Although Cuba is much smaller than most countries in South America, Mexico and the State of Florida, and its GNP for a population of 11 million is less than any of our poorest counties, the world have been astounded by the socio-political impact, that this otherwise unpretentious nation, have exerted on the lives of millions in Africa, Asia and America.
Cuba, which lies 90 miles off the southern tip of the United States, remain unknown, poorly understood and wrapped into a host of myths and fairy tales.
Legally, it is easier to travel to India or China 10,000 miles away, than to Cuba across the Florida straits.
The reason for this monumental disconnect, is the Cuban Revolution which started 50 years ago on Sunday July 26, 1953 and the limited understanding by many in the US of Latin America History 101.
Why did this happen and was the Revolution necessary?
Shortly after Christopher Columbus and his crooks landed in Cuba in 1492, they abused, maimed, imposed forced labor, raped and infected the natives with deadly diseases that were unknown in this hemisphere, which lead to their demise.
Then, they re-directed their attention to Africa, from where they forcibly removed millions of men, women and children in what remain as the largest human displacement in history that was followed by 400 years of enslavement on these shores.
Many slaves conspired, rose-up, fought or ran away. Most were captured, tied to a ladder and beaten to death or burnt alive. In 1812 Cuba had its first organized slave uprising. In 1868, rich slave owners and other independent minded Cubans, freed their slaves, rose-up against the crown and fought a bitter and bloody war for 10 years that succumbed to regionalism and racism.
General Antonio Maceo, the greatest son of Africa ever to live in that country and head of the Army of independence in eastern Cuba, proclaimed one of Cuba's most important historic document, 'The Protest of Baragua', in which they refused to surrender and vowed to fight to the end. One year later, exhausted, without material support and the entire Spanish occupying forces against them, he and his men were forced to migrate to Jamaica.
In 1895 and under the leadership of Jose Marti, the intellectual father of the Cuban nation, who studied carefully and removed the flaws that lead to failure in 1868, and put forward among other crucial unifying principles, the concept of:
More than White, More than Black, More than Mulato, Say Cuban!
By the end of 1897, the Spanish occupying forces were literally defeated, when the battleship USS Maine entered Havana harbor, where it later blew up in questionable circumstances killing over 250 crew members and unleashing an
unprecedented hysterical clamor for revenge, which paved the way for the Spanish-American war.
This skirmish lasted less than three months and approximately 5000 US casualties, most of which was caused by malaria and yellow fever. The Cuban Army of Independence was not allowed to take part in the surrendering ceremony of the Spanish forces or in the Conference of Paris months later, in which the United States demanded and received from Spain, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines and for all purposed, Cuba, in what Teddy Roosevelt described as Our Best Little Dirty War!
Occupation and corruption
of a society
Cuba would remain occupied for the next 4 years by a segregated army under Gen. Teddy Roosevelt. Fearful of the fully integrated Cuban Army with a large cadre of seasoned Afro-Cuban generals that led victorious battles against Spain most decorated generals, this institution was quickly dismantled and a rabid racism was re-introduced in Cuba, despite 70% of the Cuban Army and 80% of its casualties were Afro-Cubans.
All political and administrative personnel were selected by the US occupying forces, the nation sovereignty was castrated by the Platt Amendment and it was forced to lease land in perpetuity, for the installations of coaling stations -naval bases- in Bahia Honda, Cienfuegos and Guantanamo. The latter continues occupied until today, against the will of the Cuban people.
Blacks were not allowed in the Police force and no Black could rise above the rank of lieutenant in the newly created Rural Guard. Schools, neighborhoods and jobs were segregated, corruption, nepotism, prostitution, gambling and
racketeering became the norm.
Fed-up with the prevailing conditions, Afro-Cubans organized in 1906 the first-ever all-black political party, 'The Independent Party of Color', whose ranks grew rapidly, sending shivers down the spines of those in power, who in turn, responded with a vicious scare tactics campaign, suggesting an attempt to create in Cuba of a Black Republic like Haiti.
In 1912, the US army intervened once again in Cuba, occupied numerous communities throughout eastern Cuba, relieving the Rural Guard from many posts and enabling them to organize a strike force that slaughtered over 6000
Afro-Cubans. Badly mutilated bodies were displayed in public parks or paraded on horse back through communities, sending a clear message to Blacks to conform or else!
Again in 1933, a broad base insurrection deposed another hand picked US despot who had governed with an iron fist, created the largest political violence, killing and disappearance in the country's history. The outspoken leadership of this movement, introduced radical social policies and did not receive the blessings of the US State Department, which was followed by a number of threats and unrest, until an obscure sergeant Fulgencio Batista -our man in Havana- came to power in a coup d'etat that was rapidly anointed by the US government.
This period was followed by two pseudo-democratic governments that instantly allowed US enterprises to engulf all remaining infrastructures, industries, banking, commerce and turning Cuba into a US playground, plagued by drugs, prostitution and all other social ills.
Resurrecting a Nation
This partial summary of Cuba's convulsive history, may help to explain why the movement that was started by Fidel Castro, when he and another 164 men attacked on July 26 1953, Cuba's second largest military garrison with over 1000 soldiers camped inside, in which, most of Castro's men were captured, tortured, murdered, imprisoned, released, migrated to Mexico, trained in guerrilla tactics, 82 of them returned by sea, were strafed, ambushed and most were killed, after landing in a swamp in eastern Cuba.
Weeks later and with the help of the peasantry, twelve survivors were able to regroup in the Sierra Maestra Mountain where Fidel exclaimed: We Won!
Since, it has been a battle of epic proportions against Batista's well supplied army by the US Department of Defense. The victory of the Revolution in January of 1959 was quickly presented with even a greater set of military.
threats, invasions, sabotage, assassinations attempts, economic and biological warfare, embargo, isolation and all other imaginable means of destabilizing and overthrowing the government.
Yet, in the midst of this incredible adverse environment and a long list of mistakes that were made by a young, inexperienced and in many cases, illiterate leaders that were placed in crucial management positions in 1959, the Cuban government have been able to achieve social, cultural, educational, scientific and sports advancement, that far exceed not only the previous 500 years of our history, but also, have placed Cuba ahead of all Latin American countries, while it rivals many social indicators of first world developed nations.
Additionally, even under such dire conditions, Cuba did not focus solely on itself. Over forty thousands Africans from across that continent have received, free of charge, mid level and higher education in all fields of knowledge. Latin America the Caribbean and Asia have similar experience, albeit less extensive.
Tens of thousand of Cuban physicians have worked and continue to do so in the most intricate rural areas of over 40 countries around the world, mitigating the suffering and saving the lives of millions. Teachers, construction professionals, sports instructors, cultural educators and engineers can be found everywhere, helping to improve the quality of lives of those less fortunate.
Thousands of Cuba's military and civilians spilled their blood or gave their lives in pursuit of the Independence, Integrity, Sovereignty and the dismantling of Apartheid, in Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, in this unique and moral action of children freeing the land of their ancestors.
Can anyone assume that Cuba is a panacea, utopia or a perfect society? Absolutely not. On one hand, they have a different social system that many of us do not understand and others, who have visited for a week, become Cubanologists overnight and are ready to prescribe shock therapy for their ailing economy.
Some prefer to engage in a diatribe as to what political system serves Cuba best. Others speculate as to whether the leaders of the Revolution were bent on establishing a socialist system or if external forces led it into the arms of the extinct Soviet Union.
Others, less knowledgeable ascribe to the simplistic theory of Cuba being an oppressive police state that remains in power through the barrel of a gun.
The undeniable and irrefutable fact is, that Cuba's political system is a compendium of its historical experience, that manifests and reflects, -for better or worse, like it or not-, an evolutionary process of an oppressed society, that have struggled for its independence, sovereignty and identity longer than any other country in our region and which have made it necessarily different.
Contrary to what some may try to imply, Fidel Castro is not a magician that was able to pull a foreign political system from a vacuum or out of a hat and impose it on the people of Cuba; rather, he exemplifies all what those Revolutionaries that preceded him stood for, but failed, because the subjective and objective conditions were non-existent in their time.
Nothing that Fidel Castro have done so far, is in conflict or contradiction with what Hatuey, Aponte, Carlos Manuel, Mariana, Maceo, the seven medical students, Mella, Guiteras, Frank Pais, Echevarria, Che, Camilo, the Miami Five and millions of others Cubans would have done.
Add to all of the above, the incredible intellect, vision, commitment and charisma of Fidel Castro, that have earned him worldwide love, respect and the largest solidarity movement that mankind have ever experienced.
The people of Cuba and millions around the world, will celebrate on Saturday the 50th anniversary of this extraordinary human accomplishment. Even, if anyone of us may disagree in part or in total with the Cuban Government philosophy, how can we not stand tall, proud, honored to be part of this generation social benchmark, that have written one of history's most brilliant chapter.
Camilo Cienfuegos prophetic words on January 8, 1959 'Gracias Fidel' have stood and will continue to stand the test of time. .
