FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The 2013 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent Awarded to Ali Ferzat, Park Sang Hak, and the Ladies in White NEW YORK (May 3, 2012)- The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) today announced the recipients of the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. The 2013 laureates are: Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, North Korean [...]

Luis sent me this essay on the Elian kidnapping and subsequent march on Calle Ocho. It was so perfect and heartfelt for the sad anniversary of that black day thirteen years ago that I asked for his permission to publish it. I think you will cry and feel a little pride in who and why [...]

The glory of Cuban cuisine:

Forty-five years ago. April 3rd. A young family boarded a plane in Varadero. Tired, hungry, scared, they walked the tarmac in a huddle. Tears fell, but no one looked back. Forty-five years ago. April 3rd. A lifetime, and then some. The Gonzalez family has grown, but we've never lost hope that our feet will once [...]

Cuba to turn over Florida couple and children? Cuba said Tuesday that it will turn over to the United States a Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped their own children from the mother's parents and fled by boat to Havana, ending days of drama that recalled the Elian Gonzalez custody battle of more than a decade [...]

When asked yesterday in the daily White House briefing about the controversial Jay-Z and Beyonce anniversary vacation to Cuba Obama's Press Sec. Jay Carney deflected responsibility to the Treasury Department... The Treasury Department "fully licensed" Beyonce and Jay Z's trip to Cuba, according to Reuters. "American pop star Beyonce and rapper husband Jay Z visited [...]

Remember this, all you castro-Cuba-loving celebrities? Remember a couple decades ago the very concerned and outraged entertainment industry celebrities and music artists got together to protest the apartheid in South Africa? "Not Gonna Play Sun City". The same severe crippling poverty and lack of dignity and human/civil rights for political dissidents, women, gays and blacks [...]

I just returned from three days in Puerto Rico for a work conference. Beautiful place with fantastic vistas on the north coast. I imagine that the blue of their part of the Caribbean is as beautiful as the blue that surrounds our sad island to the west of them. I would also like to praise an [...]

The Obama administration has averted a war. The New York Times reporting: The United States and Mexico have reached a tentative agreement on cross-border trade in tomatoes, narrowly averting a trade war that threatened to engulf a swath of American businesses. The agreement, reached late Saturday, raises the minimum sales price for Mexican tomatoes in [...]

Val and Alberto have already posted this morning on the shootdown of our four brothers over the Florida Straits, but I have to add a short note. I always chuckle when the pro-castro left call us "hardliners" and "intransigent" as though the words were some kind of severe insult. Well, they are not. We are [...]

Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti, a candidate for Mayor is endorsed by the LA Times, La Opinión, a long list of activist and labor organizations, politicians, entertainment industry professionals, and the California Director of Obama’s re-election campaign. It’s one thing when Sean Penn, a private citizen supports brutal dictators, but quite another when an [...]

I know they didn't mean ill, but look at the image Breitbart chose to frame their headline: "POLL: 53% SAY GOVT THREATENS FREEDOMS." We told you so...

  Paying homage requires a synchronization of the organization presenting the award with the work of the person being honored. To do otherwise would be the selfish utilization of the achievements of historical figures for causes that they fought against or disagreed with while they were alive. For example, it would be disingenuous for the [...]

The following is one of the many eye witness accounts of Fidel Castro's rise to power and the death and destruction that ensued soon after. This account was written by Clotilde Saiz, an 85-year-old Cuban exile who wants to provide her children and others a firsthand account of how Cuba lost its freedom so no [...]

If you enjoy warding off chilly winter nights getting comfortable with a warm throw and a good read, I have a treat for you. Hot off the press, Cubanos in Wisconsin, by Silvio Canto Jr., is a delicious serving of Cubania and Americana. Our good friend Silvio Canto Jr., of Blog Talk Radio’s Canto Talk [...]