No to Castro, yes to Cuba
By Guillermo Vidal
December 2, 2005
TODAY MARKS the 49th anniversary of Fidel Castro's return to Cuba, following his exile in Mexico. With his small band of guerrilleros, Castro launched a successful revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista, a victory celebrated throughout the island nation. Only three years later, however, hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Cubans began to flee Castro's rule and enter lives of exile themselves.
These expatriated Cubans — the vast majority of them choosing sanctuary in the U.S. — loathed Castro, the communist government he created and the subsequent seizure of private property and suspension of political freedoms. Their rage has been the main ingredient in the complex recipe that has defined U.S. policy toward Cuba.
However justified this bitterness toward Castro may be, we must acknowledge that these policies have only brought suffering to the Cuban people, and that they must be ended. I have shared this anger and sense of betrayal toward Castro. In the first days following the rebels' victory in 1959, my father lifted me high so I could touch Castro's hand as he and his soldiers paraded through Camagüey, my hometown.
But by the fall of 1961, my parents — who had become targets of the revolutionaries simply because they owned several businesses — lived in such fear for their lives and the lives of their children that they made the wrenching decision to send my two brothers and me, unaccompanied, to the U.S. as part of Operation Peter Pan. We were placed in an orphanage in Pueblo, Colo., where we lived until 1964, when my parents escaped Cuba and found us.
But for the next two decades, we experienced the emotional, cultural and financial difficulties of immigrating to a foreign land. The loss of the economic and social status that had sustained my parents in Cuba inflicted in them a psychological wound that would never heal. In fact, my father's dying request of his sons was for us to return to Cuba and reclaim the properties that had been stolen from him and his family.
Yet in spite of my family's suffering, I recognize that it is time to let go of that rancor and to join with other Americans in insisting that this great country reestablish a relationship with Cuba.
To determine what to do next, the U.S. must acknowledge the failure of its current policies toward Cuba, and especially the decades-old economic embargo that bars U.S. trade with Cuba and travel to the country. If the original intent was to free the Cuban people from communism, then Castro's 46 years in power prove that these strategies have failed.
Castro's revolution has not only survived, it has been emboldened. When I returned to Cuba in 2001 after a 40-year absence, I witnessed how the people perceive Castro as the living symbol of an indomitable national spirit that refuses to yield to a foreign government. Even though the communist economic system that he implemented has been a dismal failure, most Cubans blame the U.S. for their financial troubles.
There are those in the U.S. who believe that Cuba's return to democracy depends solely on retaining our current policies until Castro and his minions are ousted. But this mind-set denies the virtual certainty that Cubans will never agree to a new government, especially one established by the U.S.
A far better strategy for the U.S. would be to open our borders to bilateral trade, tourism and the exchange of ideas with Cuba. Because Cubans have little access to information other than what they get through the state-owned media, unlocking our doors to Cuba will lead the way to new ideas and will expand the United States' influence.
Normalizing our relations would also help hurry along the establishment of a free-market economy. On my visit, I witnessed Cubans eagerly plunging into the few opportunities they have been given — small restaurants operated by families in their own homes, artisans selling their wares to tourists.
The U.S. would benefit by establishing new markets for our goods. The two governments can co-invest in tourism, as have some European nations.
My family and I have succeeded in creating good lives for ourselves as U.S. citizens, as have many Cubans who have come here since 1959. The time has come for Cuban Americans to move beyond our anger and work toward giving the people still living in our former homeland a chance at a better life.
GUILLERMO VIDAL is a public official and civil engineer living in Denver.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-vidal2dec02,0,3595627.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
By Guillermo Vidal
December 2, 2005
TODAY MARKS the 49th anniversary of Fidel Castro's return to Cuba, following his exile in Mexico. With his small band of guerrilleros, Castro launched a successful revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista, a victory celebrated throughout the island nation. Only three years later, however, hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Cubans began to flee Castro's rule and enter lives of exile themselves.
These expatriated Cubans — the vast majority of them choosing sanctuary in the U.S. — loathed Castro, the communist government he created and the subsequent seizure of private property and suspension of political freedoms. Their rage has been the main ingredient in the complex recipe that has defined U.S. policy toward Cuba.
However justified this bitterness toward Castro may be, we must acknowledge that these policies have only brought suffering to the Cuban people, and that they must be ended. I have shared this anger and sense of betrayal toward Castro. In the first days following the rebels' victory in 1959, my father lifted me high so I could touch Castro's hand as he and his soldiers paraded through Camagüey, my hometown.
But by the fall of 1961, my parents — who had become targets of the revolutionaries simply because they owned several businesses — lived in such fear for their lives and the lives of their children that they made the wrenching decision to send my two brothers and me, unaccompanied, to the U.S. as part of Operation Peter Pan. We were placed in an orphanage in Pueblo, Colo., where we lived until 1964, when my parents escaped Cuba and found us.
But for the next two decades, we experienced the emotional, cultural and financial difficulties of immigrating to a foreign land. The loss of the economic and social status that had sustained my parents in Cuba inflicted in them a psychological wound that would never heal. In fact, my father's dying request of his sons was for us to return to Cuba and reclaim the properties that had been stolen from him and his family.
Yet in spite of my family's suffering, I recognize that it is time to let go of that rancor and to join with other Americans in insisting that this great country reestablish a relationship with Cuba.
To determine what to do next, the U.S. must acknowledge the failure of its current policies toward Cuba, and especially the decades-old economic embargo that bars U.S. trade with Cuba and travel to the country. If the original intent was to free the Cuban people from communism, then Castro's 46 years in power prove that these strategies have failed.
Castro's revolution has not only survived, it has been emboldened. When I returned to Cuba in 2001 after a 40-year absence, I witnessed how the people perceive Castro as the living symbol of an indomitable national spirit that refuses to yield to a foreign government. Even though the communist economic system that he implemented has been a dismal failure, most Cubans blame the U.S. for their financial troubles.
There are those in the U.S. who believe that Cuba's return to democracy depends solely on retaining our current policies until Castro and his minions are ousted. But this mind-set denies the virtual certainty that Cubans will never agree to a new government, especially one established by the U.S.
A far better strategy for the U.S. would be to open our borders to bilateral trade, tourism and the exchange of ideas with Cuba. Because Cubans have little access to information other than what they get through the state-owned media, unlocking our doors to Cuba will lead the way to new ideas and will expand the United States' influence.
Normalizing our relations would also help hurry along the establishment of a free-market economy. On my visit, I witnessed Cubans eagerly plunging into the few opportunities they have been given — small restaurants operated by families in their own homes, artisans selling their wares to tourists.
The U.S. would benefit by establishing new markets for our goods. The two governments can co-invest in tourism, as have some European nations.
My family and I have succeeded in creating good lives for ourselves as U.S. citizens, as have many Cubans who have come here since 1959. The time has come for Cuban Americans to move beyond our anger and work toward giving the people still living in our former homeland a chance at a better life.
GUILLERMO VIDAL is a public official and civil engineer living in Denver.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-vidal2dec02,0,3595627.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
No comments:
Post a Comment