An Emotional Day for Fidel Castro

The 26th of July was a very meaningful day in Cuba.

         And Friday, July 26th, 2013 was an exceedingly emotional day for Fidel Castro. It's the 60th anniversary of the audacious attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The ill-fated operation was easily defeated by the much stronger forces of dictator Fulgencio Batista but the effort and the date resulted in the name Fidel attached to his revolution that over-threw the Batista regime five-and-one-half years later. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the attack, at least eight Presidents of Latin American and Caribbean countries visited Havana to reminisce with Fidel.

     An old warrior named Jose Mujica particularly made Moncada's 60th anniversary very emotional for Fidel. The 78-year-old Mujica has been the democratically elected President of Uruguay since 2010. As a rebel and as a politician -- not unlike current democratically elected Presidents in Brazil, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, etc. -- Mujica's inspiration was spawned by the Cuban Revolution. With Fidel Castro his idol, Mujica joined the Tupamaros movement in 1960 to try to overthrow a foreign-backed military dictatorship in Uruguay. He was captured four times, once after being shot six times. He had served 14 years in a military prison when he was released in 1985 when Uruguay got a constitutional democracy. Jose's political career then took off thanks to his insatiable support of poor people. Today President Mujica gets a salary of $12,000 a month but he has famously always given at least 90% of his income to the poorest people in Uruguay. He and his wife Lucia...she, too, was a guerrilla fighter who still worships Fidel Castro...own an austere little farm on the outskirts of Montevideo where they raise and sell flowers, an income they also give away to poor people. Their only vehicle is a 15-year-old Volkswagen Beetle. He famously proclaims: "All elected officials should be poor like me, not rich parasites."

In Havana President Jose Mujica of Uruguay this week toasted the Cuban people.

And President Mujica placed flowers at the Jose Marti Memorial.

But President Mujica made it known that his trip was primarily to visit his idol, Fidel Castro.

       President Mujica said he was "delighted to find my dearest friend in such good health after all he has endured." He said, "I found an elderly man who continues to be brilliant, always a promoter of ideas that benefit poor people." He revealed that he and Fidel discussed "wide-ranging topics, everything." President Mujica congratulated Fidel on the 60th anniversary of the Moncada attack and wished him "a happy 87th birthday." As they parted, he said, "I am the elected President of Uruguay because of you and you should know there will be others like me. Poor people needed you and they surely need people like me that you inspired."

       Lucia Topolansky, the wife of Jose Mujica and the First Lady of Uruguay, accompanied her husband on the trip to Cuba and also met her idol Fidel Castro. Lucia, like Mujica, was a guerrilla fighter inspired by the Cuban Revolution back in the 1960s and 1970s. And like Mujica, she still shuns opulence and gives almost all of her worldly possessions to poor people. "That's how we honor Fidel in Uruguay," she said proudly.

Fidel Castro turns 87-years-old in a few days, on August 13th.

Unabashedly and unapologetically he has defied more odds than perhaps any other historic figure.
The perception that he championed poor people has inspired others.
Including...Jose Mujica and Lucia Topolansky.
And Speaking of July 26th.......

      Celia Sanchez, Fidel's all-time most important ally, would be proud he is still around to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Moncada attack. It was Celia Sanchez who proclaimed way back in 1959: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." She died of cancer at age 59 on January 11, 1980. But...he still lives. And therefore, against all odds, so does her proclamation.

Celia Sanchez kept the revolution alive the two years Fidel was imprisoned after the Moncada attack.

      And beginning in December of 1956 when he joined her fight in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, Fidel was smart enough to let Celia Sanchez be the prime decision-maker for the rest of the revolutionary war and then in Revolutionary Cuba. That's why renowned Cuban historian Pedro Alvarez Tabio was correct when he concluded: "If Batista had managed to kill Celia Sanchez anytime between 1953 and 1957, there would have been no viable Cuban Revolution, and no revolution for Fidel and Che to join." And Cuban photographer/author Roberto Salas was correct when he concluded: "Celia made all the decisions for Cuba, the big ones and the small ones. When she died of cancer in 1980, we all knew no one could ever replace her." 

Fidel Castro agrees with both conclusions.

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

The True Faces of Cuba

Contrast Sharply With Fictional Portrayals of the Island
{A Pictorial Essay refurbished on July 23rd, 2013}

        It has always amazed me how little Americans know about Cuba, especially the Americans who have heard and read so much about the island south of Florida that dominates the Caribbean. Most of what Americans hear and read about Cuba is scripted by two generations of self-serving Cuban exiles booted off the island, with reason, by the Cuban Revolution way back in 1959. Those of us who have been to Cuba and studied non-exile images of it have observed and discovered a fascinating island quite different from what we are supposed to know about it. I reckon that is why the vast and lucrative American cottage industry created by a handful of two generations of exiles dictate that Cuba is the one destination in the world that Americans cannot freely visit. Routinely accepting what we are told about Cuba is not conducive to supporting our democracy because Cuba is not what a few self-indulgent exiles or dissidents say it is. Cuba is what everyday Cubans on the island say it is. With that in mind, here is a reflection of the Cuba I saw...what I consider the true images of an island often hidden behind a veil of secrecy and deceit.

I have visited everyday Cubans from Pinar del Rio in the West to Santiago de Cuba in the East.

Ernest Hemingway's favorite bar, La Bodeguita del Medio, still serves the best mojitos.

Cubans love outdoor murals.

Santiago de Cuba, the former capital and second largest city, remains a Spanish and Caribbean gem.

The edge of Santiago de Cuba on the southeastern end of the island.

Cuban musicians are ubiquitous from one end of the island to the other.

Cuban beaches, like Cayo Largo, are among the world's most pristine.

This tiny, beautiful bird -- the Tody -- is found only on the island of Cuba.

Everyday Cubans are perhaps the happiest people you'll ever meet.

Cuban girls relax on the wall that fronts Havana's famed Malecon Boulevard. 

Cuba devotes an amazing amount of resources to such things as ballet schools.

Calm, turquoise waters near Varadero, Cayo Coco, and Cayo Largo are breathtaking.

A young Cuban woman dives into the ocean.

Havana's famed Hotel Nacional has been refurbished.

Cuban girls enjoying ice cream in Florida, Cuba {correct} after a long bike ride.

The south-central colonial coastal city of Trinidad was my favorite historical spot.

This tree separates the city of Trinidad from the ocean.

Paladars, the restaurants in homes, serve the best food in Cuba.

The World Bank says that Cuba's literacy rate is a world-class 98.6%.

All Cubans are guaranteed free shelter on the island, often in pre-revolutionary mansions.

A poster inside a school in Bayamo proclaims free educations, free health care, etc., for all children.

Cuban schoolchildren posing with their two teachers for a photo.

Even young schoolchildren in Cuba are veterans when it comes to posing for tourist photos.

Cubans young and old love to relax in spirited dominoes competitions.

A Cuban lady sweeps her stoop near a "Long Live the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution" sign.

Cuban children ride a carousel free in the seaside town of Gibara.

A Ramon Espinoso/AP photo shows a Cuban mother watching her little girl yawn at the start of a school day.

Tourists enjoy one of Cuba's beaches.

A Cuban man in Gibara just paid a truck vendor 15 pesos for a large jar of beer.

Cuban schoolgirls walk past murals honoring 19th century independence fighters against Spain.

A Cuban mother fawning over her two daughters on the way to a wedding.

Cubans following a hearse on the way to a funeral.

Even during pre-game warm-ups Cubans cheer wildly for their favorite baseball teams.

A view of the Caribbean Sea from Santiago de Cuba's old Morro Fortress built in the 1600s.

In the 1950s the U. S. trained and armed Cuban soldiers to support the Batista/Mafia dictatorship.

But the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959 booted the Batistianos and the Mafiosos off the island.

Since 1959 the exiled Batistianos and Mafiosos have yearned to feast on the island again!

The Cuban Godfathers of the 1950s are gone but they have spawned two generations of rich, eager exiles.

Ros-Lehtinen/Rubio/Menendez now lead the Cuban government within the U. S. government.

Cuban-Americans who dictate America's Cuban policy make super-heroes out of Cuban dissidents.
Therefore.................

....today's views and opinions of Cuba can best be honed and shaped by actually visiting the island.

But that's why Americans are restricted from doing so.
For decades lies and deceptions about Cuba have translated to wealth and power for an undeserving few.
And punishing innocent Cubans is a part of the equation.

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