Not ALL Cuban Headlines Are Sad!!!

 ...even as Cuba tries to survive the U. S. blockade!!

    Since the triumph of the Cuban Revoluion in January of 1959, and since the U. S. imposed its endless Embargo/Blockade on Cuba in February of 1962, the Cuban Headlines in the U. S. Media have always centered on how terrible Revolutionary Cuba is, implying that the Batista dictatorship was wonderful and, of course, very friendly to its northern superpower neightbor, the United States. Well, in August of 2024 the dire situations in Cuba include food shortages {hunger}, power blackouts, and other deprivations -- which Cuba blames on the U. S. Blockade while the U. S. media and the U. S. government loudly blame on Cuba's rebel leaders, including the post-Fidel Castro leaders on the island since 2016. Yet, even in August of 2024, the Associated Press -- the largest News Agency in the U. S. -- has an excellent journalist stationed fulltime in Cuba and she actually reports fairly from the island, whether it's good or bad. Her name is Andrea Rodriguez. Her latest worldwide AP article from Cuba in August of 2024 is about something very dear to Cubans on the island, not about baseball this time but about Salsa!!

      As you can see above, the first line in Andrea Rodriguez's latest Associated Press article from Cuba says: "Socialisst Cuba, the birthplace of salsa and other rhythms that have conquered the world, is now surrendering to the invasion of South Korean pop music." The well-written and pertinent article by Andrea is important and refreshing...because it does not dwell on the blockade and the drastic deprivations affecting the people in Cuba in August of 2024.

      For sure, Cuba will always be the largest island in the Caribbean, always have Florida and the United States has its northern NEIGHBOR, and always be one of North America's most EXCITING and INTRIGUING nations and cultures.

One day PERHAPS the U. S. EMBARGO of the vulnerable island will end.

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The Ruins of Cuba Explained

      Since 1492 when Columbus discovered Cuba, the Caribbean's largest, most strategically located, and most beautiful island has been wildly coveted by imperative powers. 

    Since 1962 the superpower United States, which is a mere 90 miles from Cuba, has imposed an economic EMBARGO on Cuba designed to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, which had overthrown the US-backed and Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship on January 1, 2959. Obviously, any small nation saddled with such an assault for over 62 years, over six decades, was not expected to survive for more than a year or two. Yet, Cuba has somehow survived the EMBARGO although, for sure, generations of Cubans on the island have suffered massive food shortages, power outages, and other dire deprivations.

    Many media and online sources report daily about the dire conditions that Cubans in Cuba have endured since the Embargo was imposed by the United States in 1962. Above is a typical photo and caption posted on the "Patria Orgullosa"/"Proud Homeland" website, and such reminders often receive thousands of views and comments. The caption above says: "See what remains of the old 'Villa Clara' cinema and the 'Florida' hotel on the corner of Cuba and Trista streets in Santa Clara, Cuba." Daily there are photos and captions like this depicting the destructions of Cuba's infrastructues from Havana on the western end of the island to Santiago de Cuba 500 miles away on the eastern end of the island. The contrast is that back in the 1950s, when the U. S. and the Mafia ran the islandl, Cuba was a VERY rich nation. For sure, somehow there are some impressive new buildings in Cuba, including 40 or so 4-star and 5-star hotels maintained and continually refurbished by the two Spainish Hotel & Resorts giants Melia and Iberostar. But, of course, such new photos of such structures are rarely posted online or by the media.

     This is the luxurious Iberostar Hotel & Resort at Varadero Beach, the Cuban beach that has been rated internationally as the Top Beach in the World. Varadero Beach is located about an hour's drive southeast of Havana in north-central Cuba due south of Key West, Florida. In September of 2024 Iberostar Hotels is paying for a ubiquitous bevy of ads on Facebook and other forums promoting tourism to its splendid Cuban properties but, of course, the EMBARGO massively discourages such tourism to Cuba.

\    Today, on September 4th, 2024, a top U. S. media source, NBC News, posted the huge article about the financial struggle is having, suggesting the prime reason is the revolutionally Cuban government, not the EMBARGO. The two NBC journalists who wrote this aritcle, as you can note, are Orlondo Matos reporting from Havana and Carmen Sesin reporting in Miami. The US-Miami media rarely mention the EMBARGO as a problem for Cubans on the island.

     London-based Reuters is the international News Agency that best reports on and from Cuba. Above the huge Reuters update explains that many of the strongest revolutionary supporters are now beginning to give up after the decades of one-sided battles. That includes, as you see above, the notable former ambassador and professor Carlos Alzugaray. Although 2024 is fast coming to an end, some Cuban experts believe that the total demise of the Cuban Revolution could occur before the arrival of the New Year in 2025.

         Recent headlines, shown above, reveal that Cubans in nearby Florida continue to pound Cuba, with little consequences unless they are caught by Cuba's border patrols.

      While, of course, the EMBARGO for the past six decades has been Cuba's biggest problem, as noted in the huge Reuters article above, littler problems such as gun-runners arriving from Florida on water skis must be considered threats too. Meanwhile, perhaps, observers should admit that little EMBARGOED Cuba should get some credit for just surviving for the past 65 Years in the world's greatest David and Goliath struggle.

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Even Castro Lovers Have Questions Now About Starving Cubans.

Blackouts & Food Deprivations in Cuba.

Are Altering Moods at the end of August-2024.

     Born in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba in 1946, Silvio Rodriguez is arguably the all-time greatesst Latin American songwriter, guitarist, and singer. Now 77-years-old, Silvio has always staunchly defended Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution that in 1959 shocked the world by overthrowing the thieving, brutal Batista dictatorship that had been supported by both the Mafia and by the United States. Like millions of other Castro supporters, Silvio believed it was absolutely appropriate for Castro's rebel revolution to change Batista's neglect to and brutality against the majority Cuban peasants while the Batistianos, the Mafiosi, and the already rich U. S. companies were plundering the Caribbean's largest nation and arguably the most beautiful Caribbean island. In all these decades since 1959...Silvio Rodriguez has been wildly beloved in Cuba for his music but also for his love and devotion to Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. But now in this summer of 2024 Silvio has admitted that Revolutionary Cuba can no longer care for the Cuban people who are suffering mightily from food shortages, power blackouts, and other severe deprivations that, he believes, are mostly caused by the six-decade-old U. S. EMBARGO/Blockade of his beloved island and his beloved Cubans.

    For sure, Silvio Rodriguez always was a close friend of Fidel Castro and now since Fidel's death at age 90 in 2016, Silvio still cherishes Fidel's legacy. But it is also true at the end of August in 2024 that Silvio now believes that Fidel's revolution has been finally defeated by the awesome superiority of Cuba's northern neighbor, the United States.

In an August-2024 interview with the Associated Press Silvio Rodriguez admitted that now he is seeing too much hunger and deprivations involving the Cuban people that he loves so deeply.

      Even on Cuban television news programs, Silvio Rodriguez has honestly, candidly, and bravely expressed what is happening to Cuban families in 2024. He says, "...not even the fear of death has kept me from doing what I consider to be my duty." In other words, the great and beloved Silvio Rodriguez is telling the Cuban people and the whole world that "After six decades, the U. S. genocidal blockade of this vulnerable island is doing what it was supposed to do when it was first imposed in 1962, which is to starve and deprive the Cuban people on the island to appease rich Cubans in Miami and in Washington. The success of the blockade is shameful and genocidal." 

      Of course, the great Silvio Rodriguez is not the only Cuban to decry what the endless U. S. EMBARGO/Blockade is doing to Cuban families on the island. A award-winning Cuban journalist named Liz Oliva Fernandez is passionately going around the United States and Latin American loudly denouncing the "criminal" U. S. EMBARGO/Blockade that is devastating her island.

     The passionate Liz Oliva Fernandez passionately performs and produces passionate documentaries denouncing the U. S. EMBARGO/Blockade of Cuba. As you see in the video below, Liz goes to extremely anti-Cuban areas in the U. S. to confront notables who support the U. S EMBARGO/Blockade of Cuba, including areas such as Hudson County in New Jersey and the Hudson River area of New York City.

     Tap the clip above to see a portion of one of Liz Oliva Fernandez's documentaries featured on YouTube and other forums that show her vivid disdain of the endless U. S. EMBARGO.

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Cuba Tries to Survive August in 2024

 

     London-based Reuters is the international News Agency that best reports on what is happening in Cuba. And now near the end of August in 2024 Reuters reports that the Cuban people on the island are having terrible problems with food shortages, blackouts, etc. The ubiquitous power blackouts reveal the dire straits Cuban families are enduring. Note the 21-second YouTube video below.

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Cuban Women Led Castro's Revolution!!

     Today is August 23rd in 2024. This day is wildly celebrated in Cuba because on August 23rd in 1960, the year after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution that defeated the Batista dictatorship, The Federation of Cuban Revolution was formed by the Cuban women who led the revolution, which is a true fact that is still conveniently denied by counter revolutionaries in the U. S.

The Federation of Cuban Women was created by Vilma Espin.

     Yes, Cuban women such as Vilma Espin, starting in January of 1959 in Revolutionary Cuba, made the key decisions on the island...with the total consent of  Fidel Castro.

      In January of 1959, a few days after chasing the US-backed and Mafia-aligned dictator Fulgencio Batista off the island, Vilma Espin married Raul Castro.

    The BIG FOUR leaders of both the Cuban Revolution and in Revolutionary Cuba, left to right above, were: Vilma Espin, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, and Celia Sanchez. If you don't know that, then you have been misled and lied to.

      Cuba women indeed started the anti-Batista Cuban Revolution and many them, in the early days of the revolt, were captured and unmercifully tortured to death by Batista's goons. Such Cuban women included, as shown above, Lidia Doce and Clodimira Acosta. Such female rebel martyrs are still mightily remembered today in Cuba.

     During and after the Revolutionary War key women guerrilla fighters and decision-makers included Celia Sanchez and Vilma Espin. They are shown above during the war in this historic photo that was taken by Dickey Chapelle, the greatest female war photographer in history {who was later killed on a battlefield during the Vietnam War}.

     But for sure, Vilma Espin and Celia Sanchez not were only key fighters and decision-makers during the Cuban Revolution, but they were also the key decision-makers in Cuba after the triumphant victory over the US-backed Batista dictatorship. After the war Vilma married Raul Castro and they soon had two children, Mariela and Alejandro. The photo above shows Celia at the bedside after Vilma gave birth to Mariela. Vilma was married to Raul Castro while Fidel Castro verily and truly worshipped Celia. Vilma was born in Santiago de Cuba on April 7th in 1930 and she died at age 77 in 2007. Celia was born on May 9th in 1920 in Media Luna, Cuba and died of cancer at age 59 on on January 11th in 1980.

     Yes, members of the Mariana Grajales Women's Platoon were among the first heroic rebels who arrived in Havana in January of 1959 as Superstars of the Cuban Revolution. It was an honor they richly deserved. Tete Puebla, shown on the left in the above photo, later served a long stint in Revolutionary Cuba as a General in the Cuban Army.

      Cuban women started the Cuban Revoluion and they were there at the finish in January of 1959. Moreover, after the Revolutionary War, Cuban women such as Celia Sanchez, Vilma Espin, Tete Puebla, and Haydee Santamaria made the rules and laws that have set the parameters for Cuba since 1959, parameters such as The Federation of Cuban Women.

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