August 13 (Today} is a huge Cuban birthday!!

 Fidel Castro was born on August 13th!!

Yes, Fidel Castro was born on August 13th, 1926.

History acknowledges that he lived for 90 years.

     For sure, Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution shocked the world in 1959 when he beat the unbeatable US/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba.

     And moreover, even more shocking than winning the Cuban Revolution in 1959 is the sheer fact that the Cuban Revolution has, against all odds, been able to survive 65 YEARS in control of Cuba...and, yes, AGAINST ALL ODDS!!!

     Today -- on August 13th, 2024 -- is more than eight years since Fidel Castro died in Havana at age 90. But his revolution, incredibly, still rules Cuba because of him or because of his legacy. That is why Fidel Castro remains the most important person in Cuba to this day and "Siempre"/"Always" -- at least until some foreign superpower regains control of the Caribbean's largest island, which is also, arguably, the Caribbean's most beautiful nation.

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A Cuban Hero Brings Joy To The Embargoed Island

 

      On August 7th of 2024 the U. S. & international Cuban headlines finally revealed some joyous news for the embargoed Cuban people...as shown above. Already a Cuban legend, Mijain Lopez this week in Paris won his FIFTH OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL and the incomparable feat inspired media giants such as the AP, The Wall Street Journal, etc., to suggest that Mijain is the GREATEST ATHLETE IN HISTORY. The Olympics began in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece and the modern 4-year format of the Olympics began in 1896. If you go back to either 776 BC or 1896, Mijain Lopez is the only person to ever win Gold Medals in five Olympics in the same event, which for him is heavyweight wrestling.

\   As he received his fifth Gold Medal this week in Paris, Mijain Lopez saluted the Cuban people that he loves and the people who massively love him. Then he told the world press in Paris, "I have not done this for money. My country does not have any money because the U. S. blockade that started in 1962 is now stronger than ever. I have done what I have done is only to bring joy to my Cuban people. They don't have much joy. But they love me and they feel the joy whenever I win."

     In Paris this week Mijain won four smashing victories in four days, including the championship match that gave him his FIFTH GOLD MEDAL, making him the only person in history to win five Gold Medals in five Olympics in the same event. After winning the championship event. Mijain then -- as shown above -- removed his shoes and left them in the ring to confirm that he is retiring now. He turns 42-years-old on August 20th, 2024. He will now live out his life in Cuba as a beloved Cuban legend...regardless of the endless U. S. Embargo/Blockade that he believes is the reason that recent headlines have confirmed that Cuba's population has recently decreased from 11.3 million people to 8.5 million people. "I don't blame the ones who are leaving," he says. "They have to eat, they have to have electic lights and water  to use in their homes. But most of all...I love the Cubans who stay and even have hopes that things will get better." 

       The United States, the richest nation in the history of the world, has many dozens of ultra-rich athletes competing in Paris this week that are supported by tax money from the U. S., including current multi-millionaire atheltes and even billionaire Labron James competing in Paris. But Cuba no longer can afford to win even Baseball or Boxing gold medals in the Olympics. But in this first week in August of 2024 Cuba had Mijain Lopez still competing in his fifth Olympic competition, and that was enough to gladden the hearts of the remaining 8.5 million Cubans on the embargoed island. As a man and as an athlete, Mijain Lopez will forever be a Cuban legend.

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Is Cuba Ready to Submit to US?

The answer to start AUGUST of 2024 is Yes!!

But the capitulation negotiations need to be sincere.

AUGUST 1ST in 2024!!

     This photo of Fidel Castro was taken on August 1st in 1953 when he was put in prison by Cuba's dictator Fulgencio Batista. It was anticipated that he would be quickly and quietly murdered out of the eyes of the media. But his imprisonment was closely monitored by notable journalist Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times. Moreover, the U. S. government, which had strong influence over Batista, fully knew that Fidel Castro was the anti-Batista rebel hero beloved by the majortiy peasants in Cuba and Batista was advised by the U. S. government not to kill him.

      This photo was taken on May 15th in 1955 when Fidel Castro was finally released from Batista's notorious Isle of Pines prison. Again...Batista bowed to the wishes of the U. S. government to free Fidel Castro. Of course, important people such as journalist Herbert L. Matthews and the rebel Celia Sanchez believed Batista would then put a death squad on Fidel Castro but history registers that Fidel safely ended up in Mexico where he and 81 bebels, including Raul Castro and Che Guevara, used an old yacht to return to the southeastern tip of Cuba where, even though many of them were ambushed and killed or captured as they reached the beach, 17 of the key rebels managed to soon join up with Celia Sanchez's still viable revolution and thus continued the Cuban Revolution against dictator Batista who eventually fled the island in his getaway airplane before dawn on January 1st, 1959. For over 65 years the Cuban Revolution has ruled Cuba, but in August of 2024 that rebel control could end.

     The photo and caption shown above explains why, for the first time in 65 years, Revolutionary Cuba is ready to begin final negotiations that will end with its capitulation and surrender to a renewal of U. S. domination of the Caribbean's largest and most pugnatious island-nation. "Hasta siempre. Magda Iris Chirolde" means "Farewell Magda Iris Chirolde." The U. S. and worldwide media that covers Cuba will not explain to you what this photo and caption means, but on AUGUST 1st in 2024 this photo and capiton is vitally important. Magda Iris died at age 33 in Havana. She was a top editor and producer of television news programs in Cuba. She died of a sudden attack of dengue fever. To Cubans who know such details, there is no longer any need to deny that the Revolution no longer can continue to resist the huculean and catastrophic sanctions from the nearby United States, the world's economic and military Superpower that has finally won it relentless battle to overthrow the Cuban Revolution that shocked the world by overthrowing the US-backed/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship on January 1st of 1959. Now at the start of AUGUST in 2024 it should also be known that Revolutionary Cuba, which has somehow survived for over 65 years, is finally ready to negotiate a surrender to  U. S. demands. Recently the U. S. and internationally media has reported correctly that a tightening of the six-decade-old U. S. Embargo/Blockade against Cuba has created drastic food shortages, power blackouts, and other extreme deprivations for Cuban families. Also, the U. S. and international media recently have correctly reported that Cuba's population has suddenly fallen from 11.3 million people to about 8 million people...as millions, mostly young adults, have fled the island to richer destinations such as Florida. That drastically leaves more of a population dominated by elderly Cubans who now constitute an alarming percentage of the population. From 1959 till 2024 Revolutionary Cuba has promised to provide free educations through college for all Cubans as well as free health care for all Cubans, etc., etc. In the meantime Cuba has produced high-trained doctors and scientists who have provided and developed vital care and vaccines for such things as...dengue fever and other dreaded diseases and calamities. Now the Revolution, after 65 years, admits it cannot provide for its remaining and dwindling citizens. The death from dengue fever of the important journalist Magda Iris might not register with the U. S. and international media but it resonates with the Cuban people themselves...the latest generation of Cubans on the island who have been pawns since 1959 cruelly mired between their revolutionary government and the much-richer, much more powerful Cuban and American forces based just a few miles north of the Cuban coast...not to mention the rich and powerful U. S. Military Base that for decades has occupied 45 plush acres of valuable land on and around the port at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    Yes, any great map of Cuba will begin to reveal that the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful island has one drastic problem:  its size, beauty, and its location that geographically makes it a covetous prize for any richer and more powerful imperative power. Please note above how close Key West, Florida is to Cuba. Even while George Washington was leading the American Revolution to its eventual victory over the British empire, the very first leaders of the new United States -- including Thomas Jefferson -- already had their covetous eyes on acquiring Cuba.

       "If we seize Cuba we will be masters of the Caribbean." By 1817 America's most important Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, was publicly proclaiming that seizing Cuba was the key to the United States becoming first a regional and then a worldwide power. As you can see from the historic quotations shown above, not only Jefferson but other top politicians and media moguls listed Cuba as the most vital acquisition that the United States could and should make. Of course, by 1898 the United States knew it was strong enough to go to war to make sure it could easily acquire control of Cuba from the Spanish Empire, and that led to the easy victory in 1898 when the United States fought Spain on Cuban soil in what history calls "The Spanish-American War" -- the war that Thomas Jefferson and so many others had championed!!!

     But like Spain, the United States domination of Cuba spawned revolts and revolutions, including Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution from 1952 till 1959 that incredibly ended up defeating the powerful United States, the powerful Mafia, and the powerful Batista dictatorship.

     Starting in January of 1959 the United States has employed drastic measures to overthrow Revolutionary Cuba. After the land-air-sea Bay of Pigs military attack in April of 1961 was astoundingly defeated by Cuba, one of the next tactics the U. S. employed in 1962 was the drastic economic EMBARGO/Blockade against Cuba that, according to declassified data, was meant to starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cuban people to make them rise up and overthrow their own revolutionary government. Incredibly, that EMBARGO/Blockade has existed for over six decades, from 1962 until 2024. Now finally, as mentioned earlier in this post, Cuba at last has decided to try to negotiate some style of Batista-era surrender to the United States, believing it is now the only way to save what remains of its dwindling population.

     As always as shown above throughout 2024, the mainstream U. S. media has reserved the right to dictate how Cuba has reacted to foreign domination, suggesting that Spain's domination was bad and, after 1898, U. S. domination was good. But, as epitomized by the U.S.-Mafia-Batista domination of Cuba in the 1950s, raping and robbing the island by the foreign-backed Cuban leaders benefited only the rich and powerful, not the majority of the Cuban people. When the Revolution's victory on January 1-1959 drastically altered that situation, at least temporarily, the counter revolutionary forces based in Miami and Washington beginning in January of 1959 used their ultra-superior financial and military muscles to try to regain control of Cuba. Terrorist assassination attempts and attacks such as the deadly bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 airplane didn't work and neither did other such drastic things. And, of course, neither did the 1961 air-land-and-sea Bay of Pigs military attack...nor has the six-decade-old Embargo/Blockade of the island that began in 1962 and continues, stronger than ever, to this day as July turned to AUGUST in 2024. The UN and the rest of the world denounces the endless Embargo/Blockade but that has never mattered because the rest of the world can't match the USA's economic and military might. Of course, the American people whose money and consent is required to support the Embargo/Blockade are not told such things as the original purpose of the Embargo/Blockade, which was to starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cuban people to induce them to rise up and overthrow their own government. Yes, for over six decades the result of the Embargo/Blockade has been to starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cuban people. But, no, it hasn't made them rise up and overthrow their governement...at least not Yet...although Cuban families have been provided many inducements to capitulate to Miami and Washington and then just wait for the tourism and business dollars to flow back to the island as was the case when the US-backed the Batista-Mafia DICTATORSHIP prior to the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution.

      The two images shown above depict true images of Batista's Cuba that spawned the Cuban Revolution because in the 1950s the Batistianos, the Mafia kingpins such as Luciano and Lansky, and many already rich U. S. companies raked in massive fortunes in Cuba but non-Batistiano women and children in Cuba were not even tossed a few crumbs. When the powerful dictator Batista was supported by the most powerful criminal organizantion in the world, the Mafia, and by the most powerful nation in the world, the United States, nobody felt the need to toss a few crumbs to the non-Batista women and children in Batista's Cuba. But such foreign-backed greed created the Cuban Revolution from 1952 until its victory in 1959.

But how has it survived from 1959 till 2024?

     A small, poor nation trying to compete against a much richer and much stronger and much larger nation simply has no advantages, including trying to tell its side of a two-sided story. For example, the photo and NY Times caption shown above has been lost to history because that photo and that caption simply never equated with the Cuban narrative spun so powerfully by the U. S. media and the U. S. government. Above Cuba's rebel leader Fidel Castro had made a 12-day trip to the United States in April of 1959, a mere four months after his Cuban Revolution had shocked the world by overthrowing the brutal, thieving Batista dictatorship that had been supported by the Mafia, the strongest criminal organization in the world, and by the United States, the strongest nation in the world. And right after his revolution had chased the Batistianos and the Mafiosi off the island, why did Fidel Castro so quickly visit the United States? It so happened that Fidel Castro, a young and very smart lawyer, knew that {like Batista} he understood that Cuba absolutely needed to be friends and a trading partner with the nearby superpower United States, not its enemy. So in April of 1959 Fidel Castro's purpose for his 12-day U. S. visit was to tell the United States and President Eisenhower that Cuba planned to have democratic elections that the U. S. could closely monitor and that none of the top 5 rebel leaders, including himself, would be candidates in the election process. It so happened that, in April of 1959, the top news talk program in the U. S. was Meet the Press, which remains for NBC the longest running TV program in the world. So in April of 1959 Fidel Castro was the historic guest on Meet the Press, setting audience records. The American people got to view and to listen to his vision for Cuba as a friend and key trading partner with the United States. And, YES, he spoke in English.

    On YouTube {watch it above in its entirety} as Fidel] speaks in good English to tough questions. Fidel Castro's appearance on Meet the Press in April of 1959 remains an historic fact, yet it has been routinely misrepressented just as most other aspects of Cuba's famed revolution has been misrepresented by a much more powerful media and government than Cuba has. On Meet the Press so soon after he became Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro famously said, "I am not a communist." Was he purposely lying to the American people? Maybe, maybe not. At the time his prime purpose was to be friends with the United States and he surely was smart enough to know that the U. S. and the Soviet Union were mired in a post-World War Two Cold War that pitted the U. S. and democracy against the Soviet Union and communism, and Fidel Castro fully knew that choosing the U. S. and democracy was the best course for Cuba to take. SO WHAT CHANGED FOR CUBA AND FOR Fidel Castro during his 12-day U. S. visit in April of 1959 when Fidel Castro, the post-Batista leader of Cuba, was in the U. S.??

      it should be remembered that when Fidel Castro visited the U. S. for 12 days in April of 1959, he was wildly popular with most Americans, and not just women like these who fawned over the bearded rebel hero.

     During his 12-day visit to the U. S. in April of 1959 as Cuba's new leader, it should be remembered that Fidel Castro paid homage to U. S. landmarks, such as {above} at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Prior to his Revolution, he had loved visits to favorite places such as Central Park in New York and, to raise money and political support for his Revolution, he had spoken at important and lucrative rallies even in Miami and New York.

     But this historic photo shows the moment things changed suddenly for Cuba and for Fidel Castro during his 12-day visit to the U. S. in April of 1959. It was the moment that Vice President Richard Nixon said, "You have had a nice trip. But I am here to speak for the United States and to tell you that your celebrated revolution will be overthrown in a few weeks, surely no later than a few months from now." The consternation, as shown here, seems to have been instantly registered on Fidel Castro's face. The Nixon quote as recounted here is how Fidel explained it to Celia Sanchez as soon as the irate Fidel left that stunning face-to-face meeting with Nixon. And the explanation that Celia Sanchez heard made her even more irate than it made Fidel. To not understand that is to not understand the  historic Fidel-Nixon encounter. 

     This historic photo, which is owned by Yale University, shows Celia Sanchez in the hallway of a U. S. hotel during Fidel Castro's visit to the U. S. in April of 1959. Celia was solely responsible for the visit, which Fidel opposed, but only she was capable of persuading Fidel to make the visit, at least so soon after the revolutionary victory. During and after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Celia Sanchez was the most important rebel, starting with the fact that Fidel Castro worshipped the ground she walked on but also because she was the top recruiter of rebels and supplies that fueled the revolution and as the prime decision-maker during which she always had Fidel Castro's 100% support whether or not he agreed with all of her decisions. Knowing fully how important friendship and trade with the U. S. was to her beloved Cuba, it was Celia who worked tirelessly with the U. S. State Department and with the U. S. Society of Newspaper Editors to arrange Fidel's 12-day visit to the U. S. in April of 1959. A brilliant negotiatior, she was told  that Fidel would be given a face-to-face meeting with President Dwight Eisenhower and without that assurrance she would not have allowed the visit. But the U. S. promise regarding Eisenhower was a lie. During the visit it was Vice President Nixon, not President Eisenhower, that met with Fidel...and that double-cross altered US-Cuban relations.

      Without the unique brilliance and passion of Celia Sanchez there would never have been a chance for the Cuban Revolution to shock the world by beating the Batista dictatorship that was supported by the Mafia and by the United States. To make the revolution viable, Celia was the prime recruiter of rebels and materials that got the anti-Batista revolt started. From that point to the end of Fidel Castro's life at age 90 in 2016, he worshipped the Cuban ground that Celia Sanchez walked on. In the photo above, at their base-camp high in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, Celia and Fidel were waiting for dawn to continue their war against Batista, with Celia devising the war plans that Fidel the next morning would support 100%. That Celia Sanchez, a petite doctor's daughter, had such unfathomable influence over Fidel and over the Revolution happens to be true but has always been denied conveniently by counter-revolutionary U. S. forces. So, yes, it was Celia who was solely responsible for convincing Fidel to take the historic 12-day visit to the U. S. in April of 1959, a mere few weeks after the triumph of the Revolution. And, yes, it was Celia's reaction to the Nixon double-cross of Fidel's visit to the U. S. that was the most important reaction, even more than Fidel's reaction.

     In April of 1959 after Celia and Fidel returned to Cuba after the Nixon-sabotagued 12-day visit to the U. S., Celia was still the prime decision-maker in Cuba because her decisions were routinely and always backed 100% by Fidel.

     In the 65 years that the Cuban Revolution has ruled Cuba, those who have vehemently tried to regain control of the island have vehemently denied the unrivaled power of Celia Sanchez. But the sweet, child-loving Celia was not as easily demonized as the macho rebel men. Lying about Celia's revolutionary influence includes denying the famous Lee Lockwood porch photo shown above. It shows early one morning in Revolutionary Cuba the tireless Celia Sanchez writing down a new law that Fidel, as always, would later 100% support and make it a part of Revolutionary Cuba. While Celia wrote down that law, Fidel was relaxing in his rocking chair with his shoes off...as you can see.

    The nexus of Celia Sanchez and Fidel Castro has purposely and conveniently denied by the U. S. media, etc., but it is, in fact, the most important aspect of the Cuban Revolution as well as the past 65 years of Revolutionary rule in Cuba. The legendary Cuban journalist and author Marta Rojas knew Celia and Fidel better than anyone else in this world. In 2004 the George W.. Bush administration gave me special permission to visit Cuba to research Celia Sanchez. The first person I requested to speak to was Marta Rojas and my request was made to Armando Brinis, who was then the head of the Media Center in Havana and now works at the University of Havana and still is my friend on Facebook. In 2004 the brilliant Marta Rojas told me: "During the Cuban Revolution and later after 1959 in Revolutionary Cuba, Fidel made sure that Celia was the main decision-maker and in all of her decisions he never failed to support them totally. In fact, since Celia died of cancer at age 59 on January 11th of 1980, Fidel has continued to rule Cuba only as he precisely believes Celia would want him to rule this island." And by the way, Marta Rojas wrote the Celia Sanchez obituary that was on the front page of the Gramna newspaper on January 12th, 1980. I know that because, in an .Net email Marta sent me after I returned to the U. S., she attached that article.

     This photo showed Marta Rojas when she was a top young reporter during the Batista dictatorship. Batista trusted her. When Batista had Fidel Castro in prison from July of 1953 until May of 1955, Batista allowed Marta to visit Fidel in his prison cell so Batista could let the Cuban people and the U. S. government that Fidel -- unlike many other murdered rebel prisoners -- was still alive. But it is known to history that, on visits to Fidel's cell, Marta exited the prison on the Isle of Pines with notes written by Fidel hidden in her bra. In that manner those notes were carried by brave female Mountain Messengers to Celia Sanchez who was brilliantly maintaining the viability of the anti-Batista revolution in the mountains and foothills of the Sierra Maestra Mountains in far southeastern Cuba.

      After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959, this was Marta Rojas smiling happily as the new leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, lavishly showed his admiration for her help in winning the revolution.

       This photo was taken in December of 1959 when Fidel Castro was about to give his very first televison address to the Cuban people. Please note that Fidel chose Marta Rojas to introduce him for that historic television speech.

    As a superstar journalist and author in Revolutionary Cuba it is very true that Marta Rojas knew more about Fidel Castro and Celia Sanchez than any person that ever lived. Marta was born on May 17th in 1928 in Santiago de Cuba and she died on October 3rd in 2021 in Havana. She remains a Cuban legend and I can attest that she was a sweet, sweet lady. Armando Brinis permitted me to meet her but it was the great U. S. journalist Tracey Eaton who was the first American I met in Havana in 2004, and it was Tracey Eaton who first told me about his dear friend Marta Rojas. That's why I asked Brinis if I could meet her and I will forever remember the first sentence she said to me: "Ritchie, any friend of Tracey's is my friend too. Nice to meet you." {At that time in 2004 Tracey Eaton was the journalist for the Dallas Morning News stationed in Cuba}.

This was Marta Rojas on a YouTube video.

     Two giants of the Cuban Revolution -- Fidel Castro and Marta Rojas -- both believed that the most important person in the Cuban Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba was and is the doctor's daughter, Celia Sanchez. Therefore, I think, that it is appropriate that Celia Sanchez should be allowed to best define both the Cuban Revolution and Revolutionary Cuba...with quotes such as the one above.

     Above is perhaps the most famous Celia Sanchez quotation regarding her Cuban Revolution: "We rebels...get far too much credit for winning the revolution. Our enemies deserve most of the credit, for being greedy cowards and idiots." 

   In other words, there are two sides to the historic Cuban Revolution and perhaps the rebel who guided it to victory, Celia Sanchez, defined it best.

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Warships and Hungry Children in Havana

WHY? 

     This Washington Post photo in the summer of 2024 flashed around the world with a caption that told about the "cascading" food shortages {hunger} facing children in Cuba. Of course, not many cared because the world has been programmed to believe this little girl in Havana is a "bad" person and that the "good" people in a nearby rich nation should not even care. Meanwhile, in this last week of July in 2024, a war-ravaged far-away nuclear superpower is saying it will help starving children in Cuba...if Cuba helps in its bloody, far-away war efforts.

     This NPR photo on July 28th, 2024 shows yet another Russian warship entering Havana harbor. It's not yet akin to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis but it surely is worth watching.

     And, yes, the world's media continues to keep tabs on Russian warships entering Havana Harbor...as shown by the headlines flashing around the world on July 28th, 2024. As the Russian warships frequent Havana Harbor they are just mere miles from Florida and from the U. S. Military Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As the bloody war rages over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the world's two most powerful nuclear powers -- Russia and the United States -- are on opposite sides in a tragic conflict that often resembles the worst destruction from World War II.

     But, meanwhile, as the Winds of War swirl ominously around the world in late July of 2024, let us not forget the hungry little girl in Havana that the Washington Post showcased to remind the world of the tragic food shortage in Cuba. The parents and neighbors of this little girl are beyond taking sides regarding which country to support in the worldwide wars, but each day they are concerned about which big country is trying to help their little girl from starving. The parents and neighbors of this little girl believe that the Embargo/Blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba since 1962 was intended to starve, deprive, and make miserable the Cubans on the island to cause them to overthrow their revolutionary government. At the end of July in 2024 perhaps it is time for the U. S. government to tell Cuban families if that really was the stated purpose of the Embargo/Blockade and also tell them why, despite the fact it hasn't caused the overthrow of the revolution, it has existed for so long.

1962 till 2024 is a LONG time.

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