Writer blind to sad truth about Cuba

Writer blind to sad truth about Cuba
By MANUEL MARQUEZ-STERLING
For the Monitor
July 17. 2006 8:00AM

Much is wrong with student Elizabeth Morrow's article "Why not
Cuba?"(Sunday Monitor, July 2). Her comments about what she saw and
heard while in Cuba - the generosity of the Cuban common people, their
beautiful music, etc. -must be attributed to the reactions of a young
scholar with some credit hours beyond an undergraduate degree. During my
years of teaching history, I read hundreds of essays that, like hers,
let enthusiasm blur the real picture.

Ms. Morrow wants the United States government to allow all Americans,
without restrictions, to travel freely to Cuba based on the point that
we permit it with China, a grand violator of human rights. In other
words, Ms. Morrow proposes that two wrongs would make a right. Human
rights violations are universal, and if we erred in China, as we
certainly did, we should not compound it with Cuba.

Besides getting her facts wrong about Cuba before the revolution, (the
old tired story of gambling and prostitution), Ms. Morrow calls
attention to the generosity, kindness and beautiful music of the Cuban
people.

This is not a product of the present regime. Cubans from all walks of
life, since time immemorial and under all kinds of political situations,
have been like that and also made "beautiful music."

It seems that Ms. Morrow was not able, not allowed or did not care -
lest her fanciful picture of Cuba be shattered - to see what is under
the surface in that country. I bet that she was not able to talk to some
of the hundreds of political prisoners, or to those who today oppose a
regime that has executed 25,000 of its citizens and exiled more than 2
million.

I wonder if she talked to Martha Beatriz Roque, who a month ago was
again brutally beaten for demanding the freedoms that Ms. Morrow enjoys
here in New Hampshire. Should not Ms. Morrow also mention the thousands
of would-be millionaires drowned in the Florida Straits while escaping
that revolutionary Eden with its "beautiful music"?

I love young scholars, and I want them to do the best. In fact, if Ms.
Morrow would not be afraid to face the truths about Cuba, I would extend
her an invitation to chat about the topic over coffee or tea.

I am sure that she would learn a thing or two about Cuban history before
Castro, which, by the way, the kindest of taxi drivers and other
citizens there are not allowed to know.

(Manuel Marquez-Sterling lives in Plymouth.)

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