Cuban-American Moderates

Why Are They Unelectable??

      Nelson Balido is one of America's most talented and most accomplished Cuban-Americans. He is head of Balido and Associates, Chairman of the Border Commerce and Security Council, newly appointed to the U. S. Department of Commerce, and highly respected for his work on the Homeland Security Council. I am a lifelong conservative Republican driven out of my political party by the right-wing extremism of the Bush dynasty and the Tea Party. As a great admirer of talented Cuban-Americans, I believe there are about two million of them -- such as Nelson Balido -- that I would readily support if they ran for President of the United States. But it seems that the only politicians in the Cuban-American community who can get elected are anti-Castro extremists -- such as would-be presidential hopefuls Cruz and Rubio or members of the U. S. Congress such as the Diaz-Balarts whose father was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship before challenging Jorge Mas Canosa as the richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealot in Miami. Similarly, if you happen to be among the majority 2 million moderate Cuban-Americans, it seems you are not eligible for elective office in Miami and other South Florida cities. Even in the Trump-Clinton sweepstakes in 2016, the Republican Party didn't stand a chance with extremists like Cruz and Rubio but I believe a Cuban-American like Nelson Balido could have been elected President of the United States in November of 2016.

      Among his other accomplishments, Nelson Balido is a gifted and fair-minded correspondent for Fox News Latino. In that capacity he recently filed a report entitled: "As U. S., Cuba Normalize Relations, Time To Change Immigration Policies for Cubans." Most Americans, most Cuban-Americans and most of America's best friends around the world are embarrassed for the United States because its democracy does not appear to be strong enough to deal democratically with a Cuban policy dictated since the 1950s by Cuban-exile extremists and their self-serving sycophants such as the Bush dynasty. Thus, for decades now only Cuban-American extremists -- not democracy-loving moderates like Nelson Balido -- are candidates to get elected to national or major-city offices. But most Cuban-Americans agree with Nelson Balido, a brave supporter of President Obama's bold and history-making openings to Cuba. In his aforementioned Fox News Latina update, Mr. Balido made these points:

            "Currently the United States treats Cuban citizens like no other...The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 was designed to give asylum to the 300,000 Cubans who fled the Cuban Revolution...The act is still used today...This law is accompanied by a minimum 20,000 visas handed out to Cubans each year through a lottery system as well as President Clinton's wet foot/dry foot policy, which continues to shelter Cubans who make it to the United States...The significant uptick in Cubans owes in part to Cuban concerns that U. S. immigration laws may soon change...For decades, U. S. policies have given Cubans a direct path to U. S. residency unavailable to any other nationality of immigrants...Many families benefited from this, including those of presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, and this author...Currently, Cuban immigrants enjoy about $700 million each year in public benefits...It has been reported that some Cuba immigrants take advantage of government aid programs like food stamps and Medicare while frequently traveling back and forth to Cuba for commercial reasons...In essence, the U. S. taxpayer is subsidizing a jet-set Cuban lifestyle and not advancing the economic potential of American residents...Aren't there other legal immigrants who could legitimately use some of that public support?...While many Cubans arriving in the United States are honorable and law abiding, some are not...Some Cuban criminal organizations come to the U. S., unfortunately...U. S. law enforcement has no insight into the background of arriving Cuban immigrants and so are unable to deny entry to criminals under existing law...I agree with Obama...If the U. S. is going to treat Cuba like any other country, we should treat its citizens like any other immigrants." 

       Nelson Balido is shown here being interviewed on Texas Insider because he is a brilliant Cuban-American who agrees with President Obama's sane and decent Cuban policies, not those of Cuban-American elected officials -- Cruz, Rubio, the Diaz-Balarts, Menendez, Curbelo, etc. -- who don't seem to share Balido's concerns for America's democratic image, Cubans on the island being embargoed or worse, a closer vetting of Cuban immigrants like all other immigrants, etc. The first Cuban-American in the White House should be someone like Nelson Balido, but in the current money-crazed two-party political cycle, neither the honorable Cuban-American community nor the great American democracy appears capable of producing a national candidate with Mr. Balido's multitude of positive presidential credentials. Yet, there always seems to be billions of special-interest dollars ready to support extremists who openly carry "For-Sale" signs on their backs. Millions of Americans seeking to rid their democracy of bought-and-paid-for establishment rogues are even turning to Trump and Sanders as the lesser of the evils, even as a few billionaires and the establishment underpinning tries to discount all those individual voters. By way of contrast, the skilled Mr. Balido is the type Cuban-American that believes in democracy and decency...even when Cuba is concerned. I hereby nominate him for President in 2020. 2016 is already a Lost Cause.

Meanwhile:

              The BBC today used this Reuters photo to report that beginning today -- Monday, May 9th, 2016 -- the 4,000 Cubans that have been stranded in Panama for months will begin flying to Ciudad Juarez and once in that Mexican border city they will be home-free with "special non-vetting privileges," as the BBC said, starting the very moment any Cuban touches sacred United States soil.  

                The BBC used this EPA photo to show one of the 4,000 Cubans stuck in Panama for months before the unhappy Panamanian government arranged for flights to the Mexican-U.S. border starting today. Panama said the Cubans will have to pay "full price" for the flights but the BBC indicated that would be no problem because "apparently" the Cubans are very rich with many of them reportedly having already paid up to $17,000 to human traffickers to move them over air-and-land routes to the United States. 

        The airplane flights from Cuba to begin the land or air trek through or over five unhappy countries to get to the Mexican-U. S. border reflects how America's "special" laws benefiting and enticing Cubans angers all Latin America nation's whose citizens don't have such "privileges," with non-Cubans subject to detention and deportation, not financial-residency-citizenship rewards.

       Earlier this year 8,000 Cubans were stuck in Costa Rica for months before flights were arranged to get them to U.S.-Mexican border towns in Texas, as depicted by this map. The Costa Rican stalemate came about when Nicaragua blocked its land-route to Mexico, just as other nations have also tried to do.

         While the U. S. Wet Foot/Dry Foot policy that pertains only to Cubans greatly pleases human traffickers and the Cuban hardliners in Miami, Washington and New Jersey, it riles and punishes all of America's southern neighbors. It also, of course, punishes U. S. taxpayers and demeans the image of the U. S. and democracy in the region and around the world, highlighting acute discriminatory U. S. Cuban policies.

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

           

A Batistiano Cuban Policy

Decades of Hurting America

      Erin Schumaker {above} is the outstanding Health Editor at the Huffington Post. Her latest article is entitled: "Cuba's Had A Lung Cancer Vaccine For Years, And Now It's Coming To The United States." Ms. Schumaker said: "CineVox, which is both a treatment and vaccine for lung cancer, has been researched in Cuba for 25 years and provided free to the Cuban public since 2011." The vaccine has helped Cubans and cancer patients in other countries but not the U. S...because of the embargo first imposed against Cuba in 1962. It was put in place in 1962 to starve and deprive Cubans on the island to induce them to overthrow Fidel Castro, but it has starved and deprived the U. S. democracy in the eyes of the entire world. As the article by Ms. Schumaker reminds me, the decades-long hostility towards Cuba may please and benefit a few powerful Cuban-Americans but it serves to harm everyone else, including America's cancer patients.

       Since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, two generations of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans have benefited drastically -- revengefully, economically, and politically -- from dictating America's Cuban policy with practically no democratic resistance to speak of.

      In April of 1959 Celia Sanchez, the leading player in the victorious Cuban Revolution and later in Revolutionary Cuba, took notice that key elements of the ousted Batista dictatorship had regrouped in South Florida and, still with backing from the U. S. government, had already begun creating paramilitary units around Miami and a military unit at Fort Benning designed to recapture Cuba. That was when Celia Sanchez first coined the word "Batistiano" with this firm proclamation: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives." Celia died from cancer at age 59 in 1980; Fidel still lives as he nears his 90th birthday in August. And, most notably, Celia's bold proclamation still lives. 

         In April of 2016 Josefina Vidal, now Cuba's primary expert on America and Batistianos, noticed that two viciously anti-Castro first-term Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- Cruz and Rubio -- were Republican presidential candidates. The astute Ms. Vidal then opined: "It now seems that the Batistianos have a new plan. They now plan to CAPTURE the White House first and then RE-CAPTURE Cuba."  And that was an analysis, not a joke. Ms. Vidal, like Celia Sanchez, doesn't joke about Cuba's hard-earned sovereignty.

       This montage is courtesy of The Miami Herald and WLRN. If you study it and do a little Googling, you will better understand what Celia Sanchez in 1959 and Josefina Vidal in 2016 meant when they used the word "Batistiano." And you'll better comprehend why the aforementioned article by health expert Erin Schumaker reveals how much the Batistiano transition from Cuba to the U. S. has harmed America and Americans. The photos above reflect three generations of the Diaz-Balart family. On the left is the grandfather Rafael; he was a powerful mayor and legislator in Cuba. Standing next to him is his son, also named Rafael; Rafael the Son was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and one of its most significant leaders that fled to South Florida, where he became one of the all-time richest and most powerful anti-Castro zealots. Rafael the Son, in fact, created the first anti-Castro paramilitary unit -- the White Rose -- in South Florida. On the right-top is Lincoln, Rafael the Son's son who was born in Havana. On the right-bottom is Mario, Rafael the Son's son born in South Florida. Both Lincoln and Mario have been elected from Miami to the United States Congress where their anti-Castro zealotry continued full bore. Knowing such things will help you know how and why the U. S. Congress and the Republican presidents since 1959 have also been Batistiano-like to the detriment of Cubans on the island, Cuban-Americans, and Americans.

       Candace Johnson is a wonderful lady. A renowned cancer expert, Dr. Johnson is the CEO of the Rockwell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. On behalf of her cancer patients, she has waged an heroic fight against the Batistiano-inspired and United States Congress-engineered U. S. embargo of Cuba. When President Obama bravely opened many doors to Cuba and sliced into the embargo, Dr. Johnson begged New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to go along with his entourage to Cuba earlier this year. She met with the Cuban scientists that invented CineVox, the cancer vaccine she covets for her patients. And she got permission from the Cuban government to obtain it free of charge if it will help poor Americans. She then had to come back to the United States and beg the Batistiano-directed Congress. The aforementioned article by Erin Schumaker liberally quotes Dr. Johnson. You can go online to access it.

       Dr. Candace Johnson is merely a tiny microcosm of the vast array of Americans who have suffered for decades because of a U. S. Cuban policy designed to cater to a handful of revengeful, greedy Cuban-Americans, and their easily acquired sycophants, at the expense of most Americans, most Cubans, most Cuban-Americans and most people around the world, as indicated by the yearly vote in the United Nations.

        President Obama is doing all he can to erase as many evils of America's Batistiano-sanctioned Cuban policy as he possibly can. But his enemies also include a bought-and-paid-for Congress, the intimidated and largely incompetent U. S. media, apathetic U. S. citizens, and even the Supreme Court that in 2010 made it legal for individual and corporate billionaires to use unlimited cash to distort America's democratic process. Moreover, Mr. Obama's two-term presidency is fast coming to an end in January. After that, it is unlikely that a money-crazed political system will be able to elect a President that possesses Mr. Obama's guts, intelligence, and love for democracy. In other words, beginning in January of 2017, the image of America as depicted above may never again have a force like Mr. Obama to sincerely try to oppose it.

Columbus discovered Cuba and America in 1492.

But since 1492 being "Good Friends" has been a problem.

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

Cuba and U. S. Superstars

Updated: Saturday, April 7th, 2016

        This AP photo was taken in Havana this week by Desmond Boylan. It shows America's famed couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West being driven around Cuba's capital city in a classic 1950s convertible, as Kim takes a selfie with her Smart Phone.

      The celebrity-chronicling super blog TMZ used this photo to highlight its massive coverage of Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and their two children in Cuba this week. But CNN and other cable news outlets also have had field days with this particular celebrity visit to the island, routinely ridiculing it.

       Not surprising, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- the Havana-born anti-Castro zealot from Miami who has been in the U. S. Congress since 1989 -- raved the loudest about the U. S. celebrity tourists and President Obama's open-door policy that has sliced into six-decades of the long-unchallenged Miami-directed war-like treatment of Cuba. Ros-Lehtinen said: "Haven't the Cuban people suffered enough? Fidel, Raul Castro, and now the Kardashians?" The cowardly, incompetent U. S. media has lapped up such Ros-Lehtinen quotes this week, a media that doesn't have the guts to remind Americans that the Kardashians are not in Cuba to "hurt" the Cubans on the island but Ros-Lehtinen's historic support of such things as the cruel and endless embargo and her unconscionable support {as bravely detailed by Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede} of the most infamous Miami-based terrorists have indeed "hurt" Cubans on the island, a "hurt" that President Obama is bravely trying to heal. 

          This AP photo shows Gisele Bundchen fanning herself on a crowded street in Havana. She is the world's highest paid supermodel and she is also the wife of Tom Brady, the NFL superstar quarterback. This week it seems Havana is overwhelmed with famous visitors thanks to President Obama opening doors to Cuba that were closed for over half a century, such as allowing cruise ships from the U. S. to Cuba.

Chanel models {AP} are using Cuba as a runway this week!!

       Meanwhile, America's superstar actor Vin Diesel {Reuters} is commanding the next street over in Havana. Diesel and his gigantic Hollywood crew, including a host of other major actors, are in Cuba filming the next huge movie in the wildly popular Fast & Furious franchise. Cubans are thrilled...but awed!!

      Havana-born U. S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen takes an extremely dim view of any positive result of President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. The Los Angeles Times yesterday had a major article entitled: "Kardashians' Havana Visit Is Part Of A 'Cruel Trick on the Cuban People,' Congresswoman Says." Ros-Lehtinen told the Los Angeles Times, "Both the Karl Lagerfeld Chanel fashion show and the Kardashian trip to Cuba for their TV show is emblematic of celebrity culture at its worst." Ros-Lehtinen was the first of the Bush-aligned Cuban-American anti-Castro zealots in Miami to be elected to the U. S. Congress, a spot she has held since 1989 when her Campaign Manager was Jeb Bush. Although most Cuban-Americans in Miami favor President Obama's sane efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, only anti-Castro extremists get elected to the U. S. Congress or become presidential candidates. Their rants are never challenged by the mainstream U. S. media nor, generally, by intimidated and proselytized Americans. However, such tirades as Ros-Lehtinen unleashed yesterday are emblematic of the worst elements of the failed, flawed and extremely cruel U. S. Cuban policy that, for decades, has been dictated by self-serving and revengeful Cuban-Americans and their sycophants, such as the Bush dynasty that, perhaps, Americans are also finally getting tired of...as indicated by Jeb's and Rubio's laughable presidential bids.

     This Miami Herald photo shows five leading ultra-powerful anti-revolutionary Cuban-Americans who dominate South Florida's politics along with the entire area's obligatory Cuban mayors, etc. They supported Jeb Bush's presidential bid till he was quickly and unceremoniously eliminated. Then, at the above news conference, they, of course, fired up support for their own Cuban-American U. S. Senator from Miami, Marco Rubio. Then Rubio was unceremoniously eliminated when non-politician and presumably non-bought-and-paid-for Donald Trump trounced him in the Florida primary. Such results indicate that the firm grasp anti-Castro zealots have had on Miami politics since 1959 may finally have to allow for the moderate opinions that are, in fact, in the majority among the two-million Cuban-Americans who deserve a voice.

         The hallowed halo the Bush dynasty's Jeb Bush so self-servingly spun around Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's head in 1989 has served to totally dominate America's egregious Cuban policy from that day till...well, till America got a very brave President named Barack Obama. Ros-Lehtinen, you know, screamed loudly when she claimed Obama didn't even consult her as he forged ahead with his incredibly brave and positive Cuban policies. Now, I wonder why! Ros-Lehtinen and her ilk can still dictate Cuban policy to Congress but not Mr. Obama and, based on polls and this year's presidential election, apparently not to wiser and braver U. S. voters, including those in Florida and New Jersey. The demise of the lushly funded and dangerously ambitious presidential aspirations of the Jeb-Marco-Ted cabal marks at least a temporary end to both the Bush dynasty and the stranglehold Cuban-American extremists have had for decades on America's Cuban policy. But, of course, retaliatory actions and the 2020 presidential election loom ominously ahead.

       Chellie Pingree has represented Maine in the U. S. Congress since 2009. In stark contrast to Cuban-Americans that get elected to Congress, Congresswoman Pingree has no desire to harm Cubans on the island for revengeful, economic or political purposes. In fact, she was in Havana this week meeting with Cuba's Josefina Vidal. Later, Congresswoman Pingree released a statement saying that she and Vidal "discussed the mutual benefit of fully opening trade between the U. S. and Cuba." There is a growing PRO-Cuban sentiment in Congress that for decades has rendered a Cuban policy purely dictated by extremist Cuban-Americans and right-wing sycophants to the detriment of both Cubans and Cuban-Americans.

        For the past quarter century, Marc Frank has been a superb Reuters journalist reporting from Cuba. He best chronicles the Obama-orchestrated changes currently cascading across the island. This week he marveled at how Cuba is trying to cope with the drastic influx of U. S. tourists such as those that arrived on the first cruise ship allowed to visit Cuba from the U. S. in half-a-century and now Cuba's ten international airports must prepare for the first commercial U. S. flights since 1962. Marc Frank wrote: "To accommodate the planned arrival of U. S. commercial service later in 2016, Cuba's government plans to expand its airports. In the meantime, the construction of new hotels and the renovation of others is already underway."  Of course, the astute Mr. Frank also remains quite aware that the recently beaten Rubio-Bush-Cruz alliance plans to regain dominance of America's Cuban policy as soon as Mr. Obama leaves the White House in January.  

Rubio-Bush-Cruz.

Are they just down, and not out? 

Meanwhile:

Cuba is being overwhelmed,
by U. S. celebrities!!

And meanwhile: 

        The Miami Herald used the above illustration to highlight a major article you may want to check out. It's entitled "Condo Confidential." It states: "Miami real estate is a haven for money abroad that is sometimes poorly vetted." Now, IMAGINE THAT!! Foreign billionaires plus 100 million rich tourists in Florida each year!! 

     "Condo Confidential" in the Miami Herald reminds me of "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana" by the preeminent Cuban author Ann Louise Bardach. Some of the guys she wrote about in such vivid detail -- Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, etc. -- were "poorly vetted" in Miami too. 

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

The Marta Rojas Legend

 Updated: Saturday, April 7th, 2016 

      If you do not know the legend of Marta Rojas, you do not know enough about U.S.-Cuban relations to even weigh in on the subject. Certainly since the 1898 Spanish-American War and especially since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship in 1959, the Cuban-U. S. nexus has greatly shaped America's worldwide image, mostly with a negative hue. Cuba, a mere 90 miles off the Florida coast, is only an island...a gorgeous island and the biggest island in the Caribbean, to be sure, but still only an island. Yet, its hostile relationship with the U. S. has elevated Cuba to a spot on the international stage far out of proportion to its size, population, or wealth. For those reasons, and because no other subject has so continuously besmirched America's reputation, I believe it is time for Americans to know Marta Rojas.

        This is Marta Rojas as a precocious little girl growing up in Santiago de Cuba. She was born in 1931. She was audaciously smart and imaginative. In this photo, at age 2, she is well dressed and has her umbrella to protect her from the tropical sun. Holding her suitcase, she is pretending to be going on a trip.

         In her 20s in the early 1950s, the beautiful and well-educated Marta Rojas quickly earned a sterling reputation in Havana as a brilliant young Journalist. She had a lot to cover. In 1952 the U. S. teamed with the Mafia to support the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship. Even more so than Las Vegas, Havana became the epicenter of the Mafia's drug, gambling, and prostitution operations with the top Mafia kingpins -- Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Santo Trafficante Jr., etc. -- calling the shots along with the thieving Fulgencio Batista. And speaking of "shots," there were a lot of those with much of the ammunition paid for by U. S. taxpayers. The Las Vegas-Hollywood crowd -- Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, etc. -- flocked to nefarious, sybaritic Havana. The U. S. government supported the outlandish rip-off because rich Americans were allowed to partake in the rape and robbery of the lush, helpless island. The vast majority of Cubans became outsiders in their own country. A particularly invidious Batista-Mafia ploy still shocks historians: Children were murdered to serve as a warning to peasant families not to resist. {The William Soler Hospital in Cuba today is named for a little boy who was murdered along with 3 of his classmates}. New York Times star journalist Herbert L. Matthews reported on such things; Life Magazine published photos of Cuban mothers, including Willie Soler's mother, bravely marching in the streets carrying signs pointedly accusing Batista of killing their ninos, their children. Still, American citizens didn't give a damn. But some Cubans -- such as a doctor's daughter named Celia Sanchez and a young lawyer named Fidel Castro -- decided to mount a revolution, well knowing that no U.S.-backed dictator had ever remotely been overthrown. 

           All the while, in Batista's Cuba Marta Rojas, the excellent journalist, was a keen observer and supporter of the nascent anti-Batista urban underground, assisting Celia and Fidel anyway she could, such as with information on Batista-Mafia-U.S. activity that she acquired in her role as a trusted journalist.

       On July 26, 1953 Fidel Castro led 120 lightly armed rebels in an ill-conceived attack on the well-fortified Moncada Army Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. All of them were either killed outright or captured soon afterward. Fidel Castro himself {above} was captured. Most of the prisoners were unmercifully tortured for information and then murdered. Fidel was sentenced to 15 years in prison and the plan was to torture and murder him too but that strategy fell victim to Fidel's high-profile as the hope of the island's peasant majority. Also, famed U. S. journalist Herbert L. Matthews supported the rebels and closely monitored Fidel's incarceration. Thus, unlike the other Moncada prisoners, Fidel was neither murdered nor tortured.

       Marta Rojas, trusted by the Batista regime, wrote about the Moncada attack and the subsequent show-trials. Two of the prisoners were the two women who participated in the attack -- Melba Hernandez and Haydee Santamaria. The two revolutionary heroines are shown above being interviewed by Marta Rojas, who doubled as a journalist while being an undercover urban guerrilla. When this photo was taken Marta already knew that Melba and Haydee had been unmercifully tortured; Haydee's beloved brother and her fiance had both been tortured to death as she was tied to a chair and forced to watch, and her fiance's warm testicles were rubbed over her face and chest. As a journalist in Batista's Cuba, Marta couldn't report on such things but she got the information and was allowed to interview Fidel and the two women prisoners so Batista could prove they were still alive because some decent politicians in Washington were reading what Herbert L. Matthews was reporting in the New York Times. Skillfully but dangerously maintaining Batista's trust, Marta requested more interviews with Fidel, pointing out that some in Washington were worried he too would be tortured and murdered. Having access to Fidel's cell, he would write notes and Marta would exit the prison with the notes in her bra. The urban underground would then take the notes from the Isle of Pines prison to Havana and then to Celia Sanchez and her vital guerrilla movement in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. In that fashion Fidel had contact with Celia in 1953-55, long before he ever laid eyes on her in December of 1956. That fortuitous meeting occurred after he joined her revolution after she saved his life when he and 81 other rebels left Mexico on a leaky yacht and then were ambushed by Batista soldiers when they had to abandon the sinking yacht miles up the coast from where their scheduled rendezvous with Celia's rebels waited to protect them. Only 12 of the 82 rebels managed to survive and then join Celia but those 12 included the Castro brothers Fidel and Raul, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos. That episode has been depicted in accurate fashion by author Carlos Franqui in his book "The Twelve" but another good source is Georgie Anne Geyer's "Guerrilla Prince."

Herbert L. Matthews, Fidel's important U. S. friend.

         A Wikipedia map showing Granma's journey that took Fidel and 81 rebels from Mexico to its ditching and ambush at Playa Las Coloradas, 15 miles short of the scheduled rendezvous where Celia Sanchez waited.

        In May of 1955 Batista had been pressured by Washington to free Fidel, Haydee, and Melba from the Isle of Pines prison. The above photo of Fidel embracing the two tormented women was taken the day of their release. The U. S. government, embarrassed by the atrocities reported by journalists such as Herbert L. Matthews, had pressured Batista to release the high-profile prisoners as "a good-will gesture" to the peasants. Batista obliged, welcoming the opportunity to kill Fidel away from the prying eyes of journalists like Mr. Matthews. But utilizing safe-houses and plans provided by his wealthy lover Naty Revuelta and rebel leader Celia Sanchez, Fidel exited the island for recruitment missions in Miami, New York, and Mexico before returning to hook-up with Celia Sanchez. After her release Melba did yeoman work with the urban underground and remained fiercely loyal to Fidel and Cuba till she died in 2014. Haydee, once she was freed, made a beeline to join Celia Sanchez in the Sierra Maestra where Haydee became perhaps the fiercest and most motivated female guerrilla fighter history has ever known.

     Haydee Santamaria {right} and Celia Sanchez leading a guerrilla unit.

       Haydee and Celia already had the anti-Batista guerrilla war well underway in southeastern Cuba when Fidel Castro finally joined them after his perilous journey from Mexico City in early December of 1956.

       This photo was taken in April of 1958 and shows Celia, Fidel and Haydee as guerrilla fighters sitting rather relaxed as they listen to citizens of a Cuban town the rebels had captured. The Batista dictatorship was still in power in Havana but the rebels heading into the summer of 1958 were beginning to capture and hold territory as their march to Havana began to take shape. Batista sent a well-armed 14,000-man army that included U.S.-provided warplanes to wipe them out. But after ten days of bitter fighting {July 11-21, 1958}, the Battle of Jigue resulted in a tremendous upset rebel victory, heralding the beginning of the end for Batista and, for the first time, gravely worrying and very deeply embarrassing Batista's supporters.

     In the Sierra Maestra Mountains and its foothills, Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria were not only the fiercest guerrilla fighters, they were also the prime recruiters of rebels, weapons, supplies, and money. In the photo above, Celia and Haydee are letting Fidel Castro handle some of the money that helped fund the rebels. Miami and New York City were prime sources of rebel money. An exchange of notes available at the Cuban Historical Society and published in the U. S. by author Julia E. Sweig revealed that Haydee, who preferred fighting, was once irritated when Celia insisted she sail to Miami to recruit some more "needed cash." Celia's primary source for weapons was Caracas where she had cultivated serious ties with top Venezuelan military and government leaders. Within days after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1-1959, Celia flew a reluctant Fidel to Caracas to thank those leaders in Venezuela. By April of 1959 Celia insisted that a still reluctant Fidel fly to the U. S. on a 12-day visit intended to normalize relations with America but Vice President Nixon, the Dulles brothers, and a few other right-wingers in the Eisenhower administration dashed those hopes from then until...well, until the more honest and current administration of Barack Obama. But the photo above is another indication of why Celia Sanchez was the leading player in the Cuban Revolution; Haydee Santamaria was her fiercest ally; and Fidel Castro was always her most vital supporter. As an insider, Marta Rojas knew and knows such facts.

      All the while, Marta Rojas -- the young journalist in Havana that opposed Batista but was trusted by him -- bravely worked in Celia's urban underground on behalf of the revolution. Therefore, from those days to this day, Marta Rojas intimately knew and still knows the facts detailed above. This photo-montage shows a recent image of Marta with a black-and-white photo of Haydee Santamaria and Melba Hernandez when they were tortured prisoners of the Batista dictatorship. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, all three heroic women -- Marta, Haydee, and Melba -- remained fiercely loyal to the new Cuba they helped forge.

          In December of 1959 it was Marta Rojas {above} who introduced Fidel for his very first televised speech to the nation. Fidel also used Marta's notes to write his historic book about the Moncada trial.

         In the early days of Revolutionary Cuba, this photo shows Fidel Castro smiling proudly at a beaming Marta Rojas. A decade earlier -- 1953-55 -- Fidel was in a Batista prison cell that the journalist Marta regularly visited, supposedly so Batista could show that Fidel had not been murdered. In that manner, Marta initiated the revolution's most vital union, the one between Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez. 

       To this day, Marta Rojas proudly shows off the July 26th banner that Fidel Castro designated as the theme of the Cuban Revolution in honor of the ill-fated but legendary July 26-1953 Moncada attack.

        Today Marta is often the subject of television and newspaper interviews, and not just because she is one of Cuba's greatest revolutionary heroines. As I was told by one of America's best journalists when I was in Cuba to research Celia Sanchez, "Marta knows more about Celia and Cuba than anyone alive today." 

        Even the Miami Herald recognizes the unique greatness of Marta Rojas. The above photo shows renowned American actor Danny Glover hugging Marta. The photo was used to illustrate a major Herald article written by Ron Howell and entitled: "Journalist Marta Rojas: An Unrecognized Witness to Cuban History." Mr. Howell told his Miami Herald readers that Marta is "a victim" of the U. S. embargo because, by dictating the Cuban narrative in the U. S. for so long, the greatness of Marta has remained unknown -- or "unrecognized" -- by propagandized Americans. In the article Mr. Howell also pointed out that Fidel Castro once said that Marta "knew more about" Moncada and other aspects of the Cuban Revolution than he did. Unintimidated Americans like Mr. Glover understand that; other Americans have the right to know it too.

       The Dutch news outlet Mo-Mondiaal Nievws featured one of the best profiles of Marta Rojas. It was written by Alma de Walsche and entitled: "Cuban Journalist and Author Marta Rojas: A Living Legend." The article said Marta got her journalism degree at the University of Havana at age 22 in July of 1953. Then she went home to celebrate in Santiago de Cuba. On July 26, 1953 she heard what she thought were firecrackers but it turned out to be the Fidel Castro-led attack on the Moncada Army Barracks. Marta told Ms. Walsche, "In a few hours time I drifted from watching a festival in Santiago to being a war correspondent." She took notes and photos of the attack and took them to Bohemia Magazine in Havana. The magazine hired her and Marta at age 22 was on her way to becoming one of the greatest journalists and authors in Latin American history. She told Ms. Walsche how she became "sympathetic" to the out-manned rebels trying to defeat the Batista dictatorship. She also told Ms. Walsche: "The U. S. has tried so hard to neglect Cuba's independence. But they didn't succeed. Nowadays Cuba is fully engaged in the unification process, the fight for independence, in Latin America, and now hopefully President Obama will end the embargo. Ojala! Ojala!"

       Today Marta Rojas is renowned as one of Latin America's all-time greatest revolutionaries, journalists, historians, and authors. The U. S. publishing giant Random House is among her international publishers.

       Not only is Marta Rojas a great writer who possesses a veritable trove of knowledge about Cuba, the Cuban Revolution, Revolutionary Cuba and all its major players, but her unique insight and analyses are also considered extremely honest and totally unbiased, legitimizing her views of the Batista-Mafia era and what has followed these last six decades. And that's why I believe, as U.S.-Cuban relations make new headlines in 2016, you need to know Marta Rojas to comprehend exactly what is happening and why.

Marta Rojas 

A True Cuban Legend.

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