CUBA is now a Billion-to-One UNDERDOG!!
After mostly being only a million-to-one underdog since 1492.
On October 28th in 1492 the explorer Columbus discovered the New World when he landed on the island that became Cuba. Columbus claimed the island for Spain and named it "Juana" after a Spanish princess. Also very famously, as Wikipedia and other historic sources proclaimed, Columbus posted in his diary that "Juana is the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen." That epic discovery and that famous depiction of the island along with its strategic geographic location meant that, for all the centuries since 1492, the island known as Juana/Cuba would be wildly coveted and fought over by all the world's MOST POWERFUL nations and empires.
The map above shows North America in 1794 as emerging countries included Mexico, Canada, the United States, and Cuba.
The most famed Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the U. S. Declaration of Independence {from England} in 1776, became the third U. S. President, etc., etc. As his quotation above explains, Mr. Jeffersson from the beginning of the United States craved possessing Cuba as a political, geographical, economic, and practical necessity.
But through it all, as this image by Kerne Erickson mentions, "Cuba became the Paradise of the Tropics and the Caribbean." This happened even as all the imperative powers -- especially Spain and the United States -- fought over who would dominate it.
Not surprisingly, as it evolved into a superpower economically and militarily, the nearby United States dominated Cuba after the U. S. easily won the Spanish-American War that was fought in Cuba in 1898.
But in 1959 Fidel Casstro's Cuban Revolution defeated dictator Fulgencio Batista's powerful forces, and Castro quickly ended the vast United States business enterprises that Batista, because of huge financial kickbacks, had allowed to thrive, along with vast profiteering by Mafia goldmines such as gambling, tourism, prostitution, etc.
But, when the Cuban Revolution ended, the Batistiano, Mafiosi, and American business enterprises in Cuba ended but starting in 1959 became CUBA in MIAMI.
Starting in 1959 LITTLE HAVANA began to dominate nearby MIAMI FLORIDA, and that remains the case 65 years as 2024 turns into 2025!!! And as its wealth and political power increased, Little Havana in Miami Florida soon was powerful enough to dictate Cuban policies nationally from the White House and U. S. Congresss in Washington.
While the superpower United States loved the Batista-Mafia dictatorship in the 1940s and 1950s, since 1959 little Cuba has continually had to survive drastic efforts by Miami and the United States to keep the Revolution intact and viable.
Historically, the three most famed efforts by the United States to overthrow the Cuban Revolution were: {1} The air-land-sea Bay of Pigs military attack on Cuba in 1961; {2} the U. S. economic embargo on Cuba that started in 1962 and has continued to this very day over six decades later; and {3} the ungodly number of assassination attempts against revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, with one respected documentary saying there were 538 assassination attempts while another one says there were 634.
Despite surviving the All-Time record number of assassination attempts, Fidel Castro died peacefully in his own bed in Havana at age 90 in 2016. And at the start of a new year in 2025 it is Fidel Castro's LEGACY last remains the best defense for his Revolution, which admittedly is barely holding on as it begins its 66th Year since ousting the US/Mafia-backed Batista dictatorship.
At the end of 2024 dedicated Cubans such as Zaily Perez are working tirelessly to help Cuban families survive drastic shortages of food and medicines as well as other drastic deprivations such as island-wide power blackouts. Zaily says, "Yes, we plead with the United States to help us, not to starve us, or at least not punish us while we try our best to help ourselves. Three generations of Cuban mothers on this island have remembered how much the United States helped dictator Batista who did nother but brutalize everyday Cubans. Fidel Castro and the Revolution beat Batista but the United States should atone for helping Batista, not continue depriving normal Cuban families who have tried to exist for the generations since 1959. We in turn could help the United States in some ways."
At the end of the 65th Year since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Cubans are abundantly aware that the return of Donald Trump as the U. S. President starting on January 20th in 2025 is the latest of the MANY PROBLEMS that the vulnerable island faces heading into 2025. The fact that President Trump will have Senator Marco Rubio from Miami as his powerful Secretary of State makes Cubans in Miami rejoice BUT makes Cubans on the island shiver!!
Cuba's closeness to the United States, heading into 2025, scares Cubans more than ever, evoking memories of past Cuban-US Relations, including the Batista years.
For sure, prior to 1959 Batista and the Mafia and the U. S. businesses loved the vast number of dollars that tourists flooded Cuba with. But by not tossing a few crumbs to the majority peasants, the BATISTA YEARS created the CUBAN REVOLUTION as well as LITTLE HAVANA in MIAMI.
Since 1959 in Revolutionary Cuba, Varadero remains the "World's Best Beach" and it is still located on Cuba's northern coast right below Key West, Florida. But since 1959, and unlike during the BATISTA YEARS, the U. S. since 1959 has not wanted tourists or any other revenue to help Revolutionary Cuba. That will change drastically starting in 2025 if the Cuban Revolution is finally overturned.
Meanwhile, starting in 2025, the two Spanish-owned Hotel and Resort giants --Iberostar and Melia -- still will have over forty 4-star and 5-star Hotels and Resorts on the island craving tourists to return to the Caribbean's largest and most beautiful nation, just as they flocked so famously to Batista's Cuba.
So in 2025, even if the end of the Cuban Revolution makes headlines, post-revollutionary Cuba will remain much more than iust a footnote in world history. And, moreover, Cuba in 2025 will still be just a little bit south of the United States.
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