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Today’s Sun Sentinel had some light entertainment in the form of an article about a Democrat push for the Cuban American vote. It quotes our very own Bob Menendez, brought to Florida to energize the troops, as saying it would be a “mistake” to write off Cuban Americans. As he says-
“If you can strike a responsive chord in the Cuban-American community on U.S.-Cuba policy, the rest of their thinking is very progressive,”
Okay, let’s test the theory. Right now, think of every Cuban/Cuban American you know. Now count on the fingers of your hands how many could by termed “progressive” in any sense of the term. I have one, and that’s a maybe. Oh, but then we have the usual shibboleths/wishful thinking about about how the politics of Cuban Americans have changed in which a passing truck is given tectonic significance, this time elaborated by that expert on all things Cuban, Sen. Bill Nelson who opines:
…people shouldn’t focus just on Cubans who came to the United States when Fidel Castro took control. People who came to this country during the 1980 Mariel boat lift or who were born in this country to Cuban-American parents don’t feel as strongly about Cuba, he said.
Just how off is this statement? Let me count the ways…. Never mind, although I am thinking of wearing a scarlet “H” on my breast. I’m not sure whether it would denote “hardliner” or “historic.” Geesh, I feel old. I take comfort in Cindy Guerra, the vice chairwoman of the Broward Republican Party who seems to take the Democrat machinations in stride, to her “Democrats thinking they can make gains among Cuban-Americans ‘shows me they’re desperate.’”

Having just read the petition, “US Hands Off Cuba,” being circulated online by the International Action Center, I’m moved to respond. I cannot fathom that anyone can seriously believe the drivel you are disseminating here.
President Bush’s speech of the 24th details the realities of the Cuban regime. Where are the “lies and slanders” you invoke? Did the revolution not promise individual freedom, freedom of the press, free elections (you know, the kind where more than one party will win)? Did they not promise economic advancement? Has a single one of these materialized for the Cuban people? No, they live in a society where they are constantly watched, where to deviate from the party line is to risk retaliation, imprisonment under substantially less humane conditions than exist in Guantanamo, where they are forced to eke our a bare subsistence living and are fortunate if their roofs to do not fall on their heads. So who is lying here?
The Cuban people, which is in itself a misnomer in that the Cuban people have absolutely no say in what their government does, may have shown kindness and generosity to the United States, but the government most assuredly has not. Were there not missiles pointed at the United States? During the missile crisis, did Castro not urge the USSR to use the same missiles? Were there not, according to Che Guevara himself, plots to blow up populated venues in NYC. At every turn, has the government not worked against the interests of the US? Has it not slapped the outstretched hand of every President from Reagan to Carter who has tried for some sort of rapprochement, both publicly and privately?
And if they have been “kind and generous” in offering humanitarian aid, we have been so much more. We provided humanitarian aid after a particularly devastating hurricane years before. We further left that loophole in the embargo open. There is no true embargo, let alone the “blockade” you cite. We are the number one supplier of food to Cuba. The only qualification is that it pay for its goods. Given Cuba’s credit record, that is nothing but a wise business decision. Remittances from family members are one of the largest inflows of cash on the island. Humanitarian aid is allowed to flow unimpeded. Pharmaceuticals are not restricted. You could even say that the infamous wet foot/dry foot policy we have in place makes the Coast Guard collude in policing their borders and preventing the escape of those imprisoned on the island.
If Bush has no chance of convincing the Cuban people of rising up against their oppressors, it is only because of the fear instilled by the regime’s ubiquitous machinery of repression. Your petition is correct that it is time to stand with the people of Cuba but to demand for them the same God-given rights you enjoy. If your glorious workers’ paradise were in the United States, you would now be facing a hefty prison term for your little petition.

Friday’s mail brought a copy of the newly published I Was Cuba: Treasures from the Ramiro Fernandez Collection, edited by Kevin Kwan. This stunning coffee table book chronicles the history of Cuba in hundreds of pictures. From the first days of photography until the early days of the revolution, it’s all in here: Havana night life, gas station openings and Victorian family dinners, sports figures and circus performers. In addition, there are shots of Che, ardent milicianas and he whose name I don’t feel like mentioning since he may not remember it.
What sets this volume apart from the usual nostalgic “Cuba of yesteryear” books is that it is conscious throughout not only of recreating a past, but also of photography as an art form. Ramiro Fernandez, who spent much of his career as a photography editor for Time, Inc., has devoted a life to amassing photos of the lost world, as if to reassure himself that the Cuba he remembered once existed. His collection is considered among the finest archives of Cuba photos in world.
This pictorial history is a perfect rebuttal to those who insist on seeing pre-Revolutionary Cuba as a third world country on a par with underdeveloped nations in Latin America and Africa. I warn you, though, to get out your hanky before you embark on your journey to the Cuba of the past. You’ll need it, particularly when you come across the occasional text from the works of Reinaldo Arenas. A gorgeous book, it would make the perfect holiday gift for the cubanophile in your life.

You could have knocked me down with a feather when I got Val’s email. I did that open mouth kinda thing, you know the “what me?” In my reply I promised Val that someday when I get maudlin, read that three sheets to the wind, I’ll write about what discovering Babalu meant to me. And I will. But for now, suffice to say that after a lifetime spent removed from others like me, I found I was not alone. So I am honored to join the writers here. I only hope to do my part.
There is only one nickname I want. Some have illustrious forbears, important people. My father was none of these. Like Willy Loman, his name was never in the papers. He was a Cuban everyman. He had nothing in Cuba, and he liked to say that he had thirty five cents in his pocket when he landed at JFK. What he did have was an enormous heart. He carved out a good life in the United States for himself and the family he loved so fiercely, but he lived and died a Cuban.
He earned the nickname El Cabezon because of his unshakeable belief in himself and his opinions. Annoyingly, many times he was right, like when he was the only one in his circle of Cuban expatriates in NYC who did not support fidel castro, or when having moved back to Cuba, he got himself in trouble by insisting that fidel was a card-carrying Communist way before fifo came out of that closet.
So I figure that I could do worse than la hija del cabezon. I certainly couldn’t do better.