Cuba as Viewed by Cubans

Not by Marco Rubio!!!
{Sunday, January 21st, 2018}

Photo courtesy of: Roberto Leon/NBC News.

       On this third weekend in January of 2018 there is a lot of USA news to cover, including the first government shutdown on the one-year anniversary of the Trump presidency. But CNBC News this weekend featured a major article entitled: "TOURISM BOOMING IN CUBA DESPITE TOUGH NEW TRUMP POLICY." And the primary NBC News Network, which promotes itself as the "world's most-watched news source," this busy weekend had a major report entitled "DESPITE US-CUBA TENSIONS, MORE AMERICANS ATTEND HAVANA'S FAMED JAZZ FESTIVAL." That update by NBC News related to the Havana Jazz Festival that runs through Monday, January 22nd, 2018. The above photo was taken from that report and shows America's multiple-Grammy-winning jazz superstar DeeDee Bridgewater performing at this weekend's Havana Jazz Festival. You are invited...encouraged, actually...to use the above titles and dial up the NBC News report on the Festival because it actually presents an accurate report on Cuba from Cuba, and that's much better than getting force-fed propaganda about Cuba from Marco Rubio, who has never set foot in Cuba. If he did, he would learn what NBC News knows and what Americans that have been to Cuba, like me, know. And that is this: Cubans on the island are obsessed with their INDEPENDENCE, their BASEBALL, and their MUSIC, not with what Trump and Rubio in Washington are planning for them. And that basic fact, I believe, is precisely why Rubio...who is apparently Trump's newly anointed American dictator of Cuba...spends much of his time in the U. S. Congress trying to make sure everyday Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba, lest they might judge it for themselves as opposed to believing Marco Rubio.

     The image above is taken from the NBC News report on this weekend's Havana Jazz Festival. It shows U. S. Jazz legend DeeDee Bridgewater performing before appreciative Cuban fans and what NBC discovered to be a surprisingly "large" number of Americans. DeeDee told NBC: "I have a deep appreciation for the struggles of this country. I am thankful for President Obama's openings with this island and I just hope that this is going to continue to grow." And DeeDee told NBC that the U.S.-Cuban ties will "continue to grow if more and more Americans visit the island and engage with these wonderful people."

     The Miami-based Cuban-American who is the President & CEO of the giant Norwegian Cruise Line, Frank Del Rio, earlier this month said almost precisely the same thing that DeeDee Bridgewater told NBC News this weekend. As you can see on a YouTube interview conducted by Cristina Escobar, Frank Del Rio said, "I have arrived 8 times in Cuba on my cruise ships recently thanks to President Obama's openings to the island. We poll our tourists regarding which of the well-known 55 cities we have taken them to that they enjoy the most, and Havana comes out as the #1 city. That's because the Cuban people are the most welcoming people in the world, and that includes visitng Americans and Cuban-Americans like me." Of course, propagandized Americans who have never been to Cuba are supposed to believe every word Rubio, who has never been to Cuba, says about the island...and ignore what Cuban-Americans like frequent visitor Frank say about an island they know.

     Like America's NBC News, Cuba's well-respected television networks this weekend are covering the Havana Jazz Festival, providing live broadcasts across the island. Last week Cuban television lavishly covered Cuba's baseball playoffs. That doesn't surprise Americans who have visited Cuba and engaged with the Cuban people. The vast majority of Cubans, aside from their families and their fellow Cubans, are indeed obsessed with three primary things: their independence; their baseball; and their music. If Rubio says they are obsessed with re-locating to Miami or with being dominated by a foreign superpower again, he is flagrantly wrong.

     The photo above was also taken this 3rd weekend in January of 2018. It shows two outstanding young Cuban television journalists -- Yisel Martinez Garcia on the left and Rosy Amaro Perez on the right. They are flanking singer Luna Manzanares who had just been interviewed about Luna's upcoming European tour. Such things are far more important to Cubans on the island than whatever Trump & Rubio are concocting against them in Washington, and Americans need to know that.

     The photo above was also taken this weekend in a TV studio in Havana. It says a lot more about Cuba in January of 2018 than what Marco Rubio says about Cuba from his mansion in Miami or his seat in the U. S. Congress. Rosy Amaro Perez is a talented, well-educated, and very influential television news anchor in Cuba. She is the mother of a gorgeous, lookalike 4-year-old daughter. Like most Cubans, she is passionate about baseball and music. And like most Cubans on the island, especially the highly crucial young-adult generation, Rosy Amaro Perez is ultra-passionate about her island, its people, and its hard-earned independence. I know that because I happen to know Rosy. She told me this week, despite natural and man-make hurricanes that powerfully and frequently target the island, "We are happy in Cuba."

And so......

as of January, 2018........

it's still Rosy Amaro Perez's Cuba...

Not Marco Rubio's.

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