How To Tell if You're Cuban in the United States

In honor of some recent discussions, I'd like to volunteer some of my own observations of Cubanismo in the United States. I'm sure there are many more. I had to jettison quite a few. Despite the levity, there is some truth here.

To be Cuban is to wake up every morning to café con leche, even if it gives you a stomach ache.

To be Cuban is to consider fat one of the food groups and no dish dinner unless it includes rice.

To be Cuban is to consider chicken the other white meat.

To be Cuban is to wait three hours before going in the water after you eat.

To be Cuban is to have the prayer of San Luis Beltran read over you when you are sick as a child.

To be Cuban is to catch cold from el sereno, an empacho from eating too much, and a haceca from imbibing too freely.

To be Cuban is to eat turkey with rice and beans on “zanksgeeveen” and roast pork with rice and beans and yuca, topped off by turones, on Noche Buena.

To be Cuban is to eat twelve grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve and ignore the stares of the neighbors as you throw out your pot of water.

To be Cuban is to have a representation of La Caridad, or San Lazaro or Santa Barbara somewhere in the house, preferably behind the front door.

To be Cuban is to have a collection of old LPs, including “He perdido una perla” and “El son se fue de Cuba.”

To be Cuban is to know Tres Patines and all about Popa’s handbag.

To be Cuban is to have a collection of Alvarez Guedes cassettes which your family plays and replays.

To be Cuban is to recognize family members in “Que Pasa, Usa?”

To be Cuban is to have a grandmother who insists on answering the phone despite her inability to speak English and tells everyone, “Chee no jiar. Col leira.”

To be Cuban is to have a grandfather who constructs a snow plow out of some tin and an old baby carriage.

To be Cuban is to be called “El Niño” or “La Niña” well into adulthood.

To be Cuban is to be dragged to relatives’ houses, whether you want to go or not.

To be Cuban is to inject your opinion at any gathering that fish, lettuce, or even the sun was better in Cuba.

To be Cuban is to find Michelin man-sized babies with azabaches gorgeous.

To be Cuban is to have the bulk of your weight behind if you’re a woman and in front if you are a man.

To be Cuban, as a young woman, is to be told that you’re leaving the family home, head first, feet first or married.

To be Cuban, as a young man, is to have limitless freedom so your father can live vicariously.

To be Cuban is to make sure you graduate college because your father is threatening to hang himself if you don’t, and you believe him.

To be Cuban is...

Listmania

It might seem a bit early in the year for this annual exercise, but I came across no less than three different lists today.

In my email was Amazon's "Best Books of 2007." I can honestly say I have read not a single one of the top 100 editor's picks, unless you count thinking about reading one, as in Clapton's autobiography. I fared better on the top 100 bestsellers, or customer favorites. I've read about ten of those. An added bonus, I discovered there's a new James Lee Burke and put that on reserve at the library where I discovered they finally got around to ordering Fontova's new book. Oh, happy day!

Then on Tucker Carlson there's mention of “The 50 Greatest TV Icons” with Johnny Carson coming in at Number 1. Deservedly so, I think. I grew up watching the Tonight Show. It was funny, irreverent, and apolitical. Johnny bashed all politicians alike. More exciting was Buffy, the Vampire Slayer's Gellar making the cut. But really, Heather Locklear?

In Human Events, we have the top ten pork fighting senators. Yup, McCain is there. These are the same people who last week brought us the "Top 10 Most Outrageous Liberal Media Quotes From the Last 20 Years." If you missed it, just click on the link.

The Exile and the Poem

The previous post reminded me a the book I was reading this weekend, Burnt Sugar: A Collection of Contemporary Cuban Poetry, edited by Lori Marie Carlson and Oscar Hijuelos. I post two snippets from the assorted poems, which like poetry itself are about all sorts of things, not just politics. By the way, it is contemporary poetry, but worth a read.

from “For the Cuban Dead” by Ricardo Pau-Llosa

There is no enough in exile. Not enough anger,
and the blanket of safety always leaves the feet bare.
And it is here, no matter how clean and golden,
that one learns how different the wrist and fly
and the shot of a wave, how it never stops
calling although the law of distance deafens.
Memory is the heart’s gravity.
The accent of their children
becomes unbearably alien, a dampness
from the sidewalk creeping past the thin sole
and into the ignored sock. Now nothing
escapes notice and the balance is always against.



from “Destinies” by Jesús J Barquet

2. (Exile)
Exile
is finally understanding
that the day we have awaited so long
will be nothing more than the news
between two commercials
for Pepsi and Tylenol

tr. Lori Carlson

Mom's Pick: Todos se van

As I walk into my mother's house, she throws a spiral bound notebook at me. "See," she says, "you're not the only one." She's painstakingly copied an excerpt from the book she's reading, "Todos se van" by Wendy Guerra. Mom does her reading in Spanish.

Nacer en Cuba ha sido mimetizarme en esa ausencia del mundo al que nos sometemos. No he aprendido a usar una tarjeta de crédito, no me contestan los cajeros. Un cambio de avión de país puede descontrolarme, dislocarme, dejarme sin aliento. Afuera me siento en peligro, adentro me siento comfortablemente presa.

I see why she copied this particular passage, especially the part about changing planes reducing her to a wreck. Although Guerra is referring to life in Cuba, Mom identifies with the feeling of not being a part of the modern world. Mom has spent the majority of her life here in the United States, but it still feels foreign, like a pair of not-quite-right new shoes that you can never seem to break in. She tells me it is an excellent book, that Guerra writes beautifully. As she reads it, she can't believe what goes on in Cuba, even though she knows its true. In the end, she says I should recommend it. And so, I will.

(As far as I know, it is only available in Spanish.)

A Good Night Story for Today

It was quite a few years ago, I think about the time we were heading into the first Gulf War. Child of the sixties that I am, I was questioning whether it was ever worth going to war. This was, of course, pre 9/11. So I had pretty much resolved that there was redeeming value to conflict, or some other great intellectualization, when I happened to go to Philadelphia.

My husband and I went to a trade show. Now these were usually held in Atlantic City, but this one happened to be near Philly. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we did a bit of sightseeing, including the carriage ride tour. Our driver was entertaining and knowledgeable. He took us to Ben Franklin's home, pointed out the reflecting mirror our randy forbear used to see if the coast was clear. Then he took us to a park, a revolutionary era grave site. As we got out of the carriage and crossed the lawn, we headed to a pergola of sorts, nothing much, just some railing with an arbor over it. Upon reaching it, I noticed a plaque which read "the men buried beneath your feet died for your freedom." Enough said.

A Poem for Veteran's Day

This poem was read by a caller on last week's Babalublog Radio Hour. I liked it so much, I looked it up.


The Soldier
It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

And Now for Some Entertainment News

Get a Clue. AFP article on how the Iraq pictures have been box office duds because people don't want to see movies about an unpopular war. Duh? I'm reading and thinking that's how they're consoling themselves. I've ranted about this before: how about maybe we don't want to see antiwar movies when we're still fighting that same war? Then I read the some of the 500 plus comments and find quite a few other outraged individuals. The Hollywood types just can't conceive that maybe there are other points of view out there. Read it all here.






Habla Español? Amusing article on the increasing use and abuse of Spanish on TV. Of particular note is the section on "Cane." Here's an excerpt:

Indeed, this is a first. Never before have three generations of a Latino family been portrayed on English-language television as people who are educated, upper class and can speak English well. But as Jimmy Smits' lead character, Alex Vega, develops more and more into a gentler and more loving amalgam of Michael Corleone and Tony Soprano, we are reminded of how much more road there is to pave.

Told you it was good. Read the rest.

Veree Eenteresting

From Payo Libre, a "lightning"raid on illegal satellite dishes in a post from Havana. Members of the National Revolutionary Police, along with spies trained to spot antennae and technicians, removed "tens" of dishes and materials. It's unknown how many were arrested. Here's the interesting part:

Habitantes de Las Piedras indicaron que tal operativo posiblemente fue debido al discurso pronunciado por el presidente de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica George W. Bush el pasado 24 de octubre. “¡Al régimen cubano no le conviene que los isleños conozcan la verdad!”, dijo un vecino de la localidad.

Residents of Las Piedras indicated that the operation was possibly due to the speech given by the President of the United States of North America, George W. Bush, this past October 24. 'The Cuban regime finds it incovenient that islanders should know the truth!' said one local resident.
(I know it's awkward, but I'm trying to be true to the Spanish.)

Read it in Spanish here.

Also through Payo Libre, the Cambio bracelet story is turning into a saga. First, about seventy teens were rounded up for wearing white "cambio," or "change," bracelets. Then one of the founders of the Ladies in White was picked up for wearing one in support of the aforesaid teens. Now dissidents in Matanzas were handing out the bracelets in support of the teens. They were also handing out literature, misceláneas and cubanet among them. The activists lamented that they ran out of materials, as there is such hunger for information not coming from the government.

On the other side of the equation, the trainer for the Las Tunas soccer team is barring from the stadium any youth with the bracelet. In the time honored tradition of all young people, they are simply removing the bracelets and replacing them once they've left the environs of the stadium.
And there are more.

Perhaps because of the publicity garnered by this story, as far as I can tell, all have been released after a bit of intimidation and a written warning. I would say because the of gentler, kinder dictatorship, but the beatings and harassment continue on other fronts.

Sunday Morning Funnies

Ah, the boomers, my bete noir. The incomparable Peggy Noonan set me straight. In a piece that includes a hilarious anecdote about Margaret Thatcher, she says of Hilary:

I don't think Mrs. Clinton is the exemplar of a generation, she is the exemplar of a quadrant within a generation, and it is the quadrant the rest of us of that generation do not like. They came from comfort and stability, visited poverty as part of a college program, fashionably disliked their country, and cultivated a bitterness that was wholly unearned. They went on to become investment bankers and politicians and enjoy wealth, power or both.

How good is that? Read it here.
H/T George at Babalu

Now to the Human Events list of the top ten outrageous liberal quotes. Cuba comes in at number 8:

Extolling Virtues of Fidel’s Prison
“For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth. The literacy rate is 96%.” -- Barbara Walters on ABC’s “20/20,” Oct. 11, 2002.

You can read the rest of the list here.

And then there are the sayings of old black men... at least that's the title of a 1955 book posted at Cuba al Pairo. It contains some of the better adages my mother uses. I'll skip the politically incorrect ones. But here is a smattering:

Una cosa piensa el borracho y otra el bodeguero
The drunk thinks one thing and the shopkeeper another.

Unos nacen con estrella y otros nacen estrellados
Some are born under a star and others starred/shattered.

Cuando el sol sale, sale para todo el mundo
When the sun shines, it shines for everyone.

There are a few more in Spanish here.
H/T Penultimos Dias

Literary Interlude: I Go Back to May 1937

This is one is by one of my favorite poets: Sharon Olds

I Go Back to May 1937

I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges,
I see my father strolling out
under the ochre sandstone arch, the
red tiles glinting like bent
plates of blood behind his head, I
see my mother with a few light books at her hip
standing at the pillar made of tiny bricks,
the wrought-iron gate still open behind her, its
sword-tips aglow in the May air,
they are about to graduate, they are about to get married,
they are kids, they are dumb, all they know is they are
innocent, they would never hurt anybody.
I want to go up to them and say Stop,
don't do it- she's the wrong woman,
he's the wrong man, you are going to do things
you cannot imagine you would ever do,
you are going to do bad things to children,
you are going to suffer in ways you have not heard of,
you are going to want to die. I want to go
up to them there in the late May sunlight and say it,
Her hungry pretty face turning to me,
his arrogant handsome face turning to me,
his pitiful beautiful untouched body,
but I don't do it. I want to live. I
take them up like the male and female
paper dolls and bang them together
at the hips, like chips of flint, as if to
strike sparks from them, I say
Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it.

Read: Havana: Autobiography of a City

In honor of the amazing book fair taking place in Miami this week, let’s look at one of the staggering number of offerings. If I were there this weekend, I would not miss Carlos Eire who is scheduled for 2:30 today. His Waiting for Snow in Havana is one I’ve never really written about because I can’t look at it with a critical eye. I just love it, accept that I do, and send copies to the relatives. Until now, I was limited to those who could speak English; but recent publication of the Spanish translation removed that obstacle.

On Sunday, I would go see Alfredo Jose Estrada for a very different reason. His Havana: An Autobiography of a City attempts to convey that fabled city as a living, breathing entity. Inevitably, “autobiography” of a Capital city is the history of a country, and much of the book is devoted to the tumultuous history of Cuba. It is a book, however, I would not normally have finished. Sadly, I would have been the poorer for it.

He starts out well enough remarking that writing about Havana is like navigating a treacherous course “between political extremes.” Fair enough, I think. Within a few chapters, I am angered when he deviates from his stated intent and inserts a critical subtext, like describing the effects of Hurricane Wilma and contrasting the lack of looting and rescue by authorities to our own Katrina, an unfair comparison all around. Unsettling is the comment about “another lost opportunity to better U.S.-Cuba relations.” Also disaffecting was the almost slavish admiration of Eusabio Leal’s restoration efforts at restoring Habana Vieja, leaving the reader with the impression that the current crumbling infrastructure was the pre-Revolutionary norm. I fact-checked with Mom: she did confirm it was seedy but to me that’s a far cry from the current citywide demolition derby. Now I have to check out the author. That’s it. He’s a Harvard graduate. Says it all to me.

Occurring early on in the book, just as it launches into the driest parts- geographic description and colonial history- it could easily sound the death knell for the whole thing. But it would be a shame. For much of the book Estrada’s blend of easy narrative and exhaustive research makes for interesting and enlightening reading. He is strongest recounting the cultural past. In addition to learning the derivations of phrases like “vete para el carajo”- the “carajo” was the crows nest of Spanish ships- and “la hora de los mameyes”- the “mameyes” here denotes the red coats of the invading British- I had to laugh when he describes a cartoon during the last days of the Machado regime: “El Bobo consoles his young son, who is tired of eating only bananas, by saying: “Pues no llores, hijito, que ya esta llegando la hora de los mameyes.”

I have to say that I really enjoyed Estrada’s book. He hits the right notes later on and makes a tentative stab a correcting some mainstream and academic misconceptions. His history, though, remains suspect to me. For instance, his treatment of Che does make the point that the dimwits wearing Che wear have no idea whom they’re flaunting. I suspect, however, that Humberto Fontova would differ with his rather lukewarm portrayal of Che’s homicidal tendencies. So I’d like to see him, tell him the book is quite an achievement, and point out that the early editorial jabs risk alienating fairly reasonable readers like me.

This one is recommended for those who enjoy nonfiction and can suppress an emotional response.

Cross-published at Babalublog

Mississippi Red Tide, They Say

Again in yesterday's paper, an interesting article. For many, many years, I was blissfully unaware of Red Tide. And my first few exposures resulted in a few dry coughs, easily handled by leaving the beach. For the blessedly uninitiated, Red Tide is what we call an algal bloom that drifts into the beach releasing an airborne toxin, a neurotoxin, I might add.

Usually, it lasts like a week, and the most common signs are coughing and dead fish washing up on the beach. But then there was the year Red Tide wouldn't go away. I was working, just up from the bay, and every afternoon like clockwork my nose would stuff up and my teeth would hurt. So far, they haven't really done studies of how prolonged exposure affects healthy individuals. But when they finally get around to it, I suspect it will be a lot worse than has been considered the case. This stuff kills manatees.

Anyway, you might say I'm interested in the topic. The article described the results of a NOAA study which pegs run-off from the nutrient laden Mississippi River as the culprit in outbreaks. A Florida official thinks the causes are closer to home. And I think, they need to figure this out soon, before I have to break out the dust mask again. Read it here.

Signs of the Times

On the same page of my newspaper which devotes less than half a column to the protests and killing in Venezuela is a complete half-page above the fold article on...Costa Rican house numbers. To those of us that have been to Costa Rica, this is not as frivolous as it seems.

Bad enough you have to address letters, "the blue house 200 meters from the former home of the President," which house is no longer extant, by the way. As one mailman characterizes it,
"You've got to be a mind reader...a historian and a detective to do this job." When you actually go there, forget renting a car. On foot, my husband and my daughter were lost for hours one Christmas eve in the environs of the capital, this after his boast to our hosts that he had been all around the world and never gotten lost. Famous last words.

It's no surprise then that the government has decided to number houses, name streets, etc...
Still, it will be a bittersweet thing for the Ticos who will get their mail but lose some of their quirkiness. The original article is from the LA Times. Read it here.

Who is Cuban?

Identity seems to be the theme of the day. See my previous post.

It is a theme that has been sounded on some blogs before. Today, it started with a letter to Claudia 4 Libertad where Ana writes that she was told by a woman in Miami that she is not “Cuban.” Ana was born in Cuba but came to the United States when she was young. With the death of her mother, she has lost her last connection to Cuba. She is interested in contacting other Cubans, but curiously not from Miami.

To me, the ever suspicious, her letter carries certain presuppositions. She doesn’t “look Cuban” or “speak with a Spanish accent.” She has “hazel eyes.” Lesson: Cubans come in all shapes and sizes and colors. My grandmother and my daughter have blue eyes. The Indian blood of his forbears was obvious in my grandfather’s appearance. I have brown eyes and brown hair but am pretty much interchangeable in looks with any number of nationalities. My mother is olive-skinned. Her mother was fair. And as to the language, the only Cubans I knew who spoke with a Spanish accent were those of my parents’ generation who came to the US as adults.

With our great big Cuban hearts, a number of people reached out to her. The situation was picked up on Babalublog by Alberto, who like me was born in this country to Cuban parents. Of course, the comments proved interesting. Abajofidel was of the opinion that your nationality is determined by your place of birth. Of course, my sister-in-law was born in France to Eastern European parents. She doesn’t consider herself French, and the French government certainly doesn’t call her one of their own.

The discussion naturally gravitated to whether maintaining your Cuban heritage is a reflection on your American citizenship. All of which reminded me of something I read today in Havana: An Autobiography of a City: “Neither Cuban nor American, I was trapped in the hyphen between them, more impassible than the Straits of Florida.” Although I disagree with much the author says, this is a terrain with which I am familiar.

I start thinking… Carajo! I wish they had told all the people who taunted me, and the greater public which discriminated against me that I was not Cuban. Ño! Just think of how much grief I would have saved. Just think of all the “sanksgeeveens” without turkey accompanied by rice and beans. Think of all the freedom I could have had in adolescence. But what then of that sudden rush when I discovered another Cuban in my Cuban-challenged hometown? What of that feeling upon landing in Miami and hearing Cuban Spanish, that feeling of having arrived in my native country? Or getting out of the car last spring at Cuba Nostalgia and walking through the parking lot with all of those families converging on the building and feeling such inordinate pride? I know the sights, the sounds, the smells. These are my people. They know me in a way that no one else does. I belong

Conversely, I could turn to those not born in this country and say they are less American than I am. But that would not be true. They may not have grown up with Chatty Cathy or Mr. Potato Head or Hot Wheels or Transformers, but they are no less American. That is the greatness of this country: we are all equal. It is a timely lesson. Rather than get mixed up in discussions of who is really Cuban, we would do well to put up a very big tent. I may not know what it is to grow up with privation and repression, but I do know that the privation and repression are wrong. Almost alone among Americans, we Cuban Americans give a shit what happens to the Cuban people. I know there are some that doubt this. The regime has done a most excellent job of casting our objections to their abominations as that of “resentidos.” What can we expect of people who labeled our parents “Gusanos”? And true, our hatred of castro and his lot is a blood feud, but what we want is for our Cuban brothers and sisters to experience freedom and prosperity. We know the world of our parents and grandparents is gone, that it exists only in the cartoon version trotted out for fat German lechers.

At the same time, I would hazard to guess (not much of one) that we are successfully American, which is to say that we are to be found in all socioeconomic levels, all occupations. We speak the same English as most. We speak not only the language, but the nuance. We are attuned to American sensibilities. Why in the world, would anyone spurn us?

I keep reprinting one of Biscet’s letters where he addresses Cubans on the island and in exile, as well as the children of Cubans in foreign parts. We may differ in methods, he tells us, but our aim is the same. Viva Cuba libre!

Is it Xenophobia?

Made the mistake of reading the comments section under an article in The Miami Herald, never a good thing. All the usual bigots were there. I confess, I couldn't resist. Thought I'd share my response:

Not one person commenting here is not at the very least a descendant of immigrants to this country. Further, thankfully, our constitution guarantees that we are all equal. So to all of those who would send us back to Cuba, I would respectfully submit that I would gladly return when you go back to digging potatos, picking olives, pickling herring, or whatever it is your forbears did to eke out a living in the old country. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

More Biscet Coverage

MSNBC producer Mary Murray has posted on Biscet's award on their World Blog. And she doesn't call him a "Cuban Doctor," either. She covers most of the usual bases with one exception:

While this [previous international attention] has done nothing to free her husband, Morejón believes international awareness has led to an improvement of his prison conditions.

Once confined to a small cell with little light or ventilation in a rural prison hours from his family, Biscet has been transferred to Havana’s Combinado del Este Penitentiary, where he has a desk, a chair and a locker for his personal belongings.
Morejón said Biscet has managed to regain some of the 40 pounds he lost since his initial incarceration.

He is still in bad shape, but at least the notice has done something. God watch over them all.

Fools Rush In

Don't these people realize how preposterous their arguments are? Clemons is at it again at The Huffington Post. In an opinion piece, rife with inaccuracy, he argues for opening ties to Cuba. Shall we try some of his more interesting assertions?

When castro dies, "People will learn about Batista and the fact that the pre-Castro Cuba was a playground for gambling, drugs, prostitution, and organized crime." Mr. Clemons' source for this one has to be The Godfather. Has to be because there is no basis in historical fact to describe conditions in the entire country this way. And here is something puzzling, while we are rewriting history, and your average teenager doesn't know Hoover the President from Hoover the vacuum cleaner, an awful lot of people seem to know the name Batista. One might almost think it was being fed into the discussion.

"Today, Cuba exports doctors and not arms." he tells us with nary a thought that he is equating human beings with pork bellies. Do those doctors have a choice? How much are they being paid, Mr. Clemons? Do you know they are being sent into parts of the various countries where native doctors won't go, that if they refuse to go they cannot practice medicine in Cuba, that they are kept isolated and surveilled, that they are paid pennies on the dollar from the salaries paid to the Cuban government, that host countries have to promise to keep them from freedom? Are you aware of any of that? Or, is it irrelevant to you?

And then, there is the vitriol. It is patently fantastic that people who were stripped of all of their belongings, had to flee their native country when a totalitarian regime took over, a regime that was NEVER a friend to the United States are repeatedly vilified. You have forgotten who was sinned upon and who is still sinning today. The money quote:

And then they will learn how a small cabal of Miami-based Cuban-Americans manipulated laws and our institutions to wage a personal war against Castro and sacrificed core American interests in doing so.

Not a "cabal," Mr. Clemons, lots and lots of people, not all of whom reside in Miami. These are people who have done nothing more than exercise their constitutional rights to voice their opinions and to vote for one of a number of candidates. They are rights, along with the right to voice dissent, that you would not have in Cuba. It seems there are those who would take away those rights.

Frankly, I don't think there are answers at the moment. I do know that if you seek to dictate government policy, your answers should be grounded in fact, not the cool person's talking points.

Proverbial Snippets

These are some nuggets from the recent news that I've been saving up for just such a beautiful morning.

Like is attracted to like, they say. It must be, because the latest to enter the embargo fray is Serbia with its own stellar record of observing human rights. The resolution calling for an end to the embargo was carried by the party that ruled Serbia with Milosevic. Need I say more? Well, I will. Apparently they're peeved we're supporting Kosovo's bid for independence. Read it here.

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse probably covers the comments of U.N. Special Rapporteur Jean Ziegler, who claims "communist-run Cuba had the best record among developing countries in ensuring no one went hungry." Of course, that's probably because Cuba is the only one of these countries working backward in time. Things have got to be pretty bad when even this apologist for the cause sees the need for reform. Oh, that puts him right in line with Raul's line. Gee.

When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Heard this morning that Yahoo Ceo Yang is going to be grilled by Congress. Yahoo turned over customer files to the Chinese government, landing a dissident in jail for ten years. Apparently, it has hurt Yang personally, not as much as it has hurt the dissident, I'd venture. Lawsuit pending. An article for some background here.

The truth is stranger than fiction. You're driving down the road when all of a sudden, BAM! What is it? No, it's not a chunk of concrete thrown from an overpass by teenage hooligans. It's.... a cow? That's exactly what happened to Charles and Linda Everson. Having experienced a similar incident with an 8 ounce Cuban (I'm not lying) tree frog leaping onto my windshield in the dark, I can empathize with Mr. Everson, whose response to the encounter with the 600lb cow was reported to be "I don't believe this." Get the details here.

Best TV Nights or I Like Stupid Shows

Chuck

Time for some lightness of being, despite the writers' strike coming just as I settled into my fall TV schedule. Best nights, hands down, Monday, Tues, and Thursday.

On Monday, we have Chuck, the sweet erstwhile geek, who inadvertently becomes involved in international espionage. Following is Heroes, which is getting a bit tiresome with its "have to save the world" plot line, but still has some oompf. Finally, at ten is the stylish CSI Miami. While it's true I've never seen it so dark or so many people wearing long sleeves in Miami , the writing is good and has stood up to a few years.

Tuesday, my non big three night, starts with the quirky Bones. I confess I read all the Kathy Reichs, as well as Patricia Cornwell, novels. Good sexual tension and graveyard humor in this one. It's followed by the air guitar-playing, Vicodin-addicted misanthropic doctor in House. I was a little worried when he lost his three sidekicks, but that seems to have been handled well. Nothing like the value of good writing. Oops! At ten, I confess to watching Cane, which has gotten a tad better. Of course, the problem is that it conflicts with Law and Order: SVU.

Finally, Thursday night kicks off with a bigger dilemma. How can I watch Ugly Betty and Earl at the same time? I admit I resisted Betty for a while, thinking it was a nasty premise. Then I watched and realized that despite the superficial nature of the show, Betty's character embodies some good, solid values. I especially like the warmth of her Mexican American family life, particularly in contrast to those much richer and way more stylish. Earl, I discovered last year. Like the premise: love the characters. After that, there's a gap until ten when the recently relocated Law and Order: Criminal Intent comes on.

It's a good thing commercial TV has come through because the usual documentary channels, unlike me, seem to be transfixed with astronomy and lions in Africa, which makes for some dissension when my favorite packrat is awake.

newsflash...newsflash...newsflash...

Rumor is that Rosie of "terrorists are people, too" fame will join NBC "News." That title is rapidly becoming a misnomer. That a news organization would hire a person, of whatever political persuasion, who has made a habit of publicly issuing sweeping untrue statements, is the height of irresponsibility. You know some ditz is going to believe what she says. And, yes, Rosie, fire will melt steel. You haven't been watching your documentaries.

Which is True? Journalism at its Best

Here's AP's take:
Cuba: Trade Fair Shows Embargo Failing
Cuba pledged to sign nearly $450 million in contracts with hundreds of U.S. and international firms, kicking off the island's largest annual trade event despite decades of economic...

Now compare it to Reuters:
U.S. food exports to Cuba dwindle under Bush
Cuba will close deals for Canadian wheat and Vietnamese rice at the annual trade fair in Havana that opened on Monday, while U.S. food sales dwindle.

So is it up or down?

Anti Americanism?

The wearer of this Che bikini, seen earlier on Michelle Malkin and Babalublog, refuses to be paid in American dollars. It seems that Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen, billed by Bloomberg as "the richest model in the world" doesn't quite trust the currency.

Read the article, which is surreptitiously about the state of the dollar, the economy, etc. here. By the time you finish, you'll come to the correct conclusion, namely, the economy is so complex that who the heck knows what's good or bad.

For my own two cents, I just got back from Home Depot where they were empty and hungry. For once I didn't have to search three aisles to find someone who works in that department. For what it's worth.

Cable's Response to Biscet's Medal: Yaaawn!

Haven't been able to watch TV today, so I decided to comb the cable news websites to see the response to the ceremony today. Naive me, I thought it would make a good news story. Apparently the cable outlets didn't.

The ceremony and/or Biscet didn't make the cut at CNN and Fox news. I couldn't find it. Amazingly enough, it did make the home page at MSNBC, their reporters even got off their lounge chairs long enough to interview Biscet's wife. Overall, though, the tone was factual, exactly the tone they should take to their other reports on Cuba. I guess that since they couldn't inject how the embargo is starving Cubans, it was "just the facts, Ma'am."

AP has a report out and did its best to bury the real story, Biscet's name and brief description appears in the list of five winners in a straight report about the ceremony. That's more than Reuters which devoted the thrust of its article to Harper Lee and reduced Biscet to a half sentence also-won. However, there was an entire story on how Bush has singlehandedly diminished the food trade to Cuba. Seems everyone is waiting for a regime change...in the United States, that is.

Sometimes they disgust me. We'll see what the morrow brings. Hopefully, something different.

The Price of Dissent

An excellent column in the Boston Globe. Jeff Jacoby is another one who gets it.

For decades, various American journalists and celebrities have rhapsodized about Castro's supposed island paradise, resolutely ignoring the mountains of evidence that it is in reality a tropical dungeon. Intent on seeing Castro as a revolutionary hero and Cuba as Shangri-la, they avert their gaze from the island's genuine heroes – the prisoners of conscience like Biscet, who pay a fearful price for their insistence on telling the truth.

He uses the occasion of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award ceremony to write a withering expose on the treatment of dissidents in Cuba. The descriptions are harrowing.

From Peter Kirsanow, a member of the US Commission on Civil Rights:
"windowless and suffocating, with wretched sanitary conditions. The stench seeping from the pit in the ground that serves as a toilet is intensified by being compressed into an unventilated cell only as wide as a broom closet. . . . Biscet reportedly suffers from osteoarthritis, ulcers, and hypertension. His teeth, those that haven't fallen out, are rotted and infected."

From a new novel, based on a true story, Fighting Castro: A Love Story:
"A screaming mass of soldiers swarming over the circular, stabbing with bayonets, crushing limbs with truncheons and rubber-wrapped chains. The panic of no place to hide, knowing you'll be beaten harder for trying to protect yourself, stomped on for clinging to a pillar or rail, thrown down the stairs for daring to hesitate. . . . The indignity of men whining, begging, whimpering before a skull is cracked, a shoulder yanked from its socket, genitals smashed with the gun butt."

Cross posted at Babalublog

Quote of the Day

Carlos Santana, not quite beloved by the Cuban American community over his sartorial faux pas, is being divorced by his wife of 34 years. She had previously written a memoir which included, among other things, tales of infidelity. His response at the time:

"I sincerely apologized to her and to my kids when I wasn't in my right mind and did something hurtful,"

My Petition: Support Freedom for Cuba!

Commie/pinkos aren't the only ones who can write letters. So I wrote my own. If you like any part, please feel free to cut and paste. If there's interest and I have time (not always a given), I'll post some addresses. Here goes:

On October 24th, President Bush with great compassion and wisdom very ably described the totalitarian nightmare that is Cuba. He highlighted a trail of broken promises of freedom and prosperity that dates back to 1959. He put a human face on the tragedy as he stood in solidarity with the family members of just a very few of those yet languishing in Castro’s jails for the simple desire live free. He addressed the Cuban military, asking them to refrain from killing their fellow countrymen. He spoke to the children of Cuba, reassuring them that our only aim is to see them free.

Immediately, the relativists and apologists for the regime were at work. Bush was trying to interfere in Cuban politics. He was impinging on their sovereignty. The prisoners of conscience were labeled “mercenaries” in the finest Granma tradition. We have to ask in response, “Since when is it a crime to ask that the people of a sovereign nation, your fellow men, be set free? Since when is it immoral to ask that Cubans be allowed the same rights of self-determination enjoyed by hundreds of millions of others around the globe?” There were no threats of invasion in the speech. The speech made very clear that the future of Cuba is the rightful prerogative of the Cuban people. Foreign intervention amounted to the assistance offered the people now and later to a fledgling new government.

We have a long history of intervening in other countries, not always for the good. But was it not intervention when we went to war with Germany? After all, it was Japan that attacked us. And yet who could argue with the results? Mayhap, the South Koreans would want to live in greater North Korea? Was it not intervening in South Africa’s domestic politics when sanctions were put in place over apartheid? Have not voices been raised in dismay over the situation in Darfur? Are there not those who argue for sanctions against the regime in Myanmar? So why should the daily injustice perpetrated on Cubans go unanswered or, worse yet, ignored in a headlong rush for profit or stimulation?

President Bush reaffirmed the embargo, an embargo that was first put into place when the regime confiscated- without payment- the property of American citizens and companies, a debt which unlike China’s has yet to be repaid. Despite propaganda to the contrary, food and medicine are not restricted, neither is humanitarian aid. We are at the same time their major food supplier and substantial source of cash (through remittances to relatives). Any further lifting of restrictions must be tied to the release of political prisoners and the easing of the yoke of political repression. It is no more than we did to South Africa where only a portion of the populace was oppressed, as opposed to an entire population enslaved.

We ask that you support President Bush’s position in demanding the freedom of the beleaguered people of Cuba. Tomorrow Oscar Elias Biscet’s children will accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his behalf, a medal he will not be able to accept because he is a prisoner of conscience in the regime’s jails. Let his plea inform our policy:

…to the leaders of the democratic states of the world, to the American
people, and in particular to the President of the United States, George W. Bush,
we ask only one simple commitment: do not support or promote any solution or
accord regarding the future of the Cuban nation that you would not consider
acceptable for your own country.

Reading: Cause for Hope

This shady little corner of a huge tent for the gift books, i.e. every child under 18 got to pick a free book, was home to the Spanish and bilingual books. I spent the day on the other end, promoting the young adult books.

I've worked the gift book tent at the fair for a number of years, and this time I witnessed something that gives me hope. For the first time, there was a run on books for children over the age of 7. Parents bring the younger ones around, so those are mainly gone by the end of the day. Usually, however, we have to do a sales job worthy of a used car salesman to get the teens interested in a book that isn't going to cost them anything. And every year, there are leftovers, later used in literacy programs.

I ascribe the increased business to a few factors. First and foremost is the effort of county libraries to grow readers from birth on. Quite a few of the preteen and teen faces were those of children who have grown up at the library. I cannot tell you how vital and important it is to get the children to library for books and programs. You would be amazed at what is probably offered within your library system. It is disheartening that libraries are the first cut in response to reduced budgets. Penny wise and pound foolish, I say.

Second, the generosity of sponsors allows the gift of a book to each child. Some of the younger children, not necessarily the poorer ones either, have never owned a book. The book is a treat; the treat becomes associated with reading. Then there is the selection, designed to appeal to a range of tastes and abilities. It does more harm than good to force classics down the throat of a reluctant reader. A high interest book of whatever level often serves as a gateway, leading to further and with time more challenging reading. As proof, even the considerably more difficult classics were a hot commodity.

With the holiday season approaching, I though I'd share some hot trends. The younger teen girls made a bee line for the chick-lit, relatively light books about young girls in social settings, their traumas and their heartbreaks. Suspense and teen spies were a hit with the boys, a particularly difficult group to please. Just about all the teens were drawn to the more challenging vampire books. There are quite a few out. Also popular were what I call the "substance abuse," books. Go Ask Alice* has been resurrected, and new titles like Crack and The Beast demonstrate the downward spiral of drug use. And I can't forget the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.

So this holiday season, give a book instead of reindeer socks. If you're not sure what to pick, ask a professional for guidance, at the library, the bookstore. If you want to eliminate the chance of duplicating something the child might already have, buy a new release. Finally, be careful. Many of the young adult titles contain pretty controversial situations and themes, so you really want to know what's in it.

*In the thoroughly depressing department, I was chatting about this one with some of the teens manning the tent. Not only had they never heard the song, they had never heard of the Jefferson Airplane. I didn't even try Grace Slick.
"I grow old... I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."

Literary Interlude: The Naked and the Nude

Today I'll be volunteering at the Sarasota Reading Festival, working with the thousands of children who come for their free books. One thing I must say about Sarasota, its people are fairly literate. Our library system is like the most heavily used in Florida. Anyway, I was thinking of all the different types that will be at the fair today, and I remembered this one.


The Naked and the Nude

For me, the naked and the nude
(By lexicographers construed
As synonyms that should express
The same deficiency of dress
Or shelter) stand as wide apart
As love from lies, or truth from art.

Lovers without reproach will gaze
On bodies naked and ablaze;
The Hippocratic eye will see
In nakedness, anatomy;
And naked shines the Goddess when
She mounts her lion among men.

The nude are bold, the nude are sly
To hold each treasonable eye.
While draping by a showman's trick
Their dishabille in rhetoric,
They grin a mock-religious grin
Of scorn at those of naked skin.

The naked, therefore, who compete
Against the nude may know defeat;
Yet when they both together tread
The briary pastures of the dead,
By Gorgons with long whips pursued,
How naked go the sometime nude!

Robert Graves

Elephant in a Dark House

For decades now, the Castro brothers and assorted hangers on have been doing their very own dance of the seven veils when it comes to the outside world. So I have to laugh when I see MSM media types expounding on how the Cuban people feel about anything, as they did last week.

I always get a kick when one of the hanging-out-in-the-tropics reporters musters enough energy to go and ask "the man on the street" in Cuba how he or she feels about anything. You are asking a captive population to be honest. Do they really think someone is going to say, "This fidel is a cabron, and this whole revolution is bullshit." For occasions just such as this or block meetings or elections, the Cubans have invented a strategem. They call it the doble cara. It means that you give lip service to what is required of you and keep your real thoughts to yourself, because if any of your real thoughts deviate from the party line you risk retaliation. Not all retaliation results in imprisonment. No, the great fear is that you will "señalarte," or "signal" yourself. Your life will be made more difficult. Maybe, you'll lose your job,or your children will have a hard time getting into university, or your spouse will be pressured at work. You could even lose your ration card, inadequate as it is. Perhaps an unruly mob will terrorize you in your home for 24 hours in an act of repudio.

So how can they possibly hope to elicit truth? Even those of us more in tune with the realities of life on the island are limited in our understanding. Think about it. You might know how your relatives in Havana feel, but what about people in the countryside? They are two different worlds. To what generation do they belong? There are differences there. You may have a direct link to a dissident, but do you have any idea how representative his pronouncements are?

There are no real elections. There is no free press. The population is generally cowed by very real considerations. Fear is so pervasive that it becomes apparent even in the contradictions of a recent survey, taken under God knows what conditions. Read Henry Gomez's analysis here. The stats speak for themselves. There is no real, quantifiable way to take the pulse of the Cuban people. In attempting to use the same methods they use in free society, the media is groping an elephant's leg in the dark and pronouncing it a cherry tree. And the so-called experts, they like the oracle at Delphi jump to interpret whatever foul emanation arise from the island.

In the end, you have to go with what you know and what you can logically surmise. Granted Cubans are a tad unique, but I'd say the odds of a people living with hunger, repression, and squalor for over forty years wanting a change are pretty high.

Around the Net and More

First the more. Finally heard back from Sen. Martinez's office. It's a nice little form letter that includes the words "Che" and "Smithsonian." I feel better already.

How do you spell P-Y-H-R-R-I-C? Had to laugh at the title of this one: Cuba celebrates its diplomatic win against US. Did they celebrate the other fifteen or sixteen times?

For those of you who like Rick Sanchez, there's an interesting article on how he got his show here. I don't hold out much hope, as he's sandwiched between O'Reilly and the despicable cad.

And the best for last. Been holding onto this one. I have to post the whole thing here, but read this mental peregrination by the coma andante, see if it makes sense to you. Then read AP's treatment of same. Am I missing something? Holy loose association, Batman! Couldn't resist a few asides.

Reflections of President Fidel Castro
Bush, Mambí?

Viva Cuba libre! (Long live free Cuba!). That was the war cry throughout the plains and the mountains, forests and sugarcane fields, identifying those who began Cuba’s first war of independence on October 10, 1868.

I never imagined that I would hear those words coming from the mouth of a president of the United States 139 years later. It is as if a king of that time, or his regent, were proclaiming: Viva Cuba Libre!
On the contrary, a Spanish warship drew near the coast and with its guns destroyed the small sugar mill, just a few kilometers from the sea, where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declared the independence of Cuba and freed the slaves that he had inherited.

Lincoln, the son of a poor woodcutter, fought all his life against slavery, which was still legal in his country almost a hundred years after its Declaration of Independence. Adhering to the just idea that all citizens are born free and equal, making use of his legal and constitutional powers, he declared the abolition of slavery. Countless combatants gave their lives to defend this idea against the rebel slave states in the country’s south

Lincoln is said to have stated: “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time.” (Chortle, chortle)

He died by an assassin’s bullet while, invincible at the polls, he was running for a second presidential mandate.

I am not forgetting that tomorrow, Sunday, marks 48 years since Camilo Cienfuegos' disappearance at sea on October 28, 1959, as he was returning to Havana in a light aircraft from Camagüey province, where days earlier his sole presence disarmed a garrison of simple Rebel Army soldiers whose superiors, of a bourgeois ideology, were attempting to do what Bush is now demanding almost half a century later: rise up in arms against the Revolution.

Che, in a wonderful introduction to his book Guerrilla Warfare, states: “Camilo was the comrade of 100 battles…the selfless combatant who always made sacrifice an instrument for tempering his character and forging that of the troops... he gave the written framework presented here the essential vitality of his personality, his intelligence and his audacity, which are achieved in such exact proportions in just a few figures in history.”

“Who killed him? (Short answer: you did.)

“We might better wonder: who eliminated his physical being? Because men like him live on in the people...The enemy killed him; they killed him because they wanted him dead; they killed him because there are no safe planes, because pilots cannot have all the experience they need, because, overburdened with work, he wanted to reach Havana in a few short hours…in his mentality as a guerrilla fighter, not one cloud could hold back or distort a line which had been charted…Camilo and the other Camilos (those who didn’t make it and those yet to come) are the indicators of the people’s strength; they are the highest expression of what a nation may give when on a war footing to defend its purest ideals and with its faith set on securing its noblest goals.”

Because of what their names symbolize, we reply to the false Mambí:
Long live Lincoln!
Long live Che!
Long live Camilo!
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 27, 2007
7:36 p.m.

Get it. Look at the leaps from Yara to slavery, from slavery to Lincoln, from Lincoln to assassination, assassination to Camilo (interesting), Camilo to Che (another assassination of sorts). Maybe he has scorpions in his brain.

If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

Today is chemo escort day, so I'll leave you with a book note I posted on Babalu earlier in the week.

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.

Sound Familiar?

The following appeared in an article in the Christian Science Monitor:

There's just one problem: The media got most of the basics wrong. In fact, I have never before witnessed such a disgrace in professional journalism. Myths replaced facts, and journalists abdicated their solemn duty to investigate every claim because they were seduced by a powerfully appealing but false narrative...

And

…the media simply formed their stories based on one-side's statements …. Second, the media were downright lazy in their efforts to find the truth. Often, they simply reported what they'd read on blogs, which expressed only one side of the issue.

No, the article wasn’t about MSM coverage of Cuba. It could have been. It was a local journalist complaining about coverage of the Jena 6. Welcome to our world. Ahora te tocaron el cayo tuyo, as my mother would say.

H/T Asymmetric

DIVER DAN MURDER INC

Don't you just love the monocle and the cigarette?

Memories

Blame it on Walmart. I was shopping there yesterday when I heard the strains of, no, could it be? Yes! After decades there it was. Oh, if only my father was alive to hear it. Many years ago when I was about five, I heard a song by the Chipmunks. I loved it: I wanted it. Too young to get a title and with marginal English, I went to my father and told him I wanted the Chipmunk song that went "oo-ee-wanamaninga." So Mom and Dad and I went down to the record store on Smith Street where the owner had never heard of a song that went "oo-ee-wanamaninga." We went down to Korvettes on Fulton where they had never heard of a Chipmunk song that went "oo-ee-wanamaninga." We spared no effort, and I sang it at every venue, but alas, there was no "oo-ee-wanamaninga" to be found.

Then yesterday, my life came full circle. There it was being pumped over the speakers. Although I still didn't have the title, this time I got the "words" right: "Oo-ee, oo-ah-ah, ting-tang, walla-walla, bing-bang". A little research, and I had the title, "The Witch Doctor." Ah, one of the great mysteries of my childhood solved.

Already on the road, I started reminiscing and researching and found... See the next post.

Update: The Picture

I am reading something else about "the speech" on CNN, and it catches my eye. She looks much as I did at her age, much as a thousand little Cubanitas. Her pain rises from the screen, radiates from the page. I want to cry for her. Too young to don emotional armor, not hardened by the blows we all experience, how does she make sense of it all? Or maybe she doesn't. Maybe despite being in the presence of a world leader who singles out her father, perhaps, (the caption doesn't identify her) she doesn't care about the pomp, the press. All she know is that her Papi, has been taken from her and that loss overwhelms everything else.

Update:

Thanks to Marc's tireless efforts to publicize the plight of prisoners of conscience, I can now identify the young girl. She is Melissa Gonzalez, the daughter of Jorge Luis Gonzalez Tanquero, the prisoner he is hightlighting this week. Read about him here.

Wow, Is That Bush Out of Touch with Cubans!

In the midst of dispatches concerning the episodes of harassment of dissidents, another communique from Havana in support of the President's speech, this time another 3 organizations. Here are some excerpts:

Este discurso claro y humano que ha causado admiración y alegría entre los cubanos que queremos y luchamos por la libertad de nuestra tierra, nos alienta a continuar con más convicción la lucha pacífica y nos demuestra que no estamos, ni estaremos solos, que los hombres y mujeres que viven en libertad y democracia, nos tienden su mano y su corazón.

This clear and humane speech has evoked admiration and joy among Cubans who want and struggle for freedom in our land, it inspires us to continue with more conviction the peaceful struggle and it demonstrates to us that we are not, will not be alone, that men and women who live in freedom and democracy, extend their hands and their hearts to us.

and

Lo que no es aceptable, es el discurso mentiroso y lleno de odio del canciller que mal nos representar. Gracias al pueblo y al gobierno norteamericano.

What is not acceptable is the lying discourse, full of hate, from the councillor who represents us badly. Thank you to the North American people and government.

Again, the boldface is mine, as is the bad translation. In the original Spanish, click here.

H/T Payo Libre

Presidential Medal of Freedom Winner and a Great Man

The blogosphere is abuzz with the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet who is at this very moment languishing in a Cuban jail for the crime of wanting to be free. Some think the awarding of the medal might prove life-threatening to Dr. Biscet. I can only pray that the increased notoriety might have the opposite effect, lend him some of the cover that others have gained by being given publicity.

It came at an opportune time for me, because I had lost heart. In all sorts of outlets, the accusatory, disembodied voices of Cuba "experts" and the MSM were telling us how out of touch and basically rotten Cuban exiles are. In the various Cuban/American outlets any view but their own was characterized as imbecility, cooperation with the regime, or heartlessness. It seems that as a community we are unable to accept that we all want the same thing, that it is possible for people of good faith to differ on methods, that there might be some other way than our own.

Then the news, how refreshing to remember the words of Dr. Biscet in an earlier letter. The boldface is mine.

To my fellow Cubans, wherever you find yourselves, whether in our enslaved island, or in exile in any part of the world. I include also those descendants of Cubans born in other lands. To all of you I send my warmest and sincere greetings.

Our efforts to achieve the unconditional liberty of our nation will soon become reality. I do not need to reveal details to communicate what among Cubans is common knowledge. We suffer not from division or fragmentation in our principles, but rather in which methods to use. We do not lack unity in ideals, but only in the methods to be applied to obtain our liberty. Unfortunately, these insignificant differences of opinion have given room for division among exile leaders and dissidents inside Cuba. These differences have given oxygen to the flames of the most recent and dangerous obstacle that we confront.

As the old Irish Prayer goes, "May God hold you in the palm of his hand," Dr. Biscet.

He Oughta Know Better

Try this interview with young actor whose Cuban parents fled the revolution and settled in Puerto Rico. He is appearing in the upcoming Che movie, The Argentine, starring Benicio del Toro. I understand the difficulty of getting acting jobs, so I'm not outraged at his selling out. And he does try to describe the essential wrongness of the regime. Then he puts his foot in it and lives up to every stereotype as to the mental acuity of actors. Try this, first in Spanish:

Es un personaje vital de la historia latinoamericana y comparto sus principios básicos y sí, estoy de acuerdo con ellos, pero hasta cierto punto. Ya el abuso que se ha dado de parte del Gobierno (cubano) y las presiones de otros gobiernos de Latinoaméricana han sido una traba completa al desarrollo político y socioeconómico del país”

He is a vital character in the history of Latin America and I share his basic principles and, yes, I am in agreement with them until a certain point.

Which of those principles would it be, I wonder. Execution without trial? The inferiority of the black race? Which of his other enduring principles? I won't translate the rest of the excerpt, except to say that he goes on to point out how in practice, they have been a hobble to the political and socioeconomic development of the country. Cuba, I'm supposing.

Read the article here. It's in Spanish.

Who's Out of Touch?

So I'm feeling really depressed when I'm reading all the bashing of Bush's speech, particularly when I read this, found in W's out of touch on what's really going on in Cuba

"The speech insists again on his passion for controlling Cuba, and disrespects Cubans by trying to dictate to them what they must do," said Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, a Cuban dissident living in Havana. "Maybe the President forgot he has no right to intervene in matters that concern Cuba."
Gutiérrez Menoyo, not a government sympathizer by any stretch of the imagination, pretty much summarizes the generalized reaction in Cuba.

Then this AM, I blessedly turn to PayoLibre's reports by independent journalists on the island and find this joint communique from dissidents. I'm translating some of it here.

......support the words spoken by the President of the United States, George W. Bush on Wednesday, October 24, because we consider them positive, humane, and in solidarity with the Cuban people, as they offer moral, political and material support for the inhabitants of the island.

In the aforementioned speech, there are well-deserved criticisms of the castrista military dictatorship and demands for profound changes towards a transition, including the immediate liberation of political prisoners...legalization of opposition organizations, multiparty elections, and freedom and democracy..

Cuba needs the path toward transition not the succesion that signifies the continuation of the castrista dictatorship. We support totally peaceful changes, orderly, gradual, without traumas, without vengence, without fighting, without destruction and with justice. Enough of fears and terror, enough of misery, enough of pretense. Cubans have the right to be free and independent. Cuba is a great homeland where all fit.

Let's say yes to support and solidarity, we will all construct a free homeland, independent and sovereign.

Okay, okay, so I translated the whole thing. I find it enlightening. They apparently have no problem with accepting the President's support and don't see it as impeaching their sovereignity. Reading the article, it becomes clear that the future they envision for Cuba is free and independent and inclusionary. Vaya con Dios, mis hermanos.

A Round Up of Sorts

After the sturm and drang surrounding the Bush speech, why not catch up on the really important news?

First it was the Chupacabra, now a hunter claims to have pictures of big foot. The Pennsylvania Game Commission says it's a bear with a really, really bad case of mange. Unfortunately, there is no picture, so you can't decide for yourself. Read it here.

Then in an already confusing campaign year, Gerald Ford endorses Guiliani from the grave, sort of. Read it here.

If you missed it, the water wars are on again. This time the combatants are Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Snippet here. Yup, there really is a water news portal.

Much to William Shatner's dismay, the new Star Trek movie will not feature Captain Kirk. Of course, he was killed off a couple of movies ago, but that's never stopped them before.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Yoda will appear on a postage stamp ,and there were red-headed Neanderthals.

One last note, tonight there was an extensive interview with Hamid Karzai which centered on the civilian deaths caused by American bombing. What network was it? Al Jazeera? No, let me see... oh, yeah, CBS on their 60 Minutes show. Can anyone explain to me what earthly good it does to publicize the deaths of Afghani civilians at the hands, or more accurately bombs, of the US?

The Greek Chorus

continues, as Bush gets bashed left and right for having the audacity to propose that Cuba should be ruled by its people and not a mafia family in Communist clothing and their apparatchiks. Oh, no, wait a minute, the Greek Chorus often functioned as the voice of common sense.

And you have to ask, when you as a Cuban American columnist find yourself parroting the lines better left to those who have last names like Smith, as in Wayne, and when the Cuban regime likes your position so much that they devote an article in Granma to it, you have to ask yourself am I really on the side of the angels here?

I'm not gonna go into the embargo as the cause of misery, yada...yada...yada. As for the dissident who found Bush's call on the military to refrain from killing its own people and his insistence that they be allowed to freely choose their own government interventionist and high-handed, I feel doubly sorry.

I've written it before: the way Cubans on the island view Americans has been affected by the steady diet of official propaganda, compounded by the anti-Americanism of the vacationing Europeans. The Iraqis have paid a heavy price for believing the line of palaver fed them by the "world opinion." It is only now that they are realizing the truth. Read the offending article here.

To end on a lighter note, Oscar Corral has been resurrected for the occasion. Check his post here. And do read the comments. The discussion will help you lower your blood pressure after the first one.

Literary Interlude: Myakka State Park

I think this week we'll have a bit of a Sarasota locale

Myakka State Park

A bird, heron, egret, osprey, I don’t know,
nameless those who live and unnumbered those who die here,
the bird wades in air, suspended over silver-gray waters,
while his elegant, white, impassive sister, cranelike
in repose, secrets herself in a blind of green reeds.
A few feet away, the thin leathered crest of alligator
head rises, shatters the brooding glimmerglass
serenity of unaccompanied bird calls. He is pursued
by the dogged tourist boat- out one more time for
the nine who came too late for the scheduled ride.
Deceptive liquid beauty of sea and sky, this pocket Eden.
I, in the painted green wooden boat, turn to look at you.
A storm rises, washes over us, catches us unawares-
those of us trapped in God’s fishbowl- the egret, the alligator and I.

The Real Rapid Response Teams

We all know these fine folks are dedicated to harassing and terrorizing dissidents in Cuba. I've taken the liberty of translating most of the article below which is the product of an independent journalist.

Rapid Response Brigades Acost Dissenter for Nearly 24 Hours
Ricardo Rodriguez

27 October 2007

Havana- Payolibre.com- Rapid Response Brigades (paramilitary mobs) commanded by State Security surrounded for almost 24 hours the house of Vladimir Alejo Miranda, President of the Popular Pro-Human Rights Movement “Miguel Valdés Tamayo”, affiliated with.....

According to this source, during this time, they used a subject who was drunk and another who is a banker in the illegal numbers game (la bolita) to paint Viva Fidel and Viva La Revolucion in red paint on the facade of his house, the same which was removed by Alejo Miranda in front of them.

From 10 PM on this past October 20 until the following day, the 21st, at 9:30 PM the family was prevented from leaving their home by threats of physical aggression.

The CDR (Committees for the defense of the revolution) co-ordinator for their block. named Jesus and an "outside" cow slaughterer, and the Delegate Irael Ravelo who sells gasoline illegally on the black market were among the principal accusers. With pieces of wood and offenses, they directed the repressive act...

These are the instruments the regime uses against the peaceful opposition, people with no morals or principals who call themselves revolutionaries in order to keep exercising in an illicit manner their bad behavior protected by the political police, concluded the source.

H/T Payo Libre

Rapid Response Teams

They're all atwitter, those MSM types, over Bush's speech the other day. Time magazine has leapt into the fray with this entry: " Keeping Up the Hard Line on Cuba."

You don't need to ask which way the piece is skewed when the only "expert" quoted is president of "USA Engage." Catch my drift? Speaking of "the same old bromides," he thinks lifting the travel ban will advance the cause of democracy. I guess the Brits, the Spaniards, the Canadians, the Mexicans, and the Chinese- just to name a few- aren't up to the task.

And fear not, the article includes not one but two swipes at Miami Cubans:

Bush may also be alienating the very people he is reaching out to by suggesting Washington will be Cuba's post-Castro arbiter. In the eyes of ordinary Cuban citizens, that is perceived as surrogacy for the Miami Cuban exile community — whose anti-Castro hardliners, with their dreams of resurrecting a pre-Castro Cuba, are as disliked by many Cubans on the island as the Castros themselves are.

and

What's more, by attaching his Administration to Cuba's dissidents so publicly, Bush may actually compromise the position of the Castro critics who remain on the island, whose credibility often rests on being seen as a movement independent of the Miami exiles.

I guess in the MSM, geography is destiny. Read it here.