Dear editors,
It is with deep regret, that I read this morning "Activists Use the Blogosphere to Fight Racism Against Afro-Cubans" in the American Chronicle by Ms Deborah Gabriel and "The Fight Against Racism in Cuba goes Viral" by Ms Marlie Hall in the Grio.
Although I am not a journalist, lecturer or an employee of any of the US government agencies, masked or unmasked foundations bent on unleashing a race war in Cuba, I would like to share with you, a bit of my personal experience, having lived 60% of my 70 years of age in Cuba and the rest in the US.
For the past 20 years when segregation and racism, -which most had presumed dead since it was outlawed in 1959-, raised its dirty head again in Cuba, many, including myself have steadfastly denounced its presence in a positive, constructive fashion.
Since the late 90's, when hostile forces to the Cuban government identified a substantial demographic shift in Cuba, in which some studies have placed blacks and mixed race as high as 62%, all counterrevolutionary efforts in south Florida geared at overthrowing the Cuban government, re-directed their strategy of using the All White Cuban American National Foundation, Alpha 66, CORU and hundredes of similar groups, which had rejected and denied the participations of any blacks willing to join their groups.
In fact, prominent Radio Talk Show host, the late Agustin Tamargo said on his highly popular Mesa Revuelta on Radio Mambi 710 AM in Miami, that Fidel Castro government had survived thirty years of relentless warfare, only because of the strong presence of blacks in the Cuban Armed Forces and in his personal security, for which he demanded a Three Days License upon the collapse of that government, to dole out retribution to the Afro-Cuban community for their past deeds.
In order to achieve their goals, many Afro-Cubans with apparent leadership capabilities in the US, were recruited and trained in civil dissobedience, human rights and other teachings in some predominantly Black Universities in the US and even at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. These individuals in turn, were instructed to recruit predominantly Afro-Cubans in Cuba and with endless funds coming from US-AID through numerous foundations, they created hundredes of groups with flashy names such as Independent Journalist, Independent Farmers, Indepenednt Librarians and Independent Everything Else.
Are any of these writers, Afro-Americans, Caribbean and Latin-America intellectuales who signed the spurious letter "Acting on our Conscience" aware of these strategy, statements, plans and developments of these apparently innocuous groups fighting racism in Cuba, who are all on the payroll of foreign governments and institutions?
Are any of these very objective, investigative journalists willing to interview members of the Afro-American and Central America inmigrant community in Miami, in order to determine the virtues and values that governs the elitist, racist mentality of the Cuban-American community in Miami?
My deep concern and opposition to this divisive strategy stems from our Afro-Cubans bitter life experience. Similar to many of today's concerned Afro-Cubans, who are supposedly angry with many ongoing inequalities in Cuba, were others in the past, whose actions led to tragic consequences.
Martin Morua Delgado, an Afro-Cuban intellectual, who occupied a high ranking position in the neo-colonial government in the early XX century, assumed a policy that mimicks much of what we are seeing today, which lead to the enactment of laws by the racist government of General Jose Miguel Gomez, that deprived Blacks of many of their rights, which, with the support of the United States Department of State and Defense, enabled that government to launch a retallatory attack against members of the Independent Party of Color in 1912, where 6000 of its members and innocent bystanders were brutally murdered, mutilated and their bodies desecrated in Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba and Songo-La Maya.
These are irrefutable facts, not gossip. There is nothing personal in my opposition to Dr. Carlos Moore et. al., divisive tactics, except a well founded fear, that his actions may lead to the re-enactment of the race war that took place in Cuba 100 years ago, in a country without any clear racial demarcation. We, on the other hand, are demanding this horrific act be made public in its entirety, the victims honored and an apology is overdue.
These very broad injustices are what we must defend with our pens and intellect! Anyone hoping to rise to prominence or wealth, should earn that with his/her personal attributes, not by turning our pain, suffering and abuses into ladders to reach undeserved heights.
The plight of Blacks is worldwide and not limited to Cuba. What have motivated and suddenly kept awake so many black intellectuals over the sufferings of Blacks in Cuba, while totally ignoring the viscious murder of 500 of our youths last year in Chicago?
I am further annoyed with some of the of Dr. Carlos Moore behaviour because, like myself, we both were born on sugarcane plantations owned by US corporations in Cuba, where we were forced to live in thatched huts without electricity, running water, sewer, schools, healthcare or jobs and to see his thinking coincide with policies of some of our former slave-masters, be it the Diaz-Balart, Ros-Lethinen, David Rivera, Bacardi's, Fanjuls, Mel Martinez and thousands of others, who did not allow us to walk on their streets after dark, created a separate aisle for us in public squares and barred us from holding only menial jobs of picking up their trash, cooking, cleaning and raising their children, is beyond my imagination.
Many, many wrongs has to be fixed in Cuba, but our country should never return to that nightmarish, oppresive society.
Facts, not word will help to put things into perspective. While the Cuban Army fought for the independence of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, demolished Apartheid in South Africa and freed Nelson Mandela and his brothers in Arms from Robin Island, tens of Cuban-Americans in south Florida brag about their stoic battle flying helicopters and fighter jets against "Cuban Mercenaries" in the southern cone of Africa and it is said, that Dr. Carlos Moore, was on the other side of this battle field, as an aide to Holden Roberto, a known CIA operative.
As our small organization travelled tens of thousands of miles across Florida begging and collecting unwanted, but usable discarded personal, medical and educational goods, which we have sent primarily to Afro-Cubans and emigrants and descendents from every Caribbean islands living in Guantananamo, Santiago de Cuba and Banes , none of those denouncing the Cuban government, have ever responded to our numerous pleas for an aspirin, a walker, a wheelchair or a blanket for our brothers in dire need.
Actions, not words is what I have learned to believe in. Writing articles, selling books, lecturing or going on TV is great, if your concerns are not about a hungry baby, a dying elderly or an illiterate person.
If this sounds like a defense of the Cuban government, let it be. But until these theoriticians are unwilling to spend some time helping the needy in Cabrina Greens, Liberty City and Overtown in Miami, North Jacksonville in Florida, Detroit, earthquake ravished Haiti, Ruanda, Soweto or willing to assist victims of Katrina, where our people are suffering and dying, I will continue to question their beautiful preaching and writings coming out of their air-cooled mansions.
In closing, let me remind readers of these poorly written thoughts in anger, that the paymasters of many of these individuals, live in posh Coral Gables, Palm Beach, Plantation and many other secluded areas in south Florida, New Jersey and elsewhere.
Most of them were here in the 60's at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. None of them can present a newspaper article they wrote in support of those being hosed-down or chewed-up by attack dogs in Alabama or Tennessee, nor anyone of them can produce a picture marching alongside the victims or refusing to sit at counters or using restrooms where they were welcome because of their Hispanic ancestry and where Afro-Americans living in this country centuries before them were denied such basic rights.
It has always been easier to identify a liar than a lame.
Alberto Nelson Jones
