Cuba As Seen By Tourists

Seeing Is Believing
Being Told What To Think Is Not
Sunday, February 15th, 2015

         Those of us who have been to Cuba see and absorb a vibrant, resilient people who try and sometimes succeed in living their lives to the fullest, always confronting imposing obstacles such as the U. S. embargo. National Geographic Magazine {I am a subscriber} has compiled dozens of photos taken recently by travelers to the island. This lady is an exuberant dancer at a thriving cabaret club in Havana.

A young baseball player. Cuba is renowned for it homegrown baseball talent.

       A beautiful young Cuban lady. This engaging photo by Christopher P. Baker, one of two dozen spotlighted by National Geographic, shows a Quinceanera celebration in the colonial city of Trinidad, my favorite Cuban city. Quinceanera celebrates a girl turning fifteen-years-of-age. Notice the beautiful gown this 15-year-old celebrant is wearing. About ten times a day, it seems, Americans are reminded that Cubans exist on $20 a month, blaming it totally on the greedy Fidel Castro and not on such foreign evils as the half-century U. S. embargo that would have doomed far richer nations than Cuba. Such misconceptions ignore the ingenuity of Cubans. Many of them also receive nice remittances from relatives or friends living abroad. If Americans were allowed to visit, they would see scenes such as Mr. Baker saw and photographed. And seeing Cuba, as opposed to being told what to think, is the best way to judge Cuba. 

This photo shows a Cuban crossing a street and pausing to admire a vintage car.

   The most ubiquitous and most photographed subjects in Cuba are the schoolchildren. Bedecked in their distinctive uniforms, these children, on their way to and from school, are common sights all over the island. Since 1959 Revolutionary Cuba has made some mistakes, many in fact. But it has also vastly improved the education, health, safety, and longevity of its children as opposed to the gluttonous regime it replaced. Americans, since 1959, have been told differently and, I believe, that is why the self-serving perpetrators of such myths have generally succeeded in making it unlawful for average Americans to visit the island and judge it for themselves. Cuba for decades has been the only place in the world where such restrictions apply. That undemocratic process relates strictly to the fact that the remnants of the old regime, through two generations since 1959, have dictated most of America's policy regarding Cuba, including the basic freedom of Americans to visit the island. Those who do visit the island will not see a luxurious paradise, far from it. But they will see a very safe island populated with healthy and well-educated Cubans who do not deserve being punished their entire lives by a handful of rich and powerful exiles who, many believe, were booted off the island with good reason. In any case, all the other National Geographic photos are also worth checking out...in case you can't visit the island yourself. The Cuban schoolchildren above have guarantees of safety, free education through college, free heath care for life, free food if needed, and free shelter if needed. Student loans and high health premiums are not concerns. Will that change if and when rich foreigners or exiles regain control of the island? Most likely. In the U. S. a lot of already rich people get a lot richer from such debacles as the trillion-dollar student loan and trillion-dollar health industry schemes. Modern Cuba needs trade via nearby U. S. ports. But the Batista dictatorship still looms as a vivid reminder that a return of U.S.-Mafia domination is not the answer.

The shoreline on the edge of the gorgeous colonial city of Trinidad, Cuba

         On her recent visit to Havana this is Andrea Mitchell of NBC/MSNBC interviewing Gail Reed, an international expert on health issues. In this interview Ms. Reed lavishly praised Cuba for its universal health coverage and for the exceptionally high percentage of its economy devoted to health care.

        These are pre-school children photographed this week {ACN} in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba. Laura Melo of the World Food Program {WFP} lavishly praised Cuba for "providing such a high standard of food and nutritional security for its people, especially pregnant women, children and the elderly." Americans are told that the 55-year-old economic embargo against Cuba should be maintained for another 55 years because it keeps money out of Fidel Castro's non-existent Swiss bank accounts. Of course, the Cuban-exile zealots who keep pounding that message into the American psyche are living in huge mansions in Miami, Union City, and Washington while the 88-year-old Fidel Castro lives out his life in a very modest home in Havana. And of course, Gail Reed and Laura Melo wish that America spent as high a percentage of its wealth on health care and nutritional issues as the poor little much-maligned island of Cuba does.

Cuba, still the pearl of the Caribbean.
The colonial city of Trinidad, you'll note, is in south-central Cuba.

      This photo, courtesy of www.mtholyoke.edu, shows Cuban children at a choir practice in Havana. They had taken a break from their extensive music class to play ping-pong when they posed for this photo.

        Cuba, whether occupied or sovereign, has always been a treasure trove for touristic photos. This one is courtesy of old-photos-blogspot.com and it was taken it 1904. It shows a Cuban family taking a ride.

        I believe a society or a country can best be judged by how it takes care of its children. By that basic standard, Gail Reed, Laura Melo and other international experts consistently praise Revolutionary Cuba in stark contrast to Batista's Cuba.

      Peasant children, who constituted the vast majority of pre-revolutionary children in Cuba, were poorly cared for throughout the 1950s in Batista's Cuba when the gluttonous Batistic dictatorship was supported by the United States and by the Mafia.

      In 1952 when Fulgencio Batista and his Mafia friends in South Florida began their U.S.-backed dictatorship in Cuba, vast amounts of money were made by the Batistianos, the Mafia and U. S. businessmen. The three prime Mafia enterprises were casino gambling, prostitution, and illegal drugs. Huge deposits went to numbered bank accounts in Switzerland as well as Mafia-controlled banks in Miami and Union City. Taking care of peasant children on the island was never a consideration. Some were murdered to serve as a warning for the peasants not to resist the thieving dictatorship. That nuance of the Batista dictatorship was its undoing.

     The extreme poverty and brutality of the Batista dictatorship spawned the female-led street marches that spelled doom for Batista, the Mafia, and the U. S. in Cuba.

The NY Daily News headlined Batista's flight on Jan. 1-1959.

     As this Associated Press headline on May 25th, 1960 indicates, the Batistianos -- who regrouped back in South Florida after fleeing the Cuban Revolution -- have been trying desperately to recapture the island since January 1, 1959. If and when they do, I truly believe it will be a sad day for rosy-cheeked little Cuban girls on the island.

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