Losing the PR War: Cuban Americans as the Enemy

When I linked to the article on the farm bill the other day, I made the mistake of reading the comments. I say mistake because it was a traumatizing experience.

There were the comments obviously fueled by the resentment that the rest of the world can get a cheap vacation, regardless of the morality of the same. You know the "Why can't we go to Cuba and be cool like Sting?" type of question. Then there were the comments based on the less than solid assumption that trade would somehow ease the lot of ordinary Cubans, or somehow bring down the Castro regime. What I was not prepared for was the absolute vitriol hurled at Cuban Americans who are seemingly insignificant, money grubbing residents of Coral Gables or bayfront mansions, scheming to install their own Batista or Pinochet.

To all those people who want to go down and hobnob with the communist oppressors and their citizen slaves, lie on the beaches forbidden to Cubans and drink mojitos at bars forbidden to Cubans, sell their cattle or their chickens or their corn on credit to a government whose debt is rated junk, talk nice to a murdering bastard, I ask what have Cubans done that they should be dismissed and reviled, that the very people who have the most knowledge of the regime should be ignored or slandered?

What have Cubans in the United States done except come to this country with only the shirts on their backs, wash dishes, people factories, save up capital, start little businesses, get educations, send their children to medical schools, make the greatest economic advances of any immigrant group, reinvigorate a moribund city(Miami), send money home to near starving relatives, and demand that we not kowtow to a sworn enemy of the United States who once had missiles pointed at American cities? Oh, is that it? Can it possibly be that we didn't buy into the victomology of some, that we cannot be looked down upon as a poor little minority that can be patronized and assuaged with government programs? Contrary to Castroite propaganda, most exiles were not rich Batistianos who fled the country with their money safely ensconced in Switzerland. No, Cuban Americans for the most part are embodiments of the American Dream and that seems to rankle some.

The sad thing here is that there might very well be rationales for lifting the embargo or other changes in policy, although I'm not saying there is. Frankly, it is something I struggle with as of late. But these are changes that I cannot even contemplate, because the people who propose them are fueled by naivete, ignorance, greed, anger, hatred, resentment, or envy. And inevitably my kneejerk reaction when being attacked by people who hate me is to fight back.