Descarado/Shameless

Read all about Perez Roque's attack on Bush's legitimacy. Still smarting from the tongue lashing he couldn't face at the UN, the following day he questioned Bush's legitimacy.

Felipe Perez Roque told world leaders that Bush "came into office through fraud and deceit" and has "no moral authority or credibility to judge anyone."

So, it was Bush who lied his way into office, huh? Now Roque knows his American Politics, particularly the Moveon.org talking points. Try this one.


Perez Roque accused Bush of winning his office through fraud. "We would have been spared his presence yesterday, and we would have listened to President Al Gore talking about climate change and the risks to our species."

Poor guy, there's almost something wistful about the sentiment. And here's my personal favorite.

"He has been the most selfish and reckless politician that we have ever seen," he said. "President Bush has no moral authority or credibility to judge anyone."

Wait, he must be confused. Surely, it's his boss Fidel he's describing. Here is another prime example of how propaganda works. Not a single report provided context. Read it here.

Literary Interlude: Women's Work

I make rice- white, fluffy, each discrete grain
visible, coated and gleaming-
like my mother did,
and her mother did before me,
Sacramental in the latin liturgy,
not night after night as they did
culinary offerings of every culture
bedecked with mounds of steaming comfort
My late father, beloved, ate his with spaghetti.

No, I make it as Americans do-
bloodless carbohydrate complement-
yet as I make it, I am linked
down the years, mothers and
grandmothers, even to those
forebears, grand and native,
the tall, proud, and dark, as
well as the little frizzle headed men from the sea.
conquerers and unvanquished

Daughter of Hatuey who gave up heaven
to avoid the hated presence of the Spaniard
And of the dread Spaniard who thought gold
led the way there.

Eh tu, Mengele

Sorry, I understand the scientific point made, but there's something creepy about the article.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Cienfuegos, Cuba and Loyola University had a unique opportunity to observe the impact of population-wide weight loss due to sustained reductions in caloric intake and an increase in energy output.
This situation occurred during the economic crisis of Cuba in 1989-2000. As a result, obesity declined, as did deaths attributed to diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke.

One researcher tries to soften it. See highlighted text.

"This is the first, and probably the only, natural experiment, born of unfortunate circumstances, where large effects on diabetes, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality have been related to sustained population-wide weight loss as a result of increased physical activity and reduced caloric intake," said Manuel Franco, MD, a PhD candidate in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology.

I'm used to Cubans being depersonalized, relegated to cute brown natives in the mindset of European tourists, but this is weird. Apparently, a perpetually starved population makes for good research. If that's the case, right now there are thousands of potential subjects in huge swaths of Africa. But why stop there? We can replicate the conditions in the United States. We don't even need to ask for volunteers. And by the way, there was nothing natural about the Castroite experiment.

Anyone else creeped out? Read the whole thing here.

Adieu, Jules

Two days ago I learned my friend had died. Julie had been my friend, contemporary, and coworker in the circulation department at a library. We both worked part time in a job well below our abilities but that satisfied the urge to do something, to move, and to earn play money without giving away our lives. And we were part of a very good crew. By the time we left every evening, it was as if the elves had come and cleaned up. Julie, in particular, was a dynamo. So hard as it was to believe that so much good-natured energy resided in that little body, it is harder still to believe it is gone.

We hit it off right away when we met. I was a Cuban from New York and she, an American from Miami, Cuban by association. Many an evening, she tortured me with descriptions of Cuban food we did not have. We spoke the same language of street smarts; we shared the same wicked humor. Unlike me, Julie was ever pleasant, ever helpful, and beloved by the patrons. In fact, the only time I ever witnessed her in a disagreement was with some gentlemen I won't mention, because I don't want to go to jail.

One day, the chronic condition that caused a tumor on her leg was causing her so much pain that she had the growth removed. Then came the news. At age 44 or so, she was told it was malignant and her leg would have to be amputated. So beautiful, vivacious Julie lost her leg. It had also spread. Her husband at the time was pulled aside and told she would not last the year.

But the doctors did not know the Julie we did. She faced the cancer, the way she had faced life. She braved the pain caused by the lost limb, writhing on her floor. She overcame the new disability, lavishing attention on the guide dog she acquired. Somehow, she made it through the death in a motorcycle accident of her only son. In the middle of a divorce when she was diagnosed, she met and married a young man. That, too, turned sour under the weight of her illness. Yet, she was irrepressible.

I want to say that we were close, but I only visited her home once. It was after she became ill. Yet we were close in the way women who've lived hard times are, those that belong to that secret sorority. Somehow, we recognize each other. Julie did not have an easy life, but you would never have guessed.

For four or five years, she held off the inevitable. So when I heard she was in the hospital, other than sending her a card, I did nothing. Julie couldn't, wouldn't die. Then she did.

Signs of Hope:

Sometimes, like after yesterday's news, it is easy to be overwhelmed. Our stance is that nothing has changed in Cuba. We know this intellectually. Yet, there lingers that teeny hope inside that maybe, just maybe.... Then the roundup of dissidents yesterday reminds us that there is no quarter. These are not men; these are beasts who starve their brother citizens in order to amass wealth for themselves and their broods, who practice a twisted version of the capitalism they deny everyone else, who wield power at the expense of the freedom and dignity of their fellow man. What hope, then?

It is easy to become discouraged in this instance, and yet there are glimmers. Most of those rounded up yesterday were released. Why? Then take a look at the only English language article I've been able to find, this one from Reuters and found through Castro Death Watch. Last night the only articles were in Spanish from island sources.

The demonstrators, led by prominent dissident leader Martha Beatriz Roque, were pushed and yelled at by a group of 100 government supporters sent to quell the protest, and then put on a bus and driven home, Roque said.

Notice the words sent to. There was a time that this would be framed as " a group of 100 citizens, outraged at the demonstration....." Here we have Reuters admitting it was a goon squad. The rest of the article presents the viewpoints, shockingly, of dissidents.

We are demanding that the political prisoners be treated with dignity, because they are human beings, and besides, they are innocent," Roque, an economist who has twice been jailed for several years for criticizing Cuba's one-party state.

and

Most prisoners lack hygienic cells, clean water, adequate food and medical attention, he said, and many are ill.

The government point of view is almost an afterthought in the last few lines as they deny they hold political prisoners calling them "mercenaries." True, it would have been better if Reuters itself had highlighted the plight of political prisoners. But this article, as it stands, presents progress.

The recent John Stossel report on 20/20 was breakthrough in that it was broadcast on a major network. Would it have been possible, would it even have been considered, without the presence of the Cuban/Cuban American blogosphere, particularly The Real Cuba? Cuban citizens are not allowed to tell the truth. MSM operations on the island face expulsion if their stories are deemed too negative.

So the regime is right to ban the internet, for in the internet, whether the blogs, or YouTube, or the news releases and blogs coming directly from the island that escape their iron curtain, lie the seeds of their destruction.

There is a psychological principle that what is brought into the light loses its power. In mythology, naming someone saps his or her power. That is what the Cuban/Cuban American blogs and their readers do. And I believe wholeheartedly that it is having an effect, as yet infinitesimal, but an effect nonetheless. Every time some stooge, useful idoit, well-intentioned dogooder or media outlet perpetuates the lies of the regime, and we respond en masse, we are witnesses to the truth, helping to frame the discussion because we know the name of the beast. And the name of the beast is Repression.

Let's See

The gentler, kinder regime flexes its muscles, rounds up 21 dissidents, and releases some, if not most. Apparently, they feel the need for greater intimidation of the citizenry without upsetting their PR plans unduly.

The American news reports every day include some tinpot dictator trumpeting solidarity with or expressing gratitude for some beneficence bestowed by Cuba, which might be better served by feeding its own people. Havana is on the Iranian President's intinerary.

All the usual useful idiots are alborotado. Lawrence Wilkerson, a man one would think would have an intellect substantially bigger than that of a Ring Ding, spouts the Castro Regime talking points on the newly established The Havana Note. Suddenly Havana is so important that it needs a counterpart to The Washington Note.

Kevin Spacey decides he absolutely must see Caracas and Havana. Kinda reminds me of the movie stars who showed up at the Gotti trial.

I cannot even attempt to fathom the byzantine workings of the regime in Cuba, but I know they are up to something.

Thursday Shorts

Doin' an Imus? Media Matters again leads the charge and the MSM picks it up in accusing Bill O'Reilly of racist comments. I bring it up because tonight he was complaining about how the MSM media doesn't tell the truth and is corrupt. Last night, he was complaining the MSM doesn't do its research and picks up its material from liberal websites. Welcome to our world, Mr. O'Reilly. The original "Talking Points Memo" here.


Pinhead! Yup, he was last night's "pinhead" on The Factor. Yesterday's news was the Kevin Spacey/Chavez tete a tete. Tonight, the report was that he had questioned Chavez about the proposed changes to the Venezuelan Constitution. Oh, I'm sure that made the red-bereted one squirm. Spacey's next port of call? You guessed it. Cuba


What is up with this guy? Lawrence Wilkerson, promoted as ex-chief of staff to Colin Powell, has me nonplussed. First it was the post on the Cuban healthcare system. Now it's a defense of the Cuban Five. You see, they were just defending their country against those evil exiles who were killing Cubans. Did this guy get the official regime talking points or what? He does say, if what he heard was true. I say, let them do a Nathan Hale. You gotta see this and tell me this guy is for real. Just go to The Havana Note. Add a .com 'cause I ain't linking to it.


Author Antics! After being fed all this tripe, you need a little lift. MSNBC has an interesting article from Mental Floss about the lives of famous authors. Read it here.


A Sad Note. World famous mime, Marcel Marceau was buried today. Just another sign of the passage of time.

"I'm Not About War."

May I remind our readers who this is in the picture with the U.S. hostages.

Que Pasa, Cane?

Well, Cane debuted last night. It didn't take more than 45 minutes to turn Jimmy Smits, as the scion of a rum-making Cuban American family, into a murderer. The coming attractions seem to herald his transformation into serial murderer. All of which is not as much of a smear as it would seem, once you take into account the present moral compass of our society. Nor does Jimmy Smit's appearance bother me. Although to me the Cuban type, the white variety, consists of almost black hair and very fair skin, we come in all shapes and sizes. And face it, after Al Pacino's barrio accent, I can tolerate almost anything. Problem is that it was just plain bad: poor man's Godfather with a more than healthy serving of Dynasty mixed in. This one doesn't make it through the season.

A suggestion for TV studios, if you ever want to make a real series about Cuban Americans, dust off the old Que Pasa, Usa? and update it. Nah, if you don't have murder, treachery, sex, drugs, etc... no one will watch it.

I was reminded of the show by Frances Martel in a pretty interesting article in which she interviews Paul Bouche of A Oscuras Pero Encendidos fame, if that is the right word. While I am no fan of Spanish language TV, she raises an interesting point about the use of the double entendre. Read it here.

Cuba: The View from Sarasota

As promised, I made it to the Ringling Museum on Monday. The photos were amazing. The landscapes and the photography are lush. The clouds brood over the the black and white panoramas. One photo in particular hearkens back to the prototypical western backdrops with a lonely butte in front. Here, however, the iconic image is decidedly tropical. Before I wax too eloquent, there are only twelve large giclees. They will be on display until some time in January. This exhibit will overlap with one of modern Cuban artists, both on and off the island, as I understand it, coming on October 6. So unless you live in Sarasota, you may want to wait.

For those outside of the area, the museum itself is well worth the trip and the adult admission of $19.00. I hadn't been there since their Surrealist exhibit a few years ago. In the interim it became part of the Florida State University which has made remarkable improvements, particularly in restoring the grounds. The art museum itself is on a par with those to be found in the more cosmopolitan cities such as New York and Boston. Added in as a bonus is the circus museum and the first floor of Ringling's Ca D'Zan, modeled on the Doge's Palace in Venice. All of this is footsteps from the bay. Enough said.

commemorative video?

This supposedly commerative video starts off with Fontova's book! Obviously who ever put it together had no idea.

Dean Martin Show - Guest Stars

Classic Dino and Reagan.I believe it was ad libbed, are there any politicians like this left?

Estefan and Her Cuban Roots: Quick Turnaround

Update: There's an odd article about the new album in Newsday.com. Catch this

Two songs, the title track and "Esperando," capture the displaced nationalism of Miami Cubans as few others do. "Esperando," driven by hard rumba rhythms, is a call for a celebration of Cuba's impending "freedom," a passion stoked late last month when Perez Hilton's Web site posted a rumor of Castro's impending death and it made the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Estefan's call for unity between island and Miami Cubans is hopeful, but its reality remains to be seen.

Gee, was that all part of the plan to invite Che-loving, synapse-fried Santana to play? Nah, but it's fun to think it. Now to the truly odd part.

On the title track, Estefan pays tribute to Yoruban deity Eleguá, asking him to deliver liberation, although his role as the guardian of the crossroads may not dispose him to take sides. "Me Odio," features a singing style apparently influenced by the rap group Orishas, and "Morenita" and "Caridad" praise Cuba's patron saint Caridad de la Cobre. Could it be that this Estefan-style revelation of Cuba's African spirituality might be more important than the politics of left and right?

Our reviewer here seems awfully familiar with Eleguá, which is a first. And is it a prediction?
And the end? Odd. Read it.



Is Gloria trying to counter the recent controversy by reestablishing her bona fides? She apparently gave an interview to Readers Digest that is quoted in The Detroit Free Press.

When the family immigrated to the United States, she tells RD, her father mysteriously disappeared in the night. "He was part of the Cuban exile forces being trained by the U.S. government for the Bay of Pigs invasion. When the infamous attempt to reclaim Cuba failed, in April 1961, my dad was again taken as a political prisoner by Castro's forces."

I don't have the Readers Digest, but here is a link to the DFP.

Castro Video, So What!

I don't care if they wheel out that carcass for a dog and pony show. He is dead. He is gone. He is not involved in the goverment anymore, absent from meetings etc.... The Cuban gov't isn't going to tell anyone when he dies, they stand too much to lose. They are going to try and ride the wave as long as possible.

It's Alive!

Barely, it would seem. See the report at the Sun Sentinel here. His first meeting with a head of state in a while. There's a picture, too.

Literary Interlude: Potpurri

Our regularly scheduled poem has been pre empted on account of fifo's rising from the dead. Well, that kinda put me in mind of Macbeth. So...

Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,

Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal;

Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd

Too terrible for the ear: the time has been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,

And there an end; but now they rise again,

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,

And push us from our stools: this is more strange

Than such a murder is.

(Act 3, Scene 4)

A thought...

A man wrestles a tiger. The tiger is a 600lb Bengal, and the issue is never in doubt

to anyone except the man, that is. For the odd moment or two, the man manages to hold

off the beast. He turns his head. "See," he says, "I'm in control here." Then inevitably, inexorably, the beast slips his grasp and the dance continues.

What if?

One of the most intriguing parts of The Boys from Dolores concerns a letter written by the boy Fidel Castro to FDR. According to Symmes, it's still in the national archives. I'd heard about it, but here is most of the text complete with mispellings:

My good friend Roosvelt
I don't know very English, but I know as much as write to you.
I like to hear the radio, and I am very happy because I heard in it that you will
be President for a new [periodo].


I am twelve years old. I am a boy but I think very much but I do not thing that
I am writing to the President of the United States.
[I]f you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american, in the letter, because
never, I have not seen a ten dollars bill green american and I would like to have one of them......

...If you want to make your sheaps, I will show to you the biggest (minas) of iron

of the land. They are in Mayari, Oriente Cuba.

Castro's reaction to whatever response he received:

"Yeah, well....He won the election. But the Americans are assholes. I asked for ten dollars and they didn't send me a cent."

Deja Vu Update

I gotta share this one. So, I'm in the library, not my usual branch, looking through the new books when I spot...can it be... is it? Yes, it's Fidel Castro on the cover. Wait, there's Chavez, and that's Evo Morales. Intrigued, I pick it up. The book in question is titled Pirates of the Caribbean: An Axis of Hope. I only hope the link works, so you can see first hand the halo over fifo's head. Try it here. I kid you not.

Elian Revisited- Hang onto your seats, boys and girls! Just when the present court case is coming to a close, this Wednesday the Discovery Times Channel is presenting a documentary on the Elian case. With the Times in the moniker, this cannot be good. Some days it just seems like we're trying to bail out the SS Cuban American with a leaky sieve.

The Great Left Wing Conspiracy- In the past, I have used the phrase, the Great Left Wing Conspiracy in jest. But today's news about Ted Stevens being investigated makes me wonder. Frankly, I couldn't care about Stevens, but am I the only one that is noticing a pattern here?Doesn't it seem that invariably during election season these days a scandal concerning a Republican politician hits the airwaves? I want to ask are only Republican pols corrupt? Let's not forget that exit polling in the last election showed that it was corruption, not the war, that fueled the Republican debacle. Remember Foleygate. A hint here, a leak there, it would be easy to do. Of course, the Dems have been caught with cashsicles in the freezer and fugitive fundraisers with no apparent consequences. One can only imagine what it would take to turn off their base.

This Week's Read: The Boys from Dolores

Whenever I pick up a book about Cuba, not written by a Cuban or a CIA operative or someone of that ilk, I approach it with suspicion. So it was that I had my doubts about The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Classmates from Revolution to Exile by Patrick Symmes. I mean the guy had written a book about Che Guevara, which immediately said something. It was the subtitle that snared me. It was just too novel an approach to pass up. And true to his word, the book treats Fidel obliquely, just a few brushstrokes in the portraits of his classmates, enough however to show the nature of the boy and the man and the wreckage he created.

My fears that Fidel and the Revolution would be glorified proved almost groundless. Yes, as one reviewer on Amazon indicated, he did get some historical fact wrong. For instance, his account of the Bay of Pigs doesn't quite jibe with other accounts, even the PBS version. His tiresome iteration about the boys at the school being children of privilege and the contrasting poverty and illiteracy of the countryside is too close to the revolutionary shibboleth. It is also something he seems to contradict when discussing the size of the middle class.

But the true genius of the book lies in Mr. Symmes ability to elicit the truth from those he interviews and, amazingly, from random Cubans he stumbles upon in his many travels through Cuba. It is no surprise that the only other book I've read that comes close to eliciting how people live and feel is Mi Moto Fidel. In both cases, these American authors avoided minders and took the time to really talk to Cubans. The result of which is that their depiction of Cuba is very different from the usual Snow jobs. All of the doble cara, the contempt, the hand gestures that make up the only free expression of average Cubans is here.

At the same time he conveys the present reality in Cuba, he tells the story of a very special Jesuit school in a unique time and place through the stories of those who would soon see their lives overthrown and the history of their nation changed. It is a story that he tracks back from the present, starting with a reunion in Miami. These early chapters are a lyrical, haunting portrayal of loss, as he visits with the survivors of the school in the waning years of their lives. It's an emotional punch in the gut.

The lyricism and the shuffling back and forth in time account for some slow going in the middle chapters. His descriptions of the school, the boys, the Jesuits exhibit a wealth of imagination, a gift for placing himself in their shoes, their world. Suddenly, however, the reader is hurled to the present, only to be sent back to the rituals of the school day. So, at times, reading this book feels like slogging through mud. Yet for those truly interested, it is worth the patience. It is an incredibly dense, incredibly rich book. It is perhaps too ambitious, but it does convey much- from the human face of political consequence, the lost world, the new world, the exile experience, and finally the character of the boy who would be king.

My Fantasy Poll

Made the mistake of stopping by The Havana Note. I can't get over this gal. You've got to read her complaints about John Stossel's assessment of Sicko! Not to be believed. Poll above.