A Cuban-American's History Lesson for Diane Watson:

Castro must have given Watson some Materva (aka Cuban Kool-Aid) because she has a terribly distorted view of Cuban history. The beginning of this audio has Watson talking about our "philosophical leader" Rush and how people are trying sabotage the first president we've had "that looks like me [Waston]". Then she goes on to talk about what a brilliant leader Fidel Castro is! (1 min, 49 sec) Contrary to Watson's comment, Fidel did have plenty of blood on his hands before and after he took control of Cuba. She has no idea about the real history of Cuba...after the video, I'll go ahead and give you some juicy information.

On a personal note, both my parent's were born in Cuba. All my grandparent were active aware citizens during the Cuban Revolution and their lives were greatly affected by the communist dictator, Fidel Castro. Here is the way that the Cuban Revolution went down according to the things that I know, learned and heard around the dining room table.

Batista (who served 1 term as president of Cuba in the 1940's) was in office when Fidel took over. In 1952 Batista staged a military coup and took over the government 2 months before the democratic election took place. Under Batista's rule Cuba started to delve into gambling and prostitution, but there were still most of the freedoms we have here in the U.S. today. Fidel would come to 'liberated Cuba' from an unelected leader, but who was going to think that the liberator would be a cruel, paranoid communist.

Fidel, a young lawyer from a wealthy family, led an attack on some barracks near Santiago de Cuba in 1953. It failed miserably and Castro ended up going to jail for only 3 of his 15 year sentence. In 1956 he was released and went into exile in Mexico, which is where Ernesto 'Che' Guevara came into the picture. Now Che is not the hero that so many make him out to be. He doesn't deserve to be on any t-shirt or poster because he is not a man to be idealized. He was a Marxist revolutionary, but he was also a rapist, murder, a thief. A common thug elevated to a God-like status among idealistic youths.

While in Mexico, Fidel organized the Movimiento 26, de Julio (26th of July Movement) where a group of men sailed over to Cuba to overthrow Batista. (Sidenote: I found out later in life that July 26th was my original due date and my grandfather told my mom to hold her legs together if she went into labor that day, fortunately I was late) Not surprisingly, most of the men were killed. Yet Che, Fidel and a dozen or so men escaped to Sierra Maestra mountains where they hid out for years, collecting disenfranchised men into an eager militia. For the next two years, Fidel was idolized by many Cubans. Many people believed in his cause because he claimed to want to restore Cuba to the old democracy.Many people were hopeful that Fidel would bring about the change they needed. Sound familiar??

Another sidenote, specifically my maternal grandfather was not blinded by Fidel's "change". He was very vocal about his disapproval of "la revolucion" and beyond being very vocal , he wrote a lot of commentaries that would later lead him to have to be flagged by the new regime. Eventually my grandparents had to sneak out of the country to avoid being torn apart by Fidel's purging of 'anti-revolutionary' minds. They didn't have internet in 1959, but does any of this sound remotely familiar?

Fidel and Che's guerrilla warfare grew exponentially in everything from attacks on Batista's men to advances like Radio Rebelde, a revolutionary radio station where Fidel first gave his addresses' to the people of Cuba. Fidel's had fewer men than the Cuban army but they were better trained and knew their surroundings, the mountains, remarkably well.

On December 31, 1958 the city of Santa Clara was captured by Fidel's men. Batista panicked and fled the country. I can hear my grandmother's voice now, "el primero de enero de ano 59, Fidel entro a la capital, y todavia no se ha ido." Fidel marched into Havana and seized power, sans oppositions on July 1, 1959. He was received like a Messiah. In reality he didn't arrive until the 8th but whose counting.

Since he didn't come right out and say that he was a communist, even appointing another man President for a while, most people were hopeful that Fidel would be the change they needed. But all too soon, Fidel took over and started to make changes pretty quickly.

Within just a couple years, life in Cuba had drastically changed. Here are some of the main changes he made to restrict freedom and competition: (I'm saying change a lot--I feel like Barry O!)

• Purged (aka killed) political opponents from the administration
• Groups such as labor unions were made illegal.
• Within the year all opposition newspapers had been closed down and all radio and television stations were in state control.
• Private Companies were confiscated
• Teachers and professors were purged.
• The Communist Party strengthened its one-party rule, with Castro as the supreme leader.
• Moderates were arrested.
• Neighborhood watch systems known as committees for the defense of the revolution (CDR) were created so on every block there was at least one resident that would "report fishy activity"...hmmmm
• The Communist party remains the only recognized political party in Cuba.
  
• Other parties, though not illegal, are unable to campaign or conduct any activities on the island that could be deemed counter-revolutionary.

No wonder there have been so many exodus' from Cuba! Things have only become worse over the years, including lack of parental choice when it comes to raising their own children. Around the age of 15 children are taken away to work in the sugar cane fields where many rapes and young pregnancies occur. Most recently the country has run out of toilet paper and won't be receiving another shipment until next year. Banana leaves?

Is this the kind of place that should be idolized? Would you want to visit a doctor in one of those hospitals?

In the early 1990's I had a great-aunt go to the doctor (in Cuba) and he found a lump in her breast. Do you think she got a mammogram? Nope! The only machine in Havana was broken. So without knowing if it was cancer or not, they doctor performed a mastectomy.

Now, she was already a little older, but the same things happen to women of all ages during that time. Can you imagine being in that situation? No ability to know if you have cancer or not. As a woman I can't imagine going through all the emotional and hormonal changes, still not knowing if they got all the cancer. Not knowing if I should still worry. You loose such a big part of yourself, but you loose a lot more than flesh.

My whole life I've heard about the atrocities of Cuban life not only from my family and friends but from my nail lady, from the hair dresser, from the doctor, the lawyer, the mayor. Cuba is such a little island compared to the United States and yet there are so many Cubans that live here. Do you think that is by chance?

The early Cubans that came over were the middle and upper classes. The ones that foresaw the pitfalls of communism, the ones that would not benefit from this new government 'handouts'. The intellectuals, the doctors the lawyers, they wouldn't be able to live their lives in Cuba anymore. Don't think those lawyers, engineers and doctors became lawyers engineers and doctors in the United States. They became truck drivers, janitors, construction and factory workers.

But I can say with great pride and total confidence that Cuban's have made more of the American dream than any other Hispanic group up to this date. First-, Second-Generation Cubans are now members of the same professions and economic status' of their fathers and grandfathers. Just look at me, I'm a first generation American and I have graduated college and am going to law school. I have aunts and cousins who have PhD. Friends who own their own successful companies.

To make my point, as many Communist countries do, Cuba has gone indoctrinating its citizens and so as generation after generation arrives here they are perpetually more lazy and more dependent upon the government. They expect the government to give them everything they need because that is all they've ever known. Sound a little familiar? But that is not the true Cuban mentality, it is a mentality that has been warped by 50 years of communism.

At the very core of a Cuban's heart is pride, in themselves, in their work and their country. Us Cuban-Americans are fiercely prideful of where we come from, but we are just as proud of where we are. The country that adopted the refugees, the saddened, the demoralized and gave them the opportunity to be intellectuals and professionals again. Gave them the opportunity to educate and improve thier lives tenfold.

Yet here we are standing next to so many other Americans' facing a time in our adopted countries history where people are hoping for change. Sound familiar? I know that so many of us worry that we the people have chosen the wrong kind of change. Sound familiar? Beware. I plead with Americans, don't let your desire for change lead you down a path to a place you no longer recognize.

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For a great look at what the Cuban Revolution looked like from inside,
check out a film by the name of The Lost City with Cuban-born actor Andy Garcia