How Fidel Came to Own Everything

How Fidel Came to Own Everything

The political turmoil in Cuba should not have been of any concern to me. However, in my young mind I knew the family would not be the same. My cousin Clara and her husband Jacobo left the country, as many others did after them, like my uncle Jose, my aunt Rosa, and I knew soon my parents would find a way to leave the island to find peace of mind on foreign soil.

Freedom of religion, that’s something we had before Castro but soon would loose. I remembered sitting in class at the Catholic School Madre Marias Escolapias in 3rd grade, the militia entered the classroom abruptly and stopped right in front of the nun’s face, advising her with a commanding voice to stop the class. Surreal!

Soon after, all the religious or privately owned schools would become public schools and property of the Government. For Fidel Castro, practicing religion was not included in the teachings of Lenin and Marx. Even Christmas celebrations were illegal and became an insulting act against the Revolution. Being a religious person would give you the title of “counter-revolutionary” which eventually would get you in trouble with Castro. He wanted to wipe “GOD” off of the map.

My father, poor man, he will never get over loosing the dairy farm. This small dairy farm that he loved so much had perhaps 30 to 40 cows, a small cottage we used in the summer during vacations, a barn to the side and a fruit tree orchard behind the house. The stable was bigger than needed; I guess he was hoping to increase the cattle in the future. There was a huge tree that grew orange flowers, I think it was called a Ceiba tree and next to it was the windmill that pumped the water out of the well into a reservoir tank.

When Batista, the previous Cuban president was in power, some anti-Batista rebels had been hiding in the hills of the farm, they were revolutionaries, my father felt sorry for the young rebels and instead of turning them in to the police, he would take fresh fruits, meat and milk to them. Nobody liked Batista…he was a dictator. But the rebels assured my father that Fidel Castro would come and give the country back to the people.

It was those same rebels that came in with weapons and confiscated my father’s beloved farm, he couldn’t believe it! He told the soldiers “not this farm! Don’t do this to me!” He broke down in tears. First they told him he could continue working the farm as a manager, that the revolution would pay him a salary, my father turned them down. How dare Castro take away his livelihood? After some arguing and some threats, he was told to leave the farm and not come back, and he had to walk all the way to the city on foot. They didn’t let him drive the milk delivery truck home, or ride the horse home, in fact he couldn’t even keep the shepherd dog as companion for his long 25 miles journey into town. He walked and cried all the way home. Broken hearted and he vowed to leave Cuba one day.

It was six months later, my father grew more disillusioned with Castro’s Regime, even going to Church on Sunday was reason to be stopped and questioned by the soldiers. Everywhere he went he was watched and followed and he felt the situation was getting worse. On every block there was a CDR – Committee of Defense of the Revolution, which meant that there was a snitch on every block. Their job was to watch everybody and turn them in as counter-revolutionaries. Their offense didn’t have to be very serious; it was just a psychological way of spreading fear and keeping us terrorized.

The plan was in motion for his escape.

The Day After My Birthday Party

The Day After My Birthday Party

Although the political turmoil had already started, during those days I couldn’t be concerned with how bad things would get. I had to live my life and there was little I could do about the country’s problems, later on I would see the heartache and uncertainty among us.

I woke up the next morning feeling pretty good, my birthday party had turned out better than expected; I got myself ready to go to school. I drank my café con leche and kissed my mother good-bye. The school was about three blocks from the house, one block to the school I noticed a group of students outside the building, I knew something was not normal, usually all the students were in the school courtyard by this time, my friend Marysol came up to me and whispered with a fearful look on her face “somebody painted the school walls with insults about Fidel Castro”. I stood there looking at these big red letters “abajo Fidel” (down with Fidel).

“The person or persons who did this are going to pay dearly,” I thought. It took weeks for the investigation to come to an end, all the suspected students were interrogated, their homes were searched and anybody that had the red color of paint in their house was arrested. No warrants, no lawyer, no Miranda Rights.

Those days brought a lot of grief to a many of people. Nobody wanted to talk against this new regime that had promised so much and delivered so little. Today I look back at those days and I still can’t understand how a country can be brought down to its knees so easily. Didn’t we see the changes? Didn’t we learn from the pass? Jose Marti gave us a gift with his poems. There was a message in them, his wisdom matched his heroism, and he wanted to leave us a warning.

“Yo quiero cuando me muera,

sin patria, pero sin amo,

tener en mi tumba un ramo,

de flores y una bandera”.

When the Cuban Constitution was changed in the early 60’s, it became the law of the land that all children would belong to the government, all decisions would be made by the communist party and parents lost all rights. That was a big turning point in Cuba; parents felt the need to get their children away to a safe land. I remember my parents pondered with the idea of sending me to Puerto Rico to live with my aunt. She had the foresight to leave the same year that Castro took power and had settled in Puerto Rico - lucky her.

Two of my cousins were sent ahead in the famous “Peter Pan” flights where thousands of kids were flown out of Cuba to the United States to live in foster homes until their parents could be united with them. A lot of families were separated; there were a lot of tears, uncertainty, pain, despair and anger. I had only lived 10 years and I had felt the sorrow that would take a lifetime to accumulate.

Maria

Memorial Cubano

Memorial Cubano

16 al 18 de febrero 2007

Parque Tamiami

11201 S.W. 24th St.

Miami, Florida

(Coral Way y 107 Avenida, entrada por la 112 Ave)

El quinto Memorial Cubano se llevará a cabo del 16 al 18 de febrero en el Tamiami Park (Avenida 112 y Coral Way). El campo de cruces permanecerá abierto al público el viernes 16 de 12 a 6PM, el

sábado 17 de 9AM a 8PM y el domingo 18 de 9AM a 5PM. El programa de actividades se adjunta a continuación.

Durante esos tres días este cementerio simbólico dará cuenta al mundo de las miles de víctimas de la dictadura castrista cubana. Cada víctima que se haya podido verificar tendrá una cruz con su nombre junto con la fecha y lugar de muerte. Así, se plantarán alrededor de 10,000 cruces en formación lineal junto a una cruz más grande que simboliza las miles de víctimas más cuyos datos se desconocen a la fecha.

Los fusilados, muertos en prisión, asesinados, desaparecidos en el mar intentando huir, los muertos en la lucha contra la dictadura, y los sacrificados en todo tipo de terribles crímenes se recordarán con la merecida sobriedad. Para muchos, el acto de colocar ante su cruz un pequeño ramo de flores constituye la única oportunidad para rendírsele honra fúnebre.

Es gratificante comunicar que los Amigos del Memorial Cubano ya han colocado la piedra inaugural del monumento permanente que se construirá en el mismo Tamiami Park.

Contacto:

Memorial Cubano, Tel. (786) 621-7505, info@memorialcubano.org

Emilio Solernou, Tel. 786.346.5141

www.MemorialCubano.org

Malaria Next Door to Cuba

Malaria Next Door to Cuba

Three Canadian tourists have contracted Malaria right next door to Cuba. If this mosquito borne disease makes the jump to Cuba it will be an incredibly bad thing. With the squalor and poverty in Cuba today as a result of 48 years of communist economic stupidity, thousand of Cubans could die. Of course this news is another coffin nail in their Cuban slave labor supported tourist syndicate.

Read more:

Tomás Estrada-Palma

History of the U.S. Drug War

History of the U.S. Drug War

The link below has one of the best, most concise and well written histories of the United States government's war on drugs. Most people today don't realize the racist, anti Hispanic excuses given to outlaw drugs or the economics of prohibition. I'll guarantee you this - if you read half of the following history you will no longer support the drug war. If you read it all you will become a crusader against this failed racist social policy.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/
whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html


Tomás Estrada-Palma

On Second Thought

On Second Thought

After listening to Tomas Estrada Palma’s show I went to sleep and I just couldn’t, the idea of feeding Castro’s body to the sharks after he dies seemed very appropriate and justified. It made me think of the balseros, all these men, women and children that died trying to cross the 90 mile stretch between Cuba and The Florida keys, families trying to find freedom and true happiness. As I tossed and turned, I kept thinking about his death and feeding him to the fish. What a great symbolic way to even the score.

Then, I thought of the humble men that sacrificed their lives for the revolution. As young men they heard the promises that the revolution would bring, they listened to their leader speak of the wonderful future that one day would come. These young men waited from decade to decade and although none of the promises were fulfilled they would stay quiet first out of loyalty, then out of fear and finally they realized that they spent a lifetime working and waiting for a good life, accepting the crumbs their government tossed at them, having nothing to show for. These men will refuse to admit that the revolution was a lie, they will continue defending their leader to their last breath. To turn against their government would mean that their lives were wasted, that their lives had no meaning, so they continue to fight for the revolution and most likely will to the end of their pathetic lives.

Now, going back to the fish food. Most likely feeding Castro to the sharks will not take place. There will be Cubans that for whatever reason will not allow anybody to take Castros’ body and
toss him into the ocean to be eaten by sharks, we won’t even be able to spray paint graffiti on his head stone. The Cubans in the exile will have to show respect to the Cuban men that were fooled by Castro to prevent a civil war and more deaths. We had the good fortune to leave in time and have a second chance for a decent life; our lives were not wasted like the many lives that drowned in the ocean or the lives that were used by Castro’s regime. In honor of those that didn’t have our fortune we should show restrain. We “The Cuban Exile” should prepare for the ultimate test whenever the time comes, to show our love for Cuba, they will need our help and our solidarity. We can show the Cuban people who the enemy really was. And the fish can wait.

Maria

The Drug War

The Drug War

Many of you already know my opposition to the American government’s war on illegal drug users and dealers. As a libertarian I have no other choice. The drug war is immoral on many fronts. Here is just one.

Did you ever notice that whenever some congressman or celebrity or other socially connected person gets caught with illegal drugs they get “treatment?” At the same time poor white trash, blacks and Hispanics get mistreatment. In fact our government used the drug war in the 1930’s as one of its tactics to forcibly expel 2 million Americans of Mexican genetic make-up to Mexico in order to save jobs here for “real” Americans during the Depression. Of course now you all want to build a fence so these former US citizens can’t return but that’s another tyranny. The poorest have their doors kicked in by hooded, jack-booted police thugs, who often get the wrong house and kill an innocent old lady in her own home as recently occurred again in New Orleans. Then the cops tried unsuccessfully to lie about it to cover their tracks. The politically unconnected are slammed to the ground and cuffed. They are dragged off to jail and if they have children they are stolen from them and if lucky permitted to live with relatives. They have their cars stolen by the police along with other property deemed in “possession” of drugs. Yes…personal things can be accused, tried, convicted and punished by transfer of ownership to the government by only the police authority. The former owner must bear all legal expense to regain ownership of their former property. This theft has included even boats, homes and small businesses.

Finally, these mistreated Americans are provided terrible council at public expense then sent to prison for longer than murderers and child rapists who are often freed to make room for these non-violent offenders. To sum up – we have allowed our government to completely destroy the lives of millions of Americans under the pretence of saving them from possibly destroying themselves with drugs. Then after decades of FORCING them to seethe in prison beside some really BAD criminals who can teach them all the tricks of the trade to do REAL crimes – we let them out on the streets and say survive.

Wouldn’t it have been better to have just left these millions of Americans alone and only locked up actually violent or underhanded people? Think about it Cubans. I’m not asking you to take drugs or support the choice. I’m asking you to not make matters worse. Why if Thomas Jefferson or George Washington were alive today they would…besides being ashamed of all drug war supporters, they’d also be serving long prison sentences as cannabis consumers and cultivators.

Oh one final reason. If drugs were legal here then Castro would be denied millions in illegal drug profits. Is the drug war worth giving millions to Castro?

Tomás Estrada-Palma

Communism

Communism

Communism violently forces society to act as one big happy family by treating everyone like children who will never be allowed to grow up and think for themselves.

Tomás Estrada-Palma

Laptops For Cuba

Laptops For Cuba

I am starting an initiative to get laptops and other electronics into the hands of friendly Cubans on the island. To start the bidding, I have an eight year old Toshiba Laptop that I will donate for free to any Cuban exile who is traveling to Cuba to visit relatives. All you have to do is bring the laptop with you on your visit then accidentally on purpose leave it with your relatives there. The computer has a modem card in it and I’m not sure what good it will do for Cubans but if anyone can put it to use it’s Cubans. At the very least they can play solitaire and wonder what else they are missing outside of Cuba. Email me at stopthehavanaban@yahoo.com if you are going to Cuba and would like to bring one electronic regime coffin nail with you. Also, if you or anyone has electronics that you believe Cubans could use to free, or at the very least amuse themselves with, email the above address. I’ll hook up your electronics with the exiles traveling to the island. I’ll simply forward your offers of electronics to the travelers.

This will give the regime one more thing to worry about. It might cause them to shakedown tourists more harshly and convince them Cuba is not the place to travel to with their hard currency. You see these central planners are juggling too many responsibilities as it is now. All we need to do is figure out more and more things for them to juggle until we overwhelm them. So come on Cubans! Donate those old electronics that are just taking up space and collecting dust.

Tomás Estrada-Palma

Lovely Ladies Everywhere

Lovely Ladies Everywhere

It has been pointed out to me in a polite yet firm manner that there are in fact lovely ladies in more places than just Washington, D.C. What this means, Cuban gentlemen, is there is a broader spectrum of gorgeous, sweet women than I could have ever imagined. Psst! Guys on the island...shoot me off an email and tell me about yourself. If I find a possible lady for you I'll post her information so you can begin your courtship. I'm part chaperon and part over-protect father. So keep your intentions honorable! No players allow on this love train.

Tomás Estrada-Palma