Helping OR Starving Cubans

Will Rubio's Starvation Plan Work?

     This interesting photo, courtesy of Ariel Rey Rollero/ACN, shows the first of 100 brand-new garbage collecting trucks that Japan is donating to Cuba. In this first week of April-2019 the first 24 trucks have arrived in Havana and the remaining 76 are on the way. Kazuhiro Fujimura, the Japanese Ambassador to Cuba, said, "This is one way we are trying to help the Cuban people. In addition to the trucks, we have trained the Cuban drivers and mechanics how to use the tools and the repair spare parts that we are sending with the trucks. This is from the people of Japan to the people of Cuba." Cuba has just one enemy in the world, but it happens to be the nearby world Superpower, the United States, which has the economic and military might to punish and scare away other nations that may want to help Cuba or merely conduct normal trade with the island. So, the gesture this week from Japan, a prime U. S. trading partner, is a brave move.

        THE VERY SAME DAY THIS WEEK -- Friday, April 5th, 2019 -- that Japan was making that brave donation of garbage trucks to the Cuban people, the USA Vice President Mike Pence was speaking at Rice University in Houston, Texas. If you read the coverage of that speech in articles by the Houston Chronicle and the Jamaica Observer, I believe you will comprehend the gist of Pence's message, which was essentially to cowardly and boastfully tout the starvation of Cubans on the island as a prelude to the Trump administration's recapturing the island on behalf of the latest generation of Counter Revolutionary extremists in the Little Havana section of Miami. Pence, in his speeches or statements about Cuba, merely does what President Trump, Secretary of State Pompeo, National Security Adviser Bolton, and the USA's Western Hemisphere boss Claver-Carone do...AND THAT IS TO PARROT WHATEVER THE USA'S LATEST CUBAN DICTATOR, Senator Marco Rubio from Little Havana, DIRECTS THEM TO SAY. In Houston on April 5th Pence indicated that as soon as the USA executes its regime-change in Venezuela, Cuba is next followed by Nicaragua. Typical of all Batistiano-dictated Republican administrations since 1959, Pence blamed Cuba for all the ills in the Caribbean and Latin America, including...of course...the Venezuelan crisis. While Pence expected the USA to have executed its regime-change in Venezuela two months ago, he blamed poor-little-embargoed Cuba for the delay. Of course, two huge nuclear-powered Superpowers, Russia and China, have sent airplane loads of medicine, food, etc., as well as well-armed Russian and Chinese soldiers to Venezuela. But, of course, Pence is afraid of mighty Russia and mighty China so, of course, he reserves his regime-change talk only to small nations, especially little Cuba, which is the only nation that ever overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship -- Batista-Mafia -- only to chase the leaders to Miami and Newark where, beginning in January of 1959, they quickly set up what has turned out to be a very rich exile-Cuban government within the bowels of the U. S government. And Pence's April 5th speech in Houston, I believe, merely reflects the latest Republican administration's dire desire to help the Little Havana extremists to recapture Cuba.

     In Houston on April 5th this Godofredo A. Vasquez/Houston Chronicle photo shows Rice University students loudly booing the speech by Vice President Pence. The Chronicle indicated they were booing Pence because they perceive him to be anti-gay but Hispanic students are also staunchly against Republican imperialism in Latin America.

     This powerful lady -- Maria Fernanda Espinosa -- has been in Cuba all week and will remain there this weekend. She is the President of the United Nations General Assembly. "I seek to strengthen ties between Cuba and the United Nations," Mrs. Fernanda Espinosa said. "When innocent people are threatened or in need, it is our responsibility, whenever we can, to offer our input and help." The phrase "whenever we can" obviously refers to the fact that she is not happy that the United States has veto power over her UN General Assembly as well as the incomparable economic and military might to back it up.

     Cuba's Ambassador to the United Nations is Anayansi Rodriguez and she is a close friend of Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the President of the UN's General Assembly. Ms. Rodriguez said, "Cuba is very willing to speak with and be very friendly to anyone and any nation that is friendly to us. We spoke with and we were very friendly to President Obama but we have been blind-sided by his successor being another Republican, a President who speaks with the top leaders of North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Vietnam...but not us because I, as well as others, including Maria Fernanda, believe all Republican leaders are directed by Cuban extremists in Miami and in the U. S. Congress."

        If you take time to tap the 3-minute video above you will hear in English the words of a great and decent lady -- Anayansi Rodriguez, Cuba's Ambassador to the UN. {As a democracy-loving American, one of my great shames is that, since the 1950's, the U. S. democracy, especially during all Republican administrations, has allowed a handful of Cuban extremists to dictate America's Cuban policies and America's Cuban narratives. There are, I believe, over five million Cuban women on the island, like Anayansi Rodriguez, who are far better human beings than the handful of USA-embedded Cuban extremists and the sycophants who support them}.

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Cubaninsider Thanks Readers

CUBANinSIDER.com
{Saturday, April 6th, 2019}

A Personal Note:

    I have posted on CUBANinSIDER.com about 1,210 essays, deleting some as out-dated, but as of April-2019 some 1,013 of the Cuban updates remain. This week, despite topical updates as the island struggles mightily to survive the Trump administration, I became aware of a comment made by one of the most powerful Cuban-American Counter Revolutionaries that Trump has anointed to recapture Cuba. That comment: "By summertime this year one of the most important Florida and U. S. ports will be Cuba's deep-water, very modern, and strategically located Mariel Port 30 miles outside of Atlanta." I have studied that boost and, unfortunately, I believe it might be an accurate prognostication.

    Perhaps that explains why, this week in April of 2019, a CUBANinSIDER.com essay posted on April 2, 2017 -- two-years-old -- has been the most-read this week. It is entitled: "CUBA'S MAFIA HISTORY LINGERS" and you can Google that exact title and it will take you to it. The sub-title is: "Still Topical Today and apparently astute and informed readers believe it is. My next topical essay on CUBANinSider.com will explain WHY I believe the aforementioned boast about the Port of Mariel will likely come true. {It was made in Miami}.

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How Rubio Shames USA

As Well as DEMOCRACY & FLORIDA!!
{Friday, April 5th, 2019}

    The Tampa Bay Times is the best newspaper in Florida and one of the most-read and respected newspapers in America. Its major Editorial this week, I believe, should be read by every Democracy-loving American. Permit me to explain why.
    The primary contribution to the U. S. Democracy and to decency this week by the Tampa Bay Times is entitled: "Editorial: Don't Cut U.S.-Cuba Baseball Ties." From that simple headline, Florida's best news source in Marco Rubio's home-state goes on to excoriate Rubio for "punishing" totally innocent people in Cuba to sate his apparently insatiable appetite for revenge but, of course, mostly to enhance his economic and political fortunes by catering to a handful of rich Counter Revolutionary extremists from his  Batistiano-dominated home area -- Little Havana in Miami.
  Well known for trying to starve everyday Cubans on the island by leading the Trump administration's insanely cruel tightening of the six-decades-old economic embargo, Rubio uses any excuse to "punish" innocent Cubans on the island -- even including the recent totally sane and decent agreement between the USA's Major League Baseball teams and Cuba's corresponding pro baseball league.
    The Tampa Bay Times, obviously fed-up with Rubio's incessant cruelty, included these exact quotes in this week's important pro-democracy/pro-decency excoriation of Rubio's blatant and moronic attempt to block the U.S.-Cuban baseball agreement: "The deal could be unraveling, thanks in part to the backward politics of Sen. Marco Rubio. It is too bad but entirely predictable that Rubio is hurting  that effort. Sen. Rubio is foolishly attacking it. This is a humanitarian mistake that only punishes innocent families."
      And beyond Rubio's cruel insanity related to baseball, the Tampa Bay Times Editorial also excoriated Rubio for being primarily responsible for "punishing" totally innocent Cuban "families" by tightening the already-stifling U. S. economic embargo that has existed since 1962 although in 2016, the last year of the Obama presidency, it correctly, with President Obama's approval, got the U. S. condemned by a worldwide 191-to-0 vote in the United Nations. But that insanely cruel embargo persists decade-after-decade because the USA is the world's economic dynamo AND because the USA has more nuclear weapons than the rest of the world. The Tampa Bay Times Editorial, clearly aware of Rubio's leadership in tightening the insanely cruel embargo, added this condemnation of Rubio: "The U. S. trade embargo was a failure, and Cuban Americans of all ages recognize the need to move on." Of course, such anti-Democratic "FAILURES" as the embargo have been DICTATED for six decades by a handful of Cuban exiles from the Batista-Mafia dictatorship that brutalized and ransacked Cuba from 1952 till it was overthrown on the first day of 1959, which chased the Batista-Mafia dictatorship to its new capital -- Little Havana USA.

Marco Rubio Little Havana Supporters.

    This week's blistering Editorial in the Tampa Bay Times very correctly eviscerates Marco Rubio being allowed to continually "punish" totally innocent Cuban "families" on the nearby vulnerable island, but just as importantly it is a reminder of the vulnerability of the U. S. democracy itself and it should, I think, make Americans ASK this question: How could a handful of extremist exiles from a brutal foreign dictatorship, from generation-to-generation, relocate on U. S. soil, hide behind the skirts of the U. S. government with the help of a handful of self-serving sycophants, and use the attempts to recapture their former country to get richer and more powerful while also dictating U. S. laws and U. S. narratives to "PUNISH" generations of totally innocent "FAMILIES" in that much smaller and weaker sovereign nation??? Of course, cowardly and unpatriotic generations of Americans and Cuba-Americans since the 1950s, coupled with an increasingly ineffective and propaganda-obsessed mainstream U. S. media, are EVERY BIT as culpable as massively unsavory benefactors like "Sen. Marco Rubio." But, at least, this week's exemplary EDITORIAL in the Tampa Bay Times shines a beacon of light on the Little Havana threat to the United States -- including both its democracy and its reputation. BUT WHAT POSITIVE EFFECT WILL SUCH A POWERFUL AND MEANINGFUL EDITORIAL HAVE ON ERADICATING THE LINGERING CANCER THAT HAS AFFECTED THE USA SINCE 1959? Unfortunately, very little...I'm afraid.

      After all, the Miami Herald -- Marco Rubio's hometown newspaper -- has also eviscerated and excoriated Rubio for insanely "punishing" totally innocent "families" in Cuba while also "punishing" the majority of decent Cuban-Americans in Miami who desire a sane relationship with their cousins on the island. As illustrated by the photo/graphic above, the Miami Herald invited four "female Cuban entrepreneurs" on the island to pen a blistering attack on Rubio. Those Cuban mothers had created successful businesses on the island thanks to the decency of former U. S. President Obama when Obama tried his best to loosen the embargo. But when the latest Republican President, Trump, put Rubio in charge of PUNISHING AND RECAPTURING CUBA, those Cuban mothers and entrepreneurs were blind-sided by Rubio. In their scathing Miami Herald article, the Cuban mothers explained that Rubio was preventing them from continuing to make honest livings to take care of their children. And, as you can see in the above photo-graphic, those mothers BEGGED Rubio to as least meet with them to hear their pleas in person. Of course, Rubio doesn't have the guts or the decency to do that.

    While Rubio won't listen to decent Cuban mothers on the island, Rubio stays in close contact -- on the phone and in his Senate offices -- with the top Cuban dissidents, and Rubio is surely not adverse to showering dissidents like Yoani Sanchez with tax dollars if they promise to help his regime-change schemes.

   While the mainstream U. S. media is too afraid of Little Havana to criticize Rubio, the VERY BEST investigative journalist in Washington, Ken Silverstein, is gutsy enough and talented enough to have penned what many consider the VERY BEST bio of Rubio.

    The Ken Silverstein bio of Rubio is easily Googled and it begins by stating that Rubio is "head and shoulders" above all the other politicians in Washington "when it comes to corruption and chicanery." The Silverstein research is minutely documented by dates, time, places, and names...and as far as I know no one has ever challenged it or sued it. Rubio's Little Havana originally included in his Senate bio the beneficial but bogus claim that his parents escaped the tyranny of Castro's Cuba for the freedom of Miami, till it was pointed that Rubio's parents left Batista's Cuba before anyone considered Castro's revolution a threat to the Batista dictatorship.

Above, a false inhouse Rubio bio.

      The journalist in charge of Miami's influential Progreso Weekly is Alfaro Fernandez. He knows Miami's Rubio as well as he knows the back of his own hand. The Progreso Weekly's depiction of Rubio is revealed by the  two Editorial graphics below.

     When a Marco Rubio can routinely take charge of the USA's Cuban policies in any Republican presidency...such as Trump's...there is obviously something drastically and perhaps fatally wrong with the U. S. democracy. And that is so, I sincerely believe, because two once-treasured institutions charged with protecting the world's greatest democracy -- citizen voters and the mainstream media -- have collectively evolved into unpatriotic cowards.

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Cuba-US Cooperation

How IT HELPS Everyone!!
{Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019}

       This photo is courtesy of Karen Marshall and WGBH News in Boston. It shows the working room at Finca Vigia {Lookout Farm}, the home in Havana where the great ERNEST HEMINGWAY spent 20 years writing his greatest novels. This photo shows how THE HEMINGWAY FOUNDATION, founded in 2002 by young U. S. Congressman Jim McGovern, has FINALLY been beautifully renovated thanks to rare U.S.-Cuban cooperation during a Little Havana-directed Republican presidency. This cooperative example should set a precedent.

     The 59-year-old Jim McGovern has dutifully represented Massachusetts in the United States Congress since 1997, and he's surely one of the most effective and decent politicians in Washington. He firmly believes that U.S.-Cuban relations should be cordial and normal to benefit everyone, and he opposes the 6-decades-old U. S. pattern of allowing a handful of revengeful Cuban exiles and their self-serving sycophants to dictate USA narratives and laws that only benefit them -- financially, politically, and revengefully. But that  is precisely WHY the decent opinions of many members of the U. S. Congress  like McGovern are never aired in the mainstream U. S. media, even including the scared left-wing networks and newspapers that are trying so hard to impeach the latest anti-Cuban/pro-Little Havana {Miami} Republican President Donald Trump. Yet, in the last few days Jim McGovern has shown PRECISELY how cooperation between Cuba and the United States can benefit everyone.

    Thanks to Congressman Jim McGovern, Ernest Hemingway's old home {above} in Havana has been completely renovated with the United States and Cuba joining forces to make it happen. The historic home known as Finca Vigia {Lookout Farm} was where Hemingway spent 20 of his prime years as an author, and where he wrote classic novels such as "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "The Old Man and the Sea."

    The legendary Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in 1961 very shortly after he returned to the U. S. but to this day he remains a legend for the 20 prior and very productive years he lived in Cuba. Because his former home and favorite bar are huge tourist attractions, the fiercely Counter Revolutionary Cubans in the U. S. Congress -- especially Rubio, Diaz-Balart, and Menendez -- fiercely opposed the Jim McGovern-led efforts to restore the Ernest Hemingway home in Havana.

     Now thanks to Cuba-U.S. cooperation, Americans lucky enough to get around the 6-decades-old U. S. embargo of Cuba can get to see up-close Ernest Hemingway's actual bed in Havana from 1940 till 1961.

    What American would not like to visit Havana and see the typewriter that Ernest Hemingway used in his writing heyday?

     What American would not like to sit in the same chair Ernest Hemingway sat in during his days in his beloved Havana home?

     And what American would not like to sit beside a life-like image of Ernest Hemingway at his favorite bar known as El Floridita in Old Havana {Habana Vieja}?

    In the early days of Revolutionary Cuba, Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro were friends. Hemingway said that Fidel "listened...sometimes."

     After serving Massachusetts and the USA in the U. S. Congress since 1997, 59-year-old Jim McGovern has finally gotten the USA and Cuba to cooperate on a major restoration campaign involving the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Havana. Way back in 2002 McGovern met and got permission from Fidel Castro for the project. The photo above shows Jim McGovern in Havana meeting with Cuba's new President, the island's former Education Minister Miguel Diaz-Canel. Now Jim McGovern, after his Hemingway success, is battling the handful of powerful Counter Revolutionary Cuban-Americans for other much-needed U.S.-Cuba cooperation. FOR EXAMPLE, Cuba has a lung cancer drug that top U. S. cancer experts want for their patients; Cuba has a diabetes drug that has proven to prevent diabetic amputations; Cuba has a long-standing environmental program that has produced some of the world's cleanest and most pristine beaches and waters while the nearby state of Florida has had to declare a drastic EMERGENCY because of a deadly algae-virus-pollution along Florida's shores; etc; etc.; etc.!!! BUT GOOD LUCK CONGRESSMAN MCGOVERN. America and Democracy VERY BADLY need more US. & Democracy-loving politicians like you.

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The Top Cuba Update

For the Last Weekend in March!!
{Monday, April 1st, 2019}

    With even the mainstream U. S. media too timid to report fairly on Cuban issues, there are notable international sources not so intimidated. Thus, I think the most interesting update related to Cuba the very last weekend in March-2019 was published in print and online by the London-based The Guardian. The headline is: "Google Revealed As Unlikely Go-Between To Help Trump-Cuba Relations." And the sub-headline is: "Tech Firm Has Acted As U.S.-Havana Intermediary As Memo Says Cuba Trusts Google More Than Trump Administration." 

      The insightful article in The Guardian last weekend used the above Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images photo to illustrate the important update. It shows Google and Cuba signing a new Internet deal this week, this time to enable Cuba to get an underwater optic cable that will greatly increase the island's Internet connectivity and conductibility. The Guardian says Google and then CEO Eric Schmidt began working closely with Cuba during the Obama presidency in 2014 and has maintained a Google office in Havana. Now even the Trump presidency can't stop the world's Internet superpower from aiding Cuba. Trump, for example, has personally met with Google's new CEO Sundar Pichai in the hopes that the USA, via Google, will be able to ward off the Cuban aspirations and efforts of China and Russia, both of whom are trying to be the foreign power most involved in expanding Cuba's already FAST-EXPANDING Internet and Social Media activity. Cuba telecom company, ETECSA, has quickly signed up 5 million Cuban customers and the island now has WiFi hook-ups all across the island...all with Google's considerable and continuing help.

     And so, not surprisingly during this last weekend in March-2019, I think London's The Guardian had the best update on important news related to Cuba. And you can Google the entire article Online.

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Cuba Loves UK AND Google

And THEY LOVE CUBA Too!!
{Saturday, March 30th, 2019}

    During an historic 4-days this week -- from Sunday through Wednesday -- Prince Charles, the future King of England, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, enjoyed a splendorous and productive visit to Cuba. This Chris Jackson/Getty Images photo shows them enjoying a Mojito at The Habanera, a privately owned restaurant/bar in a private home {these are known as paladars}.

  This Chris Jackson/Getty Images photo shows Prince Charles making his own Mojito as Camilla admires his enthusiasm and skill. Asked Thursday if she wanted to go back to Cuba, Camilla instantly replied, "YES! And not later than TOMORROW!!"

     These Cubans were honoring the British flag this week during the visit of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

   This Yamil Lage/Getty Images photo chronicles another good moment in Havana this week. Cuba's telecom company ETECSA signed another important deal with GOOGLE, which has had an office in Havana since 2017. With Luis Adolfo Iglesias representing ETECSA and Brett Perlmutter who is already in charge of GOOGLE'S office in Havana, the two companies agreed to speed-up Internet connectivity but first Cuba needs to install a new undersea fiber-optic cable. Once finished, it will  then be free and very cost-effective for Cuba because now Cuba must pay a third country for Cubans to connect to Google.com and YouTube but the Cuba government is quickly making the Internet accessible for all Cubans to do so. ETECSA has five million customers and now there are WiFi hookups all across the island.

    Almost all Cubans now have access to Smart Phones and Internet hook-ups and the Cuban government is trying hard to make the connections even easier. The island's new President and former Education Minister, Miguel Diaz-Canel, has made Internet accessibility on the island a major priority...and the results are astonishing.

     In his first year as Cuba's President, Miguel Diaz-Canel has held important meetings with Eric Schmidt, the top boss {CEO, President, Chairman} of GOOGLE, the Internet Superpower. They met first in Havana and then, as shown above, Mr. Schmdt hosted Diaz-Canel at GOOGLE'S New York City headquarters where the Cuban President was introduced to dozens of other major American business executives. {Most U. S. execs, farmers, and ports -- including every port in Florida --  want to do business with Cuba}.

  This Ramon Espinosa/AP photo shows GOOGLE boss Eric Schmidt signing an Internet deal with Cuba's Mayra Arevich Marin, the President of ETECSA. While President Diaz-Canel has dire Counter Revolutionary enemies in Miami and in all Republican administrations, he also has some direly important USA friends, like Eric Schmidt, the top boss at GOOGLE. After a new deal was signed Thursday in Havana, GOOGLE and ETECSA engineers are already working together to get that new undersea optic cable in working order to make Cuba's Internet connectivity faster, more efficient, and cheaper...and already Cubans have suddenly become furious fans of GOOGLING and using the social media sources, especially Facebook and YouTube.

     Of course, having close friends like Eric Schmidt at Google and Prince Charles in the UK helps Cuba's new President Miguel Diaz-Canel somewhat offset his dire enemies in Miami and in Washington, such as Marco Rubio. And, yes, already Diaz-Canel has met with Prince Charles in London back in November and this week in Havana.

    And make no mistake about it, a strong majority of Cubans on the island strongly support their President, Miguel Diaz-Canel. Born after the triumph of the Revolution, he rose politically outside Havana as an educator and then served as the nation's Education Minister. Yet, his idol is the late Fidel Castro and he possesses revolutionary fervor regarding Cuba's sovereignty, which he says was "only attained in our 5th century due to the historic victory over U. S. imperialism by the Cuban Revolution at the beginning of 1959." Diaz-Canel, for Cuba's sake, desires a peaceful political and trade relationship with the United States..."the same as most Americans and Cuban-Americans want, but the Republican party in their 2-party system blocks what would benefit both Cubans and most Americans." The photo above was posted Thursday -- March 28, 2019 -- by Havana's popular and influential television News Anchor Rosy Amaro. It shows President Diaz-Canel assisting his wife Lis Cuesta down some tricky airplane steps. Among his edicts as President, in addition to sharply boosting Internet accessibility, Diaz-Canel has told his most important Ministers and six Vice Presidents, 3 of whom are women, "to appear regularly on Cuban television and radio programs to let the people know how, and if, you are working on their behalf...because they can judge whether we are doing that or not."

    It may come as a shock to Americans who have never been to Cuba, but Rosy Amaro is not reluctant to criticize the Cuban government, including President Diaz-Canel whom she strongly supports. If Rosy thinks everyday Cubans are not being treated fairly...she has fired off her criticisms both on her state-owned television station and on social media. For example, she once sharply rebuked the General Manager at the iconic state-owned Nacional Hotel when she learned that a Cuban working at the hotel was charged a fee to take his family on a visit to the hotel's popular garden, which is a favorite of fee-paying tourists. The GM at the hotel then sent Rosy a LONG letter, which she posted in its entirety on her Facebook page. The GM explained that her sharp criticism was warranted and would be corrected. The best way to know Cuba is to ignore what Counter Revolutionaries and anti-Cuban Republicans say and get to mingle with Cubans on the island, as the UK's Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall did this week.

AND OH, YES....................

     ...............the smart, feisty, talented, and well-educated News Anchor, Rosy Amaro, has a five-year-old daughter. And Rosy is totally convinced that Marco Rubio is lying when he claims he will take better care of little Cuban girls on the island than their Cuban mothers are doing and plan to continue doing. Americans paid it no mind but Cubans are still infuriated over a boastful Tweet that Rubio sent to President Diaz-Canel -- "see you soon." It was Rubio's way of telling Diaz-Canel that President Trump had given Rubio the financial and military wherewithal to recapture Cuba on behalf of Rubio's Little Havana stalwarts in Miami. It's highly possible, maybe even probable. But that doesn't mean that Cubans like Rosy, who have traveled widely and have close relatives and friends in the U. S., won't stay on the island and resist...even in the manner of history's all-time greatest female revolutionary fighter and leader:

Celia Sanchez, guerrilla fighter.

Revolutionary leader, Celia Sanchez.

Defender of children, Celia Sanchez.

The legend, Celia Sanchez.

And CELIA SANCHEZ, the historian.

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