Miami Rises Up against its Age-Old Enemy, Castro Communism
By Vicente Morin Aguado
HAVANA TIMES – The bright midday sun burns people’s eyes on Calle Ocho (8th St.) in Little Havana, as if we were in Cuba more than in front of Versalles in Miami, “the most famous Cuban restaurant in the world.”
On the sidewalk out front, a group of people completely indifferent to ajiaco stew, vaca frita (fried beef) or arroz moro (rice and beans), shout: Down with Castro! If we come together, they will fall! The dictatorship will fall!
Gestures and words leave no room for doubt, they are Cubans, although they normally join forces with other Latinos from Miami’s multinational community, who believe they are the victims of the monster that was born in Havana 60 years ago.
Young people lead the charge, a renovation trend in political terms, although there are always veterans too such as Ma Elena Alpizar Ariosa, dressed with the decorum of the Ladies in White, who defines the philosophy of the protest: “I only have one enemy, Castro Communism.”
In recent weeks, we have seen the active presence of Luis Enrique, a former political prisoner and the brother of Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, whose name is known the world from the campaigns demanding his freedom. He’s at the top of a list of political prisoners which is over 120 names long, including women, whose detention on the large Caribbean island is cynically denied by the stubborn, lying and demoralized Cuban government.
Protesters were also demanding a humanitarian visa for Lady in White Xiomara Cruz Miranda, who had been a prisoner of the dictatorship up until a few weeks ago, released when an illness of an uncertain diagnosis and shady origin began to eat away at her life in Havana.
Ferrer and Xiomara’s stories aren’t the only ones, but they symbolize a harsh reality that a wave of protests led by Cuban-Americans (almost two million) attempt to tackle. On Sunday December 8th, people from Sun City went to Orlando by bus, where a group also arrived from Tampa, on Florida’s west coast.
Luis Enrique Ferrer has proposed that growing enthusiasm further north, as far as Jacksonville, on the border with Georgia join these efforts. Likewise a healthy representation of these Cubans led a noisy protest a month ago in front of the Cuban Embassy in Washington.
A leader hasn’t been identified yet, some people take care of the snacks, others make a note of donations for basic expenses, for example, transport, and the best voices shout the phrases that synthesize basic demands, which echo needs of reality in and outside of Cuba.
Rightful indignation at the absolute defenselessness of the political opposition in Cuba takes center stage. Xiomara refuses to be admitted into hospital because she is afraid to leave her life in the hands of doctors who are capable of betraying the Hippocratic Oath if they are threatened by State Security, and she’s right to be afraid. There is a history of this in Cuba.
Jose Daniel has been held prisoner and in solitary confinement since October 1st; he was given five minutes with his wife, 35 days later, and more recently, a couple of minutes with the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Monsignor Garcia Ibanez. Ferrer, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) hasn’t had access to a lawyer up until today, yet he has been accused with a common crime, linked to injuring another person.
The large Cuban community in Florida is becoming aware of its power, says Alexander Ota Ola, one of the so-called “influencers” nowadays, who has thousands of followers watching his YouTube program every afternoon.
Massiel, Junior, Yeslier, Lety, just to name a few of the young names, are present every Sunday on Calle Ocho, multiplied by thousands of cellphones among millions of Cubans.
We send money, clothes, food, we top up phones, and the parasitic and repressive Government controls all of this.
Not even the tourism sector or doctors [on government contracts] manage to bring in the over six billion USD per year that the diaspora community do with remittances without any cost.
The new president who they appointed without consulting the people, has called us bastards, we are foreigners when it comes to the Homeland.
We have done the math, we do have power, we can change things. Change is now!
Ota Ola regularly visits the hot sidewalk outside Versalles, his complaints are marked by irony, mocking, sarcasm, but with irrefutable evidence too.
The charismatic conductor does what he can with a simple stage. Videos, phone recordings, documents and testimonies expose the Castro family as well as their collaborators, not to mention the opportunists who come to the US under the shelter of democracy, only to return with suitcases loaded with merchandise to sell that the Cuban government’s monopoly retail stores are unable to stock.
Recently, singer Haila, who previously declared herself a fan of Fidel Castro, experienced the scorn of hundreds of people in front of the place chosen by the people who contracted her. The performance was canceled, the artist said she was in a state of shock.
The complaint is called reciprocity in democracy. Lawmakers sitting in Revolution Square decide, according to their political criteria, who can and can’t enter Cuba, blackmailing the emigre community with the threat that they won’t be able to embrace their loved ones in the Homeland.
A new cry has risen: “Respect Miami!”
Famous members of the opposition have spoken of stopping family remittances in January. Knowing that it won’t be enough to try and overthrow the dictatorship, the dilemma lies in sacrificing your family for a month.
The boycott could be a good beginning. Many remember Rosa Park’s action, which was inoffensive back then?
Sceptics are still the majority. Fidel Castro knew how to plant the seed of fear within the Cuban people of a repressive system with a reputation abroad of being safe. Added to this, the rebels have made many mistakes in the past. Old members of the opposition are dying with the dubious glory of their failed struggle.
Meanwhile, Havana is burying the people who believe they are winners, surrounded by rubble, in a country whose social decomposition is advancing as well as the evilness of the people ruling over it.
Vicente Morin Aguado:[email protected]
.. Don’t you THINK Sir, that the actual monthly salary in Cuba is due to 60 years – and continuing – , of ALL kind of AGGRESSION, by the ONLY BULLY on the planet ?
Without FORGETTING, of course, many other countries around the world ???
Those comments which reflect support for the Castros dictatorship have obviously been written by Castro sycophants who,from the comfort of their kitchen tables surrounded by a fully stocked refrigerator, on a laptop connected to high speed internet, opine over the specious merits of a totalitarian system. I would challenge them to LIVE in Cuba just one month on the salary of the average Cuban and make the same comments.
The Cubans people is only one both sides of The Florida Gulf stream.
The people can’t said what they want because the repression don’t allow.
The Main problem in Cuba right now is The democracy.
Really Mr. Vincente, did you read what I wrote? This really is a ridiculous reaction that totally ignores what I wrote.
I love Cuba and I love the Cuban people.
The way I see it: the Cubans’ protest in Florida is a very comfortable way to protest. An easy way to protest, without any risk.
I have more, much more respect for the people living in Cuba right now. People who do their best to keep their heads above water and yet keep on laughing, singing and dancing, despite the misery Trump and his lunatic friends are pouring out over them.
Trump and his anti-social puppets in the White House and the GOP don’t give a shit about the Cuban people or about Cuba. The measures affect only and exclusively the ordinary Cuban, the man in the street.
All of their actions stem from hatred for Cuba and the Cubans who still live there, and from the fact that one of the strongest countries on earth is unable to overthrow a government on a small island. Something they have too often succeeded in doing in many places!
All those measures have been taken to win Cuban votes in Florida, nothing else. It’s not called “a swing state” for nothing. Opportunism nothing else. A big corrupt gang!
And yes, Mr. Vincente, I grant the Cubans their democracy. When they want it and when they’re ready. Not when a bunch of frustrated refugees want it.
And democracy always brings that much good? Look at the U.S. for the last three years, Brazil, Australia, former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and so on.
No Mr. Vincente I don’t begrudge the Cubans their democracy, but I hope they will be spared the misery that that has brought to many countries in recent years.
.. I wonder if those who are criticising the actual Cuban “dictatorship”(?) , If their parents and grandparents were living FREE, HEALTHY, NOURISHED and EDUCATED under the BLESSED (!) DICTATORSHIP of COLONEL F. BATISTA who governed since 1940 till he was ousted by the revolution ??? The revolution who gave Cubans, FOOD, SHOES, CLOTHES, HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT opportunities, HOUSING,
AND MOST OF ALL, SELF RESPECT & DIGNITY by eliminating master’s slavery !?
NOT PERFECT ? but then WHO IS ???
And there could have been much MORE .. if it wasn’t for those WHO WERE OUSTED ?! Namely, the SELF appointed “LEADER of the FREE WORLD” WHO APPOINTED, INFLUENCED, TOPPLED, ATTACKED, WAGED WARS, and continues in many countries and places .. AND CONTINUES ?!
And ALL .. IN THE NAME OF : FREEDOM, LIBERTY, DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS … ,
and the rest of the Camel S*** slogans !!!???
I’d like those who continue Bi****ng, to ask their older generation who survived the years BEFORE Castro’s revolution, IF & HOW MUCH they had of LIFE NECESSITIES, or at least to find out about the life expectancy then, miscarriages, children’s deaths, literacy, nourishment, hospitals, doctors, or EVEN .. MONEY IN THE BANK, IF ANY ???
WHY DON’T YOU SHUT UP .. Y’ALL ???
Mr PEJO, do You love The democracy for The Cubans in Cuba?
What do You want for My people?
And yet we have here in The US close to three million people incarcerated, not counting the parolees. Chinese proverb says more laws, more law breakers. It’s true, ” watch your step lest the man comes and get you.”
I wonder why the big guy always tries to bully someone not his size.
Reading this article, I can only conclude that life in Florida and the U.S. has affected the mental faculties of these refugee Cubans.
Such actions and protests will only lead the demented orange clown in the White House and his psychopathic sidekick Pompeo to take even more draconian measures against the Cuban people. Even more restrictions, even fewer opportunities to help the family members left behind, even fewer visits. They shoot in their own foot and injure their families in Cuba at the same time.
The interests of the ordinary Cuban cynically denied by the stubborn, lying and demoralized US government and the GOP. Trump and Pompeo blackmailing the emigre community with the threat that they won’t be able to embrace their loved ones in the homeland if they don’t vote for him. And that while Trump hates Latinos and calls for violence against them. It won’t be long before someone in Florida drives over a Cuban child with his car and says: it was a Cuban, a communist after all.
Every Cuban and especially those “heroes” in Florida with their big mouths know that the Castro’s and their supporters have enough resources to easily get through another 4 years with that dangerous lunatic in the White House. The only thing it will bring them and their families in Cuba are even more problems, even more shortages and even more pain.
For 60 years, the US, one of the largest economies in the world with 300 million inhabitants, has been waging a war together with the Mafia against a small island with 11 million inhabitants. So far without any result.
It would be wiser if the protests would focus on the GOP (a party as rigid and rigid as the PCC in Cuba), Trump and Pompeo and the restrictive measures that will eventually be paid for by the people of the US and Cuba and not by Trump and his rich friends (look at his tax laws).
The unfathomable stupidity and the contempt and lack of empathy for the ordinary Cuban of these prosperous American Cubans is shocking.
Yes, all we need is love but the Castro dictatorship only believes in repression, long prison sentences , death squad shooting Actos de repudio, ostracized its opponents, censorship, and more repression. I wonder who needs LOVE
” All you need is love, love love, that is all you need.” The English Rock and Roll Group The Beatles.