Counter-Revolutionary Cubans

1959 Till Today!!

        As of today -- May 23rd, 2017 -- an incredibly small cabal of counter-revolutionary Cuban-Americans, mostly from Miami, still dictate America's Cuban policy and have every intention of using the Trump presidency to turn back the sane and decent Cuban overtures so bravely orchestrated by former President Obama. At the rostrum above, hoping to get the counter-revolutionary U. S. Senator from Miami Marco Rubio elected President, is Havana-born Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the former U. S. Congressman from Miami. Lincoln's brother Mario Diaz-Balart is a current U. S. Congressman from Miami and he is standing behind and to Lincoln's left. Their brother Jose Diaz-Balart is a key news anchor on the counter-revolutionary NBC network.  Their father Rafael Diaz-Balart was a key Minister in the Batista dictatorship and then, beginning in January of 1959, Rafael was one of the richest and most powerful counter-revolutionaries. 

         Just to the left of the Diaz-Balart brothers is Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who has been in the U. S. Congress from Miami since 1989 when Jeb Bush of the counter-revolutionary Bush dynasty was her Campaign Manager. Allowing a handful of two generations of rich and politically connected Cuban-Americans with extreme revenge motives to dictate America's Cuban policy, I believe, shames both the U. S. and democracy. Polls show that even most Cuban-Americans in Miami favor normalizing relations with Cuba; the current vote in the United Nations condemns America's Cuban policy with an extremely loud 191-to-0 unanimity, and yet pusillanimous Americans have been intimidated and propagandized to the extent that, regarding Cuba, they are supposed to timidly believe that zero is a larger number than 191. Exacerbating that democratic tragedy, I believe, is the politically correct or intimidated U. S. media.

        One of the thinly veiled...actually totally undisguised...secrets in the USA is the sheer fact that the mainstream U. S. media, which includes America's largest newspaper USA Today, is determined to destroy the Donald J. Trump presidency. For the first time since its founding by the visionary Allen Neuharth in 1982, USA Today quickly and officially declared Trump "unfit" to be President. YET, the mainstream U. S. media, which is a timid lapdog for the counter-revolutionary Cubans, expects President Trump NOT TO BE IMPEACHED until he has reversed the sane and decent Cuban inroads made by his predecessor, Obama. 

       But four months into the Trump presidency neither USA Today nor the rest of the coup-minded mainstream U. S. media have been able to get rid of Trump OR to persuade him to lower the boom on Cuba. Both the media and the counter-revolutionaries had pinpointed a day -- May 18th -- in which Trump was to announce his plans to "undo" Obama's Cuban overtures. But May 18th came and went with Trump absorbed with his more urgent problems -- the firing of the FBI chief, Russia, North Korea, Iran, ISIS, and his first 5-nation foreign trip as President. When he returns to the U. S. this week, USA Today seems to expect the Cuban counter-revolutionary forces to prevail in the Trump White House. For example, on Monday, May 22nd, 2017, USA Today started off this week with this booming across-the-top-of-a-page headline: "HUMAN RIGHTS KEY IN POLICY TOWARD CUBA." Typically, the huge article was totally biased against Cuba and USA Today proved it here again by quoting ONLY staunch counter-revolutionaries...Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Marco Rubio, Francisco Palmieri, Frank Calzon, and Frank Mora. There was a time in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, of course, that much braver and far more patriotic generations of Americans would never have allowed the mainstream U. S. media to sink to such depths that, in regards to Cuba, it meekly and quite stupidly tries to convince Americans that ZERO is a larger number than 191.

       In addition to President Trump having a vast multitude of non-Cuban problems to deal with, this USA Today photo helps explain why the business-side-of-Trump makes him at least a bit reluctant to lower the boom on Cuba, as the counter-revolutionary forces demand. The Norwegian Sky is a Miami-based, 2004-passenger luxury cruise ship that earlier this month -- on May 2, 2017 -- began making lucrative and weekly 4-day trips to Cuba. All the Florida ports, and most of the Florida businesses -- many owned or controlled by Cuban-Americans -- keenly desire normal trade with Cuba and thus oppose the politicians, including Florida's counter-revolutionary Governor Scott, who want to continue to punish them and other Americans by getting President Trump to lower the boom on Cuba, as the counter-revolutionaries, including the remnants of the Miami-famed Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506, so fervently expected...and still expect.

      This USA Today photo is counter to the counter-revolutionaries basking gleefully in Miami and the United States Congress and now in the Trump White House. It shows Norwegian Sky cruising into Havana on one of its exciting and now-weekly voyages from Miami. If he lowers the boom on Cuba to appease a handful of counter-revolutionaries, President Trump will not only mock that 191-to-0 pro-Cuban/anti-U.S. vote in the UN, he will be defying the wishes of most Americans and most Cuban-Americans, especially Cuban-Americans who own or run businesses that yearn for the freedom to trade with the nearby island. For example, tourists on Norwegian Sky can stay at a brand-new 5-star Havana hotel run by the U.S.-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts or they can stay at any of the privately owned Bed & Breakfast homes booked by the fast-growing United States-based Airbnb, which says that Cuba is now its "fastest growing market."

And by the way:

       Study the above Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama graphic and I think you will better comprehend America's runaway political correctness and a U. S. mainstream media far more interested in propaganda than in delivering unbiased news that would help citizens make up their own minds about issues such as...President Trump, Cuba, etc. This gem shows Mrs. Clinton, the wannabee President, and Mr. Obama, the former President, hilariously reacting to their own anti-Trump jokes. Now please understand, I am not a Trump supporter but I DO strongly support the Office of President and America's democratic processes; I am, in fact, leery of President Trump's upcoming anti-democratic Cuban assaults, which would also be direct assaults on the U. S. democracy. I will always applaud Mr. Obama's pro-democratic Cuban policy. 

         Yes, President Trump said that "no politician in history has been treated more unfairly" than him. And...he's correct. With some of the world's richest billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Sheldon Adelson, and Rupert Murdoch routinely buying up formerly fair-minded and highly respected media sources such as the Washington Post, the top anti-Adelson newspaper in Nevada, the Wall Street Journal, etc., Americans need to notice how swiftly such media hallmarks can be turned into propaganda rags. In other words, with such print media along with television outlets such as CNN, NBC, MSNBC, etc., now far more concerned with a coordinated coup to eliminate Trump than with covering news events, the U. S. media is making patsies out of their U. S. readers and viewers. Therefore, a large segment of the media mechanism incessantly mocks anything Trump says or does, such as the mocking above of Trump's unfair treatment comment. But IF Trump would also SUDDENLY end all the terrorist activity worldwide and as an added bonus cure all forms of cancer, THE SAME PROPAGANDA outlets posing as the mainstream U. S. media would also mock such Trump triumphs while force-feeding their monopolistic trash to citizens.

               If you disagree with that assessment of the precipitous decline of the mainstream U. S. media, I suggest you study the graphic above. Or better yet, I suggest you take a day-or-two off and just watch CNN, NBC, and MSNBC or read the pages of the Washington Post, New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. If you are patriotic enough to do that, make sure to keep a check-list delineating between PROPAGANDA and NEWS. Being a self-anointed patriot, I do that occasionally and, each time, PROPAGANDA beats NEWS by at least a 10-to-1 margin. In a democracy, that's not exactly how the U. S. media should properly behave. 

Have you studied the above graphic?
Good, now check this one:

      This gem was crafted this week by Jack Ohman, the great political cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee. Note that he started with the Trump quote I mentioned earlier -- "No politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly." In the middle above Mr. Ohman referenced other famous Trump quotes routinely mocked and repeatedly rehashed by the U. S. media. Yes, their cumulative effect would be funny except for one thing: The mainstream U. S. media should also at least pretend that it is still interested in covering the news, not just gushing out propaganda. Sunday, Monday and now Tuesday I actually had to depend on Fox and the BBC for important live coverage of BIG news events such as Trump and First Lady Melania making history in Saudi Arabia and Israel AND even for vital coverage of the terrorist attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. When I checked MSNBC and CNN, their anchors, WOW, seemed obsessed with Trump.

       In the mainstream U. S. media, your best bet is to depend on the great political cartoonists, such as the Sacramento Bee's Jack Ohman. For example, Mr. Ohman above is expertly depicting and mocking President Trump's claim that he is "transparent" even as he hides his transparency aboard the massive veil of Air Force One. But Mr. Ohman, unlike most of America's propaganda-obsessed mainstream media, also deals with many other non-Trump topics.

       This is Jack Ohman at the Sacramento Bee working on another masterpiece. Of course, you don't have to take my advice but I'll repeat it nevertheless: The best thing about the otherwise propaganda-obsessed mainstream U. S. media are the great political cartoonists. So, look forward to whatever it is that Mr. Ohman is constructing here. Personally, I can't wait to see the final result while I wonder what he is thinking. Is it about Trump, or Cuba, or...heck, it doesn't really matter. And it'll surely be worth waiting for. 

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A Little Cuban Truth

A U. S. Rarity But...

There Are Exceptions!

Photo courtesy: Michael Ciaglo/The Houston Chronicle.

        It is rare indeed in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to find a mainstream U. S. journalist with the courage and the integrity to write fairly and truthfully about Cuba. But the exceptions are worth reading, so permit me to direct you to an article, complete with 24 photos, in the Houston Chronicle, first published on May 9th and then updated on May 18th. It was written by Cuban-American Olivia P. Tallet. The article, prefaced by the photo above of the pigeons in the Playa Vieja section of Havana, was both fair and truthful and the title is: "Cuba, the Caribbean's Most Enigmatic Island, Is A Cultural, Visual Feast." Beyond the accurate, first-hand portrait of Cuba from Cuba by a Cuban-American, the writing itself was absolutely brilliant, and you should judge it for yourself. Here is the first paragraph:

              "Welcome to Cuba, my native land: a place where time seems out of joint and where all the old certainties are jumbled."

          The writing that follows is also superb as it accurately depicts today's Cuba. And here's the last, very tantalizing paragraph that resembles poetry in motion:

               "Cuba is like a bottle of wine, found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. The taste is familiar and strange, too complex to decipher quickly. Give it time. And enjoy."

       This is the Houston Chronicle's great writer and superb journalist, Olivia P. Tallet. While I thoroughly enjoyed her insightful article and its searing update on Cuba, it left me envious and a little sad, wishing I could write as beautifully as she can.

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Latest Cuban Teenage Millionaire

Via the Cuba-to-U. S. Pipeline!

       This Cuban teenager, Luis Robert, became an instant multi-millionaire this weekend -- Saturday, May 20th, 2017. He took the same route -- the well-trod baseball path to America -- dozens of other young Cubans have taken just in the last few years.

       Cuba has long been a gold-mine for baseball players, with the gold awaiting them in the United States where even the poorest of the 30 Major League teams have many millions of dollars to lavish on prospects. Luis Robert has been hotly pursued -- by scouts, agents and, yes, even human traffickers.

        After leaving Cuba months ago, yesterday -- May 20-2017 -- was the first day the well-scouted Luis Robert was eligible to be signed by U. S. teams, and that took only a few minutes. The Chicago White Sox quickly inked Luis to a guaranteed contract, estimated to be worth between $35 and $50 million. Now 19-years-old, Luis is a speedy 6-foot-3, 185-pound center-fielder. He'll begin his pro career for a White Sox Minor League team but all the money in his first contract is totally guaranteed and he figures to follow in the footsteps of other Cubans such as Aroldis Chapman of the New York Yankees and Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets who got huge signing bonuses and have now been given other long-term contracts worth around $25 million a year, not counting endorsement money that is also lavished on Major League players. The Chicago White Sox, now Luis Robert's American team, have long cherished Cuban players.

      The top prospect for the White Sox and for the entire baseball world is this Cuban, Yoan Moncada. He turns 22 next week -- on May 27th, 2017. A powerful switch-hitter with tremendous speed, Yoan is 6-foot-2, 205 pounds. He is currently the superstar on the White Sox's top farm team -- Triple-A Charlotte -- but was put on the DL last week with a minor injury. Soon, he'll be the next Chicago White Sox superstar.

       This photo shows Yoan Moncada the day he signed his first U. S. pro contract with the Boston Red Sox. The deal guaranteed Yoan exactly $31.5 million and Boston also had to pay Major League Baseball another $31.5 million in penalties because even the money-crazed U. S. teams are trying to reduce outrageous sums guaranteed to young players from Cuba who are not drafted and thus can sign with the highest bidder, not just the team that drafts them as is done with U. S. prospects. But Boston, without blinking an eye, shelled out $63 million to sign Yoan and then, when the Red Sox wanted the super-ace lefty pitcher Chris Sale from Chicago, they traded him to the White Sox, which covets Cubans as do the other teams.

        When young Cuban baseball players suddenly have millions-of-dollars, they can splurge in the United States. Ask Alex Vega who owns a luxury-car dealership in Miami. Shortly after Yoenis Cespedes, the Cuban superstar with the New York Mets, famously bought a fleet of luxury cars from Mr. Vega, so did the newly rich Yoan Moncada. That's Yoan in the red shirt the day he tried out three of the luxury cars he had just purchased from Mr. Vega. The white car on the left with the red-rimmed tires is a Lamborghini but Yoan's favorite..."At least on this day.", he said...was the Black BMW-18 with the very strange doors.

        The Chicago White Sox Minor League system is overloaded with super Cuban prospects like Yoan Moncada and now Luis Robert, but the top White Sox slugger already is Jose Abreu. Jose defected from Cuba in August of 2013 and in October of 2013 he signed with the White Sox for a guaranteed $67 million. In 2014 with the Chicago White Sox Jose was the unanimous choice as the American League's Rookie-of-the-Year. When that first contract runs out, Jose's new free agent contract will be worth a lot more than a measly $67 million because the other 29 teams can then also bid for his now proven MLB talent.

          This photo shows Jose Abreu when he played for the Cuban National Team, a team that once-upon-a-time dominated international competitions such as the Pan-Am Games, the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. But the United States Major Leagues have now siphoned off even Cuba's best teenage baseball talent and the Cuban Major League stars are not allowed to play for Cuba's national teams although Major League players from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, etc., can play for those national teams. Also Cuba is in the totally unique position of being the only nation in the world in which its superstar baseball and ballet talent, along with other skilled Cubans including its plethora of doctors, are lured off the island merely as a means to hurt Revolutionary Cuba, a process that has been largely dictated by elements from the vile Batista dictatorship that was overthrown on January 1, 1959.

       Major League Baseball's Cuban Pipeline is greased in the United States by two major factors: {1} Cuba produces more baseball talent per capita than any nation on earth; and {2} since 1959 anything Miami and Washington can do to hurt Revolutionary Cuba is done as a matter of course, with much of it via laws made legal by the U. S. Congress. In regards to baseball, all of the thirty U. S. Major League teams have year-around, state-of-the-art baseball parks and other facilities, staffed with pro instructors and scouts, in the Dominican Republic but nothing like that would be allowed in Cuba because it would displease the counter-revolutionaries factions who, for over half-a-century, have largely dictated America's Cuban policies, the policies that currently have a 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations. So remember, the Cuban Pipeline sates the appetites of America's Major League baseball teams but also pleases the counter-revolutionaries who have been trying to destroy or at least hurt Cuba since January 1, 1959.

        For many years the Chicago White Sox have treasured Cuban baseball players -- like their new crop that includes Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, Jose Abreu, etc., but also older players like Jose Contreras, Alexei Ramirez, Minnie Minoso, etc. Of all those players, the most beloved in Chicago was Minnie. He was born in Pirico on the edge of Havana in 1925 and his best years as the star outfielder for the White Sox were from 1951 till 1964. White Sox fans nicknamed him "The Cuban Comet" and "Mr. White Sox."

The talented and charismatic Minnie Minoso.

        He died of old age in 2015 but almost till the end Minnie Minoso was still throwing out the first ceremonial pitch to start special home games, like season openers, for his beloved Chicago White Sox.

        Unlike the newly minted teenage millionaire Luis Robert, the young Cuban woman above doesn't play baseball and thus she is not a multi-millionaire in the United States. But she has talent. Her name is Yanet Perez Moya. She is well-educated, healthy and very happy as one of the many very young and already successful radio and television journalists on the island. The University of Havana and other Cuban universities have excellent journalism classes -- both print and electronic -- and it is totally free with no student-loans to pay back after graduation. While in college Cuba's journalism students get practical experience that includes covering news, writing articles and with live and taped radio and television broadcasts critiqued by professors. Yanet is now a skilled and very popular broadcaster -- in radio and television -- in Camaguey, Cuba. She is not as well known across the island as young superstars like Cristina Escobar and Rosy Amaro Perez, but Yanet too is a fast-rising star as a broadcast journalist.

       Meanwhile, as her broadcast career ascends upward, Yanet Perez Moya enjoys her tropical island when she's at work and when she is not working, as above. She is an example of young and skilled talent on the island that is both intent and content with remaining a Cuban and not becoming a foreign pawn.

         This photo shows Cuba's superstar anchor Cristina Escobar on a brand-new set on a brand-new television channel for the island. The USA spotlights the Cuban baseball stars and the remnants of the long-ago-ousted Batista dictatorship but Cuba spotlights its own superstars like Cristina Escobar.

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A Look Inside Cuba

To Know Cuba Go To Cuba!
{Saturday, May 20th, 2017}

        This photo taken by Bert Schreibstein shows a family from Virginia-USA enjoying their ride around Havana in a 1950s Chevy convertible. Politico has emerged as a powerful media voice in Washington and it is not a particular friend of Cuba but it at least favors the USA in its competition with Russia and China; we're talking a bit of journalism and a lot of patriotism here. This week Politico's major article expressed fear that the Trump administration is about to turn back the monumental gains the former Obama administration made in trying desperately to normalize relations with Cuba. Politico pointed out that Russia and China in particular, along with America's other enemies and competitors around the world, are hoping that Trump indeed tries to re-isolate Cuba and return to a briefly interrupted {by Obama} half-century of fierce counter-revolutionary tactics. China, Russia and others view Cuba as the pathway not only to the Caribbean but to all of Latin America in regards to political and economic standpoints. Politico noted that Russia this month sent 250,000 barrels of oil to Cuba; China's mighty Internet Search Engine is competing against the giant, Google, for the Cuban market while China is building Resorts complete with up-to-date golf courses in Cuba, etc. China and Russia, as Politico warns, would love to be Cuba's friends, especially if America wants to be the island's enemy.

        Keeping up with the foreign business-interests visiting Cuba this month is a full-time job. The photo above shows the first-ever visit to Cuba by the Prime Minister of Singapore.

       The Cuban narrative and much of the Cuban policy in the United States has been dictated for decades by elements booted off the island by the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The photo above, taken this week, reflects a more honest and accurate narrative about Cuba from within Cuba. Left to right are...Yanet, Rosy, Susana, and Annierys. Typical among the young-adult generation of Cubans in Cuba, they are well educated, healthy, family oriented and fierce advocates for their beloved island. They are not candidates looking for an inner-tube to cross the Florida Straits to partake in defection incentives from Miami. 

        The U. S. media is too politically correct or too intimidated to report fairly about Cuba and, sadly, I believe that has particularly been the case since 1976 when Miami's top Cuban-American newsman, Emilio Milian, was car-bombed for sharply criticizing Miami-Cuban terrorist acts against innocent Cubans, with Milian's fate over a grisly span of many months being just one of many bombings of persons and/or businesses that dared to take anything other than a fiercely militant approach to Cuba. Thus, Politico this week is to be commended for at least one article, buttressed with deep reasoning, explaining why the U. S. needs to continue and even expand former President Obama's decent and sane approach to Cuba. The brave but politically incorrect article was published by Politico on May 17-2017 and is entitled "Trump's Critical Cuba Policy" and it was well written by two brave journalists, Paul D. Eaton and David L. McGinnis.

      Thanks to President Obama, Jose Ramon Cabanas is Cuba's first Ambassador to the United States since 1961. Shown above speaking to the Detroit Economic Club, Jose is well-respected in the United States. In a Tweet this week Jose noted that "American visitors are up 145% and Cuban-American visitors are up 46% this year." Last year, thanks to Obama, Cuba exceeded 4 million tourists for the first time. But the avalanche of airplane and cruise traffic from the U. S. is straining Cuba's capacity to accommodate the deluge although efforts, including new or renovated 5-star hotels, are underway to meet the demand. And thanks to Obama, major U. S. companies have invested heavily in Cuba and that includes...Google, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Lines, 9 U. S. airlines, etc., etc. Also, American-based Airbnb says its "fastest growing rental market" is in...Cuba.

       America's new Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, is a huge supporter of normalizing trade between the United States and Cuba, and he strongly promoted that issue as Governor of Georgia when he led a trade mission to Cuba. The Sonny Perdue photo above was included in the above Tweet posted by Jose Ramon Cabanas to highlight Sonny Perdue's fervent efforts to persuade Congressional lawmakers and his new boss, President Trump, to "quit hurting Americans and open up trade with the island nation." 

Cuba has lots of sun, sand, socialism and convertibles.

Everybody knows the way to Revolutionary Cuba.
That, of course, includes China.

         This week -- May 18th, 2017 -- the Editorial Board at the New York Times used the above graphic to illustrate a powerful editorial entitled: "China's Trillion-Dollar Foreign Policy." Yes, China has a trillion dollars to invest in what the Times says is a "disciplined and relentless" effort to influence other nations. The U. S., meanwhile, has a $20 trillion debt, much of it owed to China. China is investing some of its trillion-dollar disposal arsenal in Cuba but most of it goes to larger countries, as the Times points out, such as Pakistan and all across Asia and Africa. It currently is finishing up an ultra-modern and multi-billion-dollar railroad across Africa, for example. The Times said Chinese money is capable "of lifting millions of people out of poverty and stabilizing poor nations." China's current investments in little Cuba would not have to match the money poured into Pakistan, Africa, etc., but with far less it is "capable" of "stabilizing" Cuba's economy, which has been embargoed for over half-a-century by counter-revolutionary U. S. elements bent on changing and re-dominating the pugnacious Caribbean island. As the Times indicates, the U. S. doesn't have a trillion dollars of investment money set aside to keep up with China but it also doesn't need to "default" to China by continuing huge political mistakes -- and none are huger than its endless embargo and other cruel stupidities aimed at Cuba at the direction of a handful of miscreants who could care less how it harms the U. S. international reputation, as illustrated by the current 191-to-0 condemnation in the United Nations of America's Cuban policy. "Defaulting" Cuba to China or Russia is not in America's best interests, especially with Cuba next-door to the U. S. and far from China and Russia. While Cuba may at the moment be on the Trumpian back-burner, Chinese and Russian politicians-investors are anxious to fill the huge vacuum.

      Americans need to know the ongoing impact this photo has on U.S.-Cuban relations as former President Obama's peaceful and sane Cuban overtures have yet to be overturned by current President Trump. This week USA Today explained what this photo means: "Itching to visit Havana? There's a new way to get there from the USA that's quick, easy and affordable. A cruise from Miami on the Norwegian Sky. Earlier this month, the 2,004-passenger Norwegian Sky began the first weekly sailings to the Cuban capital from the Port of Miami with fares starting around $600 per person. The four-night trip includes two full days in Havana."

The Norwegian Sky on its Miami-to-Havana trip.

         Over 90 photos this week for USA Today by superb photographers Michel Verdura and Gene Sloan take you aboard and inside the ultra-luxurious Norwegian Sky that will sail you to Cuba for an "affordable" 4-day experience. This twin stairway is mind-and-eye boggling as are other Norwegian Sky features such as its swimming pool, basketball court, bedrooms, dining areas, refreshment bars, stunning accommodations for both window-views and deck-views, etc., on the voyage to and from Cuba.

And by the way:

        This is the beautiful entrance to Santiago de Cuba, the former Cuban capital and today Cuba's second largest city. Located on the southeastern tip of the alligator-shaped island, Santiago de Cuba especially was targeted by foreign powers almost from the day in 1492 when Columbus discovered Cuba. That's why centuries ago the fortress above was built to guard Santiago's harbor from attacking foreign warships. Today, as you can see above, the fortress and even its old cannon are still meticulously preserved.

       The Mayor of Santiago de Cuba, by the way, is Beatriz Johnson Urrutia. She is also the President of the Provincial Assembly for the important southeastern region of Cuba. Santiago de Cuba is also the birthplace of many famed liberty-loving Cuban women -- including Mariana Grajales, who was born in 1815 and was the mother of the Maceo brothers who died fighting on Cuban soil against Spanish soldiers; and Marta Rojas, the still-living Cuban Revolutionary icon. During Cuba's successful, female-powered Revolutionary War in the 1950s, the all-female Mariana Grajales Platoon featured many of the greatest guerrilla fighters. Much of Revolutionary Cuba today is female-powered. Mayor Johnson Urrutia on Mothers Day -- May 14, 2017 -- laid a floral wreath at the grave of Mariana Grajales in Santiago de Cuba's very historic Ifigenia Cemetery.

        The 48-year-old Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, the Mayor of Santiago de Cuba, is a strong believer in political meetings like the one shown above. They allow everyday citizens to give their input, including complaints, about things that affect their lives. With support from Cubans like these, Beatriz Johnson received 92% of the votes for the coveted regional position of President of the Provincial Assembly.

       And now this photo takes you to the entrance of Havana Harbor on Cuba's northeastern tip. Havana, now the Cuban capital and the island's largest city, also treasures its old fortress just as Santiago de Cuba does. Shown above, El Morro Castle tried for centuries to defend Havana from foreign invaders. As with the Santiago de Cuba fortress on the other end of the island, El Morro to this day is meticulously preserved in Havana, complete with the cannon. In fact, if you visit Havana there is something you need to know about those cannon: At precisely 9:00 P. M. each night cannon-fire from El Morro will blast off and shock uninformed visitors. But it is only a very peaceful and symbolic reminder that Revolutionary Cuba is still on guard.

El Morro cannon-fire at 9:00 PM each night in Havana.

Harmless, symbolic and a tourist attraction.

        This map shows you the locations of those two old fortresses on each end of the alligator-shaped island of Cuba -- La Habana in the northwest and Santiago in the southeast of the intriguing and enigmatic island. And this map shows Cuba's plethora of key tourist attractions that include the gorgeous Coco and Largo cays off the main island as well as Cuba's second largest island, the Isle of Youth {Juventud}.

And speaking of a fast-changing Cuba:

Photo courtesy of St. Lawrence Parish Bulletin.

        For the first time in 60 years, a Catholic Church is being built in Cuba in the western town of Sandino. It is being funded by a parish in Tampa, Florida. The church will be "The Divine Mercy of Sandino" and it will be led by Father Cirilo Castro.

       This map shows in red the location of Sandino, which has a population of 39,250 on the absolute western tip of Cuba. It is in the beautiful Pinar del Rio Province.

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