Mr. Mojito — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:22:47 +0000

Asombra, I'd like to think it is more benign and shallow. As Humberto has pointed out the famous picture resembles "Jim Morrison" and does look "cool" if you forget the context and brutality behind it. Lets hope that these buyers if anything think he's a musician or at the very least only saw the scrubbed down and romantic "Motorcycle Diaries" film - and thus see him as a shaggy travelling beatnik.

By: asombra

asombra — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:58:00 +0000

It's astonishing how people wallowing in money, privilege and luxury, the people that keep this cigar store in business, still get some sort of kick out a vile, murderous psychopath like "Che." Is it some kind of warped penis envy? Arrested adolescence? Infantile utopianism? Guilt complex? Or is it simply massive indifference to the suffering and misery of others, as long as it's sufficiently fashionable and progressive-looking? They are beneath contempt.

By: Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » “A fine day in Geneva, with Che’s ghost”

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:44:07 +0000

[...] Eire, back from Switzerland, has written a superb essay, A fine day in Geneva, with Che’s ghost Europeans are the people who keep Castrolandia afloat, so I thought nothing would surprise me over [...]

By: kmacginn

kmacginn — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:11:04 +0000

Interesting to read this, having just returned from Germany. One day I did a quick trip across the border to Holland -- to the town of Groningen. The city was having a lovefest with Cuba, including the museum having a special art exhibit from Cuba from 1868 to present ... featuring mostly revolution propaganda. (See this: http://www.groningermuseum.nl/index.php?id=4135) Groningen had banners hanging everywhere: "Cubaweek" June 17-20. I wondered how Cubans reacted to this festivities.

By: asombra

asombra — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:48:47 +0000

Great piece, as one would expect from Eire. It goes without saying (or rather, it SHOULD) that the patrons of such a super upscale, super deluxe establishment are absolutely NOT the poor, the downtrodden or the oppressed (who are absolutely NOT wanted there). It also goes without saying that, even if "Che" were half as good as his myth claims, using him as a marketing tool in such an establishment for the HIGHLY PRIVILEGED is an obscenity of hypocrisy and the crassest sort of shameless, unscrupulous opportunism. But hey, it's just business, after all. Besides, the Swiss are great at spotlessly pristine surfaces, but don't scratch them too vigorously or you'll wind up with unpleasant surprises. Just ask their bankers. I have only one quibble with Eire's piece. Instead of "A fine day in Geneva with Che's ghost," I would have titled it "A fine day in Geneva with Che's pimps."

By: Must read

Must read — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:51:48 +0000

[...] Babalú Blog: Carlos Eire, perseguido por el fantasma del Che en Ginebra. [...]

By: Rayarena

Rayarena — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:45:41 +0000

Ziva,

Excellently worded!!!!!:

>>Perhaps it is an even more repugnant quality that draws so many, especially Europeans, to the Cuban dictator--racism. Where else is an openly "colonial" impulse given a politically correct cover?<<

By: Ziva Sahl

Ziva Sahl — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:31:22 +0000

Reading this makes me question the idea that it is castro's anti-Americanism that the world finds so seductive. Perhaps it is an even more repugnant quality that draws so many, especially Europeans, to the Cuban dictator--racism. Where else is an openly "colonial" impulse given a politically correct cover? The regime even provides tour buses, from a comfortable distance of course, for the tourists to view firsthand the “people” of Cuba.

By: Henry Agueros

Henry Agueros — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:25:37 +0000

Dito to Rayarenas statement.

By: Rayarena

Rayarena — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:45:51 +0000

My admiration for Carlos Eire is boundless. He had the intellectual integrity and principle to tell the New York Times that he wasn't going to play by their game when they tried to get him to write an opinion piece attacking his own people. Other Cuban-American "intellectuals"--and we know who they are--would have sold their integrity [they do it every day anyway] for the notoriety and "prestige" that comes from having the putrid Old Grey Hag publish one of their pieces. I read "Waiting for Snow in Havana," and many of Eire's other thought-provoking pieces. Chalk another one to Eire with this excellent analysis on Che worship in Europe.