And Its Indelible Imprint on America!!!
Even to this day, with 2018 winding down, neither the U. S. media nor the U. S. government -- for the most part -- has either the courage or the inclination to tell the truth about the everlasting impact of the American democracy's dalliance with the highest echelons of the Mafia in Cuba from 1952 till 1959 and then in the United States from 1959 till today after the Cuban Revolution chased the Mafiosi to Little Havana in Miami. Yes, the Mafia in Cuba beginning in 1952 was backed by the United States and since 1959 the fleeing or fled Batististiano/Mafiosi elements, in their quest to regain control of Cuba from the victorious Cuban Revolution, have also been backed by the United States, which remains, during all that time, the world's #1 Superpower. Fascinating stuff, I think you'll agree, but how Cuba has maintained its sovereignty since 1959 is just Part One of a multi-faceted odyssey. Vying for Part Two is the consummate truth embodied in "SCARFACE" that neither the U. S. government nor the U. S. media has bothered to admit after all these decades. Yes, "Scarface" is a Hollywood movie from 1983 that was directed by the great Brian DePalma, and written by the great Oliver Stone. It starred the A-list actor Al Pacino as Tony Montana, who today is a major American cult figure. The movie opens with actual film of Cuban exiles arriving on a dock in Miami. The arrivals, as written into the movie, included Tony Montana. Tony, to Oliver Stone's mind and pen, epitomized Havana's famed Mafia-drug empire actually leaving Revolutionary Cuba and setting up a far more lucrative...and murderous...drug haven in Miami. The Batistiano-Mafiosi had already totally overwhelmed South Florida politically and economically with their unmatched, ill-gotten wealth from Cuba. Tony Montana just took that to another level and stratosphere on U. S. soil. Before and after Tony's bloody demise, Miami's splendorous skyline exploded with cocaine wealth as vividly explained by famed journalists like Edna Buchanan, famed authors like Julia E. Sweig, Ann Louise Bardach, and T. J. English as well as famed Hollywood icons like Brian DePalma and Oliver Stone.
While the brilliant historians-authors Julia E. Sweig and Ann Louise Bardach deftly document the Havana-to-Miami takeover of the Mafia, two great books by T. J. English chronicle the step-by-step evolution of that re-shaping of both Cuba and America because of the 1959 triumph of the Cuban Revolution and, since then, the pugnaciousness of Revolution Cuba to fend off a re-capture of the island by the ultra-rich-and-powerful Batistiano-Mafiosi elements headquartered in both Miami and in the U. S. Congress...and all Republican White Houses. If you haven't read the T. J. English classic depicted above, the lies you've been told about the Mafia in Havana and the Mafia in Miami obviously grip your perceptions of U.S.-Cuban relations since the 1950s.
This is the second T. J. English book that tells the true, fascinating, and important "Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld" that all 325 million Americans need to read. If you haven't read it, you're probably too afraid to question the Cuban-Mafia's grip on the politics and economies of Miami, the state of Florida, and the USA capital of Washington, D. C.
While you can forget depending on the U. S. media or the U. S. government to spill the truthful beans about the Havana-Mafia becoming the Miami-Mafia after 1959's victory by the Cuban Revolution over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, excellent movies based on the truth and very truthful documentaries do provide the truth about this ongoing and indelible alternation of the Cuban and American landscape. Particularly potent with their truth-telling are the two "Cocaine Cowboys" documentaries. Study, for example, the poster above that proclaims the fact that a "Godmother" in Miami -- in real life -- made "Tony Montana look like Mother Teresa."
The real-life Griselda Blanco was known, among other things, as the "Cocaine Queen of Miami" as you can see above. Her Wikipedia bio claims her cocaine empire took in "$80 million a month" and during that time it was reported that all other drug kingpins, including Pablo Escobar, were afraid of Griselda Blanco. Notice her Miami-Dade mugshot above. When she was finally arrested, she continued to run her drug cartel from a Florida prison, till she was released and deported to Columbia, where she was born in 1943 in the city of Cartagena. Back in Colombia, at age 69 on Sept. 3-2012, Griselda Blanco was murdered by two motorcycle-riding gunmen believed to be working for a rival cartel.
But in her heyday in the 1970s and 1980s Griselda Blanco took full advantage of the Havana-to-Miami transition of the Batista-Mafiosi enterprise that had ransacked Cuba from 1952 till 1959. Yes, Griselda Blanca by the 1970s had become the most feared drug deader not only in Miami but also NY, LA, and Colombia. She's a legend. In August-2018 the Discovery channels are showing an updated documentary about her that is chillingly narrated by her son Michael Carleone Blanco.
Griselda Blanca in her prime.
Yes indeed, truth-tellers and Hollywood all love the "real-life story of Miami's most ruthless drug lord" -- Griselda Blanco -- even if the U. S. government, the intimidated U. S. media, and Miami's Little Havana politicos don't. I mean, AFTER ALL, the Batistianos-Mafiosi sincw 1959 have dictated the Cuban narrative in the United States and thus they are portrayed as Mother Teresa-type angels while the Cuban rebels who chased them to Florida are painted as the worst villains in the world. The poster above is for the Hollywood movie "Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story" that starred super actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, the wife of superstar Michael Douglas, as Griselda.
And now we're told that superstar Jennifer Lopez will be the next Hollywood A-list actress to play Miami's all-time Cocaine Superstar Griselda Blanco. In other words, since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 spawned Little Havana in Miami, Tony Montana & Griselda Blanco have emerged as that drastically changed American city's two most famous and infamous celebrties, even ahead of such famed Cuban exiles as...Jorge Mas Canosa, Rafael Diaz-Balart, Orlando Bosch, Luis Posada Carriles, etc. -- historic names that can be easily Googled but who, so far at least, don't have Hollywood championing their notoriety in the U. S. city of Miami that the Cuban Revolution so drastically RE-SHAPED.
Many Mafia kingpins, from Havana visitor and investor Al Capone to Havana legends and dictators Meyer Lansky and Fulgencio Batista owned homes and other property in South Florida prior to the 1950s. But Miami and the Mafia didn't become synonymous as the Miami Mafia {cigars & all} until the Cuban Revolution chased the leaders of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship from Havana to Miami in January of 1959, permanently re-defining both Cuba and the United States.
The historic Havana Mafia to Miami Mafia transition was perhaps best defined by a famous quote by the Cuban Revolution's incomparable heroine Celia Sanchez: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." And after that gem, Celia, who died of cancer in her re-shaped Cuba in 1980, also famously and prophetically stated: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Fidel died at age 90 in 2016 in Revolutionary Havana. In other words, Celia Sanchez was undefeated as a guerrilla fighter, revolutionary decision-maker, and as the definitive chronicler of both the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba.
A petite doctor's daughter, Celia Sanchez was not greedy, not a coward, and not an idiot. That's probably why her revolution won and chased her enemies to Miami...because she had the 100% support of not only the well-to-do lawyer Fidel Castro but also the entire everyday Cuban population, the portion not-aligned with the Mafiosi.
Most people are aware that the Al Pacino, Brian DePalma, and Oliver Stone Hollywood classic "Scarface" established Tony Montana as Miami's all-time most notable celebrity. But 'lo & behold, a new slew of documentaries and movies are making a very salient point, dropping Tony down to #Two.
YES INDEED: "The Godmother...Griselda Blanco..."makes Tony Montana look like Mother Teresa." And TRUTH be known both Tony & Griselda were gifts to Miami and the United States from the victorious and still viable Cuban Revolution.
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