We are proud to announce the the theme for the first campaign conducted by Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty….
May is an important month for Cuba, but not because of the ridiculous annual May day parades that fidel castro implemented so many years ago. No, May is important because May 20th is the day Cubans around the world celebrate independence day. Cuba was a Spanish colony for more than 400 years.
But the more things change the more they stay the same. The current Spanish government has proven itself to be tone deaf to the pleas of Cuban dissidents, preferring instead to follow a policy that suits Spanish hoteliers and other Spanish investors in Cuba. The same kind of policy that many accused the United States of implementing in pre-castro days. Except that according to former Earl E.T. Smith, U.S. Ambassador to Cuba in the late 50s, in his book, The Fourth Floor, Cuba had its best economic year ever in 1957.
Today Spain is a vulture feeding off the dead carcass of a broken nation. We intend to send a message to Spain with this campaign. We intend to speak firmly and with conviction. We intend to call a spade, a spade. Spain has found a way to sink its colonial hooks into Cuba again more than 100 years later.
If you are interested in sponsoring this campaign against Spanish exploitation of Cubans please email me to receive the full campaign proposal. Please identify your blog in the email. If you are simply interested in donating toward making this campaign happen you can do so at BUCL.org.
For the rest of you, stay tuned as we get closer to Cuban independence day. We’ll soon be revealing more about this campaign.
In the meantime get educated on Spain by reading about it here, here, here, here, and here.
Henry,
“The same kind of policy that many accused the United States of implementing in pre-castro days”. We should point out to these accusers, that in those pre-castro days any Cuban could enter freely any hotel in Havana. I myself celebrated the end of our High School exams at the Sugar Bar at the end of every school year, since my old school was located right across from the Havana Hilton. No one ever denied me access to the hotel because I was Cuban.
Spaniards don’t seem to be bothered and are blind to the fact that their hotels today practice the same kind of apartheid its citizens decried marching in the streets when it was South Africa’s official policy. I looked up that behavior in the dictionary. It is called hypocrisy.
This is a GREAT choice. Very timely, appropriate and necessary. Cubans must make it VERY clear that Spain has absolutely NO special say, right, privilege or standing with respect to how any other nation or entity should treat the Cuba situation.
If anything, Spain has totally forfeited any such standing by its opportunistic, amoral, hypocritical and generally shameful behavior toward Cuba (and this is by no means a recent development or just a Zapatero issue).
As someone whose ancestry is very much Spanish, I am sick and disgusted over what has long been the Spanish position. I don’t want mere words from anybody in Spain. Either they do the right thing or they can all go to hell.
Asombra you bring up great points. We are going to make clear that we have no quarrel with the people of Spain. It’s the policy of the government and some of their businesses that we have a beef with. I myself lived in Spain for 4 years as a small child and in my travels have always enjoyed the beauty and people of Spain. I think most Latin Americans, despite the colonial past, have fond feelings for the mother country. Just like as Americans we are fond of our British cousins. But you are right it’s not just a Zapatero thing, though it’s gotten worse under Zapatero.
Henry,
I would disagree with you on one point…while I feel a deep kinship with the people of Spain; I do have a huge problem with those individuals who go to Cuba for sex. One thing is what their government does and another thing is what individual Spaniards do and many individuals have used Cuba for cheap sex. I know that Spaniards are not the only ones but they are a large portion of that problem.
Mavi,
Of course that’s deplorable. And it’s becoming one of the only reasons to go to Cuba because the facilities are not up to par with comparable destinations in the caribbean.
So I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t think most Spaniards are sex tourists. Nobody admits to that, but Spanish hoteliers and the Spanish government proudly proclaim their investment and dialogue with Cuba.
Spanish malfeasance regarding Cuba has been much too serious and has gone on much too long to attribute it solely to those officially in power. That might fly for the Franco years, since he was a dictator, but it won’t wash for all the years Spain has had a democratically elected government. Politicians, no matter how base, WILL respond to sufficient public sentiment and/or pressure, even if only to avoid being voted out. There has been no such sentiment or pressure in Spain, and that is a society issue, not a government one.
Of course those in power, ever since Franco, are guilty, but so are all private business interests that have profited from Cuba’s tragedy and at Cuba’s expense. All Spaniards who have condoned or participated in such deals and transactions are guilty, even if only by omission. It’s not enough to call for democracy in Cuba and advocate for the release of political prisoners. Any form of aid or support to the Castro regime is unacceptable and should be clearly denounced as such by EVERYBODY in Spain, not any one sector.
There’s no free pass. Spain owes Cuba BIG TIME, and that goes back one hell of a long time–centuries, in fact. Words alone are not only worthless but an insult to Cubans’ intelligence. I repeat, either Spaniards DO the right thing, or they can all go to hell.
And I don’t want to hear about any “special relationship” between Spain and Cuba as a supposed justification for Spain’s pretensions to be the go-to source for Cuba-related policy. That’s like a longstanding wife-abuser claiming that being the battered woman’s husband made the abuse somehow OK. Spain has no right to sell itself as Cuba’s mother, because it has never behaved as such. It has simply been Cuba’s exploiter and USER. I’m tired of all the bullshit. It’s time to call it like it is and stop enabling the abuse.
In both material and human terms, the struggle for independence from Spain was considerably more costly for Cuba than for any other Spanish colony. Spain was determined not to let Cuba go, regardless of the cost (“hasta el ultimo hombre y la ultima peseta”). It was prepared to commit unprecedented atrocities like Weyler’s infamous concentration camps, rife with famine, disease and death. At the end of the conflict, Cuba had basically been laid waste.
However, because Cuba was the most Spanish (racially or ethnically) of all the Spanish colonies, the bonds of blood were strong enough that, after independence, Cubans were nothing if not forgiving, tolerant and gracious toward Spaniards. Spain and all things Spanish were always fondly regarded in Cuba, not at all like, say, in Mexico, where there was always much more resentment and anti-Spanish sentiment.
And yet, how has Spain repaid Cubans? We all know the answer. Among other things, with an asshole of a Foreign Minister wearing flaming red ties and giggling like a schoolgirl with Raul Castro in public for all the media to see and disseminate. With a champagne-and-caviar-stuffed king that sends the architect of Cuba’s ruin get-well-soon notes. With a Crown Prince who consents to sit next to and no doubt exchange pleasantries with Fidel Castro at a very public official function. And these are relative trifles, really, when the whole sordid history of Spanish cooperation with and enabling of the dictatorship is examined.
Again, this started long before Zapatero was ever heard of. This is not just a question of ideology or politics. This seriously reeks.
BASTA. If we keep looking the other way because we have Spanish blood in our veins, we injure our dignity and only invite further disrespect. I don’t know the details of this BUCL project, but all I can say is GIVE THEM HELL. They’ve asked for it, and they totally deserve it.