A 90th Birthday for Marta Rojas

    A great Cuban has celebrated a great birthday on the island. Marta Rojas turned 90-years-old a few days ago. She was born on May 17th, 1928, in Santiago de Cuba. As a revolutionary, a journalist, and an author, she is nonpareil as a Cuban treasure.

      The photo above shows Marta Rojas with Fidel Castro in the very early days of Revolutionary Cuba. Note her smile and his expression on that happy Cuban day.

          In December of 1959 it was Marta Rojas, as shown above, who introduced Fidel Castro for his very first television address to the Cuban people as their new leader.

    When I was in Cuba in 2004, with permission from the fiercely counter-revolutionary George W. Bush administration, to research Cuba's incomparable revolutionary heroine Celia Sanchez, the notable journalist Tracey Eaton told me that Marta Rojas knew more about Celia Sanchez, Fidel Castro, and the Cuban Revolution than any person on the planet. He also told me she was "one of the sweetest humans on the planet." Through Tracey I got to know Marta and all of Tracey's glowing introductory remarks were true. Graciously, she helped me with my biography of Celia Sanchez via email exchanges after I returned to Wyoming. As the planet's greatest expert on Celia Sanchez, Fidel Castro, and their remarkable Revolution, Marta told me in a 2005 email, "Since Celia died of cancer in 1980, Fidel has ruled Cuba only as he precisely believes she would want him to rule it." To this day, in my firm opinion, that is the most definitive sentence that has ever described the historic relationship between two of history's greatest revolutionary figures.

     The photo above shows Marta Rojas at age three on a hot day in Santiago de Cuba in 1931. The umbrella protected her from the tropical sun. Of all the people still alive today, no one worked more closely with Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro as Marta did, and no living soul knows as much about Celia and Fidel as Marta does.

       As indicated above, two generations of Cubans have very wisely listened to Marta Rojas on issues related to either the Cuban Revolution or Revolutionary Cuba.

     Now at age 90, Marta Rojas, shown here on the right holding the microphone, still knows much more about the Revolution and today's Cuba than anyone else.

      And speaking of definitive quotations, The Woman Project.org believes that Celia Sanchez herself best defined the Cuban Revolution: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winnng the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." Of course, since 1959 the Cuban narrative in the United States compels Americans to disagree with Celia Sanchez but, from its start in 1952 until whenever it might end, history's greatest female guerrilla fighter and revolutionary leader knew far more about that unique event than all of America's counter-revolutionaries -- Celia's "enemies" -- ever thought about knowing. And that's why Celia Sanchez won and that's why her imprint to this day helps explain the startling longevity, against overwhelming odds, of history's most redoubtable revolution.

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Airplane Tragedy in Cuba

112 On Board Perished!
{Updated: Monday, May 28th, 2018}

      On May 18th a Cubana Airlines airplane that took off from Jose Marti Airport in Havana crashed on the edge of the capital city. There were 113 people on board and as of May 28th only one, 19-year-old Mailen Diaz, survived. The plane was a 39-year-old Boeing 737 leased from a small Mexican airline. The head of Cubana Aviation said that the 6-decade-old U. S. embargo, which restricts how Cuba deals with other nations and their companies, forces him to lease older planes as opposed to being able to purchase newer ones. The mainstream U. S. media, typically, has treated this enormous tragedy unfairly or mostly just ignored it. Perhaps the unkindest cut of all came from the New York Times when it quoted Radio-TV Marti, the vast tax-funded Counter Revolutionary anti-Cuban propaganda machine that has been based in Miami since the 1980s at grave expense to United States taxpayers and to America's prestige.

      Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, immediately went to the scene of the tragedy as shown above. On the media, he was the first to confirm to the Cuban people regarding the high death toll. After reaching the scene, he started by saying, "It's not promising." It was due to be a 435-mile Havana-to-Holguin flight.

      Of the 112 who tragically perished, 68 were from Holguin. That included Dr. Monica Leyva Garcia and her daughter Alexia who turned 15-months-old that day. Monica's husband and Alexia's father is a doctor at the Holguin hospital.

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Cuba's New Leader

Some Subtle Changes Already!!

     This interesting May 17-2018 photo reflects both monumental and subtle changes on the still-evolving island of Cuba. It shows the island's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel being warmly greeted by Cubans, the vast majority of whom genuinely like and support the former Education Minister's presidency. That's monumental. One of the early subtle changes on the island in the nascent Diaz-Canel era reflects his emphasis on stressing the importance of the Cuban media. He says, "Across the island our universities have contributed excellent journalists that serve the island. Our people are too smart and too well educated to be misled or lied to. Our media, both in print and in broadcasting, will be boosted to better inform our people and others with the truth, be it good or bad, about Cuba."

    This May 17th photo shows Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel getting support from everyday Cubans. The mainstream U. S. media -- and, of course, the most vicious and well-funded anti-Cuban blogs -- routinely claim that the Cubans are forced to fawn over their new leader. The primary people off the island spreading such distortions are the Cubans and their sycophants in the U. S. Congress who work so hard to keep Americans from visiting the island where they could judge it for themselves.

     In mid-May of 2018 in Diaz-Canel's Cuba a brand-new television station, Dominio Cuba, has debuted. Its first broadcasts, as shown above, featured reports and interviews conducted by Cuba's superstar broadcast journalist Cristina Escobar in Geneva, Switzerland. This one was on May 17th.

  This photo shows Cristina Escobar conducting an interview this week for Dominio Cuba on a street in Geneva, Switzerland. The report not only went back to Cuba but Dominio Cuba is designed to have a strong digital presence on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. 
   Cristina Escobar, considered by many to be the best Spanish-speaking and English-speaking broadcast journalist in the Western Hemisphere, is a huge supporter of President Diaz-Canel and, with her mentor Rosa Miriam Elizaldo, is also a major media official on the island as well as a special on-air talent.

  From Switzerland this week, Cristina Escobar explained what Cuba's highly ambitious new television channel, Dominio Cuba, is all about: "We live in a world where truth is built by the media, and those with the most power respond to groups that want to dominate political narratives. We seek to make visible the reality of different countries, like ours."

    The Cristina Escobar reporting this week from Geneva in both Spanish and English is so well-respected as a broadcast journalist that, during the Obama era in the U. S., she made history {above} by being the only Cuban journalist to ever ask questions at a White House news conference. After making such an impression in Washington and elsewhere, Escobar made further headlines with comments such as: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington," and, "Cuban journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about the U. S. than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." Now on Cuban television and also on leading Internet forums, Cristina Escobar has a new vehicle, Dominio Cuba, to try to tell Revolutionary Cuba's still-evolving story.

     It is clear that Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has given the island's media leader, Rosa Miriam Elizaldo, the wherewithal to expand Cuba's image via Rosa's ambitious Dominio Cuba channel. Its Internet exposure has already provided dividends. And Rosa expertly emphasizes the island's talented array of young journalists, especially Cristina Escobar. Recently, Rosa has supervised Cristina and a strong technical crew on live reports from Lima, Peru, and Geneva, Switzerland.

The thoughtful Cristina Escobar.

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Cuba Adjusts to Trump-Rubio

And to Its Post-Castro Future!!
{Thursday, May 17th, 2018}

     The photo above and the following two, all taken by Louise Morgan, helped illustrate a major article written by Laurel Ives that originated on the Wallpaper.com Website this week -- on May 15th. It's entitled: "Cuba Revolution: A New Cuisine is Hot on the Heels of Its Latin American Counterparts." The excellent article reflects on the new Cuba led by new President Miguel Diaz-Canel. It's an example of insightful tidbits from the island that the mainstream U. S. media is simply not capable of presenting to the American people in a fair and unbiased manner.

      The aforementioned article reviews a new book published by Phaidon and entitled: CUBA: The Cookbook. Journalist Laurel Ives begins with these words: "Cuba has been known for many things over the years {cigars, mojitos, bright colours}, but not its culinary offerings. However, food on the tropical island has been undergoing something of a renaissance lately, with the arrival of new paladares {private restaurants in people's homes}, farmers' markets, and street food stalls. Imogene Tondre, co-author of a new book, CUBA: The Cookbook, says, 'There's a huge increase in restaurants and paladares, and they're innovating with creative takes on traditional dishes using local ingredients.'" That, simply speaking, is powerful news for an island nation severely targeted for over six decades by the nearby world Superpower.

      Both the informative article and book feature this Louise Morgan photo to illustrate newly innovative and creative cuisine now showing up in Cuba at public restaurants and paladares {which are wildly popular restaurants in private homes} that cater to the public. It may not sound like earth-shattering renovations but, in essence, it is. It is indicative of how emerging entrepreneurs on the island are reshaping Cuba, including the cuisine. But most of all, it reflects the fact that significant but subtle cultural and economic changes in Cuba can be sincerely reported by unbiased journalists and authors while the mainstream U. S. media is relegated to propagandizing only a negative Cuban narrative as dictated by extremists Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans based in Miami or entrenched in the U. S. Congress.

     That insult to the U. S. democracy, pervasive since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution over the Batista-Mafia dictatorship way back in 1959, is particularly prevalent when Republican administrations routinely designate extremist Counter Revolutionaries, such as Marco Rubio, as America's Cuban dictators. That trend has been continuous in six Republican administrations since 1959 with Trump's being #6. 

     Cuba's new President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, is perhaps more anti-Capitalism and anti-USA than were his predecessors, the iconic revolutionary Castro brothers. Faced with the U. S. embargo that has existed since 1962 and recently been reinforced by the efforts of Trump & Rubio to recapture Cuba for a few rich and powerful Batistianos, Diaz-Canel is supported by most Cubans on the island but he also knows he is expected to improve the island's economy that needs internal reforms, such as a one {and not a two} peso system...while also, of course, trying to cope with Counter Revolutionary Republicans in control of both the U. S. Congress and the White House.

    This photo -- taken this week in Geneva, Switzerland -- is also reflective of a new Cuba under a new leader, President Miguel Diaz-Canel. The image above shows Cuba's superstar journalist Cristina Escobar preparing to broadcast a live television report back to Cuba from Geneva on a brand-new television channel -- Dominio Cuba -- that debuted just a few days ago -- on May 13th, 2018. But Cristina had already earned her stripes as perhaps the best broadcast journalist in the Western Hemisphere, a reputation that apparently such notables as President Obama and NBC's Andrea Mitchell agree with. That's why Cristina made history as the only Cuban to ever ask questions at a White House news conference, which she dominated with 4 pertinent questions plus two follow-ups. As an anchor, reporter, and interviewer, she's nonpareil...and also a typical leader of the restive young-adult generation of Cubans who are determined to predicate the island's future.

     My friend Tracey Eaton, a highly respected journalist who was stationed in Cuba and now is a Professor at Flagler College in Florida, still does major interviews and articles from Cuba for such outlets as the Pulitzer Center, USA Today, etc. After he had interviewed a couple of Cuban dissidents, I suggested to him that he should interview Cristina Escobar on his next trip to Cuba, which he did and acknowledged my suggestion in the major article that followed. The image above is taken from Tracey Eaton's interview of Cristina and two videos from it are still posted on YouTube and on the Pulitzer Center website. After she made headlines at the White House news conference, Cristina, who is fluent in English, has spoken at American universities and has become a go-to Cuban for live interviews by international Spanish-and-English-speaking networks interested in U.S.-Cuban relations. Along the way, as on the video above, she has made additional headlines with two particular quotes: {1} "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington;" and {2} "Cuba journalists have more freedom to tell the truth about Cuba than U. S. journalists have to tell the truth about Cuba." While Americans are severely programmed to not believe either of those statements by Cristina Escobar, unbiased and unintimidated journalists who actually report from Cuba tend to believe her and thus understand that the strengths of those beliefs, and resolves, is one reason the vulnerable island with the viciously determined northern Superpower neighbor has survived with its revolutionary rule for all these decades.

   This is a snapshot of the calm, brilliant Cristina Escobar making history at that White House news conference. As a journalist and as a visitor, Cristina is quite familiar with Washington, Miami, Alabama, California, etc. If Cristina would, by chance, defect to Miami, Rubio's quest to finally subdue Revolutionary Cuba would likely be realized in short order. But those chances of her defecting are more none than slim. Cristina Escobar is a Cuban who staunchly believes that "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington." That's the opposite of what Rubio believes as he ominously hides behind the skirts of America's economic and military might as well as the apathy of another generation of propagandized Americans.

     This photo was taken this week in Geneva, Switzerland, where Cristina Escobar is enjoying the scenery and the people while also sending excellent television reports, some in Spanish and some in English, back to Cuba {and her reports are available online via Facebook and other outlets} concerning important United Nations sessions taking place in Geneva. If revolutionary rule in Cuba continues to defy overwhelming odds and survive, it will be because the island's young-adult generation, as epitomized by Cristina, prefers Revolutionary-style sovereignty to anything resembling a foreign-dominated Batista, Mafia, or, yes, Rubio-style government. Of course, Rubio has about a billion-to-one advantage but well...it's been that way since 1959 and the island that produced legendary rebels like Celia Sanchez, Haydee Santamaria, Vilma Espin, Tete Puebla, etc., to fight the unbeatable Batista in the 1950s can still produce the likes of Cristina Escobar, still a rising star in 2018.

        Cristina Escobar: "Cuba's fate is up to Cubans on the island, not Cubans in Miami and Washington."

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Florida Thugs Attack A Great Lady

U. S. Cuban Insanity Firmly Embedded
Deeply Within America's Fabric!!
{Wednesday, May 16th, 2018}

    Americans who care about America, I believe, should know Alicia Adams. She is an extremely decent, patriotic, and democracy-loving American. She happens to believe that, for the past six decades and perhaps for another six decades, a mere handful of thuggish, self-serving miscreants from Miami and in the U. S. Congress should not, in the name of the United States, be allowed to harm millions of totally innocent and decent people in a smaller, weaker nation. And for those reasons, in May of 2018, Alicia Adams is being rudely and unconscionably assaulted by the Governor of Florida and extremists Counter Revolutionary politicians from Miami. Meanwhile, of course, neither the gutless mainstream U. S. media nor many cowardly U. S. citizens give a damn. Permit me to explain why Alicia Adams is the latest democracy-loving American to be victimized by revengeful, self-serving thugs feathering their own economic and political nests on the backs of innocent people in a much smaller and weaker nation...and Cuban-Americans on the United States side of the Florida Straits.

     As the curator at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C., Alicia Adams oversees that august body's international endeavors in supporting the arts and cultures of other nations. She meticulously created the Kennedy Center's current recognition of much-maligned, very talented, and totally innocent Cuban and Cuban-American artists -- over 400 of them who are performing at the Kennedy Center for two weeks -- from May 8th till May 20th. That simple gesture of sanity and decency by Alicia Adams is taking place now at the Artes de Cuba Festival. She said, "This is cultural deplomacy. Arts are the best tool we have to bring people together. Cuba punches way above its weight in the artists it has created and given to the world." But those words and her Artes de Cuba Festival now underway at the Kennedy Center has resulted in this great lady being gutlessly assaulted by Florida's Governor Rick Scott and the usual Cuban-American suspects entrenched in the United States Congress.

    As if he had nothing better to do as the Governor of Florida, Rick Scott has unmercifully assailed Alicia Adams for treating totally decent and innocent Cubans on the island and Cuban-Americans in Florida with decency and respect. But such insanity can get you elected Governor of Florida and get you enshrined in the U. S. Congress from Florida. Knowing all that, Scott and the usual suspects that make up the Counter Revolutionary Cuban-American contingent in Congress fired off blistering letters to the Kennedy Center and to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo crudely, bitterly, ignorantly, and typically denouncing Alicia Adams because she happens to be a decent, democracy-loving American who had the audacity to make a sane and decent gesture toward innocent Cubans...in stark contrast to, say, a terrorist bomb that sent the civilian CUBANA FLIGHT 455 into the ocean killing all 73 on board or the car bomb that silenced Miami's top Cuban-American journalist EMILIO MILIAN for having the temerity to criticize such things.

   The photo above reflects how extremist Counter Revolutionary Cubans and their sycophants like Florida's Governor Rick Scott are in High Heaven whenever a Republican controls the White House. Scott is the bald-headed...and bald-faced...man clapping over President Trump's right shoulder when Trump visited the Manuel Artime Theater {named for a leader of the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in 1961} in Miami's Little Havana section to sign vicious and cowardly anti-Cuban executive orders. At Scott's right shoulder is U. S. Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami; Mario's father was Rafael Diaz-Balart, a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then, after the overthrow of that vile regime, one of the richest and most vehement Counter Revolutionary figures in the history of Miami. At Scott's left shoulder is U. S. Congressman Marco Rubio from Miami, Trump's choice as America's new Cuban dictator ala Batista-Luciano. The lady in front of Rubio and looking down over Trump's left shoulder is Martha Beatriz Roque who was born 72-years-ago in Havana and has for decades been a fierce Counter Revolutionary in Cuba, Miami, and Washington.

     Extreme Cuban dissidents like Martha Beatriz Roque since 1959 have had massive influence on all six Republican presidents, the latest being Donald Trump, and...of course...on all politicians in South Florida. They not only dictate America's Cuban policies but also control the Cuban narrative in the United States...policies and narratives that stress that all Counter Revolutionaries in Miami and in Congress are saints while the majority of Americans and Cuban-Americans who disagree with them...like Emilio Milian and Alicia Adams...are pariahs to be punished and shunned.

     The long letter above assaulting the Kennedy Center's awesomely decent Alicia Adams was crafted by Miami's gift to the U. S. Congress Mario Diaz-Balart, the son of a powerful Minister in the overthrown Batista dictatorship. Getting revenge on the Cuban Revolution -- while feathering their political and economic nests -- is par for the course for the normally unchallenged Counter Revolutionaries, and assailing decent Americans and Cuban-Americans is par for their course too. Believing they are the only ones who deserve opinions related to Cuba, Diaz-Balart and his ilk assault over 400 Cubans and Cuban-Americans performing during the current two-week Festival at the Kennedy Center...incredibly labeling them threats to America and, in the above letter, mentioning "Omaro Portuondo" in the first line of the second paragraph.

     The photo above shows Omara Portuondo as she was performing at the Kennedy Center during the current Artes de Cuba Festival. Omara is 87-years-old. She is the legendary singer for the internationally famed Buena Vista Social Club Band. IS OMARA A THREAT TO AMERICA BECAUSE SHE PERFORMED AT THE KENNEDY CENTER IN WASINGTON OR ARE THE COUNTER REVOLUTIONARY EXTREMISTS WHO HATE OMARA BECAUSE SHE HASN'T DEFECTED TO MIAMI THE BIGGEST THREATS TO AMERICA?? For the record, Marisa Arbono-Ruiz, the journalist at NPR, wrote these exhilarating words: "Omara Portuondo brought gasps of delight, then rapturous applause, just by walking out onto the stage at the Kennedy Center." And so again, as you study the photo above, I believe it is appropriate to ask this question: Is 87-year-old super entertainer Omara Portuondo a threat to America or are the latest iterations of Counter Revolutionaries, like Mario Diaz-Balart, and a small litany of sycophants, like Rick Scott, the greatest threats to the United States of America??

       Among the Cuban singers at the Kennedy Center's Cuban Festival that runs until May 20th is Symee Nuviola. She was born in Cuba but lives in Miami, Florida.

     Cuba's world-famed National Ballet performers are among the headliners at the Artes de Cuba Festival in Washington. In 1999 the Kennedy Center's Alicia Adams traveled to Cuba at the behest of the Smithsonian Institute and there she met Cuba's Alicia Alonso, the world's most famed ballet teacher now in her 90s but thrilled about the two-week Kennedy Center Festival that will feature Ms. Alonso's students.

      Cuba's heralded and talented Havana Lyceum Orchestra felt "honored and blessed" to be invited to the Kennedy Center in Washington by Alicia Adams.

      The Tiempre Libre band from Miami was also pleased to be invited to the Kennedy Center's extravagant tribute that blends talented Cuban artists with Cuban culture. 

               Diaz-Balart, Rubio, and Ros-Lehtinen -- in the U. S. Congress from Miami -- believe they should be able to dictate America's Cuban policies and America's Cuban narratives. In the state of Florida and in the overall United States since 1959 -- especially during the Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Bush #1, Bush #2, and Trump Republican administrations -- they have assumed, and I believe abused, that power as extensions from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that fled the Cuban Revolution for U. S. soil beginning in the wee hours of January 1, 1959. Their vicious and self-serving Cuban distates are opposed by most of the two million-plus Cuban Americans in South Florida and, for sure, by the entire world as illustrated by the 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations during the decent Democratic Obama presidency. The U. S. democracy in 1952 sicced the Mafia and the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship on Cuba, and since 1959 has embraced the overthrown Mafiosi-Batistiano remnants of that regime. In the last six decades many decent Cuban-Americans, like Emilio Milian, and many decent Americans, like Alicia Adams, have been routinely and ungodly punished merely for having very decent but contrary views regarding the Cuban conundrum. But as indicated by the unanimity of the UN condemnation, the U. S. democracy has suffered even more.

     Propagandized and intimidated Americans are not supposed to care that another great American, Alicia Adams at the Kennedy Center in Washington, is being assailed by the latest iteration of a handful of Cuban extremists and their sycophants who dictate America's Cuban policies and narratives. It's been that way for six decades now and it seems that America no longer has a democracy capable of dealing with it. In other words, the Batistiano cancer on U. S. soil has been allowed to spread.

     The U. S. democracy currently led by Bolton, Trump, and Pompeo is the latest Republican example of a democracy that caters to the top Batistiano extremists.

And by the way:

      One of the major headlines in the Washington Post today -- Monday, May 14th, 2018 -- screams: "TRUMP PLEDGES TO HELP CHINESE PHONEMAKER ZTE 'GET BACK INTO BUSINESS.'" Communist China is the biggest threat to America economically and militarily thanks to decades of sweet Chinese trade advantages with the United States, the same United States that has tried mightily to, as documented by declassified U. S. documents, to starve, deprive, and make miserable totally innocent Cubans on the nearby island. Of course, America's sharp dichotomy as related to harmless Cuba and dangerous China is two-fold: {1} The U. S. is mightily afraid of superpower China and has no reason at all to be scared of little Cuba; and {2} unlike the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in Cuba, no Chinese dictatorship has ever been overthrown and then reconstituted itself on U. S. soil. China, of course, was also the reason the U. S. didn't win the bloody Korean War way back in the early 1950s and Vietnam is now united as one COMMUNIST nation that is a top trade partner of the U. S. after beating the U. S. and its South Vietnam allies in the bloody Vietnam War.

     As a Big Boy that no international bully wants to mess with, China's economy is on a path to overtake America's and the ultra-modern Chinese jet above is one reason China's exploding nuclear-powered military is not afraid to intimidate the U. S. and its allies concerning disputed islands in the China Sea and elsewhere around the globe.

Ultra-modern Chinese bomber & fighter jet.

       China, meanwhile, is spending billions of its excess dollars gaining influence on the African continent but also in Latin America and the Caribbean, with Cuba being the biggest and most influential island in the Caribbean. The United States has a naval base that Cuba abhors at Guantanama Bay, Cuba; China's rapidly expanding naval prowess would love to have both a Caribbean and a Latin American port and it believes it now has the economic and military might to make that happen soon.

     With Trump "tightening the screws on Cuba that Obama had loosened," Cuba's brand-new President Miguel Diaz-Canel is concentrating on building closer ties to China's President Zi while also revamping Cuba's struggling, U.S.-embargoed economy to replicate Vietnam's. Diaz-Canel is less inclined than his predecessor Raul Castro was when it comes to trying to normalize USA relations. The week before he officially took over as Cuba's leader on April 19th, Diaz-Canel said, "Wasting time dealing with the U. S. can better be spent dealing with available friendly nations."  

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