Diario de Cuba reports a week-long congress of the Spanish Federation of Tourism Journalists and Writers (FEPET) being held in hurricane-battered and crumbling Cuba, a veritable third-world dump awash in garbage, to revive its moribund tourist industry. The latter, as everyone knows, is controlled by Cuba’s totalitarian dictatorship, which has prioritized it above practically all other investments for its presumed profitability. However, that industry has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and numbers for 2024 are only slightly more than half of what they were in 2019.
So, given Spain’s considerable investment in Cuba tourism, and obviously in conjunction with the extremely interested Castro regime, this congress has brought some 50 Spanish tourism media professionals to visit various tourist spots on the island and subsequently promote them in the Spanish press. FEPET is a non-profit entity, one of whose aims is to help tourist destinations in need of promotional support. Obviously, in this case, that clearly includes collaborating with Castro, Inc. and advancing its interests, but Spain has been playing that game for a very long time.
This is hardly the first instance of this sort of thing, which will probably continue. There’s a lot of money involved, both Cuban and Spanish. In the past 15 years, the Castro regime has invested over 24 billion dollars in the tourist sector, with new luxury hotels appearing every year–while basic domestic needs like the electric grid and food production continue to deteriorate and diminish. But, Spanish tourist concerns are still pulling stunts like a Cuba-based reality show with Spanish entertainers and influencers to attract tourists to the island. Again, it’s an old and sordid story.
However, Spain is only Cuba’s #4 tourist provider. Canada remains #1 by far, followed by Russia and the US, with Mexico and Germany following Spain. There’s little point expecting foreigners to stay away based on moral or ethical grounds, because Cuba will never be seen the way apartheid South Africa was, but the contrast between tourist facilities and life outside that artificial Potemkin bubble is beyond brutal and only getting worse. There are many much better options in the Caribbean and elsewhere, and ultimately mere practicality and common sense should prevail.
I think it really helps to see our sentimental fantasies about Spain for what they are, because if we keep thinking of Spain as our mother, its longstanding and continuing perfidy is too painful, and we’ve been screwed enough. Spain never saw itself as our mother but as Cuba’s owner, which is VERY different. That’s why it was prepared to commit what amounted to genocide during the War of Independence to hold on to its property, a veritable cash cow which it has never gotten over losing. In other words, we need to grow up.
There are two countries that have done us grievous harm above any other: Spain and Mexico, though truth-be-said, no Hispanic country has been good to us. This is why I become incensed when people try to team us with other Hispanics. F**k them. I’m happy just being Cuban. Don’t put me in any grouping with those people.
It’s not just that “Latins” have done so badly by Cuba–one could argue they’ve done badly by themselves. It’s also that they’re alien to us to a very significant extent. So yes, we should simply be Cuban, and I suppose Hispanic, but that’s it. We have enough issues and baggage as it is.
“It’s not just that “Latins” have done so badly by Cuba–one could argue they’ve done badly by themselves. It’s also that they’re alien to us to a very significant extent. So yes, we should simply be Cuban, and I suppose Hispanic, but that’s it. We have enough issues and baggage as it is.”
Exactly, they are alien to us. I have very little in common [with for example] Mexicans. I’ve been to Mexico so many times and their cuisine, idiosyncrasies, accent and even race is different to ours. I’m sick and tired of being forcefully teamed with these people and then having creatures like John Leguizamo et al., insisting that we are self-hating [and a coconut or Malinche] for stating the truth. We are NOT the same. .
As I said, we have more than enough issues of our own to be saddled with anybody else’s, especially when they don’t relate to us or concern us. Yes, there are Cubans who identify as “Latinos” and even “Latinx,” some out of convenience or indifference and some out of frank opportunism, but everyone gets to choose.