Just a little over a year ago, after over three years of hard work, the Babalu odometer turned over a milestone, and we Babalusians, contributors, and readers alike, paid tribute to the editor and owner of Babalublog, Val Prieto. We shared our thoughts and feelings about Babalu, and it was wonderful. It is hard to believe, that our odometer just turned over another million.
To my fellow contributors, it is a privilege to know and work with you. We all somehow found ourselves here, united in our desire and commitment to be a voice for a free Cuba, and have become family. To our readers, there would be no Babalu without you. I thank you with a full heart, for reading and commenting on my humble offerings. I’m not a journalist, I’m not a writer, at best, I consider myself an advocate. I put words on pages in hopes of making a difference, no matter how small. This is not a solitary vocation, but a partnership, between us. Thank you for reading, for the support, and the criticism. I know I can be impulsive, and rush headlong into an argument. All your brilliant, reasoned critiques are humbling, appreciated, and I hope offered with the same affection and appreciation I feel for all of you.
The heart and soul of Babalu is our editor, Val Prieto. Val, you are Babalu. It is your beautiful writing that not only informs, but also gives us, your readers, the gift of experience. When you write of your love for your los Abuelos, we all feel our hearts tug with that same emotion, and we too remember those no longer with us, and those gone forever days of childhood and youth. When you write of your anger and heartbreak over the latest news from Cuba, we too bow our heads and weep. It is you Val, and your gift of sharing yourself through your writing that is Babalu. I am so honored by the friendship and generosity of you and your family. Thank you for all that you do, and for sharing it with us.
It is my fervent desire that soon, there will be no need to be blogging for a free Cuba; instead, we will be celebrating Cuba libertad in la Habana. Thank you and abrazos to all the Babalu family.
30 thoughts on “A Babalu milestone, two-million”
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SALUD!!!
Saludos y abrazos a todo e mundo aqui. Fifo’s news might not have been announced but whats stopping us from celebrating this occasion?
Congrats Val! George, Henry, Ziva, Marta, Marc, Robert, Mora and everyone else here that made Babalu what it is today. You guys are like family and like family we should always be together through thick and thin. And to close this off, I’d like to say, “Ya viene llegando!”
Felix Lazaro Ricardo
I produced this several months ago in anticipation. Come and join in the mocking sing-along of Fidel’s demise — http://youtube.com/watch?v=nTcEhdzUxIA
…Doug from Upland
Well said Ziva and you words speak for this contributor. Thank you for your tireless dedication to a free Cuba.
It is everyone involved with Babalu, from el jefe to all the readers, that keep us going. Gracias!
I was thinking of a sign I saw from the Versailles celebration, “Long Live a Democratic and Pluralistic Cuba.”
While I was mulling that concept over, I thought that this blog was making that dream a reality online. Val has his opinions, he makes them known, but he also provides a forum for others to voice theirs. And that’s the point. It’s a beautiful thing.
And the opposite of fidel.
Val and the the rest of the Babalu bloggers, I extend my congratulations to reaching such an important milestone. Que VIVA CUBA LIBRE!!!
I want to congratulate Val and all the contributers of Babalu for the incredible job they do and for giving us, the members of the Cuban-American community, a forum to not only read about the issues that affect us all, but to also express our feelings.
I have had the pleasure of meeting in person Val, Henry, Ziva, Robert, George, Gusano and a few others and all of them share an honest and passionate concern for Cuba and its people.
Thank you again, Val, for your tireless work and for bringing a group of people together that have forever changed the face of the Cuban-American community and inspired me to look deep into my soul and find the Cuban I never knew existed.
Alberto
2 million!!! Quite an accomplishment, considering that no one (besides Cubans) really gives a crap about Cuba. The real accomplishment will be when we all have to hang up and retire our keyboards because freedom has reached our island brethren.
¿Se murió ya?
Se acabo!!!!!!!!!!!!!Muerte a los comemierdas comunistas, porque seguimos hablando de esta porqueria. Tenemos que terminarlos. cojomes, men. Acaba con la escoria esta. Val, tira lo que queda del puerco que cocinas sobre lo huesos de fifo el muerto, y entonces mea sobre ellos.
Let’s keep the odometer spinning and the server smoking with traffic. Congrats to all fellow babalusians, to Val, his family, and the community of writers that adds so much to our lives and dreams.
Lifting my colada, Cheers!
Val and all of the Babalu Contributors, thank you for all the work that you do. It is greatly appreciated. This blog has helped me realize that there are many people out there that share my feelings and that our numbers keep growing. I feel like all of you are family. Keep up the good work. Believe me, I appreciate it, and two million other readers appreciate it. Viva Cuba Libre!!!!
VIVA CUBA LIBRE!!
Gracias por darme la oportunidad de leer las cosas que dicen aqui, y algunas veces poner my 2 cents in.
FIDEL ESTA MUERTO!
Congratulations and thank you, from the bottom of my heart.Congratulations and thank you, from the bottom of my heart.<3
Congrats and thanks for all the work you put in to it.
Fellow cubiches,
I am a first time blogger, long time reader of Babalu. Generally, the postings I have so far read on this site have been excellent. However, this particular posting commemorating the reaching of the 2 million hits milestone, achieved to a great extent by erroneously reporting the death of Fidel Castro is, to say the least, in very bad taste. Yes, it is a significant milestone for any blog to get 2 million hits and you have aevery right to celebrate. Pero coño, handing out kudos to the boys at the same time Babalu is suffering from a major credibility slump is a little too much. How about an apology? That should be your next posting boy and girls.
TVdude, you can take your insults somewhere else. Unlike some bloggers who brag a lot about who visits their blogs but keep their site meters private, ours is open for inspection. So feel free to take a look, and you will see that we were close to the two million well before recent events. In fact, the post I wrote commemorating our milestone was written weeks ago and has nothing to do with Friday’s post. So take a hike asshole and your way out you can kiss our collective Cuban asses.
Thank you Val, for starting this blog and to Henry and everyone else who keeps us so well-informed and keeps it running. It is my first resource for anything I want to know about Cuba and it is extremely useful to me in teaching my students.
It has helped me to understand Cuba’s history and its current situation, and to combat, in general, the liberal garbage to which I am subjected on a daily basis at work. It’s so good to know there are people here who think like me, but not enough in the world who regard Cuba as I do, which is the challenge. Your relentless efforts to get the word out about the suffering in Cuba is inspiring. Your blog was the inspiration for me to start my own and I hope I’m still blogging long enough to see one million hits.
Thank you for making me feel cubana de corazón and for all of your hard work to see a free Cuba.
Felicidades to you all,
Claudia
Carajooooooo…!!!!!!!…2 millions and keep counting,..congratulations to Val,Henry,and everybody who makes possible this blog,God bless all of you….
Viva Cuba Libre….on the rocks…
I agree with Tvdude.
I guess that makes me an a-hole.
Far be it from me to give you guys advice since I am entering Val and companies house here at babalu, but I can’t imagine me and Tvdude are the only ones that find this out of line. At the very least you guys should have held off on patting each on the back after what happened on Friday.
Just my two cents on this. My intention is not to offend, just to give my opinion.
The idea that the rumors of castro’s death were started by Babalu as a ploy to drive readership is ridiculous and anybody that makes that accusation is an asshole. First of all the rumors having flying around since Nuevo Accion reported a sudden decline in castro’s health about 3 weeks ago. Last weekend Perez Hilton reported on his widely read blog that fidel had died and this week even Drudge got in it. It’s not our fault that castro’s health is Cuban “state secret”.
If you don’t like the postings here, or how we happened to cross 2 million, then do yourself a favor and get lost. And don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
Angel – What you don’t seem to get is that there is no connection between our “patting each other on the back” as you say and whether or not we posted about castro being dead. This milestone was reached due to the day in and day out hard work from all of us at Babalu, but primarily from owner and editor, Val Prieto. We didn’t get a million hits Friday man. I wrote the post two weeks ago when I realized we were close. I think Val and our readers deserve the acknowledgement. From the comments here and on Henry’s earlier post, I’d say they agree. Like I said, our site meter speaks for itself, and is open for anyone to look at anytime.
Ziva and all,
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. If blogging is anything, it is a vehicle to meet some incredible people like yourselves and a blessing to be able to call them family.
i love you all.
As for the naysayers, what can I tell you, I report on what is told to me and what I believe to be correct. Angel and TVDude, you can always prove me wrong, of course, and send us a photograph of you with the still alive fidel castro.
Just to be clear, I have been a daily visitor to this site for two years. I usually don’t post comments because I agree with most everything on here.
Ziva, I understand that you guys didn’t get a million visits in a day and I know you must have been close before the rumors on Friday. I just find the timing of it all unfortunate. After posting what it seems was an erroneous rumor as fact and getting everyone worked up and then the next day boasting about the 2 million mark was, in my mind ill-advised.
I was frustrated on Friday night and Saturday over these false rumors. I thought it had finally happened and I couldn’t imagine that Val would post that headline without it being confirmed.
Val, I don’t have to prove you wrong. Unfortunately that is up to the Cuban government. I can care less if he is dead right now and if he died two months ago. All I care about is that his death is officially announced so the Cuban people can take the first step in moving towards a free and just society. This hasn’t happened yet, even if he is dead.
Henry, I for one, never insinuated that the rumors are the reason you got to 2 million visits.
Sorry, I respectfully disagree with you guys on this. If this disagreement makes me an a-hole then so be it.
I don’t think I am the only one that feels this way. I could be wrong…
I’m a relative newcomer (a few months), just a Scotch-Irish cracker from Tobacco Road (Goldsboro to be exact) and the only Spanish I know is ‘necessito cerveza’, and I probably spelled that wrong. Well…I know a little more than that living in LA 20 years, but you get the point.
I’m also consistently late in posting to the point that probably hardly anybody sees my posts, but even so, many congrats to Val & Co. Rush used to bill himself as a pain reliever for liberalism-induced headaches, and for my money, Babalu qualifies too. If Rush is Tylenol, Babalu is Bayer.
Babalu was NOT the sole source of the rumor of the tyrants passing. No mataron la vaca, pero si le aguantaron la pata. Please, don’t get so defensive and offensive. Instead, do the right thing and learn fron this fiasco. You very well know that the first step to correct a mistake is to admit you made one.
TV dude, I stand by my post celebrating our two million visitors. If you have a problem with that, you’re entitled. Sorry I just don’t see my post as a mistake, but a timely congrats to Val and our readers.
TV Dude, Val & Co. have essentially “apologized” by commiserating over the fact that it turned out there was no announcement. Also, remember that he may still turn out to be right, that the Beard has been dead for days or even weeks. Sounds like you’re asking for an extra pound of flesh.
This will be my last response on this. I put up this post two days after Vals post. I can say with all honestly that it certainly was not my intention to offend anyone. We are all on edge, waiting, and all of us have a lot of emotion invested, (some more than others) but one thing for sure we all want more than anything for the castro’s to be gone and for Cuba to be free. We all have family or friends on the island or someone close who lost loved ones, and everything because of these tyrants and we would never willingly add to their suffering. I can’t imagine how anyone who has read Babalu for any amount of time could think differently, so to suggest that we would do so offends me.
I am satisfied. Apoligies accepted. Keep up your excellent work gentleman. Babalublog IS indeed a breath of fresh air!
I agree, Ziva. Let us all move on.