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 [...]

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 [...]

Some years back I wrote a piece titled "Tirando Piedras" - Skipping Stones - about a young Cuban-American father's conflict with burdening his young Americanito son with all that is Cuba. I think about that story all the time. Grapple with it. While the handing down of our passions and memories about the real Cuba [...]

Well, beat the drum and hold the phone - the sun came out today! We're born again, there's new grass on the field. It’s the first day of spring-when a young man’s fancy turns to…beisbol. I’m no young man, but my thoughts did turn to beisbol and Cuba today. Yes, beisbol; Cuba’s passion and yes, the beisbol [...]

Yoani Sánchez finally came to the CATO Institute in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2013.   I had the option of watching her speech from my office computer through a live feed, or attending in person. Convenience versus walking approximately seven blocks. Decisions, decisions, decisions! I opted to see her in person. It did help [...]

The Future of Freedom in Cuba Policy Forum March 19, 2013 12:30PM Featuring Yoani Sanchez, Dissident blogger, Generation Y; and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Photographer and Editor, Voces; moderated by Ian Vasquez, Director, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute. Cuba’s Castro dictatorship has clung to power for more than five decades. As the [...]

Cuban Blogger Yoani Sánchez got exposed to insults of “Down with Yoani!” over the weekend during her stay in Puebla, Mexico, from a group of demonstrators who thought that her latest remarks during her recent tour gave a negative perception of the Cuban Government.   Sánchez indicated that she has a lot respect for the [...]

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 [...]

And so 2013 is starting out pretty good for the Cuban regime: [r]aul gets to be the president of something called CELAC, Chavismo seems to be entrenched in Venezuela, guaranteeing the flow of oil subsidies to the island prison, Obama starts his second term, nominating John Kerry for State and brining [c]astro loving Chuck Hagel [...]

Just close your eyes and fantasize it's you-know-who, his rat-faced brother, and the sundry other miserable criminals running our sad little island... That would be a truly Merry Christmas...

Hey. Psst.  Looking for a great vacation?  Why not go scuba diving in Castrolandia.  Wow.  Fabulous.   Did you know that there are hardly any humans on that island?  Amazing, but true.  Just read the article below, and you won't remain a skeptic for long.   This is paradise:  you can work on your tan, [...]

USA Today's fluff piece on the "World's 10 best cities for coffee" features a stop in Havana: [...] In Cuba, coffee is basically its own food group. A vital part of each day, steaming little cups of Cafe Cubano—espresso mixed with sugar as it brews—or Coradito—espresso topped with steamed milk—mark the morning, signal the end [...]

To my dear Babalú family, I'm off on an adventure to Israel for the exciting purpose of helping my daughter and son-in-law welcome their son into this world on or around the first of November. They are making their home there for three years, and I'm joining them for a month. Other than the dreaded [...]

Superb piece in PowerLine Blog from Steven Hayward: "The Cuban Missile Crisis @50: A Reconsideration | Power Line." [...] But the best and brightest of the Kennedy-Johnson administration were so self-deluded with their “success” that they decided to apply the same strategy of “flexible response” in Vietnam. Cyrus Vance, who was a deputy secretary of [...]

Fifty years ago tonight President John F. Kennedy announced to the world what he had been informed of a week earlier: evidence of Soviet missiles, capable of carrying nuclear weapons and destroying many American cities, were discovered by American reconnaissance overflights of Cuba. The shameful end to the crisis drove the final nail into the [...]