Cuba at Christmas Time 2023

A Couple of Historic Celebrations!! 

    Today is December the 22nd of 2023 and Cuba is celebrating the 62nd Aniversario de la Campana de Afabetization. That refers to the Historic and Massive Literary Campaign that Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution began in January of 1961, two years after the Revolution overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. "Historic and Masssive" is correct because history proclaims it as The Most Successful Literary Campaign of All Time, and historians still claim that it was much needed!! At the same time, Fidel Castro ordered free educations for all Cubans through college.

    Cuba's Historic Literary Campaign soon after the Revolution was indeed needed because, as shown above, during the brutal Batista dictatorship in the 1950s, the majority peasant families in Cuba were left with nothing -- no food, no education, no healthcare, etc. And this was while, very famously, during the 1950s Batista and the Mafia and rich U. S. businessmen were raking in millions of dollars on tourism, gambling, prostitution, drugs, etc. All that ended on January 1st of 1959 when Fidel Castro's rebels took over Havana.

    The images above show young revolutionary volunteers who spread out all over Cuba to show illeterate peasants how to read and write, something that Batista, the Mafia, and the U. S. had totally neglected prior to the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Such facts are documented by notable historicans as well as YouTube documentaries and Goggle searches.

   The Batista dictatorship in the 1950s in Cuba robbed and brutalized the island massively, and felt no need to toss even crumbs to the majority peasants for educational or health needs. That cruelty spawned the Cuban Revolution led by a University of Havana Law School graduate named Fidel Castro. But the neglect of the peasants regarding education & heathcare was not the last straw that doomed the Batista rule in Cuba, it was the murder of Cuban children, a cruel and stupid ploy that was supposed to quell any uprising from the terrified peasants. 

    And so, instead of calming the peasant mothers, the murders of their children -- "Nuestros Hijos"/"Our Children" -- Cuban mothers bravely took to the streets in massive protests  demanding that Batista "Stop the murders of our children. Cuban Mothers," as the sign above told the murderous Batista. The mother second from the left wearing a white blouse and sunglasses was the mother of Little Willie Soler. Today, in December of 2023, the largest children's hospital in Havana is named William Soler Children's Hospital. The Mother's Marches became Batistas's nightmare but also became a powerful symbol of why Fidel Castro had enough support to start his Revolution on July 26th of 1953...and to win it!!

    But the Mother Marches to demand that Batista STOP ASSASSINATING their children was just one of the reasons Fidel Castro ousted Fulgencio Batista as Cuba's leader. Starting in 1952 the students at the University of Havana were in the forefront of trying to overthrow Batista...and alum Fidel Castro cultivated great support from the students. By 1957, when rebel forces in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra Mountains in far southeast were beginning to beat Batista's U.S.-backed soldiers, Batista had closed the University of Havana but also had murder squads, led by Lt. Colonel Esteban Ventura, that began eliminating the student leaders. The murder of Student President Jose Antonio Echeverria on March 13th of 1957 remains to this day the most notable such assassation. There are many brutal photos of Jose's body, which was left on a Havana street as a warning to others.

    In addition to what happened to Jose Antonio Echeverria, the Four University of Havana Students shown above are also well known to history. Tipped off about the safe house they were in on Humboldt 7 Street, Lt. Colonel Esteban Ventura led a squad armed with submarine guns to kill them. It is what history calls The Humboldt 7 Massacre in Havana in 1957. These four  students have historic names that are still rmembered and enshrined to this day: Frustuoso Rodriguez, Juan Pedro Carbo, Jose Machado, and Joe Westbrook -- three Cubans and one American.

    And so...today on December 22nd of 2023 Cubans are reminded that today is the "62nd Anniversary of Cuba's Historic Literary Campaign," which history calls the most successful Literary Campaign in History. That is because many historians believe it also was necessary to replace one of the Batista dictatorship's cruelest decisions {not to educate the majority peasants}...alongside Batista's decision to kill children to quell peasant revolts and to assassinate student leaders he deemed as threats to his lucrative control of Cuba.

    Also during this week leading up to Christmas in 2023, Cuba is holding massive celebrations related to the birth of Alicia Alonso, the world's best ballerina who was acclaimed from New York to San Francisco and from London to Paris. But she returned to Cuba in January of 1959 after the Cuban Revolution ousted Batista. One day to her surprise, as is known to HISTORY, there was a knock on her door by Fidel Castro. He had come to offer her $200,000 to start and run the Cuban National Ballet. She kissed his cheek and said, "I gladly accept, Commander!!"

    For sure, Alicia Alonso was absolutely the world's prime ballerina. She was born in Cuba on December 21 of 1920 and from January of 1959 when she accepted Fidel Castro's offer, she was the world's greatest ballet teacher in Havana from 1959 until the day she died at age 98 on October 17th of 2019!!

      Once she returned to Cuba after the overthrow of Batista in 1959, Alicia Alonso remained Fidel Castro's dear friend until the day he died at age 90 on October 25th of 2016. And till the day that Alicia Alonso died at age 98 on October 17th of 2019, she supported Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution.

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US Blockade of Cuba is an Albatross!!

 AROUND the NECKS of BOTH NATIONS!!

    Cuba calls it a Blockade and the United States calls it an EMBARGO. Whatever it is, it has existed since 1962 and it seems that everyone in the world except a few supporters in Miami and Washington believes that it shames the United States as much as it devastates Cuba!! Even de-classified U. S. documents from 1962 reveal that the purpose of the Embargo/Blockade was/is to...starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cubans in Cuba to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary governemnt!! Well...the overthrow has not happened but the six decades of the 1962-imposed "sanctions" have indeed starved, deprived, and made miserable three generations of Cubans, especially the Cuban children and their mothers on the embargoed and blockaded island.

    Yes, for six decades it seems that only a few rich and powerful people in Miami and Washington support the three images depicted above. Yet...in the richest and strongest nation in the whole world, those images have existed worldwide since 1962!! Even the international reach of YouTube daily tells billions of people around the world about "The War On Cuba" that has existed since 1962 from the nearby United States of America.

   For sure...for the past six decades it has been the "USA VS. THE WORLD" when it comes to the U. S. EMBARGO/BLOCKADE of Cuba. But, of course, the USA is the world's richest and most powerful nation, so world opinion takes a back-seat to the USA's Cuban policies.

   One might expect that worldwide images such as the one above would have long ago shamed the USA into ending the EMBARGO/BLOCKADE of Cuba. But that simply has not happened.

    This photo was taken on October 24th of 1962 and it shows the moment when President John F. Kennedy signed the EMBARGO/BLOCKADE on Cuba into a U. S. law. Many biographies reveal that before the young JFK was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, he had strongly wished that he had not signed that bill. But as the new and young Democratic President in 1960, JFK had inherited already planned and very drastic anti-Cuban plans already put in place by the previous Republican administration -- drastic and historic actions such as...the U. S. Bay of Pigs Military Attack on Cuba in April of 1961; the Embargo/Blockade of Cuba in October of 1962, etc., etc.

    The photo above is a reminder that, since 1962, three generations of children in Cuba have been adversely affected by the U. S. EMBARGO/BLOCKADE of their island. All the while, of course, the American people have been told the EMBARGO/BLOKCADE is only meant to hurt the mean leaders of Cuba!!!

            And all the while since 1962 all little girls in both Cuba and in the United States deserve to live without the drastic affects of an EMBARGO/BLOCKADE imposed by a powerful nation on a much-weaker nation. And that logic, of course, even includes little girls holding Cuban flags, such as the little girl shown above.

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HEY!! A Cruise Ship Slips Into Cuba!!!!!

 Bravely Defying U. S. Blockade!!

     In mid-December of 2023 it is important to carefully study the two images shown above. The bottom one dates from February of 1962 when the United States imposed a drastic EMBARGO against Cuba that was intended to starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and overthrow their revolutionary government. The top image above is an actual photo that was taken this weekend in mid-December of 2023 and it shows two popular Cuban TV journalists with smiles on their faces as they report on a HUGE CRUISE SHIP as it docks in Havana Harbor!! That is truly a huge news item because the U. S. EMBARGO SINCE 1962 has powerfully blocked tourism to Cuba because tourists visiting the island might spend money that might mitigate against the EMBARGO that is indeed supposed to starve, deprive, and make miserable Cubans on the island to induce them to rise up and oeverthrow their revolutionary government. After six decades the lucrative overthrow attempts  still have not overthrown the Revolution...but indeed generations of Cuban families on the island have been starved, deprived, and made miserable since 1962 by the EMBARGO. 

    Here, then, is the explanation about the huge cruise ship that bravely docked in Havana Harbor this weekend -- in mid-December of 2023. The ship is named "Marella Explorer 2" and it is owned by a massive cruise line that is headquartered in both Britain and Germany. This massive ship, although owned by U. S. trade partners in the UK and Germany, will not be allowed to leave Havana and then sail to any U. S. port, but otherwise the MARELLA EXPLORER 2 is bravely defying the U. S. EMBARGO merely by having the audacity to stop off in Cuba!! 

 This ad in mid-December of 2023 is also interesting. TRIPADVISOR is one of the world's most famed Tourist Advisors. In defiance of the U. S. EMBARGO of Cuba, even TRIPADVISOR seems at the end of 2023 to be promoting "Cuba as a prime destination for tourists." 

    Now study the two images above. The top one shows that Miami and Havana, two major cities that have been warring against each since 1959, are geographically close, especially for planes and cruise ships. The bottom image explains {above} that Royal Caribbean International is headquartered in Miami. But so are the other best-known worldwide Cruise Lines such as Cardinal Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, etc.!! They are all headquartered in ultra-rich Miami, which is also home to Little Havana, the rich and politically powerful anti-revolutionary Cuban enclave that, of course, loves the EMBARGO and other anti-Cuba politicies.

    Nearby Miami/Little Havana not only has massive political power in Washsington, where the Cuban EMBARGO  is headquartered, but Miami is also the headquarters for the world's top Cruise Lines, including Norwegian Cruise Lines -- which was founded in Norway in 1966 but, alas!!, it is now headquartered in Miami, which is also home to Little Havana, which is just a few miles north of Cuba's real Havana.

    This Norwegian Cruise Ship -- and the massive Cardinal Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, etc., are also headquartered in Miami. Since 1962 Miami has tried to block tourism to nearby Cuba..but back in the 1950s Miami wildly promoted tourism to Cuba back when tourism to Cuba was dictated by Batista, the Mafia, and rich U. S. businessmen.

      In sharp contrast to the 1950s when the U. S. government and the U. S. and top U. S. businesses wildly promoted tourism to Cuba, the two images above remind us that in 2023 that the endless U. S. EMBARGO wildly singles out Cuba as the spot where tourism is blocked.

      "Miami to Havana by Air & Sea" is what massive Tourism Ads {note above} touted to the money-crazed U. S. tourists flocking to Cuba back in the 1950s during the Batista-Mafia dictatorship.

   This historic photo shows a pertinent example of how much money Mafia Kingpins, the Batista Dictators, and Rich U. S. Businessmen were making in Cuba in the 1950s. Above you can see Mafia Kingpin Meyer Lansky leaving one of his famed casinos with a huge satchel filled with MONEY!! If you bother to ask questions about 1950s Cuba, you will discover interesting tidbits such as the fact that Lansky opened his own most lucrative tourist hotel in Havana in 1958 even as the anti-rebels in far eastern Cuba were beginning to capture and hold key towns and cities while Che Guevara's peasant Radio Station Rebelde was broadcasting messages from captured towns such as, "We rebels will now not stop until we reach Havana and yesterday Batista broadcast in Havana that 'the rebel uprising in the Sierra Maestra region is no longer a problem.' Uh, really, Fulgencio?" Yes, Lansky opened his new luxury hotel in 1958, but on January 1 of 1959 it was in the hands of...the Rebels.

    Yes, while he was leading a Rebel army toward Santa Clara and Havana, Che Guevara had also invented and daily broadcast from his Radio Rebelde, informing his rebel supporters and often taunting Dictator Batista.

     Incredibly, Che Guevara's Radio Rebelde radio station helped him win the Revolution because he used it to keep his vital peasant supporters believing that the rebels "could win and we are winning with your continued support!!!" Today in December of 2023 -- as shown above --  Radio Rebelde is still a powerful radio stadium in Cuba.

    Yes, as CNN reported above, the heirs of Meyer Lansky -- well aware that Miami/Little Havana leaders are massively supported by leaders in Washington -- sued to be paid for the loss of Lansky's magnificent Riviera Hotel that was "seized" by the Revolution on January 1 of 1959.

     The Havana Riviera Iberostar Hotel has been magnificently renovated and is now operated by the powerful Spanish Iberostar Hotel & Resorts chain based in Madrid. It is a 5-star jewel with 21 floors and 352 rooms. Despite the U. S. EMBARGO, both of the two Spanish Hotels & Resorts chains -- Iberostar and Melia -- have a total of 42 4-star and 5-star Hotels in Cuba. They, of course, are targeted by...the EMBARGO.

    This was Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky showing off his spanking new Riviera Hotel in Havana in 1958...even though by then anti-Batista Rebels were beginning to march successfully out of the foothills of the Sierra Mountains in far southeast Cuba bound FOR HAVANA. But in the last week of December in 1958, a Rebel Army led by Che Guevara captured Santa Clara, the last big city closest to Havana...and that was when Batista, LANSKY, etc., fled Havana but expected that the United States would quickly recapture Cuba.

     If you ask Google about the fascinating history of the Havana Riviera Hotel, you will find voluminous facts, such as above.

    And if you ask Google, What was glamorous about 1950s Cuba? the answers, as shown above, would include: "Cuba was associated with casinos, nightclubs, and tropical beaches. American money helped provide Havana with more Cadillacs per capital than city in the world during the 1950s." WONDERFUL!! Below you can see that Smithsonian's history of Cuba in the 1950s explains such wild hedonism but ends the first paragraph shown below with this sentence: "All the while, THOUGH, a revolution brewed." Also, below you can see that Smithsonian explains U. S. dominance of Batista's Cuba in the 1950s: "By the late '50s, U. S. financial interests included 90 percent of Cuban mines, 80 percent of its public utilities, 50 percent of its railways, 40 percent of the sugar production...!!!" In other words, if you know about how rich U. S. businesses dominated Cuba in the 1950s, you will know why, since 1959, Miami and the United States loved Batista so much and hates the Cuban Revolution so much. All that explains, for example, why the U. S. spent so much time and money on the 1961 Bay of Pigs military attack and since 1962 has blocked tourism to Cuba...and why in the 1950s Dictator Batista got massive kick-backs from rich U. S. companies -- including a famed GOLD TELEPHONE!!! Uh...you can Google about that if you want to research such things as Batista gold phone!!

    The ultra-fascinating history of why the Mafia-Batista-USA factions owned Cuba in the 1950s and then lost it to the Revolution is a fascinating part of the history of both Cuba and the United States. So Google your fingers a little raw in discovering about it. Mafia kingpin Meyer Lansky and his Riviera Hotel is merely one fascinating tidbit.

Of course, start with T. J. English's Havana Nocturne!!

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A U. S. Politician Not Afraid to Speak Truth About Cuba

 In fact, One U. S. Journalist Does Too!!

    Top respected U. S. polls, including the Gallup Poll, reveal that most Americans "don't trust" what the mainstream U. S. media tells them, and most Americans "don't trust" lawmakers in the U. S. Congress. As an 83-year-old Democracy-loving American, those revelations concern me deeply. In 2004 the anti-Cuba George W. Bush adminitration in Washington permitted me to go to Cuba for the purpose of investigating why the famed Cuban revolutionary icon Celia Sanchez remained, long after she died at age 59 in 1980 from cancer, so revered in Cuba. Making it a point to spend my time with everyday Cubans, including overnight stays with six very poor rural families, I indeed discovered their abiding love for Celia Sanchez, but it was not what my support of Republican administrations, such those of George W. Bush and his father George H. W. Bush, had educated me on regarding their disdain for Cuba since the 1959 Revolution. You see...the U. S. media and the U. S. government, I have discovered, have steadfastly replicated the Bush family's agenda regarding Cuba. I sincerely believe that policy has drastically hurt and harmed the U. S. as much, maybe more, than it has hurt and harmed Cuba. In that milieu, it is hard to find a prominent U. S. politician or a prominent U. S. journanist that has the courage to speak truthfully and correctly about U.S.-Cuba Relations. Yet, there are in December of 2023 two such brave and honest Americans!! As a long-time member of the U. S. Congress, Jim McGovern has long fought bravely for the U. S. to change its drastically harmful and cruel policies regarding Cuba. As a long-time Washington journalist, Ryan Grim has also consistently told the truth about the massive harm, to both the U. S. and to Cuba, that Washington's Cuban policies have done. The hugely important article shown below, first posted today on December 14th in December of 2023, is written by Ryan Grim about the views of Jim McGovern regarding the U. S. politices regarding Cuba. I believe Americans should read it:

    The massive Ryan Grim/Jim McGovern Headline and Article today -- on December 14th of 2023 -- very uniquely speaks the truth about U. S.-Cuba Relations. It starts with the fact that the Biden adminstration for the past three years has KEPT IN PLACE the Trump administration's decision to put Cuba on the USA's very short List of Nations that Sponsor Terrorism. That decision vastly hurts Cuban families in Cuba but also vastly enriches and empowers already rich and powerful Cuban counter revolutionaries in Miami and in Congress. One brave Washington politician, Jim McGovern, and one brave Washington journalist, Ryan Grim, have both the courage and the insight to explain why the current and ever-lasting U. S. policies regarding Cuba are drastic and harmful for both counties!!

     Today -- on December 14th in 2023 -- I would like to say this: I do not think a few rich people in a large rich nation should be allowed to Embargo poor families in a much-smaller nation. The greatest shame, I believe, is that the rich people in the large nation get away with merely saying, "Our Embargo is meant to starve only the mean leaders in Cuba and, of course, is meant to help the rest of the Cuban people." That lucrative lie has created a lot of rich Cubans and politicians in Miami but for six decades has starved, deprived, and made miserable Cuban families in Cuba. Therefore, I agree with great and honest Americans like Congressman Jim McGovern and Journalist Ryan Grim that the worldwide image shown above shames the United States even more than it starves Cubans in Cuba!!!

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