It's Not A One-sided Deal!
The island of Cuba has produced more than its share of legends, and Alicia Alonso is clearly one of the most legendary. She was born in 1921 in Havana and, at age 96, she is spending all this week -- till Sunday, March 26th, 2017 -- in Costa Rica. It is taking the nation of Costa Rica and the University of Costa Rica an entire week to honor the beloved Cuban legend. Both Costa Rica and its top university, as they are showering her with awards and plaudits, have repeatedly pointed out this fact: "Her legacy is clearly incomparable." It surely is. What Costa Rica is doing this week reminds me that the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 and Revolutionary Cuba from 1959 till today BOTH SAY A LOT MORE ABOUT THE UNITED STATES THAN THEY WILL EVER SAY ABOUT CUBA. You see, Americans are not supposed to know about the legend of Alicia Alonso because, if they did, such knowledge might conflict sharply with the one-sided Cuban narrative in the United States that has, since 1959, been dictated by remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship that fled the revolution for safe havens in America -- namely Miami, Newark and the United States Congress ensconced in Washington.
Nevertheless, the legend of Alicia Alonso is one Americans have every right to know...in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. She was an extraordinary ballet performer in Cuba by age 11. At age 16 she married Fernando Alonso, who recognized her unique talent and took her to New York City to exploit it. It was in New York that Alicia gave birth to her only child, Laura. When she was 19 and showing signs of becoming the world's best ballerina, an eye ailment rendered her partially blind for the rest of her life, yet she reached and passed her goals as she became the world's best Prima Ballerina Assoluta. Her superstar status was crowned in 1943 when she danced "Giselle" and became enshrined forever with such incomparable performances as "Carmen." In 1948 Alicia returned to Cuba but commuted often to New York City. In 1952 when the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship first began robbing the island blind while brutalizing its everyday citizens, Alicia began dancing around the world -- Paris, London, Naples, Moscow, Prague, Milan, Monte Carlo, etc. She was delighted when she learned that Cuban mothers backed by do-or-die guerrilla fighters and fearless recruiters such as Celia Sanchez had mounted a revolution against Batista, a brutal dictator backed by the Mafia and America. In 1959 she was back in Cuba to celebrate the amazing triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
In 1959 the pig-tailed Alicia Alonso got a surprise visitor to her Havana apartment. His name was Fidel Castro, whom she...and the rest of the world...then knew as the famed leader of the victorious Cuban Revolution. To her additional surprise, Fidel offered Alicia $200,000 in upfront money if she would start a dance school and call it The National Ballet of Cuba. He also promised that he would "make sure it was kept funded." She accepted the offer and soon began scouring the island in search of talented Cuban children, as young as five, that she could bring to Havana and try to mold into world-class ballet performers. As she scoured the island, Alicia took note of over 120,000 Cuban volunteers that were "everywhere" trying to teach the illiterate Cubans to read and write as well as provide heath and hygienic care because the Batista-Mafia dictatorship had only been concerned with raping and robbing the island without any concern for the welfare of the majority peasants. Alicia's recruitment and tender care of potential ballet stars...from 1959 till today...has made her renowned as the greatest ballet instructor of all time. Many of her top recruits defected to become multi-millionaires as stars of other ballet companies, with each departure leaving her with bittersweet emotions. Also, witnessing the educational and health care the nascent revolutionary government was providing across the island to the majority peasants increased Alicia's devotion to the revolution while also expanding her bitter hatred of the Batista rule that preceded it.
Alicia discovered that Fidel not only provided the $200,000 for her dance school in 1959, he also kept his promise that it remained funded, come hell or high water, till the day he died at age 90 on November 25, 2016. She would later say, "Fidel was good for me, for Cuba's children and mothers, not only in comparison to Batista but in comparison to anyone, especially considering that the forces he defeated regrouped nearby and, still backed by a superpower, forever tried to kill him or overthrow him in order to regain an island they didn't deserve." Also, Alicia has revealed that when Fidel Castro knocked on her door in 1959, it was only the second time he had surprised her. He had sent her a message about her future dance school in 1958 while he was still trying to overthrow Batista. Wikipedia explains that surprise with these words: "Alonso has since described receiving a message from Castro in 1958 sent from the Sierra Maestra inviting her to head the company upon the triumph of the July 26th movement." Her second surprise, that knock on her door in 1959, merely lived up to his audacious 1958 message that even she thought was "just a tad premature."
To understand the legend of the now 96-year-old Alicia Alonso and to comprehend why Costa Rica all this week is showering honors upon her, Americans need to understand and comprehend the above photo. Permit me to help. The photo was taken on July 1, 1964. Alicia, like most true Cubans, resents the American theft in 1903 and the continuous occupation of Guantanamo Bay, especially after the U. S. installed a lavish Naval Base on the lush port. The photo above shows Alicia on July 1-1964 dressed in army fatigues and giving a free dance performance for soldiers of the Cuban Frontier Guards who were stationed on the very outside edge of Guantanamo Bay. The naval base heightened Alicia's outrage over Guantanamo Bay, as does the now infamous prison installed by the George W. Bush presidency on the prized Cuban land.
And so, the legend of 96-year-old Alicia Alonso and her famed Ballet Nacional de Cuba exists and will persist despite the fact that in the nearby superpower United States the Cuban narrative and Cuban policy are largely dictated by generational remnants of the 1950s Batista-Mafia dictatorship. As she is exalted for her "clearly incomparable legacy" in Costa Rica all this week, Alicia Alonso is abundantly aware that the world supports her views of her beloved island and the revolution that changed it for forever. In San Jose, Costa Rica this week, she said, "I thank to the heavens the unanimous support of Cuba as voted on by Costa Rica and the other 190 voting nations. My Cuba, like all sovereign nations, deserves the right and the breathing room to create its own present and its own future." As she spoke those words, it is apparent that Alicia Alonso is aware that Americans are supposed to believe that her Cuba deserved...Batista, the Mafia, the Bay of Pigs attack, the embargo, hotel and coastal terrorist attacks, the bombing into the ocean of Cubana Flight 455, and unceasing laws in the U. S. Congress designed to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba while also enriching and empowering the elite group of Cuban-Americans and their sycophants who seek revenge against the revolution spawned by the unspeakable excesses of the long-ago Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Alicia Alonso embodies this truth: The best Cuban-born women didn't end up entrenched in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 or entrenched as the Editor of the counter-revolutionary Miami Herald.
Her legend will live forever.
And by the way:
This is a happy, healthy, well-educated young Cuban named Aymara Massiel Matos. On her Twitter page, she can't hide her enthusiasm for her government job and her entrepreneurial or governmental future. She said the other day her office was "invaded" by a class of young Cuban students who wanted to be just like her, and the eager students asked a lot of questions.
This girl was one of the students who "invaded" Aymara's office and wanted her picture taken sitting at Aymara's desk. Left to its own sovereign devices, Cuba probably has a future. The two up-to-date photos directly above would probably remind 96-year-old Alicia Alonso why she so adamantly prefers Revolutionary Cuba over Batista's Cuba, don't you think?
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