On Cuba, Fidel and home
The phone began ringing at my house last night about 9:30 p.m., news about Fidel Castro's power transfer buzzing through the lines. "Did you hear?" the conversations started.
Like most Cuban-Americans my age -- I'm 49 -- we grew up with talk about Fidel's impending demise. We heard it at the breakfast table, while soaking up rays at the beach, at weddings and funerals and all manner of celebrations. He was always perched at the precipice of death or overthrow, or so it seemed.
Thing is, we heard this so many times, with varying measures of glee, that we developed a tin ear. At least I did. Meanwhile, our lives went on. We graduated high school, headed for universities. We married, formed families, developed careers. In other words, we settled in.
Talk about returning to Cuba was the Muzak of our daily lives.
Now, once again, fresh news about Fidel's inevitable death prompts many to ask: Will you return to Cuba?
No. Miami is where I want to stay. This is where I grew up, where I married, where I've raised my children. I suspect most in my generation will feel the same. As for my parents, it may be too late for a return. My mother died four years ago this week, and my father has spent more years in the U.S. than on the island. Somewhere along the way we've redefined home.
Like most Cuban-Americans my age -- I'm 49 -- we grew up with talk about Fidel's impending demise. We heard it at the breakfast table, while soaking up rays at the beach, at weddings and funerals and all manner of celebrations. He was always perched at the precipice of death or overthrow, or so it seemed.
Thing is, we heard this so many times, with varying measures of glee, that we developed a tin ear. At least I did. Meanwhile, our lives went on. We graduated high school, headed for universities. We married, formed families, developed careers. In other words, we settled in.
Talk about returning to Cuba was the Muzak of our daily lives.
Now, once again, fresh news about Fidel's inevitable death prompts many to ask: Will you return to Cuba?
No. Miami is where I want to stay. This is where I grew up, where I married, where I've raised my children. I suspect most in my generation will feel the same. As for my parents, it may be too late for a return. My mother died four years ago this week, and my father has spent more years in the U.S. than on the island. Somewhere along the way we've redefined home.
posted by Ana Veciana-Suarez at 8:25 AM
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Why is it that we Cuban-americans allow ourselves to be so agitated whenever .....ah, the heck with it, lets take to the streets and celebrate. When I am out there, and the next time someone asks me what am I going to do once a complete regime change takes place in Cuba, I will respond by saying that I will be moving further up north and into Canada. I came to the United States during the Mariel boatlift. I was ten years old and although I feel a tremendous attachment to the memories of my cuban childhood, I also realize that after twenty six years of building a life here, one cannot just drop everything and head back to those long gone memories. Much, I am sure has changed and there could be a tremendous dissapointment in trying.
I think about the tragic history of the Cubans - the many lives lost - by firing squads, disappeared, or the uknown number of rafters that never made it to safety and freedom. All of this, caused by the black souled creature named Fidel.
He took paradise and turned it into garbage -- not an easy task.
No, I will not return to LIVE on that island, if freedom is achieved. I will visit and pray for the people who have lived there during this period of time. They will need a lot of help to adjust to being brought into this century.
How could one person cause so much harm???? I don't know - but he is not the first in history - probably not the last. The only thing is that he has overstayed -- he should go now. Satan is waiting.
What changes with Fidel's death? Raul has been handpicked to take over the government when Fidel dies and the first thing Raul will do when Fidel dies is to put the country on full military alert. Miami Cubans have this fantasy that the death of Fidel will mean the end of the revolution, but there's no indication that Raul will do anything different from his brother. Is the US government acting irresponsibly by promoting a "post-Fidel" transition plan that it can't back up with military force? Miami Cubans believe the death of Castro will give them the green light to march back into Havana a la the US invasion of Bagdhad. With the US military fighting two wars, is the US ready and willing to commit troops to support an invansion of Cuba? Given the way the deep thinkers at the White House and Pentagon have underestimated the fighting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, have Bush administration officials urging the Miami community to "take back" Cuba after Fidel's death underestimated the opposition of Cuban troops; setting up a bloodbath much worse than the Bay of Pigs, particularly if there's not serious US mililtary support.
I too am 49, was raised here and am grateful for everything we have accomplished here but I will return to Cuba. We owe it to our parents who may not be able to return given their age and health, and to our grandparents who passed away without ever having gone back to their homeland. We owe it to our country who desperately needs every one of its citizens in helping rebuild it from the ground up. May this truly be the beginning of the end of what has been a sorrowful chapter in our nation's history.
What of my Cuba! the Cuba I left behind was a land were freedom and liberty were only word and every day life was a strugle, I left all
my friends and family including my brother who die and I could not even attend his funeral, when people ask me why cubans celebrate just imagen not been able to be back to your country, and even when the US has been more than generous,always always I wish to see my homeland Free!!!!
Why are Cubans so racist? Answer me that?
Little did I know when I was celebrating a friend's birthday last night, drinking more than my usual wont, what else was going on. The last time El Barbabudo chose to give us "a scare," I remember having been in a restaurant, and beginning to cry. The Cuban anthem began playing in my mind almost immediately. The Cuban in me can't wait for the jubilation; the (I hope, responsible) Cuban-American in me dreads the pandemonium. The feeling that's building up in me--that of the six year old who said goodbye to her record player and most of her dolls on a Saturday in late October almost forty-six years ago--is almost beyond emotion. Am I ready? Are we ready?
The answer is: Cubans are no different from other nationalites or races. We ALL share the common right of selecting those who we feel more comfortable with.
be happy if you want to be - although i suspect very few of you have any personal reason to be so happy, given that most of you have been born here. when and if the embargo is lifted upon his demise, get used to being like any other latino in this country, which means the end of preferential treatment and the end of the wet-foot dry-foot policy - you all go home whether you make it or not, you'll be just another mexican wetback. and let's face it, how many of you have paid for a loved one to be transported over here knowing that if they made it they could stay - how two-faced of you, you support a republican regime - your three members of congress are republican - that at its heart despises immigrants while at the same time ensuring that the rules that apply to other latinos do not apply to you. how very communist of you - everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others! my son was born in cuba - where we received far superior pre and post natal care than we did here in the suburbs of washington dc (and i have the best insurance that money can buy) - and we are about to return to visit the place of his birth. i will tell him that cuba is a poor country, economically, but that the vast majority of the people in this world of ours lives in poverty. i will tell him that although cuba is a poor country, economically, its people are the best educated and cared for people than any other poor country in the world. i will explain to him how we could take a boat to haiti, or to the dominican republic - two bastions of caribbean american democracy - and see examples of what his government would have him believe are reality for poor countries around the world - haiti's literacy rate is 53% and the dominican republic's is 85% compared with cuba's at 97%. life expectancy in haiti is 53 and in the dominican republic 72, compare that to cuba's 78. 5.6% of the population of haiti have aids, 1.7% in the dominican republic - 0.1% of the population of cuba has aids, explain that away. unemployment in the dominican republic is 17%, in haiti 66% and in cuba 1.9% - lower than the usa! no, as long as cuban americans - and i use that term loosely since most of you don't speak english and that will be a requirement according to the republican administration that you support if you want to call yourself american - as long as cuban americans can scam the american people with their special privileges, they will. they will support a republican administration that treats them differently than any other latino and they will show up by the thousands in the street to celebrate the demise of fidel castro, unable to realize that in actuality, it is their very own demise that they are celebrating. (the statistics quoted here are from the cia's world factbook - so feel free to disagree with the cia)
very good point. On the day Fidel dies and or relations are normalized between Cuba and the US does the Miami Cuban American community lose its political influence. Right now Cubans contribute millions of dollars to mostly Republican candidates and have significant influence in Washington linked solely to normalizing relations with Cuba. With the United States having full relations with Cuba, what issue will Republicans be able to rally Cubans over the polls over? Without the Free Cuba issue, what will drive Cuban Americans to the polls to vote for the three Cuban American members of Congress from Miami. Will they have to start paying attention to issues of Black and non Cuban Latins in South Florida long ignored by the Cuban American congressional delegation when Cuban Americans feel no need to go to the polls. The White House has created a post Fidel transition plan; has the Cuban American political power structure figured out how to remain relevant the day full relations are established between the US and Cuba?
Copy and pasted from
Miami Herald's Fred Grimm's Column Aug 03
''I don't know who we'll be without him,'' says a 30-year-old woman with a Al Fin Libertad T-shirt and a wicked smile. ``Without Fidel, we might as well be Puerto Ricans.''
And I hate to admit it: I'm not looking forward to our losing our "privileged" status. We have been envied, maligned, and worse because of it over the past almost half century. The funny thing, though, is that we no longer encounter as many problems from "gringos" as we do from fellow Latins who are competing with us for jobs, who crave our "status." The joke about Puerto Ricans is an old one among Cubans--Grimm nailed it when he quoted the woman.
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