I was shocked as I walked through the Ft. Lauderdale Airport this morning and saw a huge Cuban flag on the cover of the Herald, given their tumultuous history with the Cuban-American community. But, sure enough, there it was. So I paid my 25 cents and read a great article on Las Damas De Blanco.
The Herald interviewed Yolanda Huerga about how and why Las Damas De Blanco formed and the response on the island. The headline reads: “As long as there are political prisoners in Cuba, Las Damas De Blanco human rights group will continue on a march.”
The article can be found here.
My favorite quote:
“Many Cubans support Las Damas’ mission, though they’re careful about showing it in a country with a government that does not tolerate much dissent.
‘We’ll be walking down the street and someone will pat us on the back,’ Huerga said. ‘Of course, as they do, they look side to side to make sure no one else sees them.'”
It’s more like “does not tolerate ANY dissent” but, hey, it’s the Herald.
Kudos for Monica. In her debut on Babalublog she comes out swinging at the Miami Herald in the first round. Her First Generation of Cuban Americans are the 21st century Pinos Nuevos that José Martí alluded to in 1892. Speaking before the exile community in Tampa, Martí was impressed with the number of young people present interested in the cause of Cuban liberty. He said that on the way there by train, he noticed that in the forest clearings there were large old pines that had fallen to the ground with age. All around those fallen trunks were new saplings, the pinos nuevos, that had been seeded by the old pines before they collapsed. Martí compared the fallen pines to the patriots who died during the Ten Years’ War (1868-78) and the pinos nuevos were their offspring, many born in the United States during the previous two decades, who would continue the struggle for Cuban liberty. Monica and her First Generation confront the present bigots at the Herald, just like my generation in the 1960s and 1970s defied Jack Kofoed and other anti-Cuban racists who wrote in the Herald. The modern Pinos Nuevos also put to shame the Maceitos who in the 1970s and 1980s traveled to Cuba in search of Utopia, became Castro propagandists, and were unable to produce ideological young followers. The First Generation has my admiration and respect.