By WILL WEISSERT | The Associated Press
January 7, 2008
HAVANA - Wearing a Santa suit and a wide grin, a wealthy Florida rancher
doled out sneakers and sweets to Cuban children Sunday, bringing holiday
cheer to this communist-run island where the Christmas season goes
largely unobserved.
About 150 kids ages 5 to 15 shrieked with pleasure, applauded and
shouted "Viva Santa Claus!" as John Parke Wright IV of Naples tottered
into an auditorium at a Roman Catholic convent on Havana's eastern
outskirts.
"Feliz Navidad!" he bellowed, Spanish for "Merry Christmas!"
The celebration actually marked Three Kings Day, a Jan. 6 holiday
popular in Latin America that commemorates the arrival of three wise men
bearing gifts for the newborn Jesus.
It was the first time many of the kids had seen Santa other than on
television. Some came forward timidly and politely shook hands with
Wright as he handed them pairs of brand-name shoes, athletic socks,
candy and the occasional teddy bear. Others threw their arms around him.
Washington's embargo prohibits most U.S.-Cuba trade but allows some
sales of U.S. agricultural products, and Wright travels to the island
several times a year to represent his Florida cattle business. He paid
for the goodies he gave away and also donated baseball gloves, balls and
caps to players for two little league teams he organized.
An outspoken critic of the embargo, Wright talked more about the North
Pole than politics Sunday.
Cuba was for decades officially atheist and today many families are very
poor and can't afford elaborate gifts for their children.
Wright's visit was not officially sanctioned by Cuba's government, but
Fidel Castro's nephew Angel Ramon Castro was on hand for the giveaway.
Fidel Castro has been recuperating in an undisclosed location since July
2006, when he stepped aside in favor of a provisional government headed
by his brother Raul.
Asked about Fidel's health, Angel Ramon Castro said, "We know he's
active and that's the most important thing. ... He's still a strong man
with strong values, and he's doing fine."
Earlier Sunday another Santa made an appearance in Havana:
Eleven-year-old Rocio de Jesus Viso Bello, whose independent journalist
father has been jailed by the government, donned a red-and-white suit
and handed out dolls, toy cars, school supplies and DVD players to about
40 children of imprisoned dissidents.
That event was held in the cramped central Havana living room of Laura
Pollan, wife of political prisoner Hector Maseda, and sponsored by the
Cuban American National Foundation, a Miami exile group dedicated to
undermining the Castro government.
Since a 2003 crackdown landed 75 dissidents behind bars, Pollan and
other members of the Ladies in White protest group have organized Three
Kings parties.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flfcuba0107sbjan07,0,7081566.story
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