cubaninsider: A Little Girl Was Born In Cuba

And Americans Should Know About It
{Updated: Sunday, November 8th, 2015}

This little Cuban girl was born in Cuba on November 3rd, 2015. Her name is Lucia. She is shown here lying on her mother's stomach just moments after she was born. Americans, I believe, need to know the details about the birth of this healthy little girl. Those details will explain why the World Bank recently praised Cuba for devoting an extraordinary percentage of its wealth to the health and education of its people. And those details will explain why the World Health Organization and the United Nations rave about Cuba's low infant-mortality rate, which is lower than in the United States. And those details will explain why the U. S. is currently studying why the infant-mortality rate in Cuba is so low. Therefore, permit me to direct you to the details of Lucia's birth, a cherished event that explains the interesting, aforementioned facts.

Fernando Ravsberg is, I believe, the best and most informed journalist regarding Cuba. He is the BBC's correspondent on the island and he has also worked for major networks in Spain, Sweden, Mexico, and the United States {Telemundo}. His blog -- Cartas desde Cuba {Letters from Cuba} -- is an absolute must for anyone interested in Cuba, its people, or how the island relates to the U. S., the region, and the world.

Fernando Ravsberg knows more about Cuba than anyone because he spends more time with everyday Cubans than any notable journalist. His article this week about the birth of the little girl Lucia originated on his blog but, as with many of his gems, was picked up by many media outlets thirsty for honest and fair portrayals of the everyday lives of the Cuban people, as opposed to frequently slanted views from either pro-Cuban or anti-Cuban sources. Here are some engrossing highlights of his article about Lucia's birth on November 3rd, 2015:

"Letters from Cuba has a new member. Lucia, the daughter of our Webmaster, was born yesterday at the Gonzalez Cora hospital. We could see Cuba's Public Health system in action and understand why its Child Mortality Rate is so low. During the nine months of the pregnancy, the mother was provided about two consultations a week -- ultra-sound 3D tests, HIV blood tests to determine RH factors, etc."

Fernando Ravsberg then explains in detail why Cuba's health system has such a low mortality rate for newborns. Then he concluded with this paragraph:

"It is worth reporting that Lucia's mother is Cuban and she received the same attention as the other 14 Cuban mothers, of different skin colors and social classes, which were put into labor at the same time. We thank the doctors and nurses and welcome Lucia into the world."

Fernando Ravsberg was born in Uruguay but for the last twenty years he has been the best journalist providing insights on the lives of Cubans on the island. In the above photo Fernando is getting a scolding form none other than Fidel Castro pertaining to one of his articles from Cuba. But Fernando is neither a dissident nor a pro-government patsy. He loves the Cuban people and his reporting is both accurate and fair. That's interesting because the mainstream media in the U. S. is not capable of being as accurate or fair about Cuba as Fernando Ravsberg is, a fact recognized by England's BBC and other major international media outlets and a fact regularly demonstrated on Fernando's incomparable Letters from Cuba blog.

The American journalist with the most knowledge and fairness in regards to Cuba is Sarah Stephens. She is the Founder and Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. Each Friday on that website she writes the Cuba Central blog that, each week, is the best weekly summary of U.S.-Cuban relations. This week -- Friday, November 6th -- she began that informative blog by excoriating two Cuban-Americans in the U. S. Senate -- Marco Rubio from Florida and Robert Menendez from New Jersey -- for blocking Roberta Jacobson's nomination as the U. S. Ambassador to Mexico. Everyone except the two narrow-minded Senators, it seems, understands that Ms. Jacobson's position in Mexico City is badly needed because of her superb qualifications and because of the vast pluses and minuses of America's relations with Mexico. Ms. Stephens, in this week's Cuba Central posting, explains that Rubio and Menendez have past histories of fuming pettiness in blocking qualified nominations and legislation if such things differ with their Batistiano-obsessed Cuban views. Roberta Jacobson is being punished because of her brilliant representation of the U. S. in the recent very successful diplomatic sessions with Cuba's Josefina Vidal. Sarah Stephens, the democracy-loving leader at the Center for Democracy in the Americas, astutely explains the anti-democracy bias of Senators Rubio and Menendez and how it is allowed, by both the U. S. media and U. S. citizens, to hurt most Cubans and most Americans, as well as the image of the U. S. and democracy around the world. Not to know Ms. Stephens is to not know Cuba.

Above is an insightful book that bears the imprint of The Center for Democracy in the Americas. It is entitled: "21st Century Cuba: Women's Work, Gender Equality in Cuba and the Role of Women Building Cuba's Future." As the title and sub-titles indicate, anyone interested in Cuba and its role in the region and the world in 2015 and beyond should read and study this book. The documented facts include many that Americans are not suppose to know, especially when it contrasts the differences between the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 with Revolutionary Cuba since 1959. For example, Sarah Stephens points out this undeniable fact: "In 1953, only 1% of Cuba's college educated students were women, according to the CDA's 'Women's Work: Gender Equality in Cuba and the Role of Women Building Cuba's Future.' In 2011, the American Association of University Women noted that 'Cuban women make up more than 80% of all university students and nearly 68 percent of university graduates in Cuba.'"

TRUTH BE KNOWN, brave Cuban women like these had more to do with starting the Cuban Revolution than the Castro brothers. The murders of Cuban children and other atrocities in Batista's Cuba outraged the female population that bravely took to the streets to denounce Batista, sparking the Cuban Revolution.

TRUTH BE KNOWN, these three Cuban women had more to do with the victory of the Cuban Revolution than the Castro brothers. From left to right, that's Vilma Espin, Celia Sanchez, and Haydee Santamaria. As guerrilla fighters, as recruiters of vital rebels and supplies, and as the most inspired and motivated leaders, these three women were much more important than the Castro brothers and Che Guevara.

TRUTH BE KNOWN, this was the Big Four of the Cuban hierarchy after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Flanking the Castro brothers, that's Vilma Espin on the left and Celia Sanchez on the right. Vilma married Raul Castro in 1959 and is the mother of his four children. Celia to this day remains the person that Fidel Castro has worshiped from the 1950s till this very day when Fidel is 89-years-old. {Celia died of cancer in 1980 and Vilma died of cancer in 2007}. Beginning in 1959, as a direct consequence of their power and their remembrance of the Batista brutality against women and children, Vilma Espin and Celia Sanchez devised such gigantic revolutionary laws as the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and the Federation of Cuban Women. To this day, such creations of Vilma and Celia constitute the prime reason that Cuba, against overwhelming odds, remains a viable and sovereign nation.

TRUTH BE KNOWN, in today's Cuba women like Josefina Vidal -- Minister of North American Affairs -- make most of the day-to-day decisions on the island. That is so even though the 84-year-old Raul Castro is President and the 89-year-old Fidel Castro is and will always be Cuba's greatest revolutionary legend.

AND TRUTH BE KNOWN, the next generation of Cuban leaders will look like...Cristina Escobar. At age 27 she is already Cuba's most influential journalist and an absolutely brilliant television anchor. Awesomely smart, well educated, fluent in Spanish and English, she is also fiercely pro-Cuban. People in California discovered those virtues at journalism seminars in 2014. In 2015 she awed veteran American journalists, as well as White House spokesman Josh Earnest, when she covered the 4th and final Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session. For 14 minutes she dominated a crowded news conference hosted by Mr. Earnest when she fired a blistering series of questions at him, wanting to know: If the new U. S. embassy in Havana will "respect" Cuba; if the unending "regime change" programs lavishly funded by the U. S. Congress will continue forever; will President Obama visit Cuba in 2016, etc. After the news conference rendered her, at least briefly, a Washington celebrity, Cristina -- in speeches around town and in numerous interviews -- blisteringly made this salient point: "Lies by the U. S. media about Cuba harm everyday Cubans the most."

IN OTHER WORDS: {1} Outraged Cuban women like William Soler's mother started the Cuban Revolution {she blamed Batista for the murder of her son}; {2} Cuban women like Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, and Haydee Santamaria were most influential in winning the Cuban Revolution; {3} Cuban women like Celia and Vilma set the parameters that have sustained Revolutionary Cuba all these decades; {4} Cuban women like Josefina Vidal today make most of the day-to-day Cuban decisions; and {5} Cuban women now in their twenties like Cristina Escobar will be the future leaders on the island of Cuba.

If you disagree with the above summations.....

........I believe it might be because you are too susceptible to the dictates of The Miami Cuban Mafia, which hastily exited Revolutionary Cuba on January 1, 1959.

Thus: