Sarah Rainsford {above} is the brilliant journalist that covers Cuba like a blanket for the BBC. This is important because, unlike American and most other Western journalists who are influenced by visceral Cuban exiles, Sarah has the freedom to publish positive as well as negative articles about the U.S.-embargoed island.
On her travels around Cuba this week {the last week of May, 2013} Sarah Rainsford noticed an anomaly -- smoke spewing from the above smokestacks in the tiny Cuban town of Mejico. She had seen the smokestacks before but never with smoke emoting from them. For many years, the unused smokestacks had symbolized the devastation and poverty of Mejico. Sarah went over to investigate the unusual smoke.
On her drive into Mejico, Sarah passed a sugar cane field. She noticed that a big truck was being loaded by a cane-harvesting machine. Wow! Sarah had driven past that field before...when it resembled a barren wasteland. So, what did this cacophonous activity entail? Sarah Rainsford anxiously resumed her investigation!
When she reached the newly energized sugar mill, Sarah interviewed the enthused foreman, Jesus Perez Collazo {above}. He told her how much the re-opening of the mill meant to Mejico and the surrounding area. The huge operation, he said, is hiring 400 new workers and sparking a renaissance in the sugar-renowned region.
Sarah next talked to three elderly Cubans {above} who were former sugar cane workers at the mill. They have now been hired to teach the younger workers at the revised business. It added some money and much pride to their retirements.
Sarah used the above photo to tell the history of the sugar mill in Mejico, Cuba. It opened in 1832 when Cuba was ruled by Spain and Cuban slaves worked the mill. Those slaves were housed in the above barracks. In subsequent decades Cuba became the top sugar producer-exporter in the world, primarily benefiting its colonial masters -- first Spain and then, after the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States. After the Cuban Revolution in 1959 overthrew the U.S./Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship, the U. S. embargo against Cuba, imposed in 1962, to this day greatly handicaps the island when it comes to purchasing equipment needed to plant, harvest, and manufacture sugar from the cane. But help from other countries, plus the recent surge of sugar prices on the world market, encouraged Cuba to reopen sugar mills, such as the one in Mejico that caught Sarah Rainsford's perceptive eye.
The BBC used the above photo to illustrate Cuba's ongoing entrepreneurial quest to revitalize the island's economy. The young female government worker on the right is explaining to a Cuban mother how to open her own business. Sarah reported that sixteen farmer cooperatives are supplying the revamped sugar mill in Mejico, creating ancillary jobs to supplement the 400 workers at the mill. Cuba, Sarah reports, plans to vastly increase its sugar production to "three million tonnes per year."
Sarah Rainsford's BBC report this week on the revitalization of the sugar industry in Cuba reminded me of the above photo. It shows Celia Sanchez -- Cuba's and history's greatest female revolutionary icon -- cutting sugar cane in 1960, the year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. She was reminding Cubans how vital sugar was to the island's existence. Thus Celia, were she alive today, would have been pleased to have watched Sarah Rainsford's BBC report about the revamped sugar mill in Mejico, Cuba. {You can view that video by googling "BBC" and then in its upper-right search box just write in "Cuba." To comprehend Cuba, Americans should become familiar with Sarah Rainsford's unbiased BBC reports from the island, which is coverage of Cuba not directly or unduly influenced by revengeful Cuban exiles, meaning Sarah's reports provide an honest, truthful portrait of the island}.
And speaking of sugar, the above book is a must-read for anyone interested in Cuban history!
Julio Lobo {above} was indeed the Sugar King of Cuba and the island's last tycoon.
And being a baseball fanatic, I fondly remember the Havana Sugar Kings {above}.
Above is a 1955 jersey worn by one of the Havana Sugar Kings. In the 1950s in Batista's Cuba the Sugar Kings led the Triple-A International League in attendance as the top farm team for the Cincinnati Reds. They played their games at Gran Stadium in Havana, which was about to become a Major League city! But things changed in 1959 after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the Batista-Mafia-U.S. dictatorship.
But revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, a former Athlete of the Year in Cuba and a one-time Major League baseball prospect, still supported the popular Sugar Kings.
In fact...............
...in 1959 Fidel Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos, the two most powerful male revolutionary leaders, formed a team called the Barbudos that played the Havana Sugar Kings. {"Barbudos" means "the bearded ones.}. By 1960, as the U. S. worked with the Cuban exiles and the Mafia to recapture Cuba, the island's defensive posture spelled the end of the Sugar Kings and their close affiliation with the U. S. Major Leagues. But Fidel, to this day a baseball fan, has always powerfully supported Cuban baseball, which once totally dominated international competition.
But in 2013, as an unwell Fidel Castro nears his 87th birthday in August, the cream of Cuba's abundant baseball talent -- such as the young Oakland A's slugger Yoenis Cespedes -- has defected to the U. S. Major Leagues where they receive millions of dollars in bonus money to sign and then millions more in huge yearly salaries.
My all-time favorite Cuban baseball player is Minnie Minoso. Born in Havana on Nov. 29th, 1925, he was a superstar in Cuba as a teenager and then became a great third baseman in the Negro Leagues in the U. S. At age 23 in 1948 he was signed by the Cleveland Indians and was a star left-fielder in the American League from 1949 through 1963. In the Major Leagues, Minnie played with the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Washington Senators. In 1954 with the White Sox, in a typical season in his prime years, Minnie hit .320 with 19 homers, 18 triples, 29 doubles, 119 runs scored, and 116 runs-batted-in -- MVP-type numbers!
The 19-year-old Minnie Minoso: 3rd baseman for the New York Cubans in the Negro League.
The 27-year-old Minnie Minoso: Superstar left-fielder with the Chicago White Sox.
The 87-year-old Minnie Minoso: Still a Cuban-American baseball legend.
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