America's Cuban Stigma

Should the U. S. Address It?
{Updated: Thursday, July 18th, 2016}

        This week the New York Times used the above graphic crafted by superb artist Jeffrey Decoster to illustrate a major article that all American democracy-lovers should read. The article is entitled: "How to End the Guantanamo Stigma." When it comes to the topic of Cuba, since the 1950s Americans have been propagandized NOT to care about anything related to Cuba even if it shames the United States, the world's greatest and most respected democracy. Therefore, I assume in August of 2016 Americans will continue to lack the intelligence, the courage and the patriotism to take note of the aforementioned New York Times article. Yet, though leery of wasting my time, I will hereby attempt to explain why they should...not because of any concern for Cuba but for the concern Americans should have for the U. S. and for democracy. 

Stigma: noun -- a mark of disgrace; shame; dishonor; ignominy; opprobrium; and humiliation. {The definition provided by Merriam-Webster Dictionary}.

      Prior to the shocking triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba's three greatest patriots were Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez.

      Jose Marti, internationally known as a poet and writer, lived comfortably in the United States but went back to his beloved Cuba to fight for independence against Spain. Marti died on a Cuban battlefield in 1895. From a superb Cuban family of independence fighters led by the great matriarch Mariana Grajales Maceo, Antonio Maceo was killed by Spanish soldiers on Cuban soil in 1896.

    Maximo Gomez devoted his adult life trying to wrest Cuban independence from the centuries-old Spanish grip. General Gomez led the Cuban military in the Ten Year War from 1868 till 1878, but Spain prevailed. He then led the Cuban military in the War of Independence from 1895 till 1898, but again Spain proved too powerful. But Gomez had weakened the Spanish military for the United States to take notice that Spain was far too extended militarily to maintain control of Cuba against an emerging world power close to Cuban shores. And almost since its inception in 1776, the United States had mortally craved Cuba, once offering Florida to Spain for the island. But by 1898, thanks to General Gomez, the U. S. realized it could take Cuba like taking candy from a baby...IF IT COULD COME UP WITH A PRETEXT TO START A WAR. With retired General Gomez watching in Havana...he died there at age 68 in 1905...the U. S. devised that pretext in 1898. So, Maximo Gomez lived long enough to observe the United States create what continues as its ignominious stigma related to its craving to dominate the magnificent, nearby island of Cuba. So, General Gomez was around to take note of...the U. S. pretext for the Spanish-American War and the easy U. S. victory in the war and the U. S.'s even easier theft of Cuba's plush Guantanamo Bay in 1903.

     The website The Spanish-American War Centennial.com begins its elaborate coverage of that war with the above graphic that features, at the bottom, the banner "Remember the Maine," which was the battle-cry and the pretext for the easy war.

       This iconic photo shows the U. S. warship, the USS Maine, sailing slowly into Havana Harbor in 1898 as two Cuban fishermen barely take notice. After all, they couldn't foresee the historic portent it would have on Cuba, the U. S. and the world.

       On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine was anchored in Havana Harbor. Most of its officers were on break in Havana. A gigantic explosion blew the USS Maine to bits, killing 261 young American sailors. To this day the debate rages as to the culprit -- the U. S. to get its pretext for a war; Spain; or simply an accident? Most historians rule out Spain because its government knew the rumors about the U. S. seeking a pretext to acquire Cuba, and Spain well knew it didn't want a war far from home against the emerging superpower. So, was it an accident? Perhaps. Was it U. S. saboteurs? Maybe. In any case, rich and powerful American right-wingers had their pretext for an easy war against Spain that would {#1} give the U. S. its long-desired control of Cuba; and {#2} make their man Theodore Roosevelt the next President of the United States if they could fabricate him as the military hero of the Rough Riders sent to Cuba.

     Indeed, the Spanish-American War in Cuba was an easy victory for American right-wingers. And, inundated with images like this one, Americans were convinced that Teddy Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders were super-heroes, leading to his stint as U. S. President. The Spanish-American War also began the U. S. ascendancy as a world power. The Treaty of Paris that parceled out the spoils, with Cuba the main prize, also gave the U. S. control of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. No Cuban, of course, was in Paris to participate in the denouement. In Havana, the retired General Maximo Gomez who had fought the Spanish so bravely for two decades, was invited to attend the treaty signing. He refused, saying, "Cuba is still a colony." 

      By 1903 -- five years after the Spanish-American War -- General Maximo Garcia in Havana indeed saw that Cuba was still a colony, America's now instead of Spain's. That was the year, two years before General Garcia died, that the U. S. took over Cuba's plush Guantanamo Bay, soon making it a powerful military and relaxation operation. As Cuba began to say more about the U. S. than it said about Cuba, Americans were told it was a legal theft because Cuba was paid $2,000 a year for it. In 1934 the U. S. increased the payments to $4,085. Since 1959 Cuba has continued to received yearly U. S. checks in that amount but Fidel Castro has refused to cash them; they are stashed in the bottom drawer of his desk. To this day, the vast Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S., which dictates America's Cuban narrative, insists that Guantanamo Bay legally belongs to the United States. The Castro Cottage Industry, of course, sanctions anything that hurts Cuba or projects as revenge against Castro.

         Maps today point out the "U. S. Naval Base" at Guantanamo Bay. While Americans are not supposed to question or consider all the dichotomy it entails, the rest of the world views it as a flagrant anointment of America's imperialist past. Yes, Cuba says much more about the United States than it says about Cuba.

      The United States flag flies over many military bases around the world, but the U. S. flag flying over Guantanamo Bay is easily the most notorious. Moreover, except to appease anti-Castro right-wingers in Miami and Washington, there is little or no justification from a military standpoint that, this deep into the nuclear age, the USA has any real need for Guantanamo Bay, which is an albatross around its own neck.

       There is a consistent clamor around the world for the U. S. to "close Guantanamo" because of its lingering imperialist attachments and because of the infamous Bush-era U. S. prison maintained there. But the anti-Castro right-wingers consider Cuba the perfect place for such things as opposed to keeping the prisoners in safe U. S. federal prisons. The Guantanamo prison for all these years has been a major inspiration for America's most vile enemies around the world, but only democracy-lovers give a damn.

        Throughout the Caribbean, including the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico, the U. S. has closed major unneeded military bases. The once-mighty Ramey Air Force Base in the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico has been closed for decades, and for economic reasons Puerto Rico wants Ramey reopened. The U. S. today has no Air Force or Naval military bases even in Puerto Rico! But it seems the U. S. government will never get permission from the anti-Castro zealots in Miami or Washington to close unneeded and very expensive Guantanamo Bay, an unwanted occupation that defames America's image around the world.

        And that brings us back to this Jeffrey Decoster graphic that this week illustrated the article in the New York Times entitled: "How to End the Stigma of Guantanamo." My point, with all due respect, is this: The Guantanamo stigma that belittles the U. S. and democracy will not end because there are simply not enough Americans who care about such things. {I surely hope someone can prove me wrong in that pro-democracy and pro-American assessment, but I regretfully believe my careful judgment is correct}. 

And by the way:

       One of the world's most famed and exciting people -- Madonna -- is the latest super-entertainer that supports Cuba. Madonna celebrated her 58th birthday this week -- August 16, 2016 -- in Havana. Undeterred by Smart Phones video-taping her, she danced and sang from atop a bar at a Cuban nightclub.

      Both Tuesday and Wednesday Madonna {above} thrilled Cubans by just strolling around Havana. The BBC and YouTube were among the international venues that aired video-audio coverage of Madonna's exploits in Cuba. And, as has been the case for decades, her simplest gestures are major exploits.

Madonna with a young Cuban in Havana. 

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