"Dear Mr. Fontova"

An Open Letter to Humberto Fontova!
{Updated: Wednesday, August 9th, 2017}

       The photo above provides an updated snapshot of Cuba, a glimpse of an off-limits island that Americans have been proselytized for over half-a-century not to understand. This photo was taken Sunday, August 6th, 2017. It shows Cuban music-lovers at a concert. Simple enough but it's an everyday portrait of everyday Cubans on their island, a view Americans are not supposed to comprehend because, to do so, it might hit a few Counter-Revolutionary Cubans in the United States in their budging bank accounts, in their control of the U.S.-Cuban narrative, and in their dictations of America's Cuban policies in the U. S. Congress and in all Republican presidential administrations. You don't need to know the three young-adult Cubans in the forefront above but, for the record, their names from left-to-right are: Rosy Amaro Perez, Yanet Perez Moya, and Ramadan Arcos. But you should know them. Either young Cubans on the island like them or old Counter-Revolutionary Cubans in Miami and Washington will predicate the island's future. And that's important, especially for Cuba and the United States. Typically, these three young-adult Cubans are very intelligent, well educated, healthy, and they love Cuba. They have no intention of defecting to Miami. All their lives, like their parents before them, they have been punished by two generations of greedy, revengeful Cuban exiles from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that ravaged Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The pivotal month of January in 1959 was when the leaders fled the Cuban Revolution, retrenching mostly in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. The victorious Revolution shocked the world but the longevity of Revolutionary Cuba, from 1959 till today, has been even more shocking. That's because the odds were and are a billion-to-one against an island nation audaciously acquiring and then pugnaciously maintaining independence when its opposition was composed of vicious miscreants backed by the world's economic and military superpower. So, the simple snapshot above of today's Cuba needs to be at least tangentially understood if one is to understand either the fascinating history or the intriguing topicality of perhaps the planet's most amazing island nation.      

      I'll get to my Open Letter to powerful Cuban-American Humberto Fontova at the end of this essay but first I'll explain what inspired it. I sincerely believe that Mr. Fontova, and others like him, feather their own nests in America while severely harming decent, hard-working Cubans on the island like Nidialys Acosta. I believe this has been allowed to go on since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959 ended the rule of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, powerfully reshaping the island but, incredibly, reshaping the U. S. democracy even more. In the years...the decades...since 1959, counter-revolutionary Cubans, backed by the extreme might of the United States as well as the extreme lack of patriotism by U. S. citizens, have used over a half-century of military and terrorist attacks as well as extremely punitive and legal U. S. laws such as history's longest economic embargo against the vulnerable island. BUT, INCREDIBLY, such brazen and cowardly tactics have failed to regain control of the pugnacious Caribbean island. While most Cuban-Americans EVEN IN MIAMI strongly favor normalizing relations with Cuba, and while the United Nations currently has a VERY LOUD 191-to-0 vote condemning America's Cuban policies, the fact that a mere handful of Cuban-American radicals benefit so majestically -- revengefully, economically and politically -- from pulverizing innocent Cubans -- DECADE AFTER DECADE -- is a cruel abomination, especially when it is done incessantly and irregardless of how much harm it does to the image of America and Democracy. But since 1959 the most decent everyday Cubans, such as Nidialys Acosta, have been both the primary and the most innocent victims. That is so even as vicious terrorist acts against Cuban civilians -- such as the airplane bombing of Cubana Flight 455 and the car-bombing of the decent Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian in Miami -- have been "successes" because two generations of pusillanimous Americans have been successfully told they are "blows against Castro." Of course, they are blows against those totally innocent victims AND AGAINST the American democracy. Such one-sided infamy with origins in the nearby superpower, of course, enlarged the life and legacy of Castro and gave the island of Cuba a position on the international stage far out of proportion to its size, wealth or population. But most of all, a few powerful people in a powerful country being allowed to harm innocent people -- like Nidialys Acosta --  in a small, vulnerable country is the epitome of anti-democratic behavior.

         As illustrated by the above photo, the saga of Nidialys Acosta in Cuba and how her life intersects with America's universally condemned Cuban policy was spotlighted in a major August 5th-2017 article by Euronews.com entitled: "Cubans Nervous About Trump's Travel Restrictions." The exact opening words, which you can easily dial up online, are: "Nidialys Acosta never dreamed the business she started with her husband Julio Alvarez would be as successful as it has become. It boasts a fleet of classic America cars ferrying U. S. visitors around Havana, employing dozens of workers as drivers and mechanics, and providing them all with a solid income and a bright future. But now she worries it all could come crashing down if the U. S. President Trump cancels a deal that has eased travel restrictions between the two countries. Ms. Acosta fears that Trump will curtail travel to Cuba by American citizens, the mainstay of her business. 'We are a growing business,' she says. 'We want to get ahead. We have families who depend on us, on our work and if we are unable to keep it up, if we fail them, we are responsible to those families, and to our families, and to our whole society.'"

              In other words, Nidialys Acosta today is a totally decent, hard-working Cuban on the island who has to worry about miscreants in a nearby Superpower harming her business in Havana that means so much to her and to a plethora of others who work for her to earn decent wages, wages families depend on.

         Decent democratic overtures by America's decent President, Barack Obama, provided decent entrepreneurial opportunities in Cuba for very decent everyday Cubans like Nidialys Acosta and Gabriela Ogando. But Nidialys, Gabriela and thousands of other Obama-orchestrated Cuban entrepreneurs readily sensed that Obama's successor, President Trump, would not have the guts or the integrity to confront the indecency of their enemies in America, which happen to be a small minority of revengeful, self-serving Cuban-Americans. Therefore, the photo above flashed around the world as a vivid microcosm of how a mere handful of Cuban-American miscreants are allowed to harm, decade after decade, totally innocent Cubans on the island AND America's democracy at the same time. Representing herself and dozens of other decent Cuban entrepreneurs, Gabriela is shown above in Washington holding up a written statement begging...BEGGING...President Trump's United States of America TO ALLOW THEM TO CONTINUE TO MAKE DECENT LIVINGS OWNING THEIR OWN BUSINESSES IN THE SOVEREIGN NATION OF CUBA. I am well aware that such a desperate plea on U. S. soil IS NOT SUPPOSED TO RESONATE WITH AMERICANS because the Cuban narrative in the U. S. since 1959 has been mostly dictated by that handful of Cuban-American miscreants who are, with the insanely cruel backing of a foreign Superpower government, dire enemies of decent Cubans like Nidialys Acosta, Gabriela Ogando, and so many other decent people on the nearby island. 

               Is it...in August of 2017...asking too much of Americans to consider the pleas of decent Cubans like Nidialys and Gabriela when indecent miscreants in a powerful nation harm innocent people in a smaller nation IN AMERICA'S NAME? The photo depicted above garnered great international respect for Cubans like Gabriela even as, like the unanimity in the UN, it sprinkled opprobrium all over the U. S. democracy.

         Not convinced their heart-wrenching letter to President Trump would be able to trump the back-stabbing Cuban-American extremists who dictate to him in the White House and in the U. S. Congress, female Cuban entrepreneurs on the island are now appealing to President Trump's top adviser, his daughter Ivanka. Cubans like Gabriela and Nidialys are aware that Ivanka is herself an astute entrepreneur and it is hoped that she can prevail upon her father to allow Cuban entrepreneurs a fair shot at making decent livings. Except, I guess, to narcissists and to imperialists, people who care for other people, I believe, don't believe powerful people in a powerful country should prey on less-powerful people in a less-powerful country. In Cuba, Gabriela and Nidialys hope Ivanka Trump agrees with that assessment.

       As incredible as it may seem, the photo above is what pits me, an extremely poor and unknown American who cares for innocent Cubans and for the U. S. democracy, against Humberto Fontova, an extremely rich and well-known Cuban-American that I feel grossly, unfairly, and selfishly is a member of the lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in America that, despite its denials, mostly harms totally innocent Cubans on the island...such as the two courageous female entrepreneurs I featured earlier. Yes, in an ocean of blue with a majestic mountain as a backdrop, that is a white, three-mast yacht that also doubles as a luxurious cruise ship. And this famous cruising yacht this week epitomizes the vast difference between the omnipotent Humberto Fontova and me. It's tricky and perhaps fraught with danger, but I'll explain.

        The famous cruise ship that also doubles as a three-mast yacht is the Ponant. It is quite luxurious with 32 plush staterooms, two magnificent lounges, two scrumptious restaurants, lush beds next to huge viewing portals, etc. It lavishly touts its cruises & expeditions this way: "A sophisticated yet friendly atmosphere in which emotion, discovery and the quest for authenticity all take priority." SO, YOU ASK, HOW DID THE PONANT THIS WEEK COME BETWEEN LITTLE OLE ME AND THE GREAT HUMBERTO FONTOVA?

         The omnipotent New York Times has just made this innocent AND LEGAL announcement: "The NY Times is offering an 11-day, $11,980-dollar sailing trip to Cuba on the once-hijacked yacht La Ponant. It includes educational visits to historic sites...like the Bay of Pigs." OK, fine!! So now the uniquely magnificent and historic La Podant is joining four other international cruise lines, including those based in South Florida, making cruises to Cuba. But, for some reason, it is the New York Times nexus with La Podant that has the vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the U. S. bent totally out of shape.

      Born in Havana in 1954 during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship, Humberto Fontova has spent his adult years as a Charter Member of what i {with a little "i"} call the vast and lucrative Castro Cottage Industry in the United States of America. They could also be called Counter-Revolutionaries except for the fact that they have yet to counter the Revolution despite all these decades hiding very safely and not-so-discreetly behind the skirts of the world's Superpower. As a writer, columnist, author, and commentator...among other things...Humberto Fontova, as far as i can judge, has spent ceaseless decades vilifying Revolutionary Cuba while sanitizing the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. And he famously doesn't like to be contradicted.

       For his interminable...and, yes, lucrative...anti-Revolutionary rants and raves, Humberto Fontova seemingly has total access not only to major publishers and all conservative or right-wing operations but also to the apparently intimidated or politically correct mainstream United States media, as demonstrated by the ranting above. My reaction to the New York Times' announcement about its sponsorship of a luxurious informational cruise to Cuba was, "Good for the NY Times and La Ponant." But it seems to have sent Fontova into a typical rant-and-rave tirade. In a scathing article in the TOWNHALL that is entitled "New York Times Offers Propaganda Charter Cruises To Cuba", Fontova blistered and excoriated The NY Times and as many entities as he could think of that had ever said a kind word about Revolutionary Cuba, even Herbert L. Matthews. Back in 1954, the year Fontova was born in Havana, Matthews was the great New York Times' journalist using the front pages of his newspaper to inform Americans about such things as the street-marches by brave Cuban mothers demonstrating against the gruesome and repetitious murders of their ninos, their children, by Batista's goons. So naturally, as Fontova demonstrated in his anti-NY Times and anti-Ponant tirade, tossing in some assaults on the truly great but long-ago New York Times' reporter Herbert L. Matthews was both easy and par-for-the-course.

And now my Open Letter:

"Dear Mr. Fontova,

         Your latest bombardment against Revolutionary Cuba, inspired by the New York Times' sponsorship of the educational cruise to the island, coincided with the far more appropriate and sane article in which Nidialys Acosta, a totally decent and hard-working Cuban on the island, expressed legitimate fear that President Trump, goaded by the likes of you, will prevent her privately owned business from providing decent livings for her family and the families of the Cubans who work for her. Somehow, Mr. Fontova, I find such fears and such pleas from such decent and innocent people on a small island as being an insult to my country, the United States, and to Democracy. The fact that this indecency and insanity has been pervasive -- in the name of America and Democracy -- for over half-a-century has done, in my opinion, more than any other one thing to harm the image of America and Democracy. If that is not so, could you point out any other topic that could possibly garner a 191-to-0 condemnation in the UN? In such a diverse world, I don't think you can. As a counter-revolutionary Cuban-American benefactor, I assume you realize that the vast majority of Americans, Cuban-Americans and citizens of the world favor normal relations with Cuba -- not military attacks, terrorist attacks, and economic attacks from the world's richest and most powerful country.

                You may have noted, Mr. Fontova, that the NY Times-La Ponant cruise to Cuba was arranged in the hope that its passengers "would return from this 11-day adventure with a new appreciation of Cuba." That simple statement, Mr. Fontova, reminds some of us of why, for many decades, everyday Americans of all people have been the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. That abomination to America and Democracy was only partially relaxed by President Obama because, I believe, of the abominable hold that counter-revolutionary extremists have on the U. S. Congress. By steadfastly preventing Americans from freely visiting Cuba to judge it for themselves, the Cuban narrative in the U. S. dictated by hardliners is all that more...yes...abominable. Thus, the NY Times and the Ponant owners were justified in stating that their passengers "would return...with a new appreciation of Cuba." I assume that I have visited the island more recently than you, Mr. Fontova. Thus, I formed some free-thinking opinions while on the island and since then I have also tried to be cognizant of who is fervently trying to proselytize me and other Americans about Cuba. 

             This, Mr. Fontova, is my very first Open Letter. Be assured that it is purely on behalf of Cuban women like Nidialys Acosta and Gabriela Ogando as well as my two primary concerns -- America and Democracy.

Sincerely,

Rich Haney" 

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