Celia Sanchez vs. Marco Rubio

The Amazing 2017 Cold War Enemies!!
But first:

     At the age of 87, legendary Cuban Armando Hart has died in Havana. From 1952, the year he graduated from the University of Havana Law School and the fateful year the Batista-Mafia dictatorship began its rule of Cuba, till this year Mr. Hart was vital to the Cuban Revolution and to Revolutionary Cuba. In 1952 he teamed with other rebel legends -- Fidel Castro, Celia Sanchez, Frank Pais, etc. -- to resist Batista and then to create the underground that spawned the Revolution. In Revolutionary Cuba beginning in 1959 Armando Hart was the Education Minister and Armando quickly organized 200,000 volunteers to go out across the island to educate Cuban children and adults that were illiterate because of total neglect from the Batista dictatorship. Throughout the rest of his life, Armando Hart remained a fierce supporter of the Cuban Revolution. The 2017 AP photo above shows Armando Hart in the center with Cuba's next President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, sitting to his right...a reminder that age is catching up to the remaining revolutionary legends and the dawn of a new leadership is imminent. But the legacies of the deceased legends -- Fidel Castro, Celia Sanchez, Che Guevara, Haydee Santamaria, now Armando Hart, etc. -- remain a necessary strength of today's Cuba as it prepares for an unsettled future.

Mr. Hart's Literary Brigade.

A Volunteer teaching a mother.

 A Volunteer teaching a mother & father. 

      From the early days of the Batista dictatorship in 1952...and till the day he died on November 26, 2017...Armando Hart denounced the atrocities of the Batista dictatorship, the Mafia, and foreign imperialism of the United States of America.

     As the above photo and caption reveals, Armando Hart was among the four University of Havana students on April 6th-1952 who carried a coffin with the Cuban constitution inside, symbolizing the tragedy brought to the island by the Batista-Mafia dictatorship. Fortunately, Armando was among the brave young Cubans who survived the death squads that Batista sent after them before he closed the University.

       But most of the main anti-Batista student leaders at the University of Havana, such as Jose Echevarria shown above, were murdered by Batista's death squads.

      The death of Armando Hart at age 87 revives memories of his legendary wife Haydee Santamaria. That's Haydee in the front followed by Celia Sanchez when they were fiercely determined guerrilla fighters and leaders in the Sierra Maestra. From the start to the finish, these two women factored into every key aspect of the war as fighters and recruiters. Without them, victory would likely not have happened. 

   Never-ever did Fidel Castro minimize the larger-than-life roles Celia and Haydee as well as Haydee's husband Armando Hart played in the historic Cuban Revolution.

     This Ida Kar photo from the early 1960s in Revolutionary Cuba shows Haydee Santamaria getting a kiss from son Abel while Haydee's left arm cradles daughter Celia, who was named for Haydee's beloved soulmate Celia Sanchez.

      Throughout her adult life Celia Hart Santamaria fiercely supported Revolutinary Cuba and was also a notable writer and author. She confirmed that her famed mother committed suicide in 1980 because of the death from cancer of Celia Sanchez.

      This is Celia Hart's most notable book. Both of Haydee's and Armando's children -- Celia and her older brother Abel -- were killed in a car wreck in Havana on Sept. 7-2008 when they went out to assist other Cubans after a devastating hurricane.

Armando Hart has passed at age 87.

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      If you study the above photo, you may begin to comprehend how and why an island in the Caribbean...namely, Cuba...has been permitted since the 1950s to paint a negative image of the United States and Democracy far more than any other topic. In 1952, with no complaint from the American people, right-wing thugs in the Eisenhower administration teamed the U. S. democracy with the highest echelon of the Mafia -- Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Santo Trafficante Jr. -- to support the thieving, brutal Batista dictatorship in Cuba. In 1959, after the Cuban Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship, the Batistiano-Mafiosi regime quickly...and permanently, it seems...resurfaced on nearby U. S. soil with the Little Havana area of Miami becoming its new capital. With as much domination of South Florida as Batista ever had in Cuba, the permanent stain on the U. S. democracy occurred when self-serving sycophants, led by the Bush dynasty, extended the American Batistiano-Mafiosi brand to indelibly imprint itself on the once-pristine fabric of the formerly proud, sacrosanct, and very special U. S. government. The three Little Havana-Miami Cuban-Americans above -- Mario Diaz-Balart, Marco Rubio, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- seemingly believe they alone should make all of the decisions regarding Cuba in the 535-member U. S. Congress. Additionally, they seem to think that the majority of Cuban-Americans in South Florida -- over 2 million of them -- should not be allowed to blunt their anti-Cuban extremism even though most Cuban-Americans, even in Miami, desire normal relations with Cuba, not a half-century of extreme cruelty aimed at totally innocent everyday Cubans on the island. Incredibly, Diaz-Balart, Rubio, Ros-Lehtinen and their ilk have carte blanche clearance from the American people to "legally" punish innocent people in a weaker nation in the name of the American people who assist mightily with their lack of patriotism, their cowardice, and...of course...the still unending streams of their tax dollars.

       America's easy victory in the 1898 Spanish-American War created the origins of today's Batistiano-Mafisoi/Cuban-exile influence on the United States government.

     But to start a war the more powerful country needs a pretext. That was no problem in 1898 after the two giant U. S. newspaper publishers -- William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer -- had launched massive propaganda tirades targeting Spain's rule of Cuba and explaining relentlessly how the largest and most coveted Caribbean island was rightly America's to rule. So the pretext for war was rather simple. The warship USS Maine sailed from Key West, Florida to Cuba and it mysteriously exploded in Havana Harbor on Feb. 15-1898, killing 260 innocent U. S. sailors. Hearst, Pulitzer, and the extreme right-wingers in the U. S. government had their Pretext for War AND their Battle Cry: "REMEMBER THE MAINE!!" And history surely remembers it to this very day although the "mystery" concerning the USS Maine's explosion STILL lingers.  

         Indeed, Spain's dominance of Cuba had been lucrative for rich Spaniards but, after 1898, that would also be true for America's dominance of Cuba that also centered around rich Americans feasting on their new possession -- the largest and most prized Caribbean island. In 1903 the U. S. government took the plush Guantanamo Bay "in perpetuity" and made it into a military base...because it could. By the 1920s, as depicted above, the stage was set for the U. S. Mafia to tighten its fangs around the island and by 1933 the Mafia had fashioned a two-bit Army Sergeant, Fulgencio Batista, as the criminal empire's hand-picked Cuban dictator...with all the shots actually dictated by financial genius Meyer Lansky on behalf of the Mafia's all-time most powerful kingpin Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Study the three faces above -- Batista, Lansky, and Luciano. If indeed you take time to study those three faces you might wonder if the U. S. government could have chosen some better human beings as the American partners in the pillaging-brutalizing of Cuba.

     While the U. S. Mafia's cruel piggy-bank domination in Cuba began in the 1920s, the most brutal period of the U.S.-backed Luciano-Lansky-Batista violence and thievery began in 1952 when Lansky on behalf of kingpin Luciano persuaded the lushly retired Batista to leave his luxurious life in Florida and return to Cuba as the Mafia's dictator. The three gangsters fully realized they would have the omnipotent support of the U. S. government merely by making sure rich Americans were allowed to partake in the rape and robbery of the supposedly helpless island. No U.S.-backed dictatorship could possibly be overthrown...right? Well, true...except for one particularly cruel nuance. While making Cuba their lucrative drug-gambling-prostitution headquarters, the Mob didn't even throw crumbs to the majority peasants. And to make sure the majority peasants accepted the situation, brutal murders of children supposedly embedded the necessary fear in the minds and hearts of the non-elite Cubans. But that trait turned out to be the biggest mistake the Mafia and the United States made on the island of Cuba. The murders of Cuban children inspired what history calls the Cuban Revolution, which overturned a U.S.-backed dictator.

    While the Batista-Mafia leaders and rich American businessmen were feasting and hoarding tons of money in Cuba beginning in 1952, the majority peasants...as shown above...were mired in miserable poverty. Yet, the dire poverty of the non-elite Cubans was not what created the fires...or marches...that spawned the Cuban Revolution.

    The murders of Cuban children inspired brave mothers to take to the streets to denounce the Batista-Mafia atrocities. These irate mothers spawned the revolution.

     By the hot summer of 1953 the mother-marches were so massive the powerful Batista police and army forces couldn't quell them, not with reporters like the very sympathetic Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times minutely covering and reporting on the events. The entire region, except for American citizens, reacted in horror regarding what was happening on the island but the mother-marches had created a revolution that only needed strong leaders, which surfaced immediately.

      A young lawyer named Fidel Castro and a petite doctor's daughter named Celia Sanchez emerged in 1953 as the two rebel leaders most essential to both the initial formation and the eventual success of the Cuban Revolution. Although they communicated via the exchange of written notes even while he was imprisoned from July of 1953 till May of 1955 because of his failed Moncada Barracks attack, Fidel and Celia had never laid eyes on each other until he, as shown above, joined her guerrilla-fighting revolutionary unit in the Sierra Maestra Mountains and foothills of far eastern Cuba in December of 1956 after he returned from Mexico to rendezvous with her at a coastal spot she had chosen. But the old over-loaded yacht named Granma sank about 15 miles up the coast from where Celia waited with a force that could have protected them. Thus, only 17 of the 82 rebels on the yacht survived an ambush by Batista soldiers, but those survivors included Fidel, his brother Raul, Che Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos. And the rest is history, with Fidel and Celia deserving most of the credit for the monumental success of the Cuban Revolution. Of course, Celia famously gave most of the credit to others:

 

     The historic Celia Sanchez quotation depicted above was how she summarized her Cuban Revolution: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the Revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Yes, Celia Sanchez was bitterly disappointed that the Batista-Mafia leaders dashed for their getaway airplanes, ships and boats when, on the last day of 1958, they got word that the key city of Santa Clara had fallen to Che Guevara-led rebels. For the rest of her life, till she died of cancer on Jan. 11-1980, Celia Sanchez acutely regretted the fact that the Batista-Mafia leaders didn't stay in Havana and fight the charging rebels. But four months later in April of 1959, desiring friendly relations with the United States and believing she could get it, Celia took Fidel on a 12-day peace visit to America.

      In April of 1959, less than four months after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro was the regional and international rebel hero even in the United States. On that April-1959 U. S. visit, Fidel was overwhelmed with praise, including by the children sporting fake beards above. But there were some powerful jokers in the Eisenhower administration -- the Dulles brothers at the head of the CIA and the State Department, Vice President Richard Nixon, etc., etc. -- who quickly crushed Celia Sanchez's hopes for friendly relations with the United States.

       Celia Sanchez took Fidel on the 12-day visit to the U. S. only after the U. S. State Department had assured her Fidel could meet with President Eisenhower to hopefully normalize relations between the two nations. But the State Department lied. It was Vice President Nixon who met with Fidel to warn the new Cuban leader that his revolution would be overthrown within weeks. That convinced Celia that Nixon was a crook, which the U. S. citizens didn't learn till Nixon was President in the 1970s.

     This photo taken by Andrew St. George and copyrighted by Yale University shows Celia Sanchez in a New York hotel in April of 1959. When Fidel told her what Nixon had said, it was Celia's reaction, supported 100% by Fidel, that would best define U.S.-Cuban relations from April of 1959 till today. She was the Cuban catalyst.

      Back on Cuban soil in April-1959, with her idol Fidel backing her up, Celia Sanchez  began thinking about the only non-U. S. superpower -- the Soviet Union. But mostly, Nixon's prediction had put in her mind the Celia Doctrine: "The Batistianos will never regain control of Cuba as long as I live or as long as Fidel lives."

      In all the decades since 1959, the Celia Doctrine has incredibly stood the test of time -- and even past the 2016 death of Fidel -- against the daily efforts of the regrouped Batistianos and the Superpower United States "to regain control of Cuba." And remember that documented Celia Sanchez quotation about her and the rebels getting "too much credit for winning the revolution" because "our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Like her doctrine, that quotation also has stood the test of time. AND OH YES!! One more Celia Sanchez quote that resonates today and one that remains very pertinent today:

     The brilliant and insightful Celia Sanchez quotation above confirms that she fully realized that the Cuban narrative in the nearby Superpower United States would lie about the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba. "We can make history but we still don't get to write it." That's true today too because President Trump's newly anointed American Dictator of Cuba, Marco Rubio, can dictate the cruel U. S. Cuban narrative in an era when both the mainstream U. S. media and most U. S. citizens are simply too afraid or too propagandized to challenge anything he says. But the Celia Sanchez legacy...and her quotations...still hang around to severely challenge him.

        As long as the citizens of the United States allow a handful of extremist Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries to dictate a Cuban policy that gets the United States condemned unanimously in the UN, those pusillanimous citizens should at least have the courage to question having a Batista/Luciano-like Cuban policy-maker dictate revengeful, self-serving, and extremely cruel policies that mostly harm 11.2 million innocent Cubans...not to mention America's international reputation. Rubio vs. the Celia Sanchez legacy appears like a billion-to-one deal considering he hides behind the skirts of the world's Superpower. But the billion-to-one favorites Batista and Luciano also hid behind similar skirts. The Celia Sanchez legacy is not the same as Celia Sanchez herself...but it's still something. And after all, Trump himself, before anointing Rubio America's new Cuban dictator, belittled Rubio to his face as, among other things, "Little Marco." NO ONE ever called the petite Celia "Little Celia." 

And by the way:

    Cuba's President of the National Electoral Commission, Alina Balseiro, announced on Nov. 27th-2018 that 7.3 million Cubans voted Sunday to elect delegates to the country's municipal assemblies. She said, "There were some heavy rains in the central and eastern areas but it did not deter many voters, and I didn't expect it would."

School children guarded the ballot boxes.

      One of the island's most respected news outlets, Radio Rebelde, said, "The assembly elections are very important to Cubans, especially nearing the retirement of President Raul Castro. On Sunday there were a total of 24,000 polling stations."

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America Reviews Fidel's Life

On 1st Anniversary of Fidel's Death:

      The Voice of America, one of my prime international news sources, this weekend reviewed the life of Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary who drastically changed Cuba and America during his incomparable 90 years on this earth. The VOA used the photo above to illustrate its recap of Fidel Castro's imprint on history to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of the Cuban legend at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016. Its review is entitled: "Cuba Marks First Anniversary of the Death of Fidel Castro" and the report is mostly fair on the multiple VOA venues that include its printed form as well as its radio and television outlets. The video runs 3 minutes and 15 seconds and is included with the printed report on the VOA's informative international website.

     The Voice of America TV-video report on Nov. 25-2017 recapping Fidel Castro's life includes a long statement by Phil Peters, truly one of America's most renowned Cuban experts. Mr. Peters said: "I think all admit Fidel Castro is a very historical figure who won a very impressive military victory in the Cuban Revolution. He maneuvered through very difficult circumstances in the international sphere. He put Cuba on the map far beyond its importance in history and far beyond its economic capabilities."

     While there are many notable and fair-minded U. S. Cuban experts like Phil Peters, since Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution in 1959 chased the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship back to Florida from whence it had emerged in 1952, Fidel and his historic significance has impacted the United States every bit as much as it has impacted Cuba itself. That's because, as Mr. Peters knows, the reconstituted Batistianos-Mafiosi on U. S. soil, since 1959, have largely dictated America's Cuban policy that is widely condemned in unanimity by the United Nations and was even condemned by the decent Obama administration in 2016, resulting in the 191-to-Zero condemnation of all the voting nations in the UN. Yet, as Phil Peters and all other unbiased American experts well know, America's Batistiano-driven Cuban policy since 1959 has seen the vaunted U. S. democracy tied indelibly to such unsavory, undemocratic warts as...record numbers of tax-supported assassination attempts beginning in 1959; the expensive but miserably failed Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in 1961; the longest and cruelest {from 1962 till today} economic embargo ever imposed by a strong nation against a weak nation; and even such things as the terrorist bombing of a child-laden civilian Cuban airplane that will forever be tied to a famed tax-paid career Cuban-American terrorist that at age 90 is still living a free and heralded existence in Miami. While a renowned American expert like Phil Peters minutely could recap such things, propagandized Americans since 1959 are supposed to be too afraid or too ignorant to do so. Therefore when the Voice of America's recap of Fidel Castro's life includes a long quote by Mr. Peters, the VOA on Nov. 25-2017 is acting fairly and bravely regarding Cuba, which is a rare circumstance indeed for any American enterprise.

     Right after the unbiased Cuban expert Phil Peters made his statement about Fidel Castro in that Voice of America telecast, the VOA aired the opinions of Frank Calzon. Calzon began his depiction of Fidel Castro with these words: "Whatever good he did..." They were, actually, four amazing words because Frank Calzon is a Charter Member of the vast, well-funded anti-Castro propaganda machine that has existed in the United States almost unhindered since 1959. The graphic above depicts Calzon in the plush Miami studios of Radio Marti TV, which is located in Miami in the plush Jorge Mas Canosa building. Calzon, Canosa, and almost all of the richest and most powerful Counter Revolutionary anti-Castro zealots in the United States were and are indelibly entwined with the BUSH economic and political dynasty. The Bush-anointed Canosa was the all-time most powerful anti-Castro Cuban-American exile and the first true billionaire. For example, since the 1980s, thanks to Canosa's Bush-connections, billions of U. S. tax dollars have flowed and are flowing to the Radio Marti TV boondoggle that is just one of the many Canosa products in Miami, along with numerous buildings, etc., named in his honor. So it's fitting, as depicted above, that Frank Calzon, another of the ultra-powerful Bush-connected anti-Castro/Cuban American propagandists, is shown in a Radio Marti TV-Canosa Building graphic.

     As I pointed out, Frank Calzon's first four words about Fidel Castro in the VOA television report were: "Whatever good he did..." The rest of Calzon's words were pure anti-Castro propaganda, the kind that have, since 1959, made Counter Revolutionaries like Frank Calzon very rich and very powerful and very much unchecked in a Batistiano-fueled United States. And that's precisely why Frank Calzon, and many others like him, convince me that Fidel Castro and his Cuban Revolution say A LOT MORE about the United States than those two historic legends say about Cuba itself. Cuba, after all, is just a Caribbean island while the United States, so drastically altered by the Cuban Revolution and by the decades of trying to regain dominance over the pugnacious island, is the world's economic and military Superpower. That being said, even when he is given airtime by the Voice of America, Frank Calzon can't explain why Revolutionary Cuba has survived for all these many decades and neither can Frank Calzon justify America's cruel Cuban policy that propagandists like Frank Calzon are largely responsible for. And, of course, Frank Calzon and his ilk ignore two vital facts: {1} The harm the Batistiano-fueled Cuban policy does to America's and Democracy's reputations; and {2} the international condemnation of that Batistiano-fueled Cuban policy. With his opening four words to the Voice of America on Nov. 25-2017, Mr. Calzon admitted that Fidel Castro had done some "good." But frankly, as a democracy-loving American, I can't think of a single good thing that Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans like Frank Calzon have ever done for my America.

The legendary Voice of America.

The legendary Cuban Revolution.

    *&***********************&*   

Cuba on Nov. 25-2017

Miami on Nov. 25-2017:

Photo courtesy: Alejandro Ernesto/EFE/Getty Images.

       The photo above is used to highlight an article posted today -- Nov. 25-2017 -- in El Pais, the powerful international newspaper in Spain. The article, written by Pablo de Llano, has a Miami dateline. El Pais was commemorating the one-year anniversary of the death of Cuba's revolutionary icon Fidel Castro at age 90 on Nov. 25-2016 in Havana. The article is entitled: "Fidel No Ha Muerto, O Eso Parece" or "Fidel Has Not Died, or So It Seems." It is a very interesting article.

     America newspapers cannot publish such articles, especially from Miami where the Batistiano-Mafiosi remnants from Cuba's overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship have been headquartered in their Little Havana base since January of 1959. But Spain's El Pais can publish such an article pointing out that...even after the death of Fidel Castro, Revolutionary Cuba is still pugnacious and sovereign Cuba while the rich and powerful Batistianos and Mafiosi -- though still supported by the Superpower United States in the U. S. Congress and in all Republican presidential adminstrations -- are still unable to regain control of the coveted and vulnerable nearby island.

           For the most part, propagandized Americans HAVE NO COMPREHENSION of what an unbiased El Pais journalist wrote about from Miami on Nov. 25th, 2017 -- the first-year anniversary of Fidel Castro's death. But I believe Pablo de Llano is merely expressing a true fact: Since 1959 there have been two generations of Cubans on the island who do not want a return of the Batista-Mafia rule that brutalized and fleeced the island from 1952 till Jan. 1, 1959. The photo that illustrates the El Pais article from Miami shows a Cuban schoolboy proudly holding up a photo of Fidel Castro. The Cuban narrative in America since 1959, promulgated from Little Havana, claims that the schoolboy has been brain-washed and programmed by the Revolutionary government. El Pais seems to suggest that he has been educated by his parents and grand-parents who remember the Cuban tracks left by the Batistianos and Mafiosi.

    The international newspaper giant, El Pais, is based in Madrid, Spain. Thus, its journalist -- Pablo de Llano -- was free to write an article from Miami today on Nov. 25-2017, the first anniversary of Fidel Castro's death, that tells both sides of the two-sided Havana-Little Havana story. In the U. S., unfortunately, only one-side is generally told -- the Little Havana side. In other words, the precious U. S. democracy has changed drastically since 1959. El Pais seems to agree with the yearly vote in the United Nations that universally condemns America's Cuban policy since 1959. Perhaps more Americans should consider that condemnation and even muster up enough courage and patriotism to challenge the current Rubio-Trump cruelty that targets totally innocent Cuban women and children in the guise of hurting and exacting revenge on Castro for booting them off the island -- all the way to Miami!!

 *&***********************&*

True Rhythms of Cuba

Chronicled by great Photos!!
{UPDATED FOR: Friday, Nov. 24th, 2016}

      The photo above, and all the photos in this essay unless otherwise noted, were taken by one of the world's very best photographers -- Roberto Suarez. To comprehend the rhythms & pulses of the fascinating, beguiling, beautiful, and often misunderstood island of Cuba, I believe Roberto Suarez's photos are essential.

This is Roberto Saurez. 

     This photo shows Roberto Suarez rowing with friends on the Toa River near Baracoa, Cuba. Roberto's Cuban photos are the products of a great photographer and one who knows the island intimately. Two of his favorite subjects are talented and influential young broadcast journalists -- Cristina Escobar and Rosy Amaro Perez.

    Speaking Spanish or English, Cristina Escobar is an absolutely brilliant television news anchor in Cuba and in the region. In fact, she is a part of U.S.-Cuban history as the only Cuban to ask questions at a White House news conference in Washington. She has also spoken eloquently about U.S.-Cuban relations and broadcast journalism at three U. S. universities. Her fans included Andrea Mitchell, the veteran Chief Foreign Correspondent for America's NBC News. For her college thesis, Cristina astutely predicted the impact U. S. President Barack Obama would have on Cuba, tagged with a caveat about when and if a Republican president replaced the Democratic Obama. Respected for her talent and her comments, Cristina is responsible for perhaps the two most pertinent statements related to current U.S.-Cuban relations: {1} "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba;" and {2} "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." Americans who dispute those two comments because Cristina is a Cuban on the island are not interested in both sides of a tumultuous two-sided story.

     The healthy and well-educated young-adult generation of Cubans on the island are extremely influential now and becoming more so after the Nov. 25-2016 death at age 90 of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro and prior to the Feb.-2018 retirement of Raul Castro as Cuba's President. Young adults like the ones shown above will likely predicate the island's future above and beyond what the richer and more powerful Cubans in Miami and Washington have in store for the much-coveted island. This is a Roberto Suarez photo. Second from the right is Cristina Escobar, the sensational young-adult broadcast journalist that Cubans admire...and with ample reasons.

     Right behind break-through superstar broadcast journalist Cristina Escobar came another wave of superbly talented, well-educated Cuban journalists and anchors, led by Rosy Amaro Perez. She too has a massive following on the island. On April 16th Rosy watched the live telecast of President Trump's speech in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood in which, raucously applauded by the hardest of the Counter Revolutionary hard-line Cuban exiles, he excoriated Revolutionary Cuba. Then Rosy posted this comment on her Facebook page: "The Cuba President Trump described is not the Cuba I know. And I've lived here all my life." Almost immediately, Cristina Escobar replied, "May I quote you?" The Cuban narrative in the United States since 1959 has almost exclusively been dictated by remnants of the ousted Batista-Mafia dictatorship or their self-serving sycophants such as the Bush dynasty. So today...Trump and Miami's U. S. Senator Marco Rubio primarily dictate America's Cuban narrative, and their lies are slanted toward justifying the unjustifiable -- the U. S. embargo of Cuba that was first imposed in 1962 to starve, deprive, and make miserable the lives of Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their Revolutionary government. Since 1962 the embargo...Cuba calls it a blockade...has remained in place to fulfill its originally stated goal. Obama has been the only U. S. President with the guts and patriotism to slice into that travesty but the current Trump presidency has essentially anointed Rubio as America's latest Batista-like American dictator of Cuba. So, intelligent Americans need to decide whether Trump-Rubio are more truthful about Cuba than two highly respected Cubans on the island -- namely, Cristina Escobar and Rosy Amaro Perez.

      This is a Roberto Suarez photo that helps define Cuba's rhythms & pulses. Of course, one of Roberto's favorite subjects is Rosy Amaro Perez. He spotted her at a concert this week and, with a devilishly beguiling grin, she spotted him spotting her.

     Also at this week's concert, Roberto Suarez took this photo of Yanet Perez Moya who was sitting beside her dear friend Rosy Amaro Perez. At concerts, baseball games, and many other fun & work activities, Yanet and Rosy are usually side-by-side. And like Rosy, the beautiful Yanet is an awesomely skilled broadcast journalist. The two young women co-anchor a very popular television newscast on the island.

Rosy & Yanet co-anchoring.

     This gorgeous photo shows the two co-anchors -- Rosy Amaro Perez and Yanet Perez Moya -- at a baseball game. Sandwiched between them is Rosy's Mariana.

Mariana and her squeezable friend Diego.

Roberto thinks Rosy is very photogenic.

 And so do other photographers.

     Yuliat Danay Acosta took this classic photo of Rosy and her lookalike daughter Mariana in their classy lookalike dresses.

Roberto's pensive Rosy & inquisitive Yanet.

Roberto's "Joy of Selfie" photo.

Roberto Suarez's caption for this photo was:

"Havana is full of cats."

        Roberto captures a Cuban, Lissett Izquierdo Ferrer, finding something very amusing on her Smart Phone. Like most great photographers, Cuba's Roberto Suarez gravitates toward exquisite beauty and, as he defines the rhythms & pulses of Cuba, there is much to be found on his cozy Caribbean island.

     But for every beautiful and joyful photo that Roberto Suarez takes in Cuba, there are sad ones like this too. These are Cubans begging...praying...for vile Americans and Cubans in the United States to stop punishing them, reminding the Superpower United States that its embargo-blockade is the longest and cruelest embargo-blockade ever imposed by a powerful nation against a weaker nation. Great photographers make great statements with their photos. I believe Cuba's Roberto Suarez is making a great statement with this sad but pertinent photo.

    The image above is also credited to Roberto Suarez. He uses it to tell a truth, like the truths his photos of Cuba and its people tell. This truth, of course, resonates in near unanimity worldwide -- in fact, in 2016 the blockade was condemned 191-to-ZERO at the United Nations. Yet, in these closing days of 2017 the American people are still programmed to accept the lies from Trump & Rubio that not only support and justify the genocidal intent of the embargo-blockade but supposedly justify their ongoing efforts to strengthen it. And so, for what it's worth, I'll close with the photo below that Roberto Suarez took this month as he chronicled the rhythms & pulses of everyday Cubans.  

      OF COURSE, any accurate appraisal of the rhythms & pulses of EVERYDAY life in Cuba must include the EVERYDAY struggles of EVERYDAY Cubans. The island's world-class photographer, Roberto Suarez. took this photo this month in rural Cuba. It shows a schoolboy and his older friend hitch-hiking. As I discovered when I was in Cuba, NEVER will a Cuban driving a car or truck fail to stop to pick up Cuban hitch-hikers. Also note in this photo the adult Cubans back in the shade that is being provided by a make-shift wooden hut to protect themselves from the hot tropical sun. That roadside hut is where those Cubans try to sell fruit or vegetables to passers-by. Anxious to meet EVERYDAY Cubans, I asked my driver Jose to stop AT EVERY such opportunity...to chat and to purchase things like bananas. To his credit, Roberto Suarez added this caption to this photo: "The U. S. blockade is aimed at the people of Cuba." Back in America since 1959, LIARS like Donald Trump and Marco Rubio claim the embargo-blockade is to "punish the Castros." And self-serving LIARS like Trump & Rubio, who have never been to Cuba, are still getting away with such lies because intimidated or cowardly or unpatriotic Americans LET them get away with it. "The U. S. blockade is aimed at the people of Cuba," so says a great photographer who lives on the island and chronicles the lives...and the pulses and rhythms...of Cubans.

     Cubans still fondly remember the visit from U. S. President Obama in March of 2016. And well they should. He was the first U. S. president to visit the island since Herbert Hoover arrived in 1928 on a warship to stress the U. S. dominance of the island since America's victory in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Cuba's startling revolutionary victory over the U.S.-backed Batista-Mafia dictatorship on Jan. 1-1959 established Cuba as a sovereign nation, a status it has pugnaciously maintained although remnants of the Batista-Mafia reign who fled to the U. S. have tried on a daily basis for over half-a-century to regain control of the island...usually with the backing of the nearby World Superpower. Since 1959 only Obama's 8 years as U. S. President -- 2009 till 2017 -- provided Cuba a respite from assaults from the USA.

     On his very historic visit to Cuba in March of 2016, President Obama went on island-wide television to sincerely make the above promise to the Cuban people: "Cuba does not need to fear a threat from the United States." But the U. S. has a two-party political system -- Democrats and Republicans. A small band of Counter Revolutionary extremists -- headquartered in Miami's Little Havana section -- dictate the Republican Party's Cuban policies. On Jan. 20-2017 the Democrat Obama was succeeded by the Republican President Donald Trump.

     President Donald Trump has essentially anointed two Counter Revolutionary U. S. Congressmen from Miami -- Marco Rubio and Mario Diaz-Balart -- America's new co-dictators of Cuba, similar to the Batista-Lansky dictatorship on the island from 1952 till 1959. But, at least at the moment, Rubio & Diaz-Balart are based in Washington and Little Havana, NOT IN HAVANA. Cuba tenuously & truly hopes to keep it that way.

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YES, CUBA IS STILL STANDING

And It Might Survive Rubio & Trump!!
{Updated for: Wednesday, Nov. 22nd, 2017}

Photo courtesy of: Al Diaz/Miami Herald.

      The photo above was used this week -- Nov. 20th-2017 -- to illustrate an insightful and well-balanced article in the Miami Herald written by Mimi Whitefield. It is entitled: "Yes, You Can Still Travel to Cuba -- But Make Sure You Know the Rules." The photo shows a street in Havana with backed-up traffic mainly consisting of old vintage American cars from the 1950s. Ms. Whitefield wrote: "In the five months since President Donald Trump appeared in Miami and said he was reversing all of President Barack Obama's Cuba policies...a devastating hurricane raked Cuba's north coast, and the U. S. State Department issued a warning against traveling to Cuba. Some people just scratched the island off their list as a potential destination."

    The next three informative photos from this week's Mimi Whitefield article were taken by Emily Michot for the Miami Herald. This one shows the Carnival Cruise Lines Paradise arriving at Havana Harbor. Ms. Whitefield pointed out that the latest harsh sanctions against Cuba announced on Nov. 9th by the Trump administration have, as usual, resulted in U.S.-based groups -- Cuba One Foudation, Insight Cuba, etc. -- reacting positively on behalf of Cuba and keen American business interests.

     This Emily Michot photo shows a worker sweeping up at the Five-Star Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski in Old Havana. On November 9th-2017 the new Rubio-Trump rules made it illegal for Americans to stay at this 5-Star gem and other Cuban hotels. But they're available for Canadians, Mexicans, and citizens of ALL OTHER nations who have the freedom to travel to Cuba to judge it freely for themselves.

      This Emily Michot photo shows Niuris Higueras, a feisty Cuban woman, hugging her daughter Ysabella. Thanks to decent overtures from former President Barack Obama, Niuris opened this splendid restaurant and it thrived, making money for Niuris and the other Cubans who worked for her. But the Nov. 9th rulings by Rubio-Trump coupled with the U. S. State Department's warning to Americans not to visit Cuba severely hurt Niuris's business, but it has recovered somewhat. And now Niuris and dozens of other private entrepreneurs have fired off a letter to Senator Marco Rubio in Washington inviting him to come to Cuba and meet with them and then maybe Rubio might not be so emphatic about hurting innocent Cubans in the age-old guise of hurting -- seeking revenge -- ON THE CASTROS. Mr. Rubio has had time to respond to that letter but as of this week he has not done so. Meanwhile, decent Cubans on the island like Niuris are trying desperately to support their families despite Rubio and Trump targeting them from the Superpower United States.

     The extraordinary back-patting {or back-stabbing?} influence Miami's dangerously ambitious United States Senator Marco Rubio now has on his former dire enemy in the 2016 Republican presidential race, President Trump, is in 2017 reminiscent of the extraordinary influence vehement Counter Revolutionary Luis Posada Carriles had on President Nixon and vehement Counter Revolutionary Jorge Mas Canosa had on the Bush economic-presidential dynasty. Similarly, Senator Rubio's economic & political bread is buttered by extraordinarily wealthy Counter Revolutionary Cubans in Miami as well as at least three right-wing American billionaires. The Nixon-Carriles and Bush-Canosa alliances thrived economically and politically without hindrance from American citizens, so the Rubio-Trump nexus can assume, I believe, that, regarding Cuba, continued apathy or cowardice from U. S. citizens will enable them to punish two very precious entities: {1} Innocent Cubans on the island like Niuris Higueras and her daughter Ysabella and {2} America's reputation around the world.

And meanwhile:

      This photo, taken yesterday, shows that Cubans on the island will continue to be Cubans, and that means their love for such things as music can't be denied by Rubio & Trump. This photo was taken by a music fan at a concert who is also a fan of the photogenic music-lover Rosy Amaro Perez who was momentarily distracted from concentrating on the stage. She is a popular and talented television news anchor on the island, so her appearances at two of her favorite venues -- concerts and baseball games -- sometime upstage the performers and the athletes. The photographer this time was rewarded with a beguiling and beautiful smile from Rosy Amaro Perez.

     This photo shows Rosy Amaro Perez at that concert this week gazing off to the right of the stage at some distraction. Whatever she does is important, I believe, because it serves as a microcosm of what is happening in Cuba day-by-day even as ultra-powerful Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and Washington try omnipotently to reclaim the island. Rosy's own home was damaged by the recent devastating hurricane BUT she also has to be cognizant of the man-made hurricanes hurled daily at her island from Washington. Back on April 16 the observant Rosy watched a live telecast of President Trump excoriating Cuba during his speech before the Counter Revolutionary choir in Miami's Little Havana section. Then Rosy immediately posted this comment on her Facebook page: "The Cuba that President Trump described is not the Cuba I know. And I've lived here all my life."

         In other words, when Americans are inundated with comments about Cuba from the likes of Senator Rubio or President Trump, two Counter Revolutionaries who have never been to Cuba, I believe Americans should also consider the comments of Cubans on the island...like the aforementioned entrepreneur Niuris Higueras and like...Rosy Amaro Perez. I assume Rosy is smarter than Rubio and Trump and I know damn well she knows more about Cuba than they do. Remember, she has lived there all her life and she'd rather that foreigners not reclaim it as their piggy-bank.

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