Guantanamo: Cuba's Cinderella City (part I)

“Guantanamo: Cuba’s Cinderella City” (part I)

by Alberto N Jones

 

HAVANA TIMES — We learned through the Cuban media that the upcoming July 26 celebrations of “National Rebellion Day” (commemorating the guerilla attacks in 1953 that sparked the Cuban Revolution) would take place here in Guantanamo: Cuba’s “Cinderella City.”

 

This filled us with local pride and joy for our being recognized as a community that, while suffering and neglected, is also unshakeable.

 

Shortly after, I recalled that this honor had been conferred upon this city twice before in the past, though a little later — shortly after the celebrations — everything returned to the same old thing: apathy, a lack of creativity and no accountability for what’s poorly done.

 

Unfortunately, all of this has come to characterize Guantanamo Province in particular and southeastern Cuba in general.

 

The history of Guantanamo is cruel, sinister and associated with tragedy and misfortune. Before the revolution this was the most neglected and backward area of the country, one where education, health care, communications, sports, industry and culture were noted for their low levels.

 

During every election campaign people politicians, opportunists and political operatives would appear promising schools, water and sewage systems, hospitals and jobs – though these individuals would only deceive everyone once the election was over.

 

It was not until the election of President Ramon Grau San Martin into office (1944-48) that large public works projects were implemented that provided 80-85 percent of the current drinking water and sewage services and paved streets of Guantanamo City.

 

Prior to his election, all municipalities and the city of Santiago de Cuba were connected to Guantanamo City by dirt roads, which became impassable during the rainy season.

 

A Curse Disguised As Stability

 

As spoils of the Cuban-Spanish-American War of 1898, in 1903 the United States occupied 45 square miles of land surrounding Guantanamo Bay, one of the best natural, deep water bays in the world. This was later turned into the Guantanamo Naval Base — “Gitmo” — which remains in existence up through today.

 

The presence of this military base on Cuban soil was a curse disguised as economic stability for the area. This was because it provided some 2,500 full and part-time jobs during peace time and many more during times of international conflict, thus turning the facility into the backbone of the local economy.

 

Every week, hundreds of US soldiers and officers who would take their regular passes from the base fostering the largest red-light districts in Cuba. This was in Guantanamo City and Caimanera (the town just north of the base), with hundreds of women from across the country, famous pimps, sexual perversion, drug addiction and trafficking, violence, venereal diseases, blackmail, gambling and bribery coexisting. In some instances these activities were even admired by the leading citizens of our community.

 

Guantanamo’s underdevelopment and absolute dependency on the legal and illicit economic resources coming from the base conferred absolute impunity on the US military, making all crimes — no matter what their severity — outside the legal reach of Cuban authorities.

 

For that reason, the 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks resonated powerfully among youth, who had been humiliated and frustrated by the society imposed on them. This is what led them to join the movement en masse, shed their blood, give their lives and turn Guantanamo into one of the most important anti-Batista bastions during the insurrection.

 

Immediately after the triumph of the revolution, the sailors stationed at Guantanamo Bay were prohibited from taking their leaves off base, the red-light district was shut down, and prostitutes were sent to schools.

 

The hiring of new Cuban civil servants for work on the naval base was barred and the naval base rapidly became transformed into a dangerous beachhead and center for conspiracy on the island.

 

Thousands of common criminals and counterrevolutionaries found refuge in this enclave and hundreds went on to receive military training in Central America and Miami – some of whom returned to the naval base and were then infiltrated back onto Cuban soil to commit all sorts of criminal activities.

 

Tens of millions of useless Cuban pesos were overtly laundered for dollars on its premises, and the formerly English-only local naval base radio station, WGBY, became bi-lingual, allowing it to openly incite Cubans to leave their country.

 

A number of Cuban workers were detained, tortured and murdered on the naval base.  Other Cuban border guards suffered gunshot wounds and three were murdered by shots coming from the base, which led the Cuban government to shut off the source of its water supply.

 

The commanding officer of the naval base then summarily dismissed 700 Cuban employees, which was supposed to have caused the collapse of Guantanamo’s economy with its 100,000 inhabitants.

Serious Collateral Damage 

This partial summary is an attempt to describe the level of hostility, danger and threat that surrounds Guantanamo. All of this turned the area into the second largest minefield in the world and into a place where its perennial fuse could set off an unprecedented military firestorm on our continent.

 

This forces the Cuban government to allocate large amounts of financial resources in defensive fortifications, which in turn leads to the stagnation of the social, agriculture, industrial, cultural and scientific development of that area. The collateral damage has been serious and irreversible in some cases.

 

Over half a century, Guantanamo has ceased to be the most diverse community in Cuba, with a unique mixture of customs and cultures derived from the presence of immigrants from Spain, all of the Caribbean islands, Italians, Germans, Americans, British, Swiss, Lebanese, French, Poles, Pakistanis, Chinese, Hindus, Syrians, Mexicans, Canadians, etc.

 

Yet today its residents are described pejoratively as homeless “Palestinians” in their own country (when in western Cuba) and they have one of the highest rates of migration abroad.

Guantanamo, the region of Cuba that produced the most physicians per capita in the country in the first five graduating classes after the triumph of the revolution, has lost its radiance and incentive. 

Guantanamo, the region with the highest level of rainfall and water reserves, the largest producer of coffee, cocoa and salt in the country, has lost most of its productive capacity, while a large section of the country is dry and thirsty.

 

Guantanamo, with its once famous Samy’s Ice Cream, Tudela’s Candy, India Chocolate, Coconut Pie, 13/13 Laundry Soap, the Ideal Bus Company, the America Movie Theater, the Monte Carlo Cabaret, the Modelo Bakery and “Frio/Caliente” (a popular beach area along the Bano River), has not been able to preserve these for our children, while they become dehydrated in this the warmest part of the country.

 

Guantanamo, the birthplace of the first human of African ancestry to travel into outer space; the home of the Ecological Processing Center for Solid Urban Waste (CEPRU in Spanish), where a descendent of Mariana Grajales placed Cuba on the world map before 3.5 billion viewers watching CNN confer upon her the environmental title of “Heroes for Defending the Planet”; the city’s excellent Olympic athletes, and the impregnable defensive barrier erected by the Border Brigade as the first and most important trench for protecting the nation, all explain and justify why these people deserve a better future.

 

The “Colonia Española” and the “Block Catalan” for whites, the “Club Moncada” and the “Nueva Era” for blacks, the “Siglo XX” for mulatos (mixed race), its dozens of lodges, churches, the British West Indian Welfare Center, the Haitian Community Center, the Tumba Francesa, Guantanamo’s Chinese societies, its children’s choirs, school bands, its shower of stars in the endless search for talent and in sports competitions, each of them in their own particular way have fostered and bestowed on  Guantanamo a certain vitality and moral strength.

 

All of this has enabled most of its youth to confront, resist and triumph over the temptations emanating from the largest corrupting center in the nation.

To restore those arms — ones that protect the present generation of Guantanamo residents and those people of southeastern Cuba — must be an inescapable and non-postponable commitment for all of us.

 

[original urlink]

Guantánamo, la cenicienta de Cuba (parte I)

“Guantánamo, la cenicienta de Cuba” (parte I)

por Alberto N. Jones

 

HAVANA TIMES — En días pasados supimos a través de la prensa que las celebraciones del próximo 26 de Julio serán en nuestro Guantánamo, la cenicienta de Cuba, lo cual nos llenó de alegría, orgullo local y reconocimiento por un pueblo sufrido, olvidado e inconmovible.

 

De inmediato recordé, que en el pasado este honor se le había conferido y poco después de los festejos, todo regresaba a la inercia, falta de creatividad e impunidad con lo mal hecho, que desgraciadamente ha venido a caracterizar a nuestro Guantánamo en particular y a Oriente sur en general.

 

La historia de Guantánamo es cruel, siniestra y está asociada con tragedias e infortunios.  Antes del triunfo de la Revolución ésta era la región más abandonada y atrasada del país, en la cual los sistemas de educación, salud, deporte, comunicación, industrias y cultura, brillaban por su ausencia.

 

En cada periodo electoral aparecían  politiqueros, oportunistas y sargentos políticos prometiendo escuelas, acueducto, alcantarillado, hospitales y empleos, solo para  defraudarnos poco después de haber sido elegidos.

 

No fue hasta el gobierno del Presidente Ramón Grau San Martín en 1944-48, que tuvo lugar un masivo plan constructivo que llevó a Guantánamo el 80-85% del actual sistema de abasto de agua, alcantarillado y pavimentación de sus calles. Todos los municipios y la capital Santiago de Cuba estaban conectados con Guantánamo mediante terraplenes, que eran intransitables en periodos de lluvia.

 

Como botín de la guerra-Hispano-Cubana-Americana de 1898, los Estados Unidos ocuparon en 1903, 118 Km2 de terreno circundante de la bahía de Guantánamo, una de las mejores del mundo, que fue transformado en la Base Naval conocida por GITMO hasta el día de hoy.

 

La presencia de este enclave militar fue una desgracia para la región disfrazada de estabilidad económica, al crear unos 2500 empleos temporales y a tiempo completos en tiempos de paz, y mucho más durante periodos de conflagración internacional, convirtiéndola en la espina dorsal de la economía local.

 

La salida semanal de cientos de militares de “franco” desde la base, creó en Guantánamo y Caimanera el mayor prostíbulo de Cuba, con cientos de mujeres de todo el país, proxenetas famosos, masiva perversión sexual, drogadicción, violencia, enfermedades venéreas, chantajes, traficantes, boliteros y sobornos, coexistían, y en algunos casos, eran admirados por las clases vivas, religiosas, fraternales y legales de la ciudad.

 

El subdesarrollo de Guantánamo y su absoluta dependencia de los recursos económicos legales e ilegales provenientes de la base, les otorgaba a los militares norteamericanos absoluta impunidad, por lo que todos los crímenes, sin importar su gravedad, estaban fuera de la competencia de las autoridades cubanas.

 

 

 

Es por ello, que el asalto al Cuartel Moncada en 1953, encontró una clarinada entre la juventud frustrada y avergonzada de la sociedad que se les había impuesto, llevándolos a sumarse masivamente a esta gesta, por lo que derramaron su sangre, ofrendaron sus vidas y convirtieron a  Guantánamo en uno de los pilares anti batistiano más importantes del país durante el proceso insurreccional.

 

Inmediatamente después del triunfo de la Revolución, se prohibió la salida de la soldadesca de franco de la base, se clausuró el prostíbulo y las prostitutas pasaron a escuelas. Se impidió el ingreso de nuevos empleados cubanos en la base naval y esta se transformó de inmediato en una cabeza de playa y un peligroso centro de conspiración dentro de Cuba.

 

Miles de delincuentes comunes y contrarrevolucionarios encontraron asilo en dicho enclave, recibieron entrenamiento militar en Centro América o Miami, regresando a la base y logrando, algunos, infiltrarse en Cuba para sus acciones delictivas. Decenas de millones de pesos desvalorizados en manos de desafectos fueron cambiados abiertamente por dólares dentro de la base y su emisora local WBGY se hizo bilingüe, incitando abiertamente la emigración de cubanos.

 

Varios trabajadores cubanos fueron detenidos, torturados y asesinados dentro de la base.  Varios soldados cubanos Guarda fronteras fueron heridos de bala, y tres asesinados por disparos provenientes de su interior, por lo que en 1964, el gobierno cubano determinó cerrar la toma del abasto de agua a dicho enclave, lo cual determinó que el jefe militar de la base despidiera en masa a unos 700 empleados, lo que supondría el colapso económico de Guantánamo y sus 100,000 habitantes.

 

Este resumen parcial pretende describir el grado de hostilidad, peligros y amenazas imperante en Guantánamo, que  convirtió a esa zona en el segundo campo minado más grande del mundo y en una llama perenne que podía desencadenar una conflagración bélica sin precedentes en nuestro continente, forzando a nuestro gobierno a dedicar incalculables recursos económicos para su fortificación defensiva y el consiguiente estancamiento del desarrollo social, agrícola, industrial, cultural y científico de la región.

 

El daño colateral vivido es grave e irreversible en algunos casos. Guantánamo ha pasado en medio siglo a ser, la comunidad más diversa de Cuba, con un sincretismo de hábitos y cultura sui géneris, derivada de la presencia de inmigrantes españoles, caribeños de cada una de sus islas, italianos, alemanes, ingleses, norteamericanos, suizos, libaneses, franceses, polacos, pakistaníes, chinos, hindúes, sirios, mejicanos, canadienses etc., a palestinos en su propia tierra y con uno de los mayores índices migratorios hacia el exterior.

 

Guantánamo, la región de Cuba que produjo más médicos por habitantes en el país en las primeras cinco graduaciones después del triunfo de la Revolución, ha perdido hoy su brillo e incentivo.

 

Guantánamo, la región con el mayor caudal y reserva de agua del país, la mayor productora de Café, Cacao y Sal, ha perdido su capacidad productiva, mientras gran parte del país está seca y sedienta.

 

Guantánamo, la del famoso helado Samy’s, los Caramelos Tudela, el Chocolate la India, el Pie de Coco, el jabón 13/13, los ómnibus La Ideal, el cine América, el Cabaret Monte Carlo, la panadería Modelo o el Frio/Caliente, el popular balneario en el rio Bano, no hemos sido capaces de preservarlos para nuestros hijos, mientras se deshidratan en la región más cálida del país.

 

 

 

Guantánamo, el lugar de nacimiento del primer hombre en el espacio con vínculos filiales en África,  el CEPRU, donde una heredera de Mariana Grajales puso a Cuba en el mapa-mundi ante 3.5 mil millones de espectadores, sus excelsos deportistas olímpicos y la inexpugnable barrera defensiva de la Brigada Fronteriza en la primera y más importante trinchera del país, justifican con creces, que este pedazo de tierra y su gente, sean dignos de mejor suerte.

 

La Colonia Española y el Block Catalán para blancos, el Club Moncada y la Nueva Era para negros, el Siglo XX para mulatos, decenas de logias, iglesias, el Center, la Tumba Francesa, las Sociedades Chinas, los coros juveniles, las bandas y paradas escolares, Lluvia de Estrellas en su búsqueda constante de talento y las competencias deportivas, forjaron y le confirieron a Guantánamo una vitalidad y fortaleza moral, que permitió al grueso de su juventud, resistir y vencer las tentaciones emanadas del mayor centro de corrupción del país.

Restituir esas armas, esa coraza a la generación actual de Guantánamo y de Oriente sur, ha de ser un compromiso ineludible e impostergable de todos.

[articulo original]

 

May 20th: The most tragic date on the Cuban calendar

"May 20th: The most tragic date on the Cuban calendar."

by Alberto N. Jones

May18, 2012

In 1902, the United States government turned over a crippled and severely war-torn nation to a group of privileged upper class opportunists.  They dismantled the Army of Independence and replaced it with a corrupt Rural Guard where blacks could not rise above the rank of lieutenant and a police force that excluded blacks altogether. The government was formed by a cadre of preselected lackey politicians who, through an electoral farce in which illiterate, women and those owning less than $500.00 in a war ravished nation, were precluded to vote.

Black Cubans were marginalized to the worst neighborhoods. Education was segregated and privatized. Government’s jobs were prioritized for those of Spanish ancestry. Private companies excluded blacks and mulattos from large enterprises, banks, utilities, transportation, commerce etc.

In a carefully conceived plan, Teddy Roosevelt encouraged a selective migration of over 71,000 Spaniards from the Canary Islands, hoping to bleach the country, dilute the demographics and tip the voting balance.  Thousands of them received agricultural lands for the development of tobacco in western Cuba or at discount prices elsewhere.  Blacks and mulattos received none.

Hoping to find a way to overcome this severe marginalization, segregation, and various inequalities that afflicted blacks and mulattos, former members of the Cuban Army of Independence, workers, intellectuals, housewives and some whites, came together in 1908 and founded the Independent Party of Color in Havana. Rather than welcoming this socio-political development, the dominant class and the media unleashed a barrage of accusations against them accusing them of being sectarian, allied with the United States embassy, and attempting to create a black republic like Haiti, being violence-prone, rapists and believers of voodoo.

Although even by today’s standards, the Independent Party of Color programmatic platform was the most advanced at the time, it was withheld from the public and routinely distorted. Following are some of its most outstanding objectives:

1. Repatriation with government funds, of every Cuban wishing to return to their country of origin, if they could not afford it on their own.
2. Universal, obligatory and free education through university for all.
3. Opposition to the death penalty, penal reform and trade education for inmates prior to their re-integration into society.
4. Distribution of government land to landless citizens and review of those acquired during the military intervention.
5. Eight hour work shift and the creation of a labor mediation tribunal.  Regulation of child labor.
6. Hiring of blacks and mix race by the Cuban government for foreign service.

 

Although this most advanced, non-sectarian constitution remains a dream for many countries in the world one hundred years later, the Independent Party of Color was subjected to constant police harassment, incarceration of its leaders, regular suspensions and finally, with the help of an unprincipled, sell-out black congressman, an amendment was passed forbidding the formation of political parties based upon racial affiliation. Left with no other option, 10 years to the day of the infamous proclamation of the pseudo-republic, hundreds of poorly armed or unarmed members of the party, rose up against the government to express their displeasure with the prevailing environment primarily in the provinces of Oriente and Las Villas.

The government of president Jose Miguel Gomez assembled the largest military strike force to date under the command General Monteagudo, head of the Cuban army, which entered Yateras, Guantanamo, Songo-La Maya, Micara and Santiago de Cuba, slaughtering every blacks or mulatto who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The United States army participated indirectly by relieving many military posts in Oriente. In a report from General Monteagudo to president Jose Miguel Gomez he wrote that the strike had become a butchery in the woods in which it is impossible to determine the number of casualties. Unofficial reports put the toll at between 3000 and 6000 individuals.

In a clear attempt to teach a lesson and terrorize blacks and mulattos, enraged soldiers and urgently enlisted volunteers, paraded mutilated bodies on horseback through towns and villages, while carrying bags with ears, cut-off from their victims. Adding insult to injury, a huge victory luncheon was hosted in Havana Central Park by President Jose Miguel Gomez, where the best and brightest of the Cuban society, including Ismaelillo, the son of Jose Marti, celebrated the country’s worst and most horrendous bloodbath, tarnishing its history for a lifetime. Then on May 18, 1936, one of the most ornate, glamorous monuments in Cuba, was dedicated to Jose Miguel Gomez, the mastermind and executioners of this crime, on President’s Avenue in Havana.

Inexplicably 100 years later, no political party, religious organization, humanitarian association, workers union or governments, have had the courage, decency or dignity to erect a wooden cross, plant a tree or light a candle in Songo-La Maya for the victims. Following this brutal massacre, a huge official veil of complicit silence, wrapped and hid this repulsive chapter, expecting it to disappear as other oral history. Just two paragraphs, as an epithaph in our bourgeois history books, reflected on it. Our nation has failed shamefully to educate our children, publish books, produce films or TV programs about this barbaric behavior, which remains the only resource available to us to help us eradicate lingering prejudices and preconceptions in our society.

The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the present government has nothing to do with this horrendous page of our tragic history.  In numerous speeches, government leaders at the highest level have denounced this scourge in our society to no avail. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the development of tourism, joint-ventures and corporations in Cuba, racism re-emerged with a viciousness and virulence, that has spread across the country like a wildfire, devouring much of the core values of our nation.

To assume, that such brutal and overt racism, segregation and marginalization of our society could have taken place without capturing the attention of our authorities, is implausible to say the least. Blacks were not employed at front desk jobs, managerial positions or even as token leadership in the hospitality industry.  Most were limited to be in the kitchen and gardens, clearly away from all access to hard currency. Housekeeping in hotels and resort became off limits for black women. Miramar, Vedado, old Havana and even Vista Alegre in Santiago de Cuba business centers, looks more like Finland than Cuba.  A code word became popular among human resource employees for not hiring certain people, was not having  “fine features”.  Police patrols on Obispo St. and other tourist area, became internationally renowned for their overt racial profiling.

The Cuban government did not introduce racism, segregation and marginalization to Cuba, but after 50 years in power, with every possible resource at its disposal and an effective information gathering capability, the government cannot abdicate or deny its full responsibility in the perpetuation and tolerance of this social aberration. The past three years in Cuba have seen the first serious, profound, concerted attempt by the government to deal with this repulsive issue. Numerous seminars, conferences, and symposiums, are discussing this matter across the country.  A discrete attempt to reduce demeaning performance by blacks in TV programs and films, a mildly more balance composition of soap operas etc., seems to be responding to a generalize outcry of the population.

Every honest person, whatever their personal views maybe of the Cuban government, must commend and respect the courageous, unprecedented and firm corrective steps that president Raul Castro has implemented to deal with this thorny issue. Unfortunately, the severity of the level of marginalization, segregation, poverty, desperation, tension and social instability that is breeding among this sector of society, cannot wait or do not understand most of the heated theoretical, intellectual discussions that are taking place everywhere.  For hundreds of thousands of blacks and mulattos, trapped by hunger, despair, living in infrahuman condition and unfulfilled hopes in slums across Cuba, this is not a matter of academic or philosophical analysis.  For them, immediate solution and a means of survival are the only game in town!

For these and other reasons, I have not been drawn into the understandable and bitter arguments of some, who believes the monument of Jose Miguel Gomez is a national affront and should therefore be removed.  Then what? I prefer to believe, that the Cuban government must commit itself immediately to build a human development monument to the Cuban people, beginning with those in the Yateras-Guantanamo-Santiago de Cuba corridor, where thousands of members of the Party of Color, were slaughtered exactly 100 years ago. They died not for asking for anything for themselves, but for demanding justice, equality and fairness for all.

This region comprise 10% of the country’s population and enormous natural resources. It has a unique history and culture, and a high educational level. As long as the filial relation with the Caribbean and Afroamerica remain ignored and untapped, it will continue to be the poorest, blackest, most forgotten and least developed portion of the country. We will continue to sit on a tinder box with unpredictable consequences.

May 20th. The most tragic date on the Cuban calendar. Part I

"May 20th.  The most tragic date on the Cuban calendar.  Part I"
by Alberto N. Jones
May 18, 2012

In a few hours, the calendar will mark another twentieth of May,  the most  fatidic  date in Cuba’s convulsive history, which has shaped like no other day, the views, emotions, frustrations and behavior of millions of its people.

The first recorded tragic May 20th, began at noon with the lowering of the American flag and the rising of the Cuban flag at the Morro Castle in Havana’s harbor.  It is said, the Cuban people were joyous to see the Americans leave after occupying our country for the past four years and in so doing, we were made to believe, we were a free, independent and sovereign nation.

Gratitude to our powerful neighbor to the north was instilled in us and celebrated with huge yearly parades, bands and flutes, honoring a pseudo-independence and a liberation day that never was.

Even today, 110 years after this fateful day, powerful Cuban American interests in the United States and in other large Cuban communities around the world, receive unqualified moral support from the US State Department to honor, keep alive and perpetuate this fatidic day among younger generations.

Facts of life would soon make it clear to most Cubans, that the precursors of this national tragedy, can be traced back to the unsolicited arrival of the USS Maine into the harbor of Havana in 1898.  The questionable cause of the massive onboard explosion, its subsequent sinking in deep waters by the US Navy and a full-blown mass media hysteria of “Remember the Maine” with cries for revenge, suggests a master conspiracy plan, designed to create the Cuban-American-Hispanic war.

After thirty years on the battle field in one of the most unequal  struggle in the history of mankind, the fully integrated Cuban Army of Independence had literally defeated the exhausted Spanish Occupying Forces, when the United States unilaterally decided to intervene in Cuba with a racist, segregated armada.

This military skirmish, which lasted less than three months and  most US casualties  were due to tropical diseases,  set the stage for the intractable, century old grievances, suspicion and resentment between the United States and Cuba, which like a suppurating, painful wound, refuse to heal.

Cubans were not allowed at the surrendering ceremony of the Spanish Army in Santiago de Cuba, nor were they allowed months later at the Paris Conference, where Spain officially relinquished all of its rights over the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and for all legal purposes Cuba to the United States, turning this country overnight, into an empire with the stroke of a pen.

With the help of corrupt, unprincipled, opportunists Cuban politicians, tens of US companies prompted by the US State Department, flocked to Cuba and purchased for pennies on the dollar, millions of acres of prime farmland, sugar factories, utilities, transportation, banks, industries, energy, communication and every other important sectors of the Cuban economy.

Politically, Cuba was strapped to United States through the Monroe Doctrine and the Platt Amendment, a stranglehold that prohibited Cuba from entering into any legal, economic or political agreement with any nation, without prior approval by the US State Department.

Equally damaging to the country’s future, was the introduction of government corruption, cronyism, kick back, favoritism and political parties divorced from their people, which corroded the moral fiber of the nascent nation.

Still, the worst legacy left in Cuba by the presence of the United States since 1898 through 1958, was the resurrection of racism, segregation, marginalization and other divisive tools based upon class, creed, color and ethnic origin as it is in the United States.

This monstrosity have weaken the substrate of  a once solidly unified nation on the battlefield, whose motto was more than white, more than black more than mulatto, just say Cuban, by exposing its integrity to machinations by foreign manipulations of our people sensitivities, enhancing conflicts and by endangering the security and future of our nation.

Chapter two will focus on this cancer, which sadly, is alive and well in Cuba.

1912: Breaking the Silence

"1912, Breaking the Silence"

Alberto N. Jones

Braving a heavy downpour on Friday October 14, 2011, over fifty diplomats from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Bahamas, Congo, Nicaragua and Bolivia; historians and a handful of especially invited guests were shaken and brought to tears, during the premier of the second chapter of the documentary 1912, Breaking the Silence, at the beautifully restored Casa del Alba in Havana.

This powerful documentary was built and supported by the input and analysis of many of Cuba’s most respected historians, researchers, sociologists, educators and a wealth of never before seen documents, pictures, newspapers clippings, first class images and a moving musical background.

Like most families or nations with an ugly story, some members of society may choose to believe this event never happened, others may wish it will be forgotten and die, while others may try to keep it hidden under the rug or shoot the messenger.

For nearly 100 years, most of Cuba’s history books dedicated two paragraphs or less to describe derogatorily what was known as "Blacks Little War," which was caused by racist, separatist black troublemakers, who revolted against a democratically elected government, forcing it to restore law and order in the country.

The root cause of this heinous crime in which it is alleged 3,000 men, women and children were massacred, the witch hunt that followed, the long lasting fear that was instilled in blacks and mixed raced Cubans through beatings, lynching and murders to conform or else, was never a subject matter of any history department or the media, always ready to denounce similar crimes committed elsewhere.

This is how director and producer Gloria Rolando have single handedly, made a monumental contribution to Cuba’s historiography, with an honest attempt to help us set our record straight, a plea for justice for the victims and a unique opportunity for our country to begin the healing process without which Cuba will never become the beacon of justice and social equality it must be.

'El Doce: Remembering Cuba's Hidden Genocide'

In a little bit more than six months, we will arrive at the 100th anniversary of El Doce, the genocidal massacre of thousands of Afro-Cubans. In preparation for this, Dr. Jones is embarking on a process of preparation which will include but is not limited to press interviews, speaking engagements, et cetera.

To assist in his effort, i am reposting here on his blog a piece i have shared in different venues over the past 11 years. It was Dr. Jones that first brought El Doce to my attention and it is fitting that i share - again - what i wrote about it here with his writings.

Please stay tuned for additional information as Spring 2012 approaches.

- hassan

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Six years ago, I first attempted to bring to the web a story known by some, unknown to more, ignored by many, and hidden by too many: El Doce.

El Doce is the tragic story of the racist massacre that killed thousands of Black Cubans across the entire country of Cuba in late spring and early summer of 1912.

My initial attempt to play a part in bringing to light yet another example of vicious genocide was on meacfans.com in May 2000. Two years (and many Black History Month emails later), I was
fortunate enough to have The Miami Times agree to publish the story in a three part series that was very well-received by people in Miami eager to get another side of the Cuban story.

The overwhelming majority of the material I have referenced during my research comes from two very good books that I encourage readers to look into when some allows for some deep and
informative historical reading.

The first book is Our Rightful Share: the AfroCuban Struggle for Equality, 1886 - 1912 by Aline Helg who was a professor at the University of Texas and now resides in Switzerland. This
book was highly recommended to me and I can see why. It was not easy finding Our Rightful Share but, once I did locate it, it was well worth the efforts. This book is well-written and extremely illuminating.

The other book is El Negro en Cuba (or The Black Man in Cuba) by Tomás Fernández Robaina. Please note that the only copy of this book that I have been able to find is in Spanish.

I was also very blessed to have discovered during my research a wonderful website that I still refer to frequently: afrocubaweb.com. This extraordinary website has been invaluable as it has rare photographs related to El Doce - including most of the images contained on this page - as well as information about a film made by Cuban film maker Gloria Rolando about this massacre,Raices de Mi Corazon (Roots of My Heart).

I used a third book - a doctoral dissertation found in an obscure corner of the University of Miami's library but only sparingly.

Please note that what follows is not meant to be a formal academic discourse hence I beg the pardon of my friends in academia who may bristle at the lack of a formal methodology in this essay.

October, 1868 set into motion what became the definitive and defiant anomaly of the Victorian Age. While Europe and the United States were putting the macabre and sadistic tenets of social Darwinism (the "scientific paradigm" that was in vogue at that time among learned and civilized men of culture - read that to mean white men – which spoke so self-righteously of superior races and inferior races designed to justify modern colonialism) into brutal and avaricious practice in Africa and Asia andwestern North America, Cuban revolutionaries set out to drive Spain (the originator of the various modus operandi of modern colonialism) into the Caribbean Sea.

There were no more master and slave - only citizens. To be racist was to be unpatriotic - a traitor to the homeland. Black, white, Cantonese, and mixed-race Cubans rose in righteous rebellion against the Spanish crown and all of the oppressive and dysfunctional institutions it so callously imposed upon Cuba. As was said during the thirty-year struggle for independence, the blood of both white and black patriots spilled on the field of battle fighting for Cuba intermingled to fertilize the soil of freedom.

To have a revolutionary ideology (that at times manifested itself almost as a radical theology) which not only spoke and wrote of the brotherhood of all humans but also acted upon it (over 70% of the officer corps of the Army of Independence was "of color") was something that ran in the face of all that was reassuring to Euro-centric concentrations of political, economic, social, and military power. url link

Many AfroCubans fought valiently for the cause of Cuban Independence from Spain. When I write that "many AfroCubans" rushed to join the ranks of the Cuban Liberation Army (in numbers that were - in many instances - much larger in proportion than white Cubans), I mean that women and children often fought too.

The Republic of Cuba was "born" on 20 May, 1902 but only after Cuba's "leaders" agreed to make its sovereignty conditional to the impermanent approval of the United States government.

Almost from the outset, AfroCubans realized that many whites were intent on taking all of the spoils that so many Black Cubans had fought so valiantly for during the War of Independence.

Basically, three things kept AfroCubans - many of whom were veterans of the War of Independence) oppressed and frustrated:

• racist, Jim Crow policies advocated and encouraged by the United States while the U.S. was occupying Cuba
  
• racist and corrupt white Cubans that were in positions of power at virtually every level of government and business
  
• Spanish and other European immigrants that were encouraged to settle in Cuba as per attempts to "bleach" the island.

Suffrage for Black males was not a problem in Cuba then as it was in the United States at the same time however getting decent jobs and admittance into organized labor was. For example, Quintín Banderas, one of the most famous of Black generals for Cuban independence, could not even get a job as a janitor after the war.

Banderas

With regards to the vote that Black men had in Cuba, it was not long before they realized what still so many African-Americans in the United States have yet to realize: the "big" political parties are not going to truly look out for the best interest of both Black and white party members.

Thus, on 7 August, 1908, Evaristo Estenoz and Gregorio Surín started El Partido Independiente de Color (P.I.C. or the Independent Party of Color). Remember that, at this time, the NAACP had not even been started in the United States.

The PIC was the first all-Black political party in this hemisphere.

The PIC's platform was simple and straightforward:

• allow for better job opportunities for Black Cubans
  
• end to the ban on Black immigrants
  
• serve as a unified voice for Black Cubans.

"I am a black dot, one out of the anonymous mass of my race, who longs for the claim of my people through our own effort, through the compact union and solidarity of our family."

- a letter to Previsión, the main publication the PIC (from Our Rightful Share)

At the time, AfroCubans comprised about a third of the Cuban population at the time (this was due to disportionate casualty rates for Black during the War of Independence and the aggressive importation of white immigrants from Europe). However, if whites were split between the liberal and conservative parties modeled on the United States' two party system and Black Cubans, who were viewed as a wing vote to patronize during campaigns, were to vote as a bloc the political power of Blacks in Cuba would likely be a major force in elections and policy-making.

This basically, was the first time anything like this was seriousl proposed since Haiti. This is important to note because the "spectre" of Haiti loomed ominously over Spanish and Cuban whites for a century and most of their policies towards Cuba's Blacks were reflective of it.

The immediate reaction of whites was to denounce the PIC as being racist. Yet, they failed to realize (or acknowledge) that the PIC was borne not out of AfroCuban racism but as a direct result of white Cubans ignoring the ideals of Cuban racial harmony stressed by many and perhaps most famously by José Martí.

The PIC was formed during the second U.S. occupation of Cuba (the American provisional governor at the time of the second occupation was then-Secretary of War and future President William Taft). The following year Martin Morúa Delgado, a conservative Cuban of color, is elected Speaker in Cuba's Senate. The year after that, Morúa introduces legislation that becomes known as the Morúa Amendment and it outlaws the PIC because is based on race and, according to the bill's supporters, racism did not exist in Cuba anymore.

Interesting to note that, just before the vote was taken to enact this bill into law, Estenoz and other PIC leaders were imprisoned and were kept in jail until after the law was passed.

Estonez

Shortly after Estenoz was jailed, Morúa himself died. He was given a full state honors, no doubt to demonstrate to Black Cubans the benefits of supporting the status quo versus trying to rehabilitate it.

"Everybody has seen the succes achieved by our party [the PIC] in all the republic and [our] last brilliant tour of Oriente, and everybody could evaluate the electoral victory awaiting us. In order to oppose it, they have resorted to the bad means of depicting us as 'cannibals of whites'."

- Evaristo Estenoz, "La Discusión" (from Our Rightful Share)

A continuation and escalation of repression of Blacks that began during the first administration of Cuba's first president, Tomás Estrada Palma was one reaction to the formation of the PIC. Among the tactics employed was ignoring the blatant portrayal of AfroCubans in negative lights in the Cuban press as well as attempts to stamp out any evidence of African culture and heritage including trying to do away with the Abakúa brotherhood. This was done in much the same fashion by which Spain outlawed Freemasonry in Cuba in 1895 (many respected leaders in the Independence movement such as Antonio Maceo and Martí were Masons).

By spring of 1912, the inevitable decision to protest this repression had arrived.

On 20 May, 1912, PIC party members - many of whom were veterans of the War of Independence - assembled in protest in Oriente Province. A statement was made via an interview the following day that the movement was not racist - it sought only to redress the grievances of PIC.

American government officials, upon hearing of the protest, sent 700 servicemen and 2 warships from Philadelphia on 23 May.

Also on that day, a Cuban government official sent off a telegraph to The New York Timesstating the majority of the Cuban people were on the side of the government. Debate on the "insurrection" began in the Cuban House of Representatives and a Spaniard was captured by government forces claiming that he was forcibly conscripted by the "rebels of the PIC."

The Cuban Legation in Washington, D.C. received an urgent telegraph stating that the government is in complete control of the situation.

Volunteers to help existing Cuban government forces fight against PIC came forward en masse.

The Government declared its intention not to negotiate with PIC. The Cabinet authorized the use of whatever recourse is necessary to crush the "rebellion. " On 25 May, Cuban coast guard boat El Hatuey was sent to Oriente Province with a caché of arms and other war materiel.

The Cuban government was then informed that Washington had ordered two battleships in the area to rendezevous at Key West for the possibility of engagement. The following day, Cuban President José Miguel Goméz cabled Washington asking them to please refrain from intervening for the sake of Cuba's natural sovereign rights.

On 27 May, Cuban Army General Monteagudo was dispatched to Oriente.

U.S. President Taft replied to Goméz by stating that he understood concerns for Cuban sovereignty and then proceeded to explain the rationale behind the movement of American military forces.

A newspaper in London stated that the British opinion of the events was that the U.S. would annex Cuba outright.

On 5 June, constitutional guarantees were suspended in Oriente as martial law was declared. A war credit of a million pesos was granted to the Cuban army and 450 American servicemen arrived in Cuba. A day later, Goméz called for a national struggle against "rebels."

The following is taken from Aline Helg's Our Rightful Share:

By May 1912, there was still no sign that the independientes would be allowed to participate in the November elections.

By showing their willingness to resort to armed protest, [so as to compel the Cuban congress to repeal the "Morua Amendment" outlawing PIC] however, the independientes prompted an outbrust of racism that swept the entire country. Although the independientes actually demonstrated only in Oriente, white repression was nationwide, indiscriminate, and unopposed.

..the government rallied immediate cross-party support for a policy of merciless repression; throughout the island, thousands of whites organized themselves into local "self-defense" militias and volunteered to go fight in Oriente.

The US government dispatched Marines to protect US lives and properties.

In the face of President Gómez' inflexibility and the army's increasing antiblack violence, on 31 May and 1 June the independientes performed limited sabotage and burned some buildings. Instantly magnified, this act provoked a new escalation of repression of AfroCubans in the provinces of Havana, Santa Clara, and elsewhere. Moreover, it justified the suspension of constitutional guarantees on 5 June in Oriente, where the bloodiest violence took place.

Thousands of AfroCubans, including Evaristo Estenoz, Pedro Ivonnet, and hundreds of other independientes, were killed by the Cuban army and voluntarios. This massacre achieved what Morúa's amendment and the trial against the party in 1910 had been unable to do: it put a definitive end to the Partido Independiente de Color and made it clear to all AfroCubans that any further attempt to challenge the social order would be crushed with bloodshed.

Journalists had a predilection for reporting false rumors of rapes of white women. In a population in which the ideals of virginity and pureza de sangre ["pure blood"] still ran high and in which white men continued to outnumber white women, the image of Blacks raping white women fit in with the overall representation of race war. The idea had been so deeply rooted in white Cuban culture since the time of slavery that it did not need the support of evidence.

"The Uprising of the Black Independents

Alarms and Rumors Everywhere - The Official Version"

Moreover, newspapers claimed that the real leader of the movement was not Estenoz or Ivonnet but, rather, Eugenio Lacoste, "the Wizard of Guantánamo." The son of a Haitian immigrant, light-skinned, and educated in oriental French schools, Lacoste had been struck down by paralysis at the age of twenty-one and since then had been confined to a wheel chair. In 1912, he was a fifty-one year old coffee grower and the head of the PIC in Guantánamo; he was rumored to dominate his "fanatical" followers by spritualism and brujería [witchcraft]. This explanation allowed commentators to enhance the image of the Black brujo with that of the Haitian voodoo priest [bokor].

The racialization of the independiente movement and the ensuing mobilization of whites against Blacks rendered the Cuban myth of racial equality ideologically useless.

[One Cuban newspaper] advocated that Cuba should emulate the United States in matter of race relations. In that country, an editorialist noted, there were ten million Blacks, but they did not rebel. Why? Because U.S. whites, unlike Cuban whites, mistreated Blacks: they burned them alive, they lynched them, they kept them completely segregated, and they did not let them vote. He concluded: "Objective lessons are terrible: Dominated races do submit."

[Prior to May 1912] whites were ready to interpret any movement of Blacks as an uprising.

Local rumors...were propogated at the national level by mainstream newspapers, which gave the impression that the supposed race war raged not only in Oriente but everywhere on the island. Fears rose nationwide. In the province of Havana, though no protest group had been observed, the alarm ran high. Black seasonal workers journeying home at the end of the zafra [sugar cane harvest] were the subjects of numerous rumors about attempted Black uprisings.

The independiente leaders were well informed about the chasm between newspaper descriptions of the alleged race war and the reality of thier armed protest. On several occasions, the formally denied to Cuban journalists and to U.S. officials that they had launched a war against whites: their aim was simply to obtain a repeal of Morúa's amendment, Estenoz and Ivonnet declared to El Cubano Libre's correspondent. In addition, they asserted that their followers would not commit rapes, and that if rapes did take place, the culprits would be executed.

The orgy of murder that ensued was unilateral.

...Repression preceded Independiente actions.

Frustrated at not having the chance to fight rebels ["rebels" refers to independientes who did not surrender to the army - Ivonnet did and he was shot in the back, "trying to escape"], Cuban officers began to attack peaceful peasants [guajiros] indiscriminately in order to show military activity. One particularly bloody incident was the artillery campaign that Gen. Carlos Mendieta conducted in the area of La Maya. On 31 May, Mendieta invited journalists to witness the efficiency of the army's new machine guns against an alleged encampment of rebels in Hatillo. His forces then simulated a battle. As a result, 150 peaceful AfroCuban peasants, among them women and children, were killed or wounded. Entire families were machine-gunned in their bohíos. According to one witness, the cries of the wounded resonated in the distance, and for days vultures circled over the area, attracted by the corpses.

...Whites were permitted to carry arms without license.

Government forces suspected the entire AfroCuban population of collaborating with the rebels. Blacks and mulattoes found in the fields were considered rebels, unarmed peasants were believed to have hidden their guns, and all were treated without mercy. Military rule facilitated both arrests withouth evidence and executions for alleged attempts to escape. The requirement that individuals have military passes to enter and leave cities considerably restrained AfroCubans' movements: "No suspects or culprits are able to ask for passes," one journalist reported, "because they are well aware that such boldness would surely cost them their lives...."

Mass killings multiplied after the suspension of the constitutional guarantees. The bodies of hanged men began to appear in close proximity to towns....

By 10 June, it was public knowledge that those shot or hanged were seldom rebels. According to the U.S. Consul in Santiago de Cuba, "many innocent and defenseless Negroe in the country are being butchered." Bohíos were set on fire, and peasant families trying to run away were hunted down and shot. Alleged rebels who surrendered or were taken prisoner were often killed, and their bodies were often multilated.

The British consulate at Santiago reported that whites would come into town with a packet of Negroes' ears cut off prisoners who had been shot.

...Commander of the Cuban Army General Monteagudo carried out such "carnage in the hills" that "it was impossible to estimate the number of dead."

Estonez was shot at point-blank range, together with fifty men.... His body, covered with flies, was displayed in Santiago de Cuba before being buried in a common grave....

...The exact balance of the racist massacre of 1912 will never be known. Official Cuban sources put the number of dead rebels [no mention of innocent "civilians" murdered] at more than 2,000. U.S. citizens living in Oriente estimated it at 5,000 to 6,000. Guillermo Lara, an indepiente fighting with Estonez, spoke of 5,000 dead. In contrast, the official figure for the total dead in the armed forces was sixteen, including eight AfroCubans murdered by their white mates and some men shot by friendly fire.

In all likelihood, Estonez and Ivonnet never expected the racist outcry that followed the launching for their armed protest. Several sources even indicate that the independientes had made an argreement with President Gómez.

The deal that appears to have been was that the PIC would protest, Gómez would use the "threat" for leverage to compel Congress to repeal the Morúa amendment and he would get credit for "saving the day." In turn, the PIC would support the president and his candidates in November. This was not a big secret to the point where even the French ambassador was aware of it and the British consulate in Santiago had noticed that, as some independientes were being arrested, the leaders of the PIC, Estonez and Ivonnet, walked about undisturbed by authorities without having to "hide."

However, it appears that the president was selling worthless tickets of deceit to PIC as evidenced by the following from Our Rightful Share:

Mainstream white Cuban reaction to the 1910 ... repression of the PIC ... had shown [that Gómez had more to gain from just the opposite of what he promised to the PIC].

On this basis, a more Machiavellian version of the thesis of an independiente agreement with Gómez cannot be excluded: that President Gómez hoped to be reelected in November 1912 not through independientes' support but through a broad white support - transcending party allegiance - gained in the
military repression of an independiente armed protest he himself would've induced.

Since I first attempted to tell this story in 2000 it has become known to some as the "Cuban Rosewood." Because the telling of this story involved forces much more complex and deep-seeded than what one would expect, there is no way that this journal entry could ever fully tell the story. If anything, it is my sincere hope that this will motivate the reader to seek out additional truthes not only about this tragedy (I strongly recommend purchasing copies of Ms. Helg's important historical testimony, Our Rightful Share) but also other tragic stories such as Tulsa and its Black Wall Street, Rwanda, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the eviction and liquidation of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and so many others (if you dont know about Ida B. Wells, do learn about her - soon!).

The presence of a Black dot on the psuedowhiteness of our sociopolitical floor was cleverly used to delude the Black masses into believing that they were respected and taken into account.

-Alberto Arredondo, El Negro en Cuba

* * * * * * * * *

**Other helpful sources:

• La Jiribilla
• Cuban history website
• Diaspora Studies at NWU
• Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, & Revolution, 1868 - 1898 por Ada Ferrer

The Birth and Death of a Fake Man-Made Feud

"The birth and death of a fake man-made feud"
Alberto N. Jones
June 20, 2011

In 1999, it became evident that the United States through its Cuban-American surrogates in south Florida, was introducing a new strategy in their efforts to undermine the Cuban government.

Having identified a substantial demographic shift in favor of Afro-Cubans in the early 90’s, a growing economical crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the existence of only a nominal amount of Afro-Cubans living abroad able to help family members with remittances, created the perfect mix for their proselytizing projects to take root in Cuba.

Aggravating these factors, was a forceful push by Cubans of Hispanic ancestry to co-opt every job earning hard currency in Cuba, monopolize most promotions, travels abroad, improved living conditions, cars and all other material benefits, further deepening the racial and social divide.

Coincidentally, a well intended program in the 2000’s with an unforeseen adverse consequence, consisted of providing emigrants and descendent from Spain, China, Arabs and Israel with humanitarian assistance from their respective countries or organizations abroad, while no similar humanitarian assistance existed for those of African ancestry.

These combined factors created the right broth in which, a number of anti-Castro Afro-Cubans in and outside of Cuba proliferated exuberantly, some of whom, were recruited as US-AID operatives and front foundations, all with a multiprong, heavily funded, subversive program, determined to exacerbate racial divisions, civil unrest and to erode the Cuban government support base.

Tens of unknown Afro-Cubans until then, such as Dr. Elias Biscet, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Vladimiro Roca, Guillermo Farinas and others, replaced well established White Cuban dissidents Osvaldo Paya, Elizardo Sanchez and others.

Suddenly, the Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, Unidad Cubana, Cuban Liberty Council and other lily white counterrevolutionary groups, failed the melanin litmus test and were pushed aside by the US State Department.

Many Afro-Cubans living in Cuba, were acutely aware of these growing inequalities, which they confronted initially through intellectual gatherings, writings and visual arts, as they navigated a slippery slope, by avoiding all confrontation with the Cuban government or for creating a perception of being a resonance box for those bent on fomenting internal conflict.

Tens of thousands of people in this hemisphere, who may have escaped death or injury in a potential race war, shall forever be grateful to the vision and tireless work of Dr. Wayne Smith, Senior Fellow at the Center For International Policy, Washington, D.C., who organized a number of educational seminars on these burning and potentially dangerous issues in the United States.

The first International Conference on this matter, “Views of the Afro-Cuban Community, was organized at Barry University, Miami, 1998.

An expanded and more complex second International Conference, “Afro-Cubans in Cuban society, Past, Present and Future” took place at the John Hopkins University, Washington D. C. in 1999.

The Third International Conference, “Questions on Racial Identity, Racism and Anti-Racist Policies in Cuba Today“, was hosted by the Center For International Policy at the University of California, Washington Center on June 2, 2011, which lived up to the highest expectation of participants from Cuba and from across the United States, after a twelve year hiatus.

A profound and thorough historical description about the evolution of racism in Cuba by two excellent, well documented visiting Cuban scholars, was enlightening and defining. A myriad of questions from the audience followed each panel, requiring at times, that questions had to be grouped, in order to fit within our tight time constraints.

The past was discussed, the present was dissected and the future has begun to be plotted with all factors in Cuba, knowing that it success is contingent on our ability to bring together every person of goodwill from around the world, in this unprecedented, corrective, transformative, far reaching project, which will inexorably turn Cuba into a beacon of social equality and road map for others to follow.

Cuba, like no other country in the world, have contributed enormous human and material resources for the development of health, education, sports and culture in tens of countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and on Blacks in Cuba.

Much, much more must be done, if the victims of slavery, colonialism, ignorance, segregation and other forms of injustices, are ever to achieve their full emancipation, development and equality, new concepts must be developed and implemented immediately.

The new economical development direction that was presented and approved by the VI Congress of the Communist Party in Cuba, laid out the groundwork for what may become, a complete restructuring of its political, administrative and management of the nation’s economy.

The convergence of these separate national and international interests, may become the catalyst our nation needs to achieve its full potential, by joining forces with the underdeveloped world in unleashing the enormous human resource capabilities accumulated in Cuba and elsewhere, on behalf of millions of people who have been victimized for five centuries.

For years, millions of our nation most loyal and unconditional supporters, have been overlooked and ignored, presumably because of their limited financial resources and therefore, their inability to participate in large joint ventures with which, the country has been engaged for more than two decades.

Today, these new development opens our country, to its most interesting development opportunity ever, in which, tens of thousands of minorities from around the world, who have stood steadfast by our nation during its most challenging times, are enthused, willing and waiting to be called upon, to share their modest resources and expertise, with our incipient Mom and Pop, small and medium size enterprises in Cuba.

Here too, Cuba can conceive a new transnational, minority enterprise development in which, the forgotten and excluded of this world, may find a head-start, a true affirmative action that is capable of breaking the yoke of dependency for themselves and their country, by turning this fake, sick, man-made racial feud into a true international solidarity movement.

Unable to thank publicly thousands of intellectuals and ordinary peace loving people in and outside of Cuba, who dedicated their lives to this just cause of building bridges of understanding, harmony and respect among the US and Cuba, they can rejoice, as the fruits of their sacrifice is now within reach.