The kubansk-amerikanerna

A few weeks ago I met with a Swedish journalist and his photographer. They were putting together a piece for their newspaper about Cuban-American reaction to the election and inauguration of Obama. They followed me around while I got my haircut in Westchester and ate at La Carreta on Bird Road.

The piece was published in Swedish and it took some time for me to find a volunteer to translate it. But thanks to our good friend Linda from The Task at Hand we found Désirée Nordlund.

So you can see the translated version of the story below the fold.

A note of caution, there are things in the article that the journalists may have misunderstood.  I’m referring specifically to an assertion that Jorge Mas Canosa might have been president of Cuba had castro been ousted.  That’s something we all heard while Mas Canosa was alive and was used as an attack against him that implied that personal ambition and not a love for Cuba was what drove him.

Few rejoice in Miami’s Little Havana

Written by Niklas Orrenius
Translated by Désirée Nordlund

Before the 2008 election Miami asked the question: Would Obama become the first Democratic candidate for President with majority support among the many Cubans exiles living in the city? The answer became a no. While the celebrations of Obama’s election peeked, the exile Cubans sat in Little Havana with their arms crossed staring at their sweetened coffee.

LITTLE HAVANA, MIAMI. A rental Toyota glides into the graveyard in Little Havana, Miami. Slowly it approaches one of the grandest graves in the cemetery.

The name of Jorge Mas Canosa is chiseled into the white marble. Cuban and American flags sway together in the tropical breeze.

Two middle-aged men help a third man out of the car, a small, sickly gentleman in his eighties.

The older man is wearing a college sweater with the American flag on his chest. He has just received the sweater from his son, who paddled form Cuba to the U.S. on a homemade raft in 1994.

The father, whose name is Alejandro Rodriguez, flew to the U.S. from Cuba three days ago. Officially he is on vacation. But:

– I’ll never return. I shall die here.

The milky old man’s eyes brim when he sees the grave and the flags.

– I’m here to show my respect to my real leader, he says and starts to walk towards the monument of Jorge Mas Canosa.

Jorge Mas Canosa was for many years the leader for Cubans who fled the dictatorship. If Fidel had been overthrown, Mas Canosa would have become President of Cuba.

Of course he rests here in Miami’s Little Havana, in the blocks where Cuba is extremely present.

Old men hit their domino pieces at Maximo Gomez park. The cafés serve empandas and Cuban, sweetened coffee.

Here is also a restaurant packed with political symbols: Versailles. Some older guests compare Barack Obama with a young Fidel Castro. Both were politically to the left, both had the support of the youth, they argue.

The older exile Cubans turned their backs on the Democrats after the invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, which failed.

Fifteen hundred Cubans – trained by the CIA – where stamped down by Castro’s forces within three days. President John F. Kennedy refused to give military air support. After that Kennedy was looked upon as a traitor in Little Havana.

Several politicians representing the Democrats have tried to repair the relationship with Cuban exiles. Bill Clinton achieved a somewhat better relation – after a meeting with Jorge Mas Canosa at Versailles in 1992 the leader of the exile Cubans said that they did not need to fear Clinton as President.

Before the 2008 election the New York Times speculated: Would Little Havana embrace Obama?

The old, those who fled Cuba in the 60s, those would always vote for the Republics, that that was understood.

But how about their children?

– Tell them, tell more! Tell the truth! Oh, I get so moved when I hear a young man speak like that about Cuba! Sorry to disturb, but I become so moved. I can’t keep quiet.

The lady in her seventies at the table across puts both her hands on her heart. She rises and putters around the target of her admiration, Henry Gomez. She touches him, strokes him, removing invisible dust from his shoulders.

Henry Gomez, a 39-year-old man in the advertising business, in a red T-shirt, lowers his eyes, embarrassed, and looks down at his plate of chicken and fried bananas.

– Listen carefully to this young man, says the lady, named Rosa Cosculluela.

Henry Gomez has never been to Cuba. Yet few hours pass without him thinking about the country his parents left in 1962.

At Babalú Blog Gomez and fifteen conservative soul mates cherish George W. Bush because he never relinquished his hard line against Cuba. They write about their alienation towards today’s worship of Obama, and note with disgusted fascination that you can buy cookies with Obama’s face, or candles shaped as Obama, or a skateboard with Obama.

– It’s personality cult. The man risks becoming higher than his office, he is treated as a rock star. It is dangerous, says Henry Gomez.

Barack Obama never went to Little Havana to manifest his disgust towards Castro’s Cuba during his campaign.

Instead he promised to immediately make it easier for Cubans in exile to visit their relatives in Cuba. He also plans to remove the restrictions for those who wish to send money to family members in Cuba.

Obama proposed removing the trade embargo against Cuba if Cuba releases 219 political prisoners. He would consider a personal meeting with Raúl Castro.

The older Cuban exiles didn’t look upon this glasnost with merciful eyes.

But there where many, especially among the young, who applaud Obama’s proposed opening toward Cuba. They look upon the embargo as pointless and destructive. Plenty of articles with the same theme were written before the election: Would the young win Little Havana for Obama?

– That was wishful thinking, sniffs Henry Gomez at the speculations.

Obama won Florida. But not thanks to the Cuban-Americans. The Miami Herald reports that 65% of the Cuban-American population chose John McCain.

Outside the restaurant is Henry’s car. A mint green, perfectly kept Dodge Polara from 1966. On the chromed bumper is a sticker from the victorious Republican campaign for President in 1970 [sic].

NIXON-AGNEW, it says

Henry Gomez, always Republican.

But one of his greatest heroes is an Obama supporter: the 33-year-old blogger Yoani Sanchez, who with a quiet, dark humor writes about his everyday life in Havana on the blog Generación Y. The blog is forbidden by the Castro regime and cannot be read in Cuba.

– Yoani is the most important voice in Cuba today.

Yoani Sanchez calls Cuba’s political alignment Stalinism with conga drums. Henry Gomez likes those things. He is annoyed with the romantic descriptions of the worn-out Cuba.

– Go there before it is ruined by capitalism, the tourist brochures say. There’s something mighty condescending in that. Tourists go there for a week, stay at a hotel, and think that Cuba should be left in decline because it’s so charming.

At the graveyard in Little Havana the three exile Cubans photograph each other in front of the flags at Jorge Mas Canosa’s grave.

Mas Canosa was accused of actively supporting terrorism and of financing bombings of Cuban airplanes and hotels. The trio at the graveyard look lightly upon this. With effort, the oldest, Alejandro Rodriguez, speaks:

– During all my years on Cuba I have, in secret, listened to Mas Canosa’s words on Radio Martí. Mas Canosa is a Cuban hero and a patriot.

The two younger men nod in agreement.

The trio continues to talk about their native country, about the fight for freedom, and try to surpass each other with pompous words. Three glowing patriots, typical of Little Havana. But one of them – 58-year-old Jorge Perez – suddenly leaves the traditional script.

Jorge Perez has a 26-year old son in Cuba, a son he has not seen since he fled in 1994.

– I’m longing to see him and I believe in Obama, he says.

– I’m tired of the embargo. Maybe there was a point with it during the Cold War. But today? The Cuban people are the only ones who pay for it.

Radio Martí is a radio station started by Reagan, which broadcasts criticism of Castro across Cuba.

FACTS / Journalists gathered around the Versailles restaurant when rumors where spread about the death of Castro.

For decades the restaurant Versailles in Miami, on Calle Ocho in Little Havana, has served the function as the center for the lobby working for Cuban exiles.

When the rumors about the death of Fidel Castro became prominent in 2006 the journalists flocked here. A temporary center for the press was created outside the green-white restaurant. If Castro was dead for real, then the news would be released at Versailles, they reasoned.

In times of elections, American politicians have gone to Versailles. Sometimes they have been dressed in the traditional Caribbean shirt – the guayabera – hoping to win the important Cuban-American votes.

The most important to butter up: Jorge Mas Canosa, chairman of the Cuban-American National Foundation. The politician who made the straightest promise about a tough line towards the Castro regime could count on Mas Canosa’s blessing and the votes from the Cuban exiles.

Usually this was a Republican.

John McCain visited Versailles last summer. Obama opened the door slightly towards more contact with Cuba instead. Maybe that is why you can still find anti-Obama scribbles at the Gent’s room at Versailles.

“No jama con Obama!” – No food with Obama! – it says.