The Must-See Cubans

Off the Beaten Paths!!

      Thanks to long-awaited positive overtures to Cuba made by America's former very brave President Obama, the island of Cuba set a record with over four million tourists in 2016. Despite 2017 roll-backs and a return to America's Cold War negatives by America's new President Trump, Cuban tourism as of July-2017 is on pace to break last year's record. The island's two largest cities -- capital Havana on the northern tip and former capital Santiago de Cuba on the southeastern tip -- are the two primary tourist attractions but many discernible visitors to Cuba prefer areas between or far outside the major 14 sites depicted above.

           For example, study the map above and focus on the red dot in the middle. That's the location of the quaint little city of San Antonio de los Banos, which was founded 16 miles due south of Havana in 1802. To truly understand Cuba, you need to be acquainted with San Antonio and its 40,000 totally typical Cubans.

San Antonio is a beautiful little Cuban city. 

       In San Antonio the Hotel Las Yagrumas is situated in the center of a truly beautiful forested area that well-informed tourists visit and re-visit because of attractions such as superb hiking trails, a unique variety of bird-life, caves, and warm but soothing Caribbean breezes. The staff at the Hotel Las Yagrumas speak fluent Spanish, English, German, Italian and French...and "some" Chinese and Russian.

         The Hotel Las Yagrumas is located on a bend of the Ariguanabo River in San Antonio de los Banos. The river is a tourist favorite of hikers because it is clean, calm and ideal for swimming and canoeing.

A prominent building in San Antonio.

This and the next 2 photos are courtesy of Panoramio/Google.

A beautiful waterway runs through San Antonio.

A popular shady spot in San Antonio, Cuba.

         Another very quiet, shady spot in the heart of San Antonio de los Banos. This photo and the next three were taken by Juan Suarez and are used courtesy of Havana Times.org. They were part of a 50-photo package that updates the lives of everyday Cubans in this very special but off-the-beaten-paths little city.

A Tourist touring the city of San Antonio de las Banos.

          This is an old-timer in San Antonio who remembers Batista's Cuba and prefers living in Revolutionary Cuba. Juan Suarez said: "When you go outside Havana, all of the city's neighboring towns have a different atmosphere. There is clean air, it's peaceful, people greet you and smile when you take their picture."

Trash collection in San Antonio, Cuba.

The red dot shows the location of San Antonio, Cuba.

And by the way:

         This photo was taken by Alexandre Meneghini, the great Reuters photographer in Cuba. The extremely weird photo shows crabs at the Bay of Pigs emerging from the forest to head to the sea to spawn. Indiatimes.com used this photo to state: "The Bay of Pigs was attacked unsuccessfully in April-1961 by the United States and fierce Cuban exiles. But this week the Bay of Pigs is being attacked successfully by crabs in their annual spawning dash to the sea."

    As photographed by Alexandre Meneghini, a Cuban crab up close.

        Cuba has always called the Bay of Pigs "Playa Largo." Now that crabs have joined its natural tropical beauty and the infamous 1961 military attack to help make it a tourist attraction, note that the entrance features a giant crab.

Bay of Pigs/Playa Largo!

Famous for the military attack and now a yearly crab invasion!! 

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Decent Cubans vs. U.S. Evil

Cuba's Julia vs. U.S.'s Rubio!!

        This photo, courtesy of NBC News, shows two decent, hard-working Cubans -- Sylvia Ortega and his wife Julia de la Rosa. They believe, correctly I believe, that their biggest enemy is USA's Marco Rubio.

        Now in his second term as a U. S. Senator from Miami, Marco Rubio -- obsessed with presidential ambitions -- is a prime reason America's Cuban policy currently has a 191-to-0 INTERNATIONAL condemnation as evidenced by the most recent vote in the United Nations. More significantly, the willingness and eagerness of a handful of self-serving Cuban-Americans like Rubio to hide behind the omnipotent power of the U. S. government shames America and all Americans because, to feather their own economic and political nests, Rubio-types routinely harm and punish totally innocent Cubans on the island. Of course, in the eyes and hearts of the world, this has reflected terribly for six-decades on America's democracy, yet two generations of pusillanimous Americans have cowardly and unpatriotically permitted it to happen. NOW PERMIT ME TO EXPLAIN WHY THE VERY DECENT CUBAN COUPLE -- SYLVIA AND JULIA -- CONSIDER RUBIO THEIR BIGGEST ENEMY IN THIS BIG, WIDE WORLD.

       This photo of Julia de la Rosa is courtesy of NBC News. Julia is 49-years-old. She has been punished all her life on the island of Cuba by a U. S. Cuban policy largely dictated by remnants of the vile Batista-Mafia dictatorship chased to U. S. soil by the victorious Cuban Revolution in January of 1959. But Julia caught a break when U. S. President Barack Obama became the first U. S. president since the 1950s to treat Cubans like her with decency and respect. So, thanks to Obama and new regulations imposed by her government, Julia became a very successful entrepreneur. As explained on July 7th-2017 by the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Julia "turned a mansion in disrepair into a popular bed-and-breakfast." Julia soon was renting out ten rooms daily, mostly to Americans after Obama eased the decades-old Batistiano law that made Americans the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. With her own thriving business, Julia had 17 Cubans working for her. Then on June 16-2017 Julia with trepidation watched the live broadcast of President Trump's speech in Miami, which was carried live on state television in Cuba. After listening to Trump's roll-back of Obama's decent and sane overtures to Cuba, Julia cried. Later she told Andrea Mitchell of NBC News: "With what Trump and Rubio are doing, I am afraid. I don't want to think about it. I worry about my family but I also worry about the 17 families on my payroll who need the money that I have been able to pay them." Yes, Julia and thousands of other entrepreneurs like her on the island well knew that RUBIO had been the prime instigator goading Trump into rolling back Obama's Cuban directives that had helped Julia and many hard-working Cubans like her finally see a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

      On June 16, 2017, Julia de la Rosa had watched on live television in Cuba the spectacle depicted above. With a smirking Marco Rubio peering over President Trump's right shoulder, the cowardly and Batistiano-directed U. S. President signed into law a roll-back of former President Obama's decent and sane Cuban overtures. Also with extreme cowardice, this signing was done in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood in a building named for a veteran of the shameful 1961 Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba. Inside that building, of course, was only a choir made up of self-serving Cuban-Americans and their political sycophants while outside in the streets even the Miami Herald reported that the only anti-Trump demonstrators were Miami Cuban-Americans who advocate normal relations with Cuba, and all polls in Miami reveal that the vast majority of Cuban-Americans strongly advocate such decency. Unfortunately, the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami, and thus in the U. S. Congress, are never represented when it comes to Cuba.

      This photograph is courtesy of CNBC, America's top business network. It was used to illustrate a heart-wrenching report prior to June 16-2017 when over 100 young Cuban entrepreneurs brought a letter to Washington begging President Trump not to overturn the progress they had made on the island thanks to President Obama and the new regulations allowed by the Cuban government. To their shame, and to America's shame, President Trump -- goaded by Senator Rubio -- ignored their pleas. All the while, according to Rubio and his ilk, the young Cuban couple above are the bad guys and miscreants like him are the good guys in Miami and in the U.S. Congress.

    The emblem above was the primary symbol that the Cuban entrepreneurs took with them to Washington prior to June 16-2017 when they begged President Trump to allow them to continue to make decent careers for themselves and their families on the island -- just as President Obama had hoped, and arranged, for them to do.

The letter that begged Trump...in vain.

       On Friday, July 7th, 2017, The Center for Democracy in the Americas again pinpointed Senator Marco Rubio of Miami as "the principal architect" of President Trump's latest assault on totally innocent Cubans like the hard-working and very decent Julia de la Rosa. Since 1959 two generations of cowardly and unpatriotic Americans have allowed a mere handful of indecent, self-serving Cuban-Americans like Rubio to benefit and prosper from punishing Cubans on the island like Julia even though the strong majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami strongly disagree with that policy. Yet, it appears that only the likes of Rubio can get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami...and therein lies the cancerous plague for America and for democracy. If the UN vote denouncing that atrocity is 191-to-0, how can Americans who allow it to happen sleep at night? Is it because their consciences have been asleep all day?? Of course, benefactors like Rubio will never be held accountable by either the U. S media or the U. S. public. And that's why, as she told NBC's Andrea Mitchell, Julia de la Rosa cried in Havana on June 16th, 2017. Decent women in a little country should not be made to cry by indecent men in a much larger country.

America's shame: a teary-eyed Julia de la Rosa.
Decent women in a small country...
should not be made to cry...
by indecent men in a much larger country.

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Talented Cubans Abound

In Cuba and Elsewhere!

       Superstar singer and actress Jennifer Lopez has a new hit record entitled "Ni Tu Ni Yo" {"Neither You Nor I"} that also features the great Cuban duo Gente de Zona.

       This week -- on July 4th, 2017 -- at the Macy's Fireworks Spectacular in New York City -- Jennifer Lopez and Gente de Zona debuted their new scintillating song.

        The award-winning Gente de Zona musical duo consists of Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom Martinez. Alexander founded the group in 2000 in the Alamar section of Havana, Cuba. It has since attained international recognition.

       The superstar outfielder for the New York Mets, Yoenis Cespedes, is a big fan of Gente de Zona. When a hitter for the Mets walks to the plate, that player's favorite song is loudly played to rousing ovations over the stadium loudspeaker. The walk-up song for Yoenis is "El Animal," one of the many hit songs by Gente de Zona. Yoenis, by the way, is one of dozens of Cubans who have made and are making many millions of Yankee dollars in the money-crazed U. S. Major Leagues. Already a millionaire many times over, Yoenis' latest 4-year contract with the Mets guarantees him another $110 million. His average salary for each of the next four years is exactly $27,500,000 per year. Yoenis was born on October 18, 1985 in Campechuela, Cuba.

       Also, in my honest opinion, Cuba happens to have the most talented broadcast journalist in either the Spanish or English languages. Her name: Cristina Escobar!!!

Everyone {almost} LOVES Cuba!!!

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Cuba Sex, U.S. Sex

Unquenchable Desire and Money!!

      In capitalist America, socialist Cuba and all around the world sex defines cultures, economies and just about everything else. In the U. S. that fact is stressed by the ESPN sports network and, this week, by ESPN Magazine, as indicated by the photo above that shows real live and real naked female hockey players doing their thing.

      Meanwhile, the Getty Images photo above -- showing a young couple loving on Havana's Malecon seawall -- was used this week by the London-based BBC to illustrate an article entitled: "Cuba Love Hotels to Make Comeback, State Announces." The BBC explained it this way: "The authorities in the Cuba capital, Havana, say they are restoring a network of hotels where rooms are rented by the hour to lovers.  State run 'posadas' or love motels disappeared during Cuba's economic crisis in the 1990s, when they became hurricane shelters. Private households filled the gap in the market but at exorbitant prices. Officials now say the posadas will be cheaper and will help end the practice of love-making in Havana's open spaces."

      Cuba and the United States are neighbors but, especially since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, they have been very hostile sparring partners because of major differences in governmental philosophies. Yet, one natural phenomenon -- sex -- unites them with the rest of the entire world. The ESPN and Malecon photos above are testimony to the common dominance of sex even in divergent societies and nations. The naked American female hockey players sell magazines and promote all of the ESPN brands within its purely capitalistic society. The young Malecon lovers that Cuba is trying to entice to the one-hour hotel rooms is not only, as the BBC opined, to "help end the practice of love-making in Havana's open spaces."

      Cuba's population of 11.3 million, as reflected by this Richard McGuire Photo, is now very top-heavy with old people. While Cuba, like America, will use sex to make money, Cuba also wants to use it to, as quickly as possible, increase its percentage of young people, even though Cuban tourists love to photograph old cigar-smokers.

        Cuba's totally free health system has one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates and, since 1959 come hell or high water, the island has stressed, above all else, free health care and university educations for females. But several nuances -- including economic problems related to the U. S. embargo that dates back to 1962 -- have contributed to the top-heavy old-age dynamic on the island. A few million young Cubans have also been enticed to the U. S. as part of the age-old counter-revolutionary tactics to hurt Cuba and that will not cease. Neither will the U. S. touting itself as the "land of immigrants" in its world-wide brain-drain programs directed at other nations. So, little Cuba needs more infants like the ones above to help outset its imbalanced old-age population, which also relates to the longevity of its citizens. 

Prized young Cubans on the island.

The more the merrier for Cuba.

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Cuba Hypocrisy Hurts U.S.

And Shames Democracy!
{Updated: Wednesday, July 5th, 2017}

        Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has taken to the floor of the U. S. Senate to devote a long speech explaining in detail how extreme U. S. hypocrisy related to Cuba harms America and democracy in the eyes of the world. Of course, the U. S. media, afraid of upsetting a small band of viciously self-serving counter-revolutionaries, ignored Mr. Leahy's salient defense of America and democracy.

                But the points Senator Leahy made will forever be registered in the United States Senate and they are readily available word-for-word via both transcripts and videos online. Here are his highlights:

                 "On June 16th, in a campaign speech glorifying the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, President Trump spoke of freedom and democracy for the Cuban people. But the hypocrisy of the President's remarks in Miami, when he announced his decision to roll back engagement between the United States and Cuba, was glaring, if not surprising. Other than the couple of Cuban-American members of Congress -- neither of whom has ever set foot in Cuba -- who publicly took credit for writing the new White House policy, I doubt if any other members of Congress even bothered to know what is written in Trump's Cuban guidelines." And then, after assailing the anti-Cuban and anti-American dictates of Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart -- Miami's hypocritical "gifts" to the U. S. Congress -- Senator Leahy assailed President Trump for conveniently and cowardly overlooking flagrant assaults on freedom and democracy in countries such as "Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey." Senator Leahy's exact words were: "Despite all that, President Trump has decided to make a point of tiny Cuba, whose government, for all its faults, doesn't hold a candle to these other autocracies." In other words, Senator Leahy has the guts, the insight, and the integrity to point out that autocracies such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt never had a U.S.-backed dictatorship that was overthrown by a revolution and then the leaders of that dictatorship fled to the U. S. and quickly AND ETERALLY IT SEEMS established their old dictatorship within the bowels of the U. S. government, spending billions of tax dollars and tons of American prestige in failed efforts over six decades to recreate their dictatorship back in Cuba. The fact that the U. S. media is not permitted to cover such important truths as Senator Leahy laid down officially on the floor of the U. S. Senate is yet another reminder of how much U. S. prestige has suffered since the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution when the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was re-created on United States soil, namely the mighty cities of Miami and Washington.

    Yet, the American media's favorite choirboy -- the otherwise dangerously ambitious and controversial Senator Marco Rubio from Miami -- can utilize the electronic and print media at his beckoning to disparage everything about Revolutionary Cuba while implying that the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba was a wonderfully democratic Mother Teresa-type operation. That narrative has created and benefited Miami politicians like Senator Marco Rubio since 1959, and they are reluctant to give up the gravy-train.

         As the brave and democracy-loving Senator Leahy pointed out in the U. S. Senate, Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart -- both vicious opponents of President Trump during the presidential campaign -- are cozying up to Trump so he will allow them to write his Cuban policy. Patting or stabbing Trump in the back?

        This photo shows the Diaz-Balart brothers -- Lincoln on the left and Mario on the right -- flanking two other visceral counter-revolutionaries in the U. S. Congress from Miami. The father of the Diaz-Balart brothers, Rafael, was a key Minister in the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba and then, beginning in January of 1959, was one of the richest and most powerful counter-revolutionary Cubans operating freely and militarily in South Florida. And here in July of 2017 the fierce and failed Rafael Diaz-Balart-led efforts to regain control of Cuba are being replicated and led from Miami and Washington by former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart and current Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart with help from the likes of Senator Marco Rubio from Miami and the Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has been in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when she was a product of the Bush dynasty. That's Ros-Lehtinen at the podium above and right behind her right shoulder is Carlos Curbelo, yet another Miami Congressman.

         On one of his frequent trips to Havana, prominent Miami businessman Hugo Cancio is shown above telling Cuba's superstar young broadcaster Cristina Escobar: "A strong majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami favor normalizing relations with Cuba as I certainly do. But when it comes to Cuba, moderates like me in Miami have no representation in politics, including in helping to choose who gets elected to Congress."

        On June 16th, 2017 in Miami, President Trump's anti-Cuban speech was delivered in a Little Havana building named after a Bay of Pigs veteran before a wildly cheering audience of counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans. But outside that carefully scripted venue was a far different story, as indicated by this photo courtesy of Leslie Ovalle/South Florida Sun-Sentinel. It shows Nelson Avila and other Miami Cuban-Americans demonstrating against President Trump while strongly advocating normal relations with Cuba.

   Democracy-loving Americans like Senator Patrick Leahy firmly believe that moderate Cubans in Miami like Hugo Cancio should have input into America's Cuban policy. It is a decades-old anti-democratic policy that currently has a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. And, as Senator Leahy said on the Senate floor, President Trump's allowing the likes of Rubio and Diaz-Balart "to write" that endlessly failed policy casts America and Americans as the arch-villains for continually and cruelly punishing totally innocent Cubans on the sovereign island...merely to sate economic, political and revenge motives of just a few counter-revolutionaries.

Meanwhile, Cuba is still Cuba:

          This is skilled young broadcast journalist Rosy Amaro Perez anchoring a very influential news program on Cuba's new television channel, a news source particularly aimed at young-adult Cubans.

    This is Rosy taking time to train an aspiring broadcast journalist.

         Taking a break from her anchoring job, Rosy Amaro Perez is still a favorite of the carefree and vibrant young-adult generation of Cubans. This happy group was gathering this week for an open-air concert headlined by Cuban superstar Silvio Rodriguez in Havana's Plaza De San Francisco. In the lower right, that's Rosy riding her beautiful daughter on her shoulders. Rosy labeled the photo, "Poor mama-pony." She and her generation of Cubans plan to be the driving force in the island's future. They are quite aware of the plans to the contrary in Miami and Washington but, as this photo indicates, they remain undeterred.

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Baseball and Counter-Revolutionaries

How They Unite in America!

       In these hot days of July-2017, millions of Americans and millions of Cubans in the two neighboring countries share a passion for baseball. That makes the graphic depicted above all the more bittersweet and heartbreaking for the vast majority of Americans, Cubans and Cuban-Americans. That includes the Cubans in Cuba who closely follow their beloved players in the American Major Leagues and it includes the strong majority of Cuban-Americans EVEN IN MIAMI who strongly oppose a U.S. Cuban policy dictated for decades by a handful of revengeful and self-serving Cuban hardliners in Miami and in the U. S. Congress. That cruel and basic fact is also a bittersweet heartbreak for America's best friends all around the world, as evidenced by the current 191-to-0 condemnation of America's Cuban policy in the United Nations. Yet that anti-democratic Cuban policy has persisted in the U. S. since January 1, 1959 -- or since the Cuban Revolution overthrew the very vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, chasing its leaders to South Florida where, for over half-a-century and through two generations, U.S. taxpayers and the U. S. democracy have paid astronomical prices for the failed but all-out and ongoing attempts by the Batistiano-Mafiosi remnants to re-capture the island. The extreme insanity, cruelty, and cowardice of the majority of Americans and Cuban-Americans to allow that unholy process to continue decade-after-decade is reflected daily in many facets, including by the prominent graphic shown above. NOW PERMIT ME TO EXPLAIN.

        The U. S. Major Leagues have 30 teams and even the poorest among them lavish huge, multi-year and multi-million-dollar contracts on even moderately talented prospects. Cuba, a baseball gold-mine, has an abundance of such multi-millionaires in America, including Yuli Gurriel, the starting first baseman for America's best Major League team, the Houston Astros. Two days ago -- on July 1, 2017 -- Yuli belted a two-run homer and then a two-run double to give the Astros a 7-6 win over the New York Yankees. The double came against the great Yankee closer -- the Cuban Aroldis Chapman who the Yankees are paying $20 million a year on a long-term deal. And yesterday -- July 2, 2017 -- Yuli belted two home-runs to lead the Astros to an 8-to-1 win over the saintly New York Yankees. BUT EVEN MORE THAN THE SUCCESS YULI IS NOW HAVING WITH AMERICA'S BEST TEAM is the story of how Cuba's all-time greatest baseball family finally decided to defect to America to partake of the extremely easy pickings -- the multi-million-dollar deals.

        For well over a decade, Yuli Gurriel was the most beloved baseball player in Cuba. His father Lourdes Sr. was Cuba's and Fidel Castro's all-time favorite player; Lourdes Sr. began winning batting titles, MVP awards and Olympic Gold Medals for his beloved Cuba before Yuri was born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba on June 9th, 1984. In his youth, at ages 18 and again at age 21, Yuri got word that the New York Yankees would give him a guaranteed $100 million contract if he would defect. Out of loyalty to his father and Cuba, he refused and for another decade continued to star in Cuba and on international Cuban teams...even as dozens of other Cubans defected to the U. S. for the guaranteed upfront millions-of-dollars. But a few years ago Yuli's father Lourdes Sr. became sick and it resulted in a drastic change of heart, AS REFLECTED BY THE PHOTO ABOVE. In 2016 Yuli and his brother Lourdes Jr., who is a decade younger than Yuli, defected. The photo above shows Lourdes Jr. on the left and Yuli at an airport the day of their defection. In July of 2016 Yuli, who is now 33-years-old, signed a guaranteed $47.5 million-dollar, 5-year contract with the Houston Astros. Shortly thereafter the now 23-year-old Lourdes Jr. signed a guaranteed $22 million-dollar contract with the Toronto Blue Jays and he is now a top Minor League prospect for Toronto.

       The OnCuba photo above shows Lourdes Gurriel Sr. {in the center} with his wife and their three baseball-playing sons. The guaranteed multi-million-dollar contracts Yuli and Lourdes Jr. have signed with Houston and Toronto in the American Major Leagues guarantee the financial well-being of this generation of the Gurriel family as well as the future generations of the Gurriel families. No one can blame the family decision they very reluctantly made. In this photo that's Yuli on the far left next to his brother Lourdes Jr. who is next to their ill father Lourdes Sr. Yuli, now the 33-year-old multi-millionaire and star first baseman for America's best team, the Houston Astros, has said, "I waited for well over a decade without any thoughts to defect out of loyalty to my country and to my father. But in my 30s, with my father sick, I along with my brother made the bittersweet decision to defect. I have no regrets, except one: I always dreamed of playing Major League baseball without having to defect. Politics loaded with revenge did not permit that. But I am at peace with my belated decision, and so is my father. Also, of course, I hope my supporters in Cuba are too."

       The iconic Fidel Castro was very close to the entire Gurriel Family. Fidel himself was a former Athlete of the Year in Cuba and, before deciding to become a revolutionary, he was offered pro contracts as a pitcher by both the Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators. As Cuba's revolutionary leader before he died at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016, Fidel remained a huge baseball fan and his all-time favorite players were Lourdes Gurriel Sr. and Lourdes' son Yuli. The photo above shows Fidel with Yuli at a baseball game in Cuba. It is a photo that Yuli has reportedly proudly shown to his Houston Astros teammates. 

      White-skinned Cubans starred in the U. S. Major Leagues beginning in the 1920s before 1947's break-through by Jackie Robinson for black players. But only in recent years have the floodgates and spigots opened wide with both white and black Cubans defecting to the United States lured by multi-million-dollar bonuses that have also attracted many unscrupulous agents and human-traffickers taking advantage of the unique U.S. embargo against Cuba that has been in effect since 1962, spawning criminal traffickers. In recent years the flood of Cuban baseball players defecting to the Majors have included a vast array of superstars like the two shown above -- Aroldis Chapman and Yoenis Cespedes. Both are now millionaires many times over and they both have long-term guaranteed contracts paying them in excess of $25 million a year -- Chapman with the New York Yankees and Cespedes with the New York Mets, and both are making millions-of-dollars more in endorsement deals from salivating corporate sponsors.

      But Cuba's massive pipeline of baseball superstars is unending, as every Major League scout and every trafficker near the Caribbean knows. Take, for example, the physical specimen shown above. His name is Yoan Moncada. He was born on May 27, 1995 in Abreus, Cuba. He is now 6-foot-2, 205 pounds of pure muscle. As a speedy 17-and-18-year-old he starred for Cienfuegos in Cuba's top pro league. On February 23, 2015 -- after defecting from Cuba -- the Boston Red Sox signed Yoan to a guaranteed $31.5 million-dollar bonus contract. Then Boston, to get ace pitcher Chris Sale, traded him to the Chicago White Sox. Today Yoan is rated the #1 baseball prospect on the planet and he is about to be called up from the Minor Leagues by the White Sox. But remember, that original $31.5 million in 2015 was all guaranteed whether or not Yoan ever got a Major League base-hit. It is expected, in baseball-and-money-mad America, he will get a few thousand Major League hits and soon be getting in excess of $30 million-A-YEAR.

        The ongoing CUBAN PIPELINE of baseball defections to the U. S. is one aspect of the unique U.S.-Cuban phenomenon that has existed since the Little Havana counter-revolutionary bastion was created in Miami following the victory of the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959. Since that day, the plethora of attempts to recapture Cuba have been unceasing from U. S. soil  -- including everything from numerous assassination attempts, the Bay of Pigs military attack, repetitive and very vile terrorist action, the longest {SINCE 1962} economic embargo ever imposed by a powerful nation against a small nation, etc., etc., etc. But the efforts have also included massively successful schemes to induce Cuban defections to the U. S. designed to weaken and destroy its sovereign revolutionary rule. Those defections include special discriminatory enticements for any and all Cubans, not just baseball players. But, when many millions of easy and guaranteed upfront dollars are readily available, baseball stars in Cuba are particularly vulnerable, as are peripheral elements such as human traffickers seeking their shares of the huge payoffs. And, as documented here, such enticements EVEN ENTICED -- with some lingering bittersweet regrets -- the Lourdes Gurriel family, THE RICH FAMILY THAT STILL HAS THOSE BITTERSWEET MEMORIES. 

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Cruise Ships LOVE CUBA

Despite Trump's Restrictions!

            Despite the monumental United States governmental transition from Cuba-friendly President Obama to Cuba-enemy President Trump, the short Florida Straits waterway between Florida and Cuba is constantly caressed by U.S.-to-Cuba cruise ships. On this first weekend of July-2017 a major article in USA Today heralded that neighborly commerce with this headline: "Carnival Cruise Line Kicks Off Cuba Voyages." The splendid Carnival Paradise vessel shown above on June 29-2017 joined five other cruise lines making regular vorages to Cuba. The Paradise, which departed from Tampa, carried 2,052 passengers with fares to Cuba starting at $439 per person. USA Today this weekend said: "Carnival joins half-a-dozen other cruise lines that have begun sailings from the USA to Cuba in recent months. Two of Carnival's top rivals in the cruise industry, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, began Cuba voyages in April and May, respectively. April also saw the first visit to Cuba by a Regent Seven Seas Cruises vessel. Oceania Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises ships arrived for the first time in March."

       This photo is courtesy of cruisecritic and it shows a huge cruise ship docked in Havana as passengers get quick sights of the island's classic 1950s-era convertible cars. This week -- on June 27-2017 -- the cruisecritic website updated Cuba's new status as a ubiquitous target for U.S.-based commercial cruise ships although everyday Americans remain the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba. The website pointed out: "All nationalities can visit Cuba as tourists except Americans. Americans still need to travel under one of 12 approved reasons..." Those decades-old restrictions were greatly eased by the brave President Obama but on June 16 in Miami's Little Havana bastion the less-brave President Trump tightened the restrictions again to appease a few Cuban hardliners although most Cuban-Americans in Miami support Obama's decent Cuban policies, not Trump's cruel ones. The cruisecritic website provides updates for those interested in cruises to Cuba.

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