Today's news with great fanfare......
Fidel officially stepped down and brother Raul is in charge.... This is nothing
really new except now it is official.... Raul has been running the country for about a year and half..... not much has changed in that time except for a few "staged student protests and debates asking for more open-ness and personal freedom for the Cuban citizenship" on open (government run) television.
Several people have sent me e-mails and messages asking for my opinion.....and even today's Gather Poll has the question:
" Does Fidel Castro's resignation mean the end to "staged" elections in Cuba? "
No. I don't think there will be any "free elections as WE know them" anytime soon.
As to what I think will happen...not much anytime soon, unless Raul has a "Paul on the road to Damascus experience."
It took the brothers almost 50 years to destroy a beautiful country who at one time was as modern and a-la-par with the United States as far as the worth of it's currency, technology and economic conditions (contrary to what many believe, Cuba had a very healthy economy and huge professional and middle class citizenship and the revolution had nothing to do with "uplifting or freeing the poor masses")
Some data about Cuba most people have not known:
1723 - Cuba had its first printing press and it printed government notices and periodicals.
1764 - Cuba printed its first "officially Cuban" newspaper - Remember Cuba was occupied for many years by Spain.
1794 - Cuba's census showed there were "96,440 whites, 31,847 free blacks, and 44,333 black slaves - Many more than the US, considering the percentage of the populations....although in the end, Cuba was the last country to formally abolish slavery.
1837 - First railroad built in Cuba - the first in ALL of the Latin Americas and even 11 years before Spain built its first RR.
1847 - First National Blood Bank was established
1889 - First Electric Light System installed in major cities, both in homes and street lighting...several years before many other Latin American countries installed theirs.
1900 - First Street Car system was inagurated although it actually was started to build in December od 1898.
1913 - First International flight in Latin America was from Cuba to Key West on May 17th by two Cuban pilots, Agustin Parla and Domingo Rosillo. Took 2 hours and 40 minutes to cross the 90 miles of the Florida Straights. Parla and Rosillo established a world record at the time.
1915 - First Cuban money and coins were issued. Up until then US dollars were the currency in Cuba. The new Cuban coinage and paper money had the same face value as the American Dollar and both were used interchangably and this continued until the Castro takeover.
1922 - Cuba's first radio station was established and owned by Cubans, but the first broadcast was aired in English on October 10, 1922.
1950 - Cuba was the first Latin American country - after the US - to instal and own television stations.
1958 - Cuba was the first Latin American country - after the US - to broadcast TV programs in color. That year there were only 3 stations in the WORLD broadcasting in color. Two in the US and the one in Cuba.
1958-1959 - During the middle of the night between the Eve and New Year's Day, Castro took over and from then on Cuba started its slide down to the Third World Country it is today.
It will take a long time to put the Island back to where "time stopped" before it can move forward and keep up with the rest of the modern world.
Sonia
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Comments: 26
Cuba was the jewel of the Caribbean until 1959 and then after Castro took over the u.s. turned its backs on the island nation and simply watched as it fell apart. i only hope that Cuba can once again become the leader in the Caribbean and that the people there are free to live and do that which makes them happy.
Anyway, thanks for all the information on Cuba. I didn't know most of this.
I don´t blame Castro for seizing power from a corrrupt Bautista and his buddies, in league with the Cosa Nostra crime gangs from the Eastern Seaboard who were flocking there when it became harder to run their rackets in America´s big cities. Like Las Vegas, if they had stayed La Habana would have ultimately been a tamed cosmopolitan world mecca of gamblers and entertainment on a grand scale. But still, Bautista, like Trujillo in the Republica Dominicana, was depredating his own people.
I blame Fidel for what he did with his power: Hoard it, give nothing back to the people except grandiose visions and empty lies.
BTW, sorry I haven´t been by in weeks but I´ve been attending a dear friend who was dying, has died, of brain cancer, in Los Angeles. I just got back to Spain a few days ago, and returned to Gather yesterday. I will try to catch up with your articles now or within the next couple of days.
Un abrazo muy fuerte, Sonia, pensando en ti, mientras tu piensas en lo que Cuba era, lo que podria ser, otra vez.
I thought of you this morning when I heard the news about Fidel. I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. I also learning a great deal about Cuba from your time line. Let's continue to hope for the best for Cuba.
Maya, a long time ago I used to tell myself, Hitler, Tito, Franco, Mussollini, Tojo and Stalin all died and it took time for their countries to recover...I had hoped that the Cuban misery would not last this long....but it has. I don't know as much about the history of the Philippines, but when I was there in the late 70's, the cities were all clean, the buildings kept up and commerce was open.....in Cuba, buildings that were over two hundred year old marvels of architecture are now crumbling from neglect, the people don't own anything (even their homes belong to the government) and people live by bartering on the sly, selling their souls and bodies and can't even swim in their own beaches and sleep in a nice hotel...only the tourists can do that.
Katie, a lot of people think the US led embargo is the cause of all this misery in Cuba.....but all other countries are able to trade and do commerce with Cuba....so the US embargo should not be blamed for the shortages. The government in Cuba IS buying from many companies in the US. The Cuban people don't get to see any of this... The Cuban government uses it to barter with other countries.
Thank you, Lori
You're right Larry. Even if Raul or whoever "gets elected" next to lead the country would open Cuba up the very next day, it will take a long time for this change to come about and to be felt by the common people. Several generations have grown up under the shortages and misery and don't know any better. It will be a learning experience the likes of which they cannot even beging to imagine unless they have relatives outside the country or have traveled for one reason or another to other countries (cultural and athletic events, for example).
Cuba was called "La Perla del Caribe" for more than it's beauty and enticements.... The American government trained and sponsored the participants in the Bay of Pigs and then left them stranded on the beaches to be killed or taken prisoner (one of my cousins was a prisoner and traded back to the States for medical supplies that never made it to the people.....Cuba used it to barter with other countries...... All of THAT is something that will be hard for many exiled Cubans to forget.
Thanks, Risa. In many ways it might have been better if I had come as a small child and didn't have memories....but the good memories will never leave me.
M. E. U. You're right, Raul does not have the charisma Fidel had and is a known assasin, along with el Che. In many ways he might be a bit more open to change, but at the same time he has a cold and calculating mind.......I wonder which will step to the forefront?
Hola, Juanito! I have read that book....yes, Cuba has/had many beautiful buildings, many neo-classical in style. You can see many examples of them in my hometown of Cienfuegos, which has been fortunate in keeping them in good shape and painted - google Cienfuegos and you can see lots of photos of that most beautiful city,.
Batista was a thug that let other thugs into the country with his blessings so he could line his pockets.....but even so, life in Cuba in the 40's and 50's was overall quite prosperous....Our family was not rich by any means, we were upper middle class, but we lived well. Even under his dictatorship there was free enterprise for any one with the backing and the know-how....now you have to scrounge to live and the few people who do run little businesses (little restaurants or B&B's from their homes) have to pay exhorbitant fees and taxes to the government....and doctors with degrees earn at the most the equivalent of $30-50 US a month.....and EVERYONE, professional or not, has to put in time cutting sugar cane in the country.
Just the other day the Cuban Coconut Wire in Exile was sending along an e-mail from parts of an interview that Fidel granted to a newsperson saying he would never be a communist and I quote:
"No soy comunista por tres razones, y te lo digo para tu tranquilidad espiritual. Primero, porque el comunismo es la dictadura de una sola clase y yo he luchado toda mi vida contra las dictaduras y no voy a caer en una dictadura del proletariado.
La segunda razón, porque el comunismo significa odio y luchas de clases y yo estoy en contra completamente de esa filosofía. Y la tercera porque el comunismo lucha contra Dios y la Iglesia" .
Fidel Castro Ruz , Abril de 1959.
Conversación con el periodista católico Ignacio Rasco
Translation: I am not communist for three reasons, and I tell you this for your spiritual peace. First, because communism is a dictatorship of one class and I have fought my whole life agains dictatorships, and I will not fall into a dictatorship of the proletariat. The second reason, because communism signifies/represents hatred and wars between the classes and I am completely against this phylosophy. And the third is because communism fights against God and the Church"
Fidel Castro Ruz (his full legal name) April 1959 (just barely 4 months after taking over the government....as told to a Catholic newsman name of Ignacio Rasco.
How soon a leopard changes his spots!!!
Thank you, Susan. Many people forget that at one time Cuba was not the ruin it is now.
Hi, Bob.....Yep, I finally stopped listening to the news.....but I did get to see and hear my ex-stepson interviewed by someone for CNN this morning...he is director of Cuban Studies at Florida International University.
I would love to see the day I can go back and visit my father's and my Cuban grandmother's graves....and the gorgeous city of my birth.....
This was the piece I wrote for yesterday's Bi-Weekly:
What makes this Cuban a Cuban?
After strangers hear me speak for the first time, for a few minutes,
I invariably get asked where I am from. When I reply I am from
Cuba, the next thing I almost always hear is the remark, "Funny, you
don't look or sound Cuban".
Now, you have to understand that although I have been fluent in both
Spanish and English all of my life (both of my parents were
bilingual), I do tend to speak English with a 'little bit' of a
Southern accent. I come by this accent honestly, as I am the
daughter of a Cuban father and an American mother, who was born in
Atlanta, Georgia...I have lived a little less than my lifetime in
several Southern States. I speak Spanish like a Cuban and I
can "y'all y'all" almost but not quite as thickly as most southerners.
My reply to the last remark is usually, ....... "What do you think a
Cuban looks or sounds like?
To many people, Cubans are all dark skinned, speak like Desi Arnaz
and finish every sentence with 'comprende?'
What makes this particular Cuban a Cuban?
When I was growing up in Cuba I was known as 'la americanita' because
of my mother and my then light brown almost blond hair... but when I
attended school in Atlanta at the age of 12, I was that little Cuban
chick. In real life, I am a little bit of both.
I am very proud to be Cuban. The blood of seven generations of
Cubans, some of them mambises, and a very courageous Cuban
grandmother runs through my veins.
The beat of Cuban music and rhythms pulse through my body and make me
dance even while sitting still. The smell of roast pig, arroz y
frijoles negros con platanitos maduros and yuca con mojo make my
heart sing.
The sight of a Cuban flag flying in the wind makes tears come to my
eyes and yearn for the time that I could once again see the land
where my father and some of my family are buried. The sound of the
Cuban National Hymn can actually make me sob.
I am also very proud to be an American. The blood of thirteen
generations of both New England Yankees and Southern Rebels also runs
through my veins. The sounds of the Star Spangled Banner can
raise 'chicken skin' on me as they say in Hawaii.
So what am I? I am NOT Latina. I am NOT Hispanic. I am Cuban. I
am American. I am both.... But one thing I DO know, is that my
Cubaness rises to the forefront when all Hispanics or Latinos are
being disparaged as 'mañana will be another day, people'.....but
then....even Scarlett O'Hara said she would think about her troubles
tomorrow....
Sonia R. Martinez
for Cubanology Bi-Weekly- Issue 4
Lisa, first let me say that I know many people believe the US embargo is the cause of the misery and poverty existing in Cuba....but the embargo never stopped Cuba from buying goods from any other country....so blaming the US is absolutely ridiculous. There ARE businesses in the US conducting business with Cuba 'as we speak'. My opinions about the embargo are mixed. Mainly because I feel that the government will take all the goods as it has been doing with the goods bought already from the US and from other countries....Goods that the populace never gets to see.
When I lived in Cuba we grew coffee for both local use and export. We grew sugar cane and produced sugar for local use and export....we grew peanuts and had peanut pil refineries....we had a large cattle industry....we grew most everything that was consumed and imported things we could not....the fishing industry thrived and we had canneries....Then came Fidel and Agrarian Reform...and the government took over all the land, all, the sugar mills, all the canneries, all the refineries.....everything....! and made a huge mess of it. If the Russians had not been bailing them out they would have sunk ages ago....when the Russians were facing their own problems and dropped Ciuba like a hot potato, Fidel looked at other ocuntries for help...found a great friend in Venezuela.... If he and his cronies could not even get ONE sugar plantation and refinery to make a profit, how could they even expect to be able to run a country. The island was rich when they got it and they have stolen all its assets and ran the rest into the ground...
Sorry...I know I get carried away, but this is a sore subject.
It is slow coming, but I think a more democratic Cuba is inevitable, and when it happens Cuba will prosper immensely. I hope so anyway.
Thanks again.
It was still beautiful when I left in 1960, but I get photos sent from friends and relatives of areas that are left to fall apart - historic buildings included that were almost 200 years old - just rubble as if a bomb had exploded. At least in my home town they are making an effort to keep it still pretty and clean!
If I still lived there I would not have access to the Internet or would be able to be a Gather member, unless (maybe) I was one of the elite....and even then, I would not have been free to express my thoughts as I have in the little article and my comments....!
Thank you for stopping by and commenting.........
Thanks for dropping by and commenting!