A Potpouri of Photos Defining Revolutionary Cuba

A Few 1955-2013 Snapshots of Cuba
{Updated Jan. 10-2013}

        Enrique Meneses died at age 83 in Madrid, Spain, on the first Sunday of this New Year 2013. He spent over a half century as one of the world's most famous photographers and he was famed as an adventurous journalist. He is most remembered for the four months he spent with Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra in 1957 when the odds were still prohibitive against a nascent rebel uprising surviving against the might of the U. S.-and-Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba. His photos and captions were among the first to tell the world about Fidel Castro's "uphill but courageously ongoing fight." During his own four dangerous months in the Sierra, Enrique  shadowed both Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, later remarking that "I spotted greatness in one particular man." He was referring to Fidel Castro, whom he admired the rest of his life. On his deathbed, Enrique said, "Fidel is three years older than me and assassins haven't dogged my trail on a daily basis. I never thought Fidel would out-live me. He was lucky to survive each year since I met him in 1957."

      Above is one of the most famous Enrique Meneses photos, taken in the Sierra Maestra Mountains in 1957. The three rebels on the right are Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Camilo Cienfuegos -- the three leading male Commanders at the time. The three men on the left are updating Fidel on the movements of a Batista army in the foothills of the Sierra: "Just over the rise thirty yards up you can see the front elements." Enrique Meneses wrote a book entitled "Fidel Castro" and the two men spoke on the phone last December.

         In his book Enrique Meneses wrote, "I was attracted to the Cuban Revolution because it was the first revolution started by the mistreatment of women by a brutal dictatorship. When I got there and saw the fighting in the mountains and foothills in 1957, I did not think the rebels had a chance but I knew Batista and his backers had been stupid for rousing the female population on the island to such a fever pitch."

     Enrique Meneses continued: "But soon I realize that Fidel Castro's vastly superior intelligence in fully utilizing the totality of the fury of the female half of the population has over the years, beginning in the 1950s, defeated forces far superior in arms and manpower. He elevated women to a new worldly plateau."

                                     

      Jon Lee Anderson {above} is probably the world's quintessential adventure journalist today. His articles for The New Yorker and others shed glaring lights on some of the planet's most dangerous places and most egregious wrongs. He also, of course, wrote the definitive Che Guevara biography. Jon Lee Anderson has been a close friend and deep admirer of Enrique Meneses. Anderson coined this epitaph for Enrique: "He was the last of the great adventure journalist." The last, that is, except for Jon Lee Anderson.

    The beautiful young lady above is propitiously gracing an art exhibit in New York City, where she accompanied her boyfriend, the artist Arlis del Rio, back in Nov.-2012. Her name is Vilmita Rodriguez Castro. She is the grand-daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and his late, legendary wife Vilma Espin.

     A few weeks earlier -- back in June-2012 -- Mariela Castro {above}, the feisty daughter of Raul Castro and Vilma Espin, relished her visits to San Franciso and New York City, and so did the U. S. media. She endorsed Barack Obama for a second presidential term. On her return flight to Cuba she joked, "Fox News is ecstatic over my endorsement of President Obama. They think I just handed the election to Romney!" Twice married and the mother of two children, Mariela has always been a fearless rebel, like her famed mother. In college, Mariela alarmed her father Raul and her uncle Fidel, but not her mother, when she appeared topless in a play. In recent years she very successfully defied both her father and her uncle by campaigning fearlessly and tirelessly for gay rights on the island. Also this past summer she engaged in a heated Twitter exchange with the famous anti-Castro blogger Yoani Sanchez. Because it was Mariela vs. Yoani, and because Twitter almost rules the world and has proven it can start wars and revolutions, the verbal cat-fight appeared for awhile to be the start of World War Three, or at least another Bay of Pigs!

       Castro women have always had an auspicious affinity for their neighbor, the United States of America. The photo above shows the Castro sisters Emma and Augustina in Miami in 1957 soliciting money to support the anti-Batista revolution their brothers Fidel and Raul were waging in the Sierra Maestra.

    Fidel Castro, after getting out of a Batista prison in 1955, began his recruitment of revolutionary funds in Miami, as depicted by the above photo. In those halcyon days, Miami Cubans hated Batista much more than they hated Fidel!

A Fidel Castro fact (not a factoid): His favorite American city has always been New York City!

That's a nattily dressed Fidel Castro strolling in New York City's Central Park. 

      Dr. Aleida Guevara {above}, the daughter of Che Guevara, is considered one of the most skilled and dedicated baby doctors on the island of Cuba. In 2012 Dr. Guevara made a triumphant tour of England, delivering sold-out speeches in six major cities. In the above photo a reporter for the London Daily Mirror has asked Dr. Guevara, "How much do you think your father, also a doctor, regretted ending up a rebel instead of practicing medicine?" Dr. Guevara replied, "Not at all, my dear. He had an early calling to medicine and a later calling to try to help poor people in another fashion. You might say...I am my father's daughter."

        Cubans admire pure feminine beauty combined with sheer physical and mental courage as well as a high degree of intelligence. So, it's no wonder Liaena Hernandez Martinez {above} is their favorite soldier. She hails from Guantanamo province and while still a top university student was also the most decorated soldier in Brigade de la Frontera. One superior wrote: "She guards the coastline as if Genghis Khan is coming to capture the island, but if he does touch Cuban soil Liaena will be there to nab him! I guarantee it!"

          As an 18-year-old in 2008 {above}, Liaena was profiled by the BBC as she campaigned door-to-door to become the youngest person ever elected to the Cuban National Assembly. The BBC described her as "a polished, determined campaigner and one who kisses and sweet-talks babies like a polished politician in London." She won. And, yes, they do have elections in Cuba and it is not mandatory to belong to any party.

        Now a poised and elegant public speaker, Liaena is popular with many young Cubans who hope that one day she will be President of Cuba. Asked about it, she said modestly, "Probability, no; possibility, yes."

Liaena's idol is Dilma Rousseff {above}, the President of Brazil.

       Why does Ileana Hernandez Martinez idolize President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil: "She is a woman. She is the most powerful person, male or female, in Latin America. She is a fighter, a guerrilla fighter. At my age she had already been imprisoned and tortured for three years by a foreign-backed dictatorship. She is a socialist. She loves and admires Cuba. I idolize everything she has been and everything she stands for. I and all young Latin American women should aspire to be what President Rousseff is today."

Hey! The above photo courtesy of Susan and Richard Day reminds me that it's winter in Virginia.

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Cuban Dissidents (1) and the American Media (2)

Add the U. S. Government (3) and You Have A Dynamic Trio

       Tracey Eaton {above} is my friend. I met him in Cuba in 2004 when he was head of the Dallas Morning News bureau in Havana. Prior to that, and since then, I have exchanged scores of emails with Tracey. That's because I consider him America's best and fairest journalist on a topic that interests me -- Cuba. This month {Jan.-2013} Tracey emailed me to solicit my opinion of Cuban dissidents, explaining that he was writing a major article on that subject. I have always valued his opinion. Before I went to Cuba, he advised me to stay at the Victoria Hotel; I did. After I got to Cuba, he advised me to eat at the in-home restaurants knows as paladars; I did. And I appreciated the fact that he valued my opinion regarding Cuban dissidents.

        Al Neuharth is my all-time favorite journalist. Born in Eureka, South Dakota in 1924, he still writes a column entitled "Plain Talk" that appears each Friday in USA Today, which happens to be my all-time favorite news source and newspaper. I consider Al Neuharth an American treasure.

        Back in 1982 Al Neuharth founded USA Today, which I have subscribed to since 1982. It remains the most readable major newspaper in America. It is also one of the fairest, even on controversial, hot-button topics such as...Cuba. Mr. Neuharth himself, for example, has correctly called the self-inflicted U. S. embargo of Cuba "insane." And he has readily acknowledged that Fidel Castro has "out-smarted" the last ten U. S. presidents. In fairness, Mr. Neuharth and USA Today have also sharply criticized Cuba when such criticism was warranted, which, of course, it sometimes is.

         On January 7, 2013, an article in USA Today featured this across-the-page headline: "CUBAN ABUSES UP, DISSIDENTS SAY." It was written by Tracey Eaton. And it was a totally biased and distorted article. 

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         Am I surprised that my favorite journalist in my favorite newspaper teamed up for a blatantly distorted, biased, and myopic presentation on an issue that is important to the United States as well as to a neighboring country and the world? No, not at all. Cuba says a lot more about the United States than it says about Cuba. One thing it says is...the United States should not have teamed with the Mafia to support the Batista dictatorship in Cuba in the 1950s. Another thing it says is...when the Batista dictatorship was overthrown by a popular revolution in January of 1959, the United States should never have allowed the leaders of that ousted dictatorship to reconstitute a richer and more powerful dictatorship on U. S. soil, creating what essentially has been yet another Banana Republic dictatorship that has existed and thrived since January of 1959 to the detriment, I believe, of the U. S. democracy. Because Cuba is a little island and the United States is by far the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world, the losers, not the winners, have dominated the historical records of the Cuban Revolution as well as the topical journalism related to it. Thus, no way am I surprised that my favorite journalist and my favorite newspaper teamed to produce a biased and distorted view within the bowels of a malaise that is also known as the U. S. - Cuban conundrum. You see, all my friend Tracey and USA Today were really doing, in a capitalist world captive to commercialism, was to gratuitously feed the gargantuan appetites of American consumers who have been programmed to accept biased and distorted data pertaining to the topic of Cuba. Tracey and USA Today thus realized that an article extolling both sides of a TWO-SIDED story would not be understood and would, in fact, be far over the heads or IQs of their readers. Therefore, just one side was presented. And, yes, there is another side...and one that I believe a rejuvenated U. S. democracy, refurbished with a large dose of integrity, should be and would be strong enough to embrace. 

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        Thomas Jefferson -- before he died at his Monticello home in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 4, 1826 -- had this very famous and very pertinent quotation regarding newspapers:

"The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."

       Thomas Jefferson, I believe, would not have been pleased with my favorite journalist and my favorite newspaper if he had read the Jan. 7-2013 article in USA Today under the screaming across-the-page headline: "Cuban Abuses Up, Dissidents Say!" Mr. Jefferson, first off, would have demanded that both sides of a two-sided story be aired; and Mr. Jefferson, secondly, would have been disappointed that USA Today's readers had been pre-programmed to accept only one side of the two-sided Cuban issue.

         Cuba's Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) {Tracy Eaton photo for USA Today} are  darlings of the anti-Cuban foreign press and, of course, were prominently featured and quoted in Tracey's article on dissidents for USA Today, as were twenty or so other dissidents. That's fine. But on an island of 11.2 million people, the article seemed to suggest that about 11 million of them are vehemently against the Cuban government. That is not so. Fair-minded journalists, including Tracey, often allude to the fact that the dissident community on the island is "very small." In fact, most of the women on the island from 1959 till today belong to the pro-government Federation of Cuban Women. And most of the adults on the island belong to the block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. Thus, articles that suggest the Ladies in White are among the vast majority on the island are simply false. It is also fair to state, I believe, that sometimes non-dissidents, meaning everyday Cubans not working for the government, will occasionally react disrespectfully or even violently to dissidents.

       Tracey also provided the above photo to USA Today to illustrate his article suggesting that abuses against Cuban dissidents have increased dramatically, implying that the prominent neck, shoulder, and chest scars were examples of dissident abuse at the hands of the government. However, by the next day Tracey himself, on his excellent Along the Malecon blog, was suggesting that the above scars had nothing whatsoever to do with politics but everything to do with a girlfriend-boyfriend spat.

        Tracey used this photo of James Cason on his Jan. 8-2013 Along the Malecon blog to explain the other side of the apparently two-sided story about the scars: "When James Cason was chief of the U. S. Interests Section in Havana, he told me that the democracy movement needed victims. It needed blood." James Cason was such an arrogant anti-Castro buffoon when he headed the U. S. Interest Section in Havana that he made constant headlines. But typically, his anti-Castro antics had its rewards back on U. S. soil. On Jan. 20-2011 James Cason was elected Mayor of Coral Gables on the edge of Miami!

       Josefina Vidal is Cuba's highly respected and acutely informed Minister of North American Affairs. If you are going to present the views of 20 or so Cuban dissidents, I believe it is only fair to provide Ms. Vidal's viewpoints too. She has repeatedly said: "In Cuba we are very tolerant of the small dissident community. We do not consider them a threat to our sovereignty. We believe they have a right to be heard and if columnist DeWayne Wickham of USA Today or Andrea Mitchell of NBC News or Wolf Blitzer of CNN ask me, as they have recently, if they can talk to such dissidents, I always say, 'certainly.' What I object to and guard against is when foreign money or foreign influence backs and, in fact, often creates the dissidents. Please understand that we, as with any sovereign nation, will not allow that. As Minister of North American Affairs for Cuba, much if not most of my time is devoted to being on the look-out for foreign agents trying to provoke Cuba into jailing or fighting off foreign attempts to de-stabilize our government, and then using our reaction to such provocations to blame us. Other than that, I assure you, I view my primary job as being friendly to all nations, especially our neighbors, including the United States." In other words, what the highly capable Josefina Vidal mostly defends Cuba against is precisely what James Cason told Tracey Eaton "the democracy movement" {a euphemism for "regime change"} needed most: "victims...blood."

      Yoani Sanchez {above} is the internationally acclaimed and beloved anti-Cuban Cuban blogger. She is easily the world's most quoted dissident. The Huffington Post, the Voice of America, Tracey Eaton, and almost any politically-socially correct journalist in the Western World quote Yoani's every word and, of course, the Huffington Post, the Voice of America, and other powerful media outlets massively promote and sell her books and videos. Yoani's fame has spawned a lot of Yoani-wannabes.

      But non-dissidents on the island of Cuba -- and I believe they constitute the majority -- tend to believe that Yoani Sanchez's fame was "Made in the USA" simply, or at least partly, because she is the most visible dissident on the island. Non-dissidents on the island are usually ignored.

       For example, Rosa Baez {above} is a non-dissident in Cuba and she will readily inform you that she is thus among the vast majority on the island. {"That's why the Mafia is in Miami, not Havana!"} The above photo is taken from a long video-interview Tracey Eaton did with Rosa and it's still posted on YouTube and Along the Malecon. I have no objection to Yoani Sanchez but Rosa Baez also has a right to a viewpoint.

       The child-loving Rosa Baez not only has her prolific pro-Cuban government blog {"La Polilla Cubana"} but she also is one of the primary users of the social media, especially Facebook, to get her views heard and seen. Of course, she is not quite as politically correct as anyone who would hold up their hand and say, "Hey, I'm anti-Castro AND anti-Cuba!" But Rosa is also a part of this diverse world.

         Since the triumph of the female-forged Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, Rosa Baez has been a proud member of the pro-government Federation of Cuban Women. So are most Cuban women.

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Cuba: Now A Rapidly Changing Caribbean Nation

Or...Have You Not Noticed?
{Up-dated January 6, 2013}

     How would you like to own the oceanfront home depicted above. As a primary home, business, or vacation getaway castle it might be just what well-to-do families are looking for. A new oceanfront 18-hole golf course is within easy walking distance. The fishing or sunbathing from the pier is fantastic. The price for either purchasing it or leasing it for 50 to 99 years is quite reasonable. Uh, did I mention it's in Cuba? Sorry, I should have revealed that upfront. But now that it's out in the open, permit me to add that such oceanfront jewels can now be purchased by non-Cubans {otherwise known as foreigners} or they can sign 50 to 99-year leases if that is preferable. 

           Manuel Marrero {above} is a very affable and decent fellow. He is also Cuba's Minister of Tourism. He says, as of 2011, only two golf courses existed in Cuba. Some well-heeled foreign investors convinced him they would help fund 16 more if Cuba would agree to allow foreigners to purchase or lease prime property. Marrero, in turn, convinced his governmental superiors to depart from the revolutionary past and open up the island's markets. So, initially, golf courses were designed for Holguin in the eastern part of the island, Pinar del Rio in the farthest western province, the main tourist mecca of Veradero, and the capital of Havana. Since then Cubans have been allowed to purchase or construct homes, restaurants, and other businesses with the government or foreign relatives providing loans. A, uh, market economy? "Sure!" Marrero says. "Call it what you want. Times change. We too can adjust to change. Are you...surprised?"

        Since the Batista-Mafia era of the 1950s, Cubans have become legendary for their ingenuity in keeping antique cars in shiny, workable conditions even though they have had to improvise constant repairs. Now they can buy and sell cars and other possessions but the fresh bureaucracy is overwhelming at times.

         Above is a green 1950 Chevrolet in excellent running condition passing by the luxury hotel at Cuba's plush Varadero Beach resort. The driver is both a skilled hotel worker and an expert auto mechanic.

American celebrity Jay Leno has spent millions of dollars buying and restoring old cars.

Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson has 70 old restored cars in his collection.

What would Jay Leno or Reggie Jackson pay for this pink and fine-tuned 1957 Chevy in Havana?
And is this "the bright pink Chevy that mobster Meyer Lansky famously drove around Havana?" 

         If Jay Leno and Reggie Jackson ever make it to Havana, it will resemble two rich Americans stepping into the world's biggest Candy Store and being greeted warmly by eager, friendly hosts!

     Cubans are being given lush plots of land if they promise to grow vegetables and fruit. At great expense, the island currently imports 70% of its food. It's trying to correct that glaring revolutionary failure.

         The iconic Hotel National de Cuba has been refurbished, including the room in which Frank Sinatra famously saw some ghosts. Cuba set a record for tourism in 2012 and the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) estimates an increase of 3.7 percent in gross domestic product (GNP) for Cuba in 2013. 

Above are the 16 provinces, sometimes called subdivisions, in Cuba. They are 1 - 16: 
#1 Pinar del Rio
#2 Artemisa
#3 La Habana
#4 Mayabeque
#5 Matanzas
#6 Cienfuegos
#7 Villa Clara
#8 Sancti Spiritus
#9 Ciego de Avila
#10 Camaguey
#11 Las Tunas
#12 Granma
#13 Holguin
#14 Santiago de Cuba
#15 Guantanamo
#16 Isla de la Juventud (Island of Youth)
Until the 1970s Isla de la Juventud was known as the "Isla de Pinos" or the "Isle of Pines."

Prior to the 1970s Cuba consisted of only six provinces:
#1 Pinar del Rio
#2 La Habana
#3 Matanzas
#4 Las Villas
#5 Camaguey
#6 Oriente

        It has been said that the world's 12 best and most pristine scuba-diving spots are off the coasts of Cuba. Check the above map. Or better yet...................................................................................!!

         Cubans are among the healthiest, safest, and best educated people in the Americas. The casual young lady above is studying on the edge of Santiago de Cuba, the island's second largest city and former capital.

      At midnight on January 1, 2013, workers unveiled the above billboard in Santiago de Cuba to mark the 54th year since the triumph of the remarkably mercurial Cuban Revolution over the Batista-Mafia dictatorship back in 1959.

      Above is the New York Times front-page that first told Americans about the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. If the NY Times were to update that page in January of 2013 -- 54 years later -- the headline and sub-headlines might read: "REMNANTS OF BATISTA REGIME STILL TRYING TO RECAPTURE CUBA; Efforts Still Backed by Superpower U.S.; Fox News Totally Distraught Over Cuba Still Being Sovereign Nation."

     For sure, the eternally coveted and much-targeted island of Cuba still has its problems, such as the hateful 51-year-old U. S. embargo that many also consider a self-inflicted and festering American wound.

And two people vital to Cuba -- Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro -- are both now mortally ill.

        Above is the hospital in Cuba where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez -- as of Jan. 5-2013 -- appears to be fighting a losing battle after his 4th major cancer operation. Chavez is Cuba's main ally and benefactor. Cuba in 2011 had $20 billion in foreign trade, $8.3 billion of it with Venezuela. Cuba gets two-thirds of its oil -- 115,000 barrels a day -- from Venezuela in exchange for Cuba having 44,000 medical and technical personnel in Venezuela. {The foregoing statistics are accurate and confirmed by both countries}

       But Cuba is still there. And it will still be there as the Pearl of the Caribbean after the end of the U. S. embargo and the passing of both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. It is, most of all, resilient and permanent.

      No longer {as above} can U. S. presidential candidates expect to capture Florida's crucial 29 electoral votes by flocking to Miami to promise the dominant anti-Castro Cuban-exile zealots they, when elected, "will be tougher than ever against Castro!" In the past 54 years, Havana has changed; so, too, has Miami.

      Cuba, right next door to the U. S., dominates the Caribbean. The key to engaging Cuba is to not continually try to capture it. In 2013 Brazil, China, Russia, Vietnam, and Malaysia are among the important nations increasing their engagement with Cuba. None of those nations are trying to conquer the island.

      So the key for mutually positive engagement with Cuba is to simply convince the island that you are not trying to conquer it. The United States needs to locate that key and open the door to a changing Cuba.

     The Washington Post reports that the economically sound state of Virginia's 7th largest export market is Cuba, thanks to the Carter Mountain Orchard that for generations has overlooked Thomas Jefferson's Monticello home. Mr. Jefferson, a capitalist at heart, would heartily approve of Carter Mountain Orchard.

     Carter Mountain Orchard has worked tirelessly to legally circumvent the self-deprecating, Cuban exile-inspired U. S. embargo against Cuba. Its Herculean, worthwhile goal is to sell apples to the island. The effort, as frustrating as it is, has mutually benefited Cuba's children,  the Carter Mountain Orchard, and Virginia's economy. The Washington Post article on Nov. 25-2012, written by Laura Vozzela, lauded 77-year-old Henry Chiles for his stellar efforts in managing to overcome obstacles and sell his apples to Cuba.

          Mr. Chiles {above}, the patriarch of Carter Mountain Orchard, told Laura Vozzela that the U. S. embargo against Cuba presents "A lot of challenges, a lot of paperwork, holdups. It's difficult." But Mr. Chiles is a prime reason Cuba is "Virginia's seventh-largest export market, more than twice as large as 20th-ranked Britain." Mr. Chiles' two grand-fathers started shipping Virginia-grown Pippin apples overseas in wooden barrels 100 years ago and, Vozzela explains, Mr. Chiles was influenced by the recent economic downturn to fight the embargo so he could ship his apples to nearby Cuba. He fought, and won. Other states, as well as "20th-ranked Britain," need  energetic men like Mr. Chiles to fight back against life's inequities.

       Because of Henry Chiles, Cuban children also get to eat delicious, healthy Virginia apples. And Virginia's economy benefits. So, what's so bad about that splendid double-barreled action? 

      The moral of this story: A nice, lonely Cuban sits solemnly on the shoreline, staring across the Caribbean Sea in the direction of nearby Florida. Pensively and silently, she wonders philosophically to herself: "It's a new year, 2013. It's not 1959. I don't hate you. I never have. So, America, why do you hate me?"

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