Can Cuba Survive Trump?

Maybe. Maybe Not. But Probably.
{Updated for: Thursday, November 16, 2017}

     This week -- Nov. 14-2017 -- Alaska Airlines, headquartered in Seattle -- announced it is ending its year-long service to Cuba. After being scared off by the Batistiano-loving Trump presidency, the Alaska Airlines' decision is merely the latest of about a billion reasons since 1959 that the total demise of Revolutionary Cuba has been predicted. But, as with the other billion reasons, the new predictions need to be examined more closely than today's screaming United States headlines would lead you to believe.

     The prime spokesman for Alaska Airlines is John Kirby. He rationalized ending the flights to Cuba this way: "You never want to exit a route. But ending the flights to Cuba will enable us to increase our LA-to-Hawaii flights." After that lame excuse, Kirby admitted that the real reason was the Nov. 9-2017 announcement by the Trump administration that sharply increased the already cruel targeting of the Cuban people that Trump's predecessor, President Obama, had so bravely and decently sliced into. Kirby said, "We saw a precipitous drop-off in traffic to Cuba entering the fall after the new Trump decisions. We really don't blame his administration. We knew going to Cuba was a very fluid environment. There was a risk." Of course, the "risk" involved a Batista-loving Republican administration, Trump's, replacing a decent Democratic administration, Obama's. Also, when Kirby said "we really don't blame" Trump he was prevaricating, which also means lying. Like all companies in the U. S. and even foreign companies, the incomparable economic and military might of the U. S. influences America's and the world's commerce. For example, a small Jamaican company on the island just south of Cuba once sent a box of baby aspirin to Cuba and that company was legally fined by the U. S. under Batistiano-directed laws that ruled the box of baby aspirin would benefit Fidel Castro. Huge companies worldwide have been fined billions-of-dollars for even minor deals with Cuba because of the U. S. embargo in effect since 1962, and all such companies pay up because of the omnipotent U. S. influence on their livelihoods. Such fines and other travesties are, of course, viable because two generations of unpatriotic Americans don't give a damn about Cuba or America. SO, on Nov. 14-2017 when John Kirby announced that he is ending Alaska Airlines flights to Cuba because he is afraid of President Trump, naysayers resume the decades-old predictions that Cuba will totally crumble -- "within days" as the crooked U. S. Congressman Torricelli once predicted and "within months" as the crooked Vice President Nixon once predicted. But you know what? Even after the Alaska Airlines headlines this week, Cuba might not crumble even with Trump calling the shots on behalf of the most vicious Counter Revolutionaries.

        As the Alaska Airlines announcement indicates, for Cuba the difference between President Trump and former President Obama is the difference between decency and indecency.

  Obama tried to normalize relations.

        The decent President Obama even went to Cuba and, on live island-wide television, told the Cuban people: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." He was sincere but he did not anticipate his two-terms as President would be succeeded by a Batistiano-loving Republican, Donald Trump.

      In stark contrast to President Obama, President Trump went to Little Havana in Miami and essentially promised the remaining Counter Revolutionary members of Brigade 2506 -- the CIA-trained Cuban-Americans who attacked Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961 -- that he would finally return Cuba to them. His speech above in front of the huge Brigade 2506 assault banner was in one of the many magnificent buildings in Miami named for Brigade 2506 leaders. It was a reminder, after all these decades, that the Batista dictatorship that was booted out of Cuba on Jan. 1-1959 has, since that historic day, been resurrected on U. S. soil. Yet, Revolutionary Cuba has survived all these many decades with truly unique pugnaciousness.

And Cuba might survive Trump.  

    The photo above is why I believe Cuba will probably survive the United States era of President Donald Trump, which...like most nagging headaches...will eventually pass. The lady above is Conner Gorry, a native of New York, USA. She has a Masters in International Relations. A superb writer and author, she is very smart...and very, very much an independent thinker. In 2002 she moved to Cuba...very permanently.

      Once settled in the Vedado section of Havana, Conner Gorry founded Cuba Libro, which is now a famed library and cafe. She stocked the library with American books and American magazines such as The New Yorker and National Geographic. That's because she is very much an English-speaking American...and now a Spanish-speaking Cuban. As she predicted, her Cuba Libro landmark in Havana is a success because Cubans are fascinated with America and visitors to Cuba, including Americans, are fascinated with Cuba. The Cuba-America nexus, Conner knew, would succeed on Cuban soil...plus, she believed deep in her compassionate heart that Superpower America should cease trying to pulverize totally innocent Cubans to avenge the Cuban Revolution, which...way back in 1959...overthrew the vile U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship and, pugnaciously, has made it stick ever since.

      At her library and cafe Cuba Libro in Havana, Conner Gorry stresses the graphic depicted above -- "Down with the Blockade." Conner sincerely believes that a nearby Superpower's economic blockade/embargo of Cuba since 1962 is America's sin.

     At her beloved Cuba Libro library and cafe as well as in her books, blogs, and internationally published articles, Conner Gorry emphasizes this point: "Cubans want to make a decent living and no foreign nation has a right to deny them that right and neither does their own government." With her Masters degree in International Relations and with her compassionate heart, Conner Gorry, as an American-Cuban who will live out her life as a Cuban, is a fervent defender of basic rights for Cubans on the island. The Revolutionary Cuban government tolerates Conner's passion even if the U. S. government and Cuban-American extremists in the United States do not.

    Sitting in her beloved Cuba Libro business in Havana, Conner Gorry watched live on Cuban television as U. S. President Barack Obama in December of 2014 bravely, emphatically, and historically declared that the United States was normalizing relations with Cuba. And then, euphorically, Conner Gorry penned an article that, by Dec. 18-2014, had been published internationally by newspapers such as The New York Daily News and The London Guardian. That article, in case you would like to review it online, was/is entitled: "Does This Mean We're Going to Get Internet? Cubans Stunned and Excited at End of Isolation From U. S." Her article was written in sheer joy after President Obama's Dec.-2014 announcement but, of course, in a very cruel twist of fate, Obama's two terms as U. S. President would end and he would be replaced by President Trump. But still, prior to Trump's reversal in 2017 of Obama's decent overtures to Cuba, it is worthwhile, I think, to revisit the decent Conner Gorry's Dec. 18-2014 article reacting to President Obama's Herculean statement vowing to normalize relations with Cuba after all previous U. S. presidents since the 1950s had, willingly or not, condoned terrorism and starvation as acceptable U. S. assaults on the Cuban people to sate the revenge, economic, and political goals of a handful of Cuban-American extremists. So, for what it's worth, here is the way Conner Gorry's euphoric Dec. 18th article reacted to President Obama's announcement:

                 "We awoke to a sunny Wednesday. Made coffee. Greeted our neighbors. Walked the dog. Then the news broke. Three Cubans who had spent more than 16 years in U. S. jails are back home. And the United States and Cuba are normalizing relations. Boom! Just like that. The hugs and cheers, applause and tears ringing out through my corner of Havana were, are, real. After receiving scads of emails, text messages, phone calls and hugs today, it still feels like reality hasn't sunk in. We're stunned. A little slap-happy maybe."

          The red quotation marks above exactly encase the first words of Conner Gorry's euphoric article spawned in Dec.-2014 by President Obama's vow to normalize relations with Cuba. As a decent American, and now as a decent Cuban, Conner Gorry felt secure in such exhortations...at least until Nov. 8th-2016, the day Republican Donald Trump was elected President of the United States replacing the decent and brave Democratic President Barack Obama. Conner Gorry only needed her intelligence, not her Masters degree in International Relations, to know that the Trump election in the U. S. meant a return of the cruel persecutions of innocent Cubans as mandated by the Republican Bush dynasty via one CIA directorship, two Vice Presidential terms, three Presidential terms, and two terms as the Governor of Florida where the ultra-rich and ultra-powerful remnants of the long-ago Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba still reign and, although a distinct minority, still control Florida politics and that state's often decisive 29 electoral votes in presidential elections...electoral votes that helped put George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump in the White House despite the still-nagging fact that their OPPONENTS got the MOST VOTES. As far as Conner Gorry is concerned, a Bush or a Trump as U. S. President equates to having a Fulgencio Batista or a Lucky Luciano in the U. S. White House and in control of the U. S. military and the U. S. Blockade/Embargo of Cuba.

        SO NOW YOU KNOW PRECISELY WHY CONNER GORRY IN 2002 LEFT HER NATIVE UNITED STATES TO BECOME A CUBAN ON THE CARIBBEAN ISLAND SHE BELIEVES HAS BEEN UNFAIRLY AND CRUELLY TARGETED BY BATISTIANOS, MAFIOSI, CUBAN-AMERICANS, AND AMERICANS. I have explained Conner's reaction to President Obama. I don't think I need to explain Conner's reaction to Mr. Trump.

     And by the way, Lonely Planet Country Guides are the best ways to learn about foreign nations and their people. Regarding the island of Cuba, Lonely Planet relies on insightful, insider experts -- such as Conner Gorry with the book above -- to dispense accurate information worldwide so travelers will get to know about the Caribbean's largest, most beautiful, most targeted, and most beguiling island.

     In other words, feisty and pugnacious Little Cuba -- as personified by Carlos LaTuff's pugnacious Little girl depicted above -- might even survive Donald Trump.

       And IF Cuba survives Donald Trump, little Cuban girls like this will be happy...because rosy-cheeked little Cuban girls don't deserve to be targeted by rich and powerful miscreants living in a foreign country. Anyone who claims that such things as the U. S. embargo of Cuba don't hurt little Cuban girls is a liar or an idiot.

And by the way:

      This photo was taken by Emmy Park. Conner Gorry says Senor Tobes "wandered into Cuba Lebro exactly 3 years ago." He's still there and she says he has "changed my life forever." Both Senor Tobes and Cuba Lebro say a lot about Conner Gorry.

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A Tearful Look at Cuba

The Tears Are for America!!

{Note: This essay -- "A Tearful Look at Cuba: The Tears Are for America" -- was posted Sunday, Nov. 12th, and, according to the Google and Amazon metrics, it quickly received an additional above normal thousands of views. Thus, I left it at the top of Cubaninsider for two more days, including today --Tuesday, Nov. 14th -- 2017}.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Rothman.

       Tears have flowed from my eyes very seldom during my lifetime. But I admit I cried...even sobbed...when I read the story behind the photo depicted above. I am an America, born and bred, and I love my country. But I am ashamed...as you should be if you are an American...that my country in 1952 sicced the Mafia on Cuba to support the vile Batista dictatorship so a few already rich, politically connected rogues in the Eisenhower administration -- such as the ultra-powerful Dulles brothers -- could partake in the rape and robbery of the Caribbean's biggest and most beautiful island. In January of 1959 the Cuban Revolution shocked the world by becoming the only nation to overthrow a U.S.-backed dictatorship, but only managed to chase the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictators to their next haven on U. S. soil with the Little Havana neighborhood in nearby Miami becoming their new capital. Although never held accountable, the Bush dynasty from the outset supported and master-minded the Little Havana plague that quickly advanced to the U. S. Congress and is enmeshed in all Republican administrations. Americans are not supposed to know such things but de-classified U. S. documents connect George H. W. Bush to the CIA and the Little Havana power-base in the 1950s long before he became CIA Director in 1976 followed by two terms as Vice President and one term as President, setting up his son George W.'s two-terms as President and his son Jeb's two terms as Governor of Florida as well as Jeb's ongoing presidential ambitions for himself and Jeb's son George P. Bush. In other words, propagandized Americans have meekly accepted America's asinine Cuban policies since the 1950s that the rest of the entire world, including America's best friends, finds appalling. With that prologue, permit me to return to the photo that brought unabashed tears to my eyes:

      I urge you to study it again. This photo was taken in April of 2015. It shows an American student-journalist named Lauren Rothman visiting Cuba at the urging of President Barack Obama. During his two-terms as President, Mr. Obama was the only U. S. president with the guts, intelligence, and decency to severely challenge the Batistiano-Mafiosi dictation of America's cruel Cuban policies. For example, in order to support the Batistiano-Mafiosi propaganda lies, everyday Americans prior to Obama were the only people in the world without the freedom to travel to Cuba. Obama with Executive Orders changed that and other cruel and un-democratic Cuban-related practices although before, during, and after Obama the Bastiano-Mafiosi dictators have maintained primary control of America's Cuban policies with their undeserved power in the U. S. Congress regarding Cuba. Thus, Bush-anointed Counter Revolutionary Cubans such as pre-Obama extremists Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart dictated Cuban policy to Congress while post-Obama and Bush and now Trump-anointed Miami Cubans have been allowed to dictate Cuban policy to both Congress and every Republican White House. All brave journalists and politicians in Washington know that Miami's contributions to the U. S. Congress -- Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart -- dictated the freshly punitive Trump policies aimed at Cuba on November 9th, 2017. The Bush dynasty and now the Trump White House allow only vicious Cuban extremists to dictate America's Cuban policy because two generations of Americans have not had the guts or the patriotism to intervene. Meanwhile, the majority of Cuban-Americans...over two million of them...are perfectly decent U. S. citizens who strongly desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba. However, only Counter Revolutionary Cuban extremists get elected to the U. S. Congress and when even well-known decent Cubans, such as Miami's Hugo Cancio, complain about that catastrophic anti-democratic phenomenon, it is to no avail...a situation reminiscent of when the very decent Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, complained about Cuban-American terrorism against innocent Cubans only to get car-bombed himself in Miami. And that takes me back to the photo that brought tears to my democracy-loving eyes.

     Encouraged by President Obama, student-journalist Lauren Rothman visited Cuba in April of 2015. She traveled extensively and made friends with many everyday Cubans, including the little boy shown above. When she returned to America, the heart-broken Lauren penned an article still posted online and entitled: "AS PRESIDENT OBAMA EASES RESTRICTIONS ON TRAVEL TO CUBA, ONE STUDENT TAKES A PEEK BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE ISLAND NATION." As noted, Counter Revolutionaries such as Rubio, Menendez, Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lehtinen, Curbelo, etc. in the U. S. Congress didn't want Lauren or any other free-thinking, freedom-loving American to visit Cuba because that might interfere with their lies about why they are enhancing, with President Trump's gutless cooperation, the embargo of Cuba that was imposed way back in 1962 to starve, deprive and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. That fact has been revealed by de-classified U. S. documents from 1962 but Americans are supposed to be too afraid to acknowledge it. But Lauren Rothman, the student-journalist, acknowledged such things after President Obama arranged for her to visit Cuba in 2015 prior to his own historic visit in 2016. While in Cuba, Lauren acutely observed how everyday Cubans, like the little boy she befriended, are punished everyday of their lives -- like all decent Cubans since 1959 -- by rich, powerful, revengeful, and unchecked Cubans hiding behind the skirts of the Superpower U. S. government. Lauren's article upon her return to the U. S. had photos of such totally innocent Cubans on the island "suffering" while the vicious Cubans in Miami and in Congress force the American people to accept the lie that they must punish them in order to punish "the Castros." Intimidated cowards, of course, are the only ones who accept such lies. Lauren Rothman, after visiting Cuba courtesy of Obama, certainly doesn't believe them...not now and not ever again.

        Lauren Rothman's article included photos of innocent Cubans on the island, such as the little boy she befriended, who have been and are being tortured, ever since 1962, by cruel and revengeful Cuban-Americans with the cowardly concurrence of most Americans. Lauren included photos of elderly Cubans who had suffered such torture all their lives from the shores of a foreign country, the United States. Those photos are too painful for me to show here. But I do show Lauren's photo depicted above of a totally innocent Cuban on the island who tries so hard to hide his suffering caused since 1962 by unchecked U. S. Cubans such as the Bush-anointed Jorge Mas Canosa and Rafael Diaz-Balart long-ago to the Trump-anointed Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart today. Lauren Rothman concluded her heart-wrenching article with the words that brought tears to my democracy-loving American eyes. Those words, illustrated by the photo above, were and are:

              "Cuba tries hard, too hard, to cover up its poverty. The government struggles to put up a brilliant facade, and the question comes down to how sensitive you need to be to see it. With extra thought, you can look beneath the surface of the tourist-filled Cuba, and you can see the struggle of the people. Although there wasn't an immediate display of suffering, it's hard to say how we can help." Those were Lauren Rothman's concluding words, the words that made me cry. Like her, I have been to Cuba and I have seen the suffering of totally innocent Cubans being punished every day of their lives by greedy and powerful Cubans in the U. S. hiding behind the gutlessness of the American people who have allowed them to do it since 1959 and especially since 1962 when the still-viable embargo was imposed to starve, deprive and make miserable the lives of everyday Cubans to induce them to overthrow their revolutionary government. To their credit, Cubans have not attempted to do that because, I believe, they do not want a return of the Batistianos, Mafiosi, and rich Americans who robbed and brutalized the island without mercy from 1952 till 1959.

One final Lauren Rothman thought:

    President Trump, un-patriotic Americans, and an incompetent or intimidated mainstream U. S. media is today permitting U. S. Senator Marco Rubio to be the prime dictator of America's Cuban policy, which is reversing President Obama's sane and decent Cuban policies that Obama bravely forged despite the Batistiano-controlled U. S. Congress. For example, Rubio was the prime architect of the avalanche of hateful Trump rules announced on November 9th, 2017. A lavishly funded presidential wannabee from Miami, Rubio is daily depicted in the U. S. media as a Mother Teresa-like choirboy. A braver and more accurate depiction of Rubio, I believe, is in a long and massively documented article by Ken Silverstein, one of America's all-time best and most respected investigative journalists. Silverstein -- in the article fronted by the graphic below -- depicts Rubio as America's greatest "For Sale" politician massively corrupted by...real estate deals, credit card shenanigans, Washington lobbyists, etc. As far as I know, no one has denied Silverstein's revelations nor has he been sued for so publicly revealing them.

Marco Rubio, Trump's Cuban dictator.
The graphic above fronts the aforementioned Ken Silverstein article.

      A photo Rubio doesn't want Americans to see shows a decent, democracy-loving American named Lauren Rothman befriending a totally innocent little Cuban boy. Lauren returned to America ashamed of the suffering she saw and openly wondered how Americans can do something about it. Well, Lauren, here's my opinion: To keep Cuban children on the island, like the little boy that touched your heart, from being punished all their lives...as their parents and grand-parents have been punished...I believe Americans should demand that America's Cuban policy, condemned by the whole world, should be taken out of the hands of a second generation of greedy, revengeful benefactors like Marco Rubio and the Diaz-Balarts. Most Cuban-Americans, like Hugo Cancio in Miami; and most members of Congress, like Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont and Kathy Castor from Florida, desire normal and decent relations with Cuba. But "most" doesn't count in the U. S. democracy, it seems, when a Batista or a Canosa or a Diaz-Balart or a Rubio are permitted to dictate a Cuban policy that shames America and Democracy in the eyes of the world. As Lauren Rothman points out, the little Cuban boy shown above is not America's enemy and a handful of miscreants in America should not be allowed to punish him the rest of his life. The rest of the non-American world agrees with that sentiment. But so do decent Congressmen like Senator Leahy, decent Miami Cubans like Hugo Cancio, and decent Americans like Lauren Rothman.

     So why does the mainstream U. S. media saturate proselytized Americans with Marco Rubio's sanitized lies about his Cuban cruelty while only U. S. media outlets like C-SPAN dare to vent Senator Patrick Leahy's Cuban truths???

        This is Hugo Cancio, the well known Miami businessman who travels often to Cuba. Hugo openly wonders why only Counter Revolutionary extremists like Rubio and the Diaz-Balart brothers get elected to the U. S. Congress from Miami while the majority of Cuban-Americans in Miami, like Hugo, desire Obama-like normal relations with Cuba. And forgive Hugo if he also wonders why more Americans don't have the guts or the patriotism to wonder about the same thing.

      Born in Miami on Aug. 20-1966, Kathy Castor has brilliantly represented the Tampa area of Florida in the U. S. Congress since 2007. In all that time, she has fervently fought for the U. S. to normalize relations with Cuba. Note above her appearnce on C-SPAN to promote her dedicated work as Co-Chair of the Cuba Working Group. The anti-Cuban zealots in the U. S. Congress from Miami, like Rubio and Diaz-Balart, can get on the mainstream U. S. television networks any hour of any day to spout-out their anti-Cuban venom. But the same U. S. networks do not have the courage or the integrity to air the views of the brilliant and decent Kathy Castor and Americans are not supposed to have the guts to question why that is so. But there is a brilliant broadcast anchor in Cuba that has questioned such things both in Cuba and on American soil in Washington, D. C. and at three U. S. universities.

 On both Cuban soil and American soil, Cuba's highly respected and influential television anchor, Cristina Escobar, has firmly stated: "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." NBC-TV's veteran Chief Foreign Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, the U. S. journalist who often visits Cuba, bravely congratulated Cristina Escobar for that comment.  Also, Cristina Escobar is so respected by American journalists that she is the only Cuban from the island ever to ask questions at a White House news conference, and she asked six that special day. But, of course, propagandized Americans are supposed to only get their Cuban "news" from the likes of Marco Rubio while dismissing truths from...for sure...Cristina Escobar or Andrea Mitchell.

     On her most recent visit to Cuba, Andrea Mitchell reported fairly back to NBC on two pertinent and current issues: {1} The mysterious {Miami?} sonic-acoustic attacks that Rubio and his ilk are using as an excuse to further punish innocent Cubans; and {2} Andrea Mitchell interviewed everyday Cubans who became successful entrepreneurs thanks to President Obama's kindnesses only to be brought to tears now that President Trump has anointed Rubio America's cruel Cuban dictator.

      It was in the above interview with Andrea Mitchell that proud Cuban entrepreneur Julia de la Rosa cried when she talked about how her 10-room Bed & Breakfast had thrived thanks to the Obama presidency but has now been destroyed by the cruel Trump presidency when Trump turned over his Cuban policies to Counter Revolutionary Miami members of Congress Rubio and Diaz-Balart. Assuming Americans are either cowards or idiots, they claim they are hurting "the Castros." For over half-a-century it has, of course, been non-political Cubans like Julia who have been most hurt by the likes of Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart from their entrenched sanctuaries in the U. S. Congress where their revenge against Cuba is grossly exacerbated when Republicans occupy the U. S. White House.

      If the photo above of the teary-eyes Julia de la Rosa didn't bring tears to your American eyes, I believe the photo above should. That's Yamina Vicente holding up and delivering a plea in Washington signed by Yamina and three dozen other young Cubans who had started their own successful businesses thanks to President Obama bravely confronting the cruelty of Rubio, Diaz-Balart, etc. The signed letter begged...BEGGED!!...President Trump to allow them to "continue to be able to make livings for their families in Cuba." In my opinion, any American who is not brought to tears by the letter Yamina is holding is both anti-American and anti-democracy.

Above is a quote by Yamina in Washington. 

      The montage above shows President Donald Trump flanked by Marco Rubio and by Mario Diaz-Balart. The two Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American extremists are among Miami's current contributions to the United States Congress. Rubio the "choirboy" arrived in the U. S. Senate with his bio still claiming his parents fled the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami; then it was pointed out that Rubio's parents had fled the tyranny of Batista's Cuba long before Americans had ever heard of Fidel Castro. Diaz-Balart's father Rafael was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then in 1959 rich enough to create the first Counter Revolutionary paramilitary unit in South Florida. So now, as most Americans sit back on their cowardly rear-ends, Trump has turned America's Cuban policies over to Rubio and Diaz-Balart who in turn are busy reversing the decency of the Obama presidency. And that's why the decent, hard-working Cuban, Julia de la Rosa, cried when NBC's Andrea Mitchell interviewed her in Havana recently. And that's why Yamina Vicente, on behalf of dozens of other young Cuban entrepreneurs like her, brought that letter to Washington BEGGING President Trump and the United States of America to allow them to make decent livings in their own sovereign country.

     The Rubio/Trump/Diaz-Balart disaster is why decent Americans like Lauren Rothman are direly concerned about miscreants in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA punishing decent Cubans like Julia de la Rosa and Yamina Vicente and Cuban children like the little boy that touched the caring heart of Lauren Rothman. And the photo above is the precise reason Counter Revolutionaries like Rubio and Diaz-Balart try to dictate that Americans are the only people in the world without the freedom to visit Cuba because in "legalizing" such laws in the U. S. Congress they can continue to punish totally innocent Cubans like Julia, Yamina, and this little boy.

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A True Peek at Cuba

Daily Life on the Island!
{Updated for: Saturday, November 11th, 2017}

    The photo-graphic above is courtesy of The National Geographic and the Charles Krulwich blog. It reminds me of a phenomenon that I, a passionate bird-lover, observed on my visit to Cuba. Many Cubans I met were/are far more concerned about pigeons...as a hobby and as competitive athletes...than they are with the latest U.S.-Cuban turmoil, which they have become accustomed to all their entire lives.

     An excellent and fair-minded Associated Press journalist in Cuba is Andrea Rodriguez. This week on November 9th and 10th the Cuban headlines in the United States loudly heralded the Nov. 9th-2017 announcement of the Trump administration's latest torrid sanctions against Cuba designed to finally overthrow the Cuban Revolution that reshaped both nations in 1959. But on Nov. 9-2017 Andrea Rodriguez's major AP article from Cuba was headlined "Pigeon Competitions Take Flight Over Rooftops in Cuba." The superb article showed up in hundreds of American newspapers from the Washington Post in the East to the Los Angeles Times in the West. Andrea wrote: "Pigeons lovingly raised and trained in rooftop pens are daily turned loose across Havana. The magnificent birds dart through the air in feats of aerial acrobatics, competing to see whose pigeon can out-fly and out-maneuver their rivals and win over females in contests that draw huge audiences on the ground." I witnessed that fierce-but-fun competition in Cuba and you can experience it via the excellent writing of Andrea Rodriguez in the aforementioned AP article. Andrea noted that many Cubans in the U. S. are also addicted to the sport and often travel to Cuba to obtain the best trained pigeons.

Viva Cuba's love of pigeons.

Viva Andrea Rodriguez for reminding us!!

      My old friend and antagonist Larry Daley surfaces in the "Comment" sections of many U. S. articles I read about Cuba. For example, Karen DeYoung's major article in the Washington Post on Nov. 9, 2017, recapped the Trump administration's blisteringly cruel new sanctions against Cuba's Cubans spotlighting the fervent attempts of all Republican stalwarts in Washington trying to starve-deprive-make misery the lives of Cubans on the island so they will rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. I didn't count or read all the "Comments" Larry contributed to the Karen DeYoung November 9th article but there must have been about fifteen, all viciously supporting Trump's efforts to recapture Cuba to appease a handful of old U. S. Counter Revolutionaries like Larry who remain obsessed with excoriating the Castros and the Revolution that overturned the Batista-Mafia dictatorship way back on Jan. 1-1959. Larry Daley...I once knew but now forget his Cuban name...seems typical of the vast Castro Cottage Industry that has thrived unchecked for decades in America. I have old-fashioned America beliefs that people should use their real names to substantiate their viewpoints, hopefully some of which would be a little unbiased.

     In 2005 when my biography of Cuba's revolutionary heroine Celia Sanchez was published, Larry Daley gave it a 3-star rating on Amazon and then proceeded to dismiss it as a pro-Communist review of Celia's incomparable impact on both the Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. {P.S.: I'm passionately pro-Democracy and that's why I resent the transfer of the Batista dictatorship to America}. Larry's review got a reaction from me that resulted in about 35 candid exchanges with Larry Daley that are still posted on Amazon. I wasn't concerned with criticism of me but his self-serving distortions about Celia Sanchez infuriated me because I thought he was {is}, like so many others, hiding behind his Americanized name and behind the intimidated political correctness in the U. S. that dictates that only Counter Revolutionary Cubans should be allowed to control the Cuban narrative in America -- in other words, proclaiming that the Batista-Mafia regime in Cuba was a Mother Teresa-like heavenly gift to the Cuban people while Revolutionary leaders such as Celia Sanchez were/are fiends. In the 35 or so heated exchanges with me, Larry Daley claimed he knew a lot more about Celia than I did BECAUSE HE FOUGHT WITH HER UNDER FIDEL CASTRO DURING THE REVOLUTION THAT OUSTED THE BATISTA-MAFIA DICTATORSHIP, chasing many of its leaders to an even more lucrative reconstitution on U. S. soil.

      This is a photo of Larry Daley when he still had a Cuban name, the way he looked when he presumably fought with Celia Sanchez in what Larry calls Fidel Castro's Assault Group 6 Column One.  The photos of Larry Daley were used in an article he wrote on February 6, 2015 in the Corvalis Gazette-Times in Oregon. It was/is entitled: "As I See It: A Witness to the Cuban Revolution." It was/is a scathing attack on Raul Castro. Larry Daley wrote: "Perhaps it is a presumption of mine, but I believe my knowledge of Raul Castro's record is more extensive than that of most in the area. After all, in 1958 I was a member of assault group 6 in his brother's Column One." Then Larry Daley added: "I know that Raul 'suicided' his sister-in-law Nilsa Espin, empting a full magazine from a submarine gun in her body." Ummmmmm, Larry? Are we really supposed to believe that, or believe any of the "Comments" you added to Karen DeYoung's Nov. 9th-2017 article?

     Historians, at least unbiased ones, know that Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin were legendary guerrilla fighters in Cuba's Revolutionary War. In the historic photo above taken by famed female War Photographer Dickey Chapelle {who died on a battlefield in Vietnam in 1965}, that's the always studious Celia and the always merry Vilma between battles against the supposedly vastly superior U.S.-backed Batista armies. Vilma actually was a student at one of America's great universities, MIT, when Celia wrote a letter to Boston saying, "Return home. Our underground has commenced an exciting revolution that is about to turn hot. I know you don't want to miss it." And Vilma didn't. By the time Dickey Chapelle took the above photo, Fidel Castro worshiped Celia Sanchez and Raul Castro was madly in love with Vilma.

     In 1959, within a few days after ousting Batista, Vilma Espin married Raul Castro. They remained married until June 18, 2007, which was the day Vilma died of cancer.

      Vilma Espin Castro gave birth to four children by her husband Raul. The photo above shows their dear friend Celia Sanchez admiring one of Vilma's newborns. Vilma named her four babies Deborah, Mariela, Nilsa, and Alejandro. Larry Daley claims Raul "emptied" a machine gun into the body of Vilma's sister Nilsa Espin. It is quite obvious that Vilma Espin never believed that...or believed much else of the Cuban narrative in the U. S. dictated since 1959 by Counter Revolutionaries like Larry Daley. And neither should Americans in 2017.

    The photo above depicts what Fidel Castro himself considered the Big Four of the Cuban Revolution and of Revolutionary Cuba. Of that quartet, Fidel rated Celia Sanchez #1 with himself, Vilma, and Raul bunched behind Celia. They were all prime guerrilla fighters and decision-makers during the war but Celia was the most important recruiter of rebels and supplies as well as being, with Fidel's fervent blessing and support, the prime decision-maker during the war and in Revolutionary Cuba till January 11-1980 when she died, at age 59, of cancer. In fact, in 2005 Marta Rojas told me, "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has continued to rule Cuba only as he precisely believes Celia would want him to rule it." And Marta would know.

     The photo above shows Marta Rojas and Fidel Castro in 1959. Marta was two years younger than Fidel. She was born on May 17, 1928, in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

      At age 89, Marta Rojas, beyond doubt, knows more about Celia Sanchez, Fidel Castro, and the Cuban Revolution than any living soul. As a journalist {beginning during the Batista dictatorship}, Marta helped save Fidel Castro's life when he was imprisoned from 1953 till 1955 and, via an exchange of crucial notes she carried to-and-from his prison cell in her bra, Marta created the ultra-vital Fidel-Celia nexus before they ever laid eyes on each other. Marta wrote the obituary of Celia Sanchez in 1980 that appeared on the front page of the Granma newspaper where she was an editor. Marta emerged in Revolutionary Cuba as an internationally acclaimed author and historian with her publishers including the U. S. giant Random House. She is a dear, sweet lady and, I repeat, the world's greatest expert on the Cuban Revolution.

      I believe the best book by Marta Rojas was and is "Tania: The Unforgettable Guerrilla." Later, as indicated above, Marta contributed to various historical accounts of Tania, the guerrilla fighter who died fighting with Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967.

      Marta Rojas's fascinating book forever attached the moniker "The Unforgettable Guerrilla" to the Tania that died fighting with Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967. She was waist-deep in a creek firing her rifle at soldiers mostly obscured by dense foliage when she was felled by a hail of bullets. She is remembered for her beauty as well as her fearlessness as a guerrilla fighter. Tania's real name was Tamara Bunker and the name she used in Bolivia while fighting with Che Guevara was Laura Gutierrez. 

     One of America's all-time most fascinating crime stories dates from the 1970s and relates to newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. After being kidnapped by an extremist rebel group, the Symbionese Liberation Army, Patty Hearst incredibly evolved into a bank-robbing guerrilla fighter herself. During that frantic period, Patty Hearst adopted the rebel name "Tania" based on Marta Rojas's "Unforgettable" guerrilla fighter.

      In 1974 the biggest headlines in America were reserved for the Patty Hearst saga and how the heiress to the Hearst newspaper fortune turned into the American guerrilla fighter and bank robber named "Tania." The first paragraph of the above article said Patty's kidnapping created "the biggest manhunt in U. S. history." As a guerrilla fighter, Patty chose the name "Tania" after Marta Rojas's "Unforgettable" guerrilla fighter who died with Che Guevara in Bolivia.

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