Havana, Miami, and Little Havana

January-1959 to July-2018!!
{Updated for: Wednesday, July 4th, 2018}

      Before I resume this Cubaninsider essay, permit me to point out that Americans who are not familiar with Ann Louise Bardach probably don't know anything about modern U.S.-Cuban relations other than the self-serving propaganda espoused, generally with the consent of the U. S. government and the U. S. media, by the most visceral remnants from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution in 1959 only to have its leaders flee to and permanently reconstitute their rule on U. S. soil. It's indeed a fascinating story and it is best told in the articles, essays, speeches, and books by Ann Louise Bardach. That's her above resting against a marker that designates the city of Baracoa in Cuba as the first city in the Americas. Indeed, in 1492 Christopher Columbus, in his diary, famously called the area that soon became Baracoa "the most beautiful land these eyes have yet seen." But now after that brief peek back into early Americana history...back to Ann Louise Bardach.

     If you do not want to be propagandized by the latest generation of Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans, I suggest you purchase and study...even memorize...Ann Louise Bardach's great book "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana." It is, I believe, the best way to start to fathom U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s.

    Ann Louise Bardach followed up "Cuba Confidential" with such gems as "WITHOUT FIDEL: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington." When it comes to U.S.-Cuba relations, no one knows more about Fidel, Miami, Havana, and Washington than Ann Louise Bardach. So let me repeat: If you are not familiar with Ann Louise Bardach, then you actually know basically NOTHING about U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s...except the self-serving propaganda from Counter Revolutionary extremists.

Not only have I been to Miami, Havana, and Washington, I can prove I met Fidel in Havana at his home in 2004 when the anti-Fidel, counter-revolutionary George W. Bush administration gave me permission to "legally" visit Cuba to research Cuba's greatest revolutionary heroine, Celia Sanchez. But beyond that and more importantly...as with the book above...I have read and studied just about every word Ann Louise Bardach has written or uttered about U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s. And for that reason, I feel capable of now continuing with this latest Cubaninsider insight.

***********************

     From January of 1959 -- when the Cuban Revolution drove the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to their new headquarters in Miami -- until today, in July of 2018, a hard-line core of Cubans based in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood have been allowed to dictate almost all of America's Cuban narratives and Cuban policies. While that is neither healthy nor politically correct to say out in the open in the U. S. to this day, it nevertheless is true.

     And, yes, America's greatest and bravest journalists and authors -- Ann Louise Bardach, Julia E. Sweig, T. J. English, Peter Kornbluh, James Bamford, crime reporter/author Edna Buchanan, columnist/author Carl Hiassen, etc., etc. -- have written billions of truthful words about the Miami Mafia brutally and undemocratically ruling that important American city since the Batista-Mafia leaders in Havana resurfaced quickly in Miami in 1959. Furthermore, a handful of rich and powerful Cubans -- with the aid of sycophants such as the Bush dynasty, the Tea Party, etc. -- have extended their dictation of America's Cuban policies to the U. S. Congress and to all six Republican White Houses in Washington since the 1950s. Often conveniently overlooked via intimidation and propaganda is the fact that the Batista-Mafia leaders, when they arrived in Miami, had the financial means to overwhelm the city economically and politically. That explains to this day that a steady stream of Cuban-American extremists from Miami are the only ones that can be elected to the U. S. Congress from that area, leaving out candidates from the majority of Cuban-Americans, who happen to be moderates and very decent Americans. Especially after the car-bombing in Miami of the top Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, after he complained about the murders of innocent Cubans by unchecked Miami Mafia/Cuban American terrorists, the mainstream U. S. media has, for the most part, pusillanimously promoted only Miami Mafia agendas.

        But incredibly, now in July of 2018, the best, bravest, and fairest reporting on Cuban issues is in the city of Miami and not from the intimidated and politically correct mainstream media across the USA. Permit me to explain.

      While the mainstream U. S. media promotes only Little Havana distortions about Cuba from the likes of Senator Marco Rubio, a leading television station in Miami has an excellent broadcast journalist, Hatzel Vela, stationed in Cuba. He regularly files fair reports back to Havana...and the Cuban government allows him to file anti-Cuban stories if he thinks they are warranted.

      Starting from his headquarters in Havana, Hatzel Velo does a superb job of telling Cuba's story for his station -- WPLG-ABC-10 in Miami. Whether the news is good, bad, or in-between, Hatzel can report back to Miami truths that often sharply contradict what Rubio and the mainstream U. S. media present as purely anti-Cuban propaganda that mitigates against what the U. S. democracy once stood for -- meaning prior to 1959.

     Whether shining a light on Cuban positives or taking to the dark streets and reporting on Cuban negatives, Hatzel Velo has the freedom in Cuba to report the facts back to Miami on Miami's best television station while the U. S. networks wouldn't dare report on any Cuban issue without presenting the one-sided views of Counter Revolutionary Cubans like Rubio. Americans, meanwhile, have been programmed since 1959 to believe self-serving Miami politicians like Rubio as opposed to excellent Miami journalists such as the car-bombed Emilio Milian and, of course, now the brave and excellent Miami journalist stationed in Cuba, Hatzel Velo.

     The brave voice of Cuban-American newsman Emilio Milian, not unexpectedly, was silenced by a car-bomb in 1976 after he spoke out against the unchecked murders of innocent Cubans by Cuban-American extremists. But in July of 2018 in Miami, if not in the U. S. as a whole, extremely high-profile Cuban-American journalists can criticize even the most extreme Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans who have been literally chomping at the bit since 1959 to destroy Revolutionary Cuba. It, amazingly, hasn't happened...not yet...although the Counter Revolutionary extremists have hidden behind the skirts of the Superpower United States government and also benefited from the apathy of two generations of the least patriotic Americans.

     But now even the Miami Herald, led by journalist and Editorial chief Fabiola Santiago, can be depended on for fair journalism regarding Cuba. Born in Cuba and furiously anti-Castro, Ms. Santiago became a star reporter for the Miami Herald in 1980 and now is its ace columnist and Editorial Chief. Recently she has called Rubio a "hypocrite" for using his Little Havana-based power in the U. S. Senate to feather his own nests while punishing innocent Cubans on the island and hurting most Cuban-Americans in Miami. Because of Rubio and his ilk, Ms. Santiago also points out that extremists Cuban-Americans in Miami are taking advantage of another Batistiano-loving Republican President, Trump, to severely target Cuba even while Trump plays footsie with dangerous dictators.

     For example, while tightening the screws on Cuba, President Trump's new-found buddy Kim Jong Un, the notorious North Korean dictator, is being elevated by Trump on the international stage. No wonder Jong Un is smiling above.

      The Kim Jong Un coziness with President Trump presented this nice handshake as well as co-equal, side-by-side American and North Korean flags. Sure, Cuba is no threat to the U. S. and the U. S. is afraid of North Korea's nuclear weapons. And no overthrown Korean dictatorship ever resurfaced as an economic and political power on U. S. soil. But even the most powerful journalist in Miami, who happens to be Cuban-born, wonders aloud why the Trump-Rubio administration can get away with cozying up to Kim Jong Un in North Korea while trying to starve innocent Cubans and overthrow their new leader, Miguel Diaz-Canel.

      Miami's top journalist -- Cuba-born Fabiola Santiago, the key reporter-columnist-author at the Miami Herald since 1980 and now the Editorial Chief -- has penned scathing articles entitled: "President Trump Should Engage Cuba's New President, Not Leave Policy to Rubio" and "The Trump-Rubio Politics of Hypocrisy: Cuba, No Deal; North Korea?" Outside of Miami, the mainstream U. S. media does not have the courage to produce such headlines...calling Rubio a "hypocrite" for feathering his own nests by trying to starve innocent Cubans. BUT the top journalist at Rubio's hometown newspaper -- Cuban-born Fabiola Santiago -- DOES have the courage to do so.

     Cuba's "new President" -- as referenced by Fabiola Santiago -- is Miguel Diaz-Canel who was born after the Revolutionary victory and is the island's former Education Minister. President Diaz-Canel is popular with everyday Cubans across the island and they hope he can overcome the U.S. embargo and Cuban bureaucracy to improve their economic conditions. He has made a good start by, for example, ordering his Ministers to report regularly on Cuban television to explain how they are handling the "peoples' problems" so they can judge for themselves "if progress is being made."

      With President Diaz-Canel's obvious popularity with the Cuban people, most Cuban-Americans in Miami, such as the city's top journalist Fabiola Santiago, are embarrassed that America will sweetly embrace some of the world's most wicked leaders but doesn't have either the decency or the guts, during another Batistiano-directed Republican administration, to even talk with Cuba's new President WHOM MIAMI'S FABIOLA SANTIAGO RECENTLY SUGGESTED WAS A BETTER PERSON THAN NORTH KOREA'S KIM JONG UN and maybe even A BETTER PERSON THAN MIAMI'S OWN "hypocrite" IN THE U. S. SENATE, Marco Rubio.

      But guess who is President Trump's newly designated Cuban dictator? ANSWER: The man Trump derisively called "Little Marco" in 2016 when they were both competing in the Republican presidential primary...and the man highly respected journalist Ken Silverstein calls "head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to corruption and chicanery." And, oh yes...the man fellow Cuban-American Fabiola Santiago, the top journalist in his hometown of Miami, calls a "hypocrite." {And that indeed is saying quite a lot about Rubio considering that YET ANOTHER Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American incumbent in the U. S. Senate, Bob Menendez, is hanging on to his easy seat only after a Hung Jury Verdict saved him after the U. S. government spent 3 expensive years investigating Menendez on massive corruption charges and then spending 3 more expensive months in 2017 in a Federal Court trying desperately to convict him, only to be stymied by the hung jury}. But most of all, Rubio today is the best example of why the latest Republican president, Trump, at the moment loves North Korea's Kim Jung Un and wants to destroy Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel. And the explanation of that prime example is this: Cuba is the only nation that overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship and then had the fleeing leaders of that dictatorship resurface permanently, prominently, and lucratively on United States soil.

      Yes. The Cuban Revolution and the beloved and vilified legacy left behind by the late Fidel Castro both say even more about the United States than they say about Cuba. After all, the United States is the world Superpower and Cuba is an island.

And by the way:

     If you want to read a gripping, page-turning best-seller this summer, T. J. English might be the author you should turn to.

    The T. J. English classic is "HAVANA NOCTURNE: How The Mob Owned Cuba...And Then Lost It To The Revolution." And after explaining "HOW" the Mafia lost Cuba to the Revolution in 1959, T. J. English also astutely explores some of the darkest chapters in America's history as the "MOB" fled to Miami. They tolerated Miami as a sanctuary but believed the U. S. government would surely  help them recapture Cuba within weeks...a few month at the most!! And, like in Havana, the "MOB" brutally and financially flourished in Miami!! But weeks turned into months...and then years AND THEN DECADES!! So, the "MOB" -- still waiting after 6+ decades for the USA to recapture Cuba for them -- long-ago re-named their new capital city "Little Havana." Located in the heart of Miami, Little Havana to this day is where Republican presidential candidates, like Trump, visit to genuflect and pay homage as they gain the sustenance they believe will put them in the White House...and keep them there for 8 years. T. J. English in "Havana Nocturne" expertly tells that utterly fascinating, on-going...and tragic...story.

*&***********************&*