For the U. S. Media
The largest and most-read newspaper in the United States is USA Today. Like the rest of the mainstream U. S. media, USA Today has neither the guts nor the integrity to tell the truth about Cuba. And USA Today is not even a right-wing publication; it is simply politically and socially correct. After a half-century of visceral Cuban-exiles dictating America's Cuban narrative and Cuban policy, USA Today -- which I have subscribed to for 20 years -- simply provides Americans with what they are accustomed to hearing or reading about Cuba. And that, for the most part, is a pack of self-serving distortions or pure purposeful lies. USA Today's prime writer about Cuba, for example, is a visceral anti-Cuban Cuban-American based in Miami named Alan Gomez. That's Mr. Gomez in front of the USA Today banner above. Even though the Republican Convention, Hillary Clinton's VP pick, and continuing terrorist acts dominated much of this week's news, one of the biggest articles in USA Today was just another Alan Gomez tirade against Cuba. It dominated a whole page Thursday, July 21st, and its blaring across-the-whole-page headline was "U. S. Urges Cuba to Carry Its Own Weight."
Alan Gomez, as a part of the vast Anti-Cuban Cottage Industry in the United States, is, of course, trying to counter any and all of the positive Cuban gestures orchestrated so bravely by President Obama. As the above photo indicates, Gomez is also USA Today's writer on "Immigration Reform." As a self-serving anti-Cuban Cuban-American, Gomez seems to promote such uncontested views as: Hey, Cubans are the only immigrants in the entire world who are home free the second they touch U. S. soil and are instantaneously provided economic, political, and residential-citizenship advantages not available to any non-Cuban. We must maintain that nice policy forever. Of course, everyday Americans are also the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba, and that's good because we Cuban-Americans can do their thinking for them when it comes to Cuba. Etc., etc., etc. Of course, Americans are supposed to be too stupid, too intimidated or too unpatriotic to challenge anything Alan Gomez and his ilk say about Cuba or U.S.-Cuban relations.
Cuba's 28-year-old broadcast journalist, Cristina Escobar, has made three recent and pertinent visits to the United States -- attending journalism seminars in California and then two professional trips to Washington. She made some headlines with comments such as, "Journalists in Cuba have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." I am not suggesting that you believe that entirely, but I am suggesting that Cristina believes it and her views should be respected. She is well educated, extremely intelligent, an expert on U.S.-Cuban relations and fluent in English as well as Spanish. She anchors a top Cuban news program in Spanish and a popular regional program in English. In fact, she is so talented and so pro-Cuban that she reportedly has been offered huge sums to defect to Miami and become anti-Cuban. That's highly unlikely. She strongly supports Revolutionary Cuba, yet is not adverse to pointing out its "imperfections, but ones we must correct, not Americans." And she insists that "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami or Cubans in Washington." She also firmly says, "I don't want the U. S. to bring me democracy. That is a project for Cubans on the island of Cuba."
In 2015 when she was in Washington to cover the fourth and final Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, Cristina Escobar made history by becoming the first Cuban to ask questions at a White House news conference. It was hosted by President Obama's chief spokesman Josh Earnest. In fact, she asked six questions, all of which were quite pertinent. She was the first to nail down whether Obama would "visit Cuba in 2016." She also wanted to know if the U. S. would "respect" Cuba at its new Washington embassy and she asked if the U. S. planned to "continue its regime-change programs." If you click the button in the center of the above graphic, you can hear her ask those questions and then hear all the answers.
After that Washington news conference that featured the history-making Cristina Escobar, Air Force One, descending above Havana in this photo, did bring President Obama to Cuba. The last six photos are courtesy of REUTERS, the London-based news agency that covers Cuba intently and, I might add, fairly.
This photo shows an elderly Cuban woman eagerly waiting her chance to see President Obama in Havana. She has never been America's enemy and she has never deserved being punished by America.
Obama waving while speaking at Havana's Gran Teatro.
This Cuban is 54-year-old Carlos Alvarez. He told REUTERS that he was "totally thrilled" by President Obama's visit and he said, "It was a true blessing that he came to see us." Isolating Cubans has been cruel.
On July 20th, 2015, the Cuban Embassy re-opened in Washington.
And U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry was on hand a year ago when the U. S. flag was raised at the re-opened U. S. Embassy in Havana. Both embassies had been closed since 1961 to please a selected few.
America's Secretary of State John Kerry and his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez shook hands in agreement about President Obama's historic efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Of course, while most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and most citizens of the world agree with President Obama's Cuban policies, some vigorously and continuously oppose it...in Miami's Little Havana, for example.
This REUTERS photo was taken at an anti-Cuban demonstration in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. It urgently demanded a continuation of the archaic Cold War as opposed to peace, handshakes and the re-opening of embassies in the two capital cities. Cristina Escobar thinks there are more "SPIES + TERRORISTS" in Miami than in Havana. If that premise is debatable, there is no debating the fact that the U.S.-Cuban conundrum is a two-way proposition and one that hurts America's image much more than it hurts Cuba's, a fact emblazoned around the world yearly by that 191-to-2 pro-Cuba/anti-U.S. vote in the UN.
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