Cuban-Americans, primarily those belonging to the Historic Exile (1959-1979), have been the target of insults lately after President Obama announced a new opening to Communist Cuba on December 17, 2014.
They have been called all kinds of pejoratives â Batista sympathizers, inveterate hardliners, cavemen, reactionaries, and not-authentic Hispanics. They donât deserve these slanderous labels. Those who mischaracterize them do not really know the story of one of the most successful immigrant groups in the United States.
Carlos Gutierrez, President and Chief Operating Officer of Kellogs
Carlos Gutierrez, President and Chief Operating Officer of Kellogg
Indeed, most Cuban-Americans have taken umbrage at multiple racist cartoons that several national newspapers have published in the past. Two come to mind immediately â one by Oliphant and the other by Herblock. Pat Oliphantâs cartoon depicts Uncle Sam sending a bunch of Cuban-Americans on a raft back to Cuba for fear that they would interfere with the 2008 presidential election, and asking them to say hello to Batista. Herblockâs cartoon issues a warning to Cuban-Americans who are dissatisfied with U.S. laws to purchase a one-way ticket to Cuba. Both of these cartoons are slanderousto Cuban-Americans â a minority group that is more conscious than the average American of the supremacy of laws because they left a homeland that became lawless. Regarding Cuban-Americans returning to Cuba in 2008 and saying hello to Batista, this shows the utmost ignorance by Oliphant. Fulgencio Batista left Cuba on January 1, 1959, and died in 1973. Thus, it would have been impossible for Cuban-Americans, or for anyone else, to interact with Batista â which goes to prove that racism is based on ignorance and unfounded stereotyping. Anti-intellectualism may be an American tradition, but when mainstream cartoonists embrace ignorance, we are all diminished as a Nation.
Moreover, some media outlets indicate that the majority of these Cuban-Americans are Republicans and mostly whites. And, you can rest assured that these characterization are not complimentary.
Enrique Falla, President of Dow Chemical USA
Ignorance and prejudice are sins against humanity! Although they may not know much about Cuban-Americans, they have seen them or interacted with them in the past. When theyâve gone to the movie theaters, theyâve seen Andy GarcĂa playing leading roles in âGodfather, Part IIIâ and in âWhen a Man Loves a Woman.â Theyâve watched television anchor and correspondent Soledad OâBrien report the news and interview guests in multiple shows in CNN, HBO, and Al Jazeera. Theyâve seen journalist JosĂ© DĂaz-Balart interview the President of the United States. Theyâve read or watched the film âThe Mambo Kings,â written by Oscar Hijuelos (the first Hispanic to win the Pulitzer for fiction). Theyâve listened to the magnificent interpretations of jazz classics by Grammy-winning saxophonist Paquito DâRivera and pianist/trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. Theyâve danced to the catchy tunes of Celia Cruz (the Queen of Salsa), and rapper Pitbull. Theyâve read about those who served in the Presidentâs Cabinet: Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and Mel MartĂnez, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Theyâve been entertained by the incomparable Sammy Davis, Jr., whose mother was of Afro-Cuban descent. Theyâve celebrated special occasions by drinking Bacardi Rum and Grey Goose Vodka, both owned by the Bacardi Family.
Roberto Goizueta, President of Coca-Cola
Cuban-Americans are highly educated. According to the Pew Research Center, they have higher levels of education, as of 2011, than the Hispanic population overall. Twenty-five percent of Cubans ages 25 and olderâcompared with thirteen percent of all U.S. Hispanics — have obtained at least a bachelorâs degree. After losing all their personal possessions when they left Communist Cuba, they learned that the one thing that no totalitarian government could take away from them was a good education and a university degree.
Facundo L. Bacardi, President of Bacardi Limited
And, Cuban-Americans wield immeasurable power in the realm of U.S. politics. While being less than one half of 1 percent of the U.S. population, they make up 3 percent of the U.S. Senate and more that 1 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives. In total, there are eight Cuban-Americans in the U.S. Congress â five in the House, and three in the Senate. They speak for four states â Florida, New Jersey, Texas, and West Virginia. They belong to both political parties. And, when it comes to issues regarding Cuba, they speak with one voice regarding the restoration of freedom and democracy to this Caribbean Island, the Pearl of the Antilles. Â Moreover, with Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the 2016 presidential race, Cuban-Americans have to be taken seriously.
Senator Mel Martinez, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
But, one thing that the majority of Cuban-Americans are certain of is never to trust a Castro. Fidel and Raul have subjected the Cuban population to 56 years of totalitarian rule. With the average monthly salary of a Cuban employee being $20 and with many Cuban youngsters having to resort to prostitution to feed their families, most Cubans have lost hope of a better future. They cannot complain to anyone or participate in protest rallies for fear that they will be ignored, arrested, receive lengthy jail sentences, or assassinated. Two prominent political dissidents, Laura PollĂĄn and Oswaldo PayĂĄ, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Requests made to the Cuban Government to investigate these cases have fallen on deaf ears. No one pays attention to their cries for justice, as the Cuban Government is not interested in finding the truth, but only in hiding it.
So, are Cuban-Americans Batista sympathizers? Some of them are, but they are a minority and have to play by American rules while living in the United States. Although I’ve been called this designation in the past, I could not be a sympathizer of any political figure as I was 11 years old when I left Cuba. This shows vividly that these people who dislike Cuban-Americans so much are not interested in logical debates, but in ad-hominem attacks. In 1959, the majority believed that Fidel was the best hope for a better Cuba, only to regret it shortly after. This majority made up the cream of the crop of Cuban society â the professionals, the businessmen, the entrepreneurs, the entertainers who wanted a better life as a reward for their talent. They are the sons and daughters of this generation of Cuban-Americans who rose to prominence in American society because of the example that their parents gave them that it took hard work, dedication, and determination to achieve the American dream.
Are they cavemen? Not by any stretch of the imagination. They want nothing else than freedom and democracy for Cuba. No one would dream of calling former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt a caveman for fighting to restore freedom and prosperity to our allies during World War II. No one would dare to call Nelson Mandela a caveman for fighting to remove the apartheid plague from South Africa. Freedom is an equal-opportunity dream.
Are they reactionaries? No, again. They are champions of progress who have exceeded in all areas of American culture â the arts, humanities, sciences, and business. Instead, it is the Cuban Government officials who merit the reactionary label. They sentenced former USAID contractor Alan Gross to fifteen years in prison for simply distributing cell phones and computers to the islandâs small Jewish community to connect it through the Internet with the outside world â not a crime anywhere else. In 2014, only 3.4 percent of homes in Cuba had Internet access â one of the lowest rates in the world â and it was largely limited to government employees and expensive pay-by-hour public access. Among the things that the Cuban Government fears the most is providing access to unfiltered information to its population. Keeping Cubans in the dark is the safest way for the Cuban Government officials to remain in power in perpetuity. In fact, Cuban officials have turned Karl Marx’s quotation of “religion is the opium of the people” [i.e., in the West] upside down into “cheap alcohol to the Cuban masses is the opium to keep themselves in power.”
Are they inveterate hardliners? This, they are. Many of them believed Fidel Castro when he promised them in 1959 a revolution âas green as Cubaâs palm treesâ with national elections in three months. They remember Fidel saying in July of 1959 that âI am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement,â and doing an about-face in December of 1961 by stating âI am a Marxist-Leninist, and I will be a Marxist-Leninist until the last days of my life.â They do remember Raul Castro giving the order in 1996 to shoot down two Brothers to the Rescue unarmed civilian planes in international waters, killing three U.S. citizens and one Cuban-American resident. They resent the Cuban Government for giving the title of national heroes to the Cuban Five Spies on February 24, 2015 — the nineteenth anniversary that Cuban Migs shot down two planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue. And, they became aware on January 28, 2015 of Raul Castroâs ludicrous demand of requiring the U.S. Government to compensate Cuba for the estimated $1 trillion in damages for the U.S. embargo. And, yet, it was the Cuban Government that triggered the U.S. embargo when they confiscated the holdings of U.S. businesses shortly after Fidel rose to power in 1959 â which originally were valued at $1.8 billion, and which at 6 percent simple interest translates to nearly $7 billion in 2014. It is incomprehensible for Cuban officials to expect compensation from the victims of their illegal behavior.
Are the majority of Cuban-Americans affiliated with the Republican Party? Well, the United States is a free country, and no political party has an advantage over the other. Membership in one is determined by the confluence of ideology and platform with votersâ core values. And, the majority of Cuban-Americans think that the Democratic Party has betrayed their ideals. Most Americans are familiar with the three-strikes-and-you-are-out rule of baseball. Well, the Democratic Party has struck out with most Cuban-Americans. First, in 1961, President Kennedy crushed the hope to bring back freedom to Communist Cuba when he betrayed them at the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Second, President Clinton betrayed the aspirations of Elizabeth Broton RodrĂguez to have her son, EliĂĄn GonzĂĄlez, raised in freedom in the United States. Elizabeth drowned in the open sea, but EliĂĄn was miraculously rescued by two fishermen and turned over U.S. Coast Guard. In 2000, President Clinton returned EliĂĄn to Communist Cuba. And, on December 17, 2014, President Obama announced his decision to relax travel, trade and economic restrictions with Communist Cuba. The deal was made after 18 months of secret negotiations in Canada and the Vatican, while keeping U.S. congressmen in the dark. There was a reason for the lack of transparency in this deal. President Obama knew that U.S. congressmen from both sides of the aisle would have objected to this unilateral deal with Communist Cuba.
Cuban-Americans feel betrayed by President Obamaâs 2014 Cuban policy. They know that trade and tourism by Americans will not restore democracy to Cuba. They have seen similar policies fail in China, Vietnam, and Burma.
Rosa Pena in yellow shirt with Miami Tea Party group, rallies every week against Obama’s policies.
After being called out on strikes, most Cuban-Americans opine that the Democratic Party considers them the enemy or not important enough to care about getting their votes. It was not like this before. There were many Cuban-Americans whose views were more compatible with those held by Democrats. But, it has come to this now. Just look around at how many Cuban-Americans get nominated to political appointments in the Federal Government when a Democrat wins the White House. Let me answer this rhetorical question for you: NOT MANY!
Are the majority of Cuban-Americans who came to the United States from 1959-1979 primarily whites? The quick answer is âyes.â According to the 2012 census, conducted by the National Office of Statistics of Cuba, the Cuban population was mostly white (65.1%), minorities included mulatto and mestizo (24.8%) and Afro-Cubans (10.1%). Within a century after the landing of Christopher Columbus in Cuba in 1492, the indigenous people were virtually wiped out due to Eurasian diseases and cruelty of the Spaniards. During this time period, the Cuban Government inundated the air waves with news about the rampant discrimination in the United States. Alabama Police Chief Bull Connor and his police departmentâs use of fire hoses, police dogs, and night sticks to break up civil rights demonstrations got as much air time as the speeches of Dictator Fidel Castro. After listening and viewing to these sound bites, most Afro-Cubans decided that the United States of America was not a welcoming place for them. And, ironically today, the majority of human rights dissidents in Cuba â from Dr. Oscar ElĂas Biscet to Jorge Luis GarcĂa PĂ©rez (better known as AntĂșñez) â are Afro Cubans.
At a hearing on February 2, 2015, before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives, AntĂșñez indicated that he had âbeen subjected to torture, arrests and raids on my home by Castroâs political police for denouncing the human rights situation in Cuba at international forums.â He went on to say that the Obama-Castro Accords âare considered by a vital segment of the Cuban Resistance as a betrayal of the aspiration to freedom of the Cuban people.â
Senator Ted Cruz, son of Cuban-American pastor
Are they not authentic Hispanics? This controversy came about after Mark Halperin, managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and an MSNBC contributor, interviewed U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Republican-Texas) in 2015 about his Hispanic bona fides. Mark asked the Senator to welcome his colleague Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) to the 2016 presidential race âen español.â First, letâs look at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) definition of Hispanic or Latino origin used in the 2010 Census: âa person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.â Senator Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother of Irish and Italian descent. Therefore, he was raised in a household where he was exposed to the Cuban culture, which automatically meets the OMB definition for Hispanic/Latino.  Second, there are no requirements in the OMB definition to like Hispanic cuisine or to dance the mambo to be a real Hispanic/Latino. And, third, the OMB definition is silent about the ability to be able to speak the Spanish language.
But, letâs address the issue of the Spanish fluency more at length. No reporter has questioned U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro nor his twin brother, U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (Democrat-Texas), on their mastery of the Spanish language. Both have admitted that they donât speak Spanish well.  So, the real issue with Senator Cruz has nothing to do with his Spanish fluency, but with his conservative views. As far as I know, Article II of the U.S. Constitution has an age requirement for those willing to serve as President, but it says nothing about the ability to speak Spanish. I canât wait to see what reporters will find in U.S. Senator Marco Rubio that they dislike, as he is fluent in Spanish and is a conservative.
Americans of Cuban descent protest against Obama’s normalization of relations with Cuba.
And there are many in the national media outlets who proclaim that the latest surveys show that there is an emerging majority of Cuban-Americans supporting the lifting of the U.S. embargo on Cuba. When I read these assertions, I am reminded of Mark Twainâs famous saying about the existence of âLies, damned lies, and statistics.â I think back to the victories in 2015 of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister David Cameron â although polls predicted their defeat. And their victories force me to meditate about lies, damned lies, and âsurveys.â The only survey that counts is the one on election night. And, Cuban-Americans have elected U.S. representatives and senators who favor keeping the embargo on Communist Cuba. So, the Cubans in these surveys must be the recent arrivals who do not have the right to vote in U.S. elections. They must be the Cuban-Americans who besmirch the political refugee designation by going back to Communist Cuba for pleasurable and commercial activities.  They must be the Cuban-Americans who prefer to drink Havana-Club Mojitos and smoke Cohiba cigars than worry about the plight endured by the Cuban population. They must be the ones who travel to Cuba to have a party, but not to engage the human-rights dissidents. Nevertheless, it is the Cuban-Americans of honor, authenticity, and character who refuse to do business with the Communist dictators of Cuba and who favor the keeping of the U.S. embargo. Sadly, these are the ones who get left out of surveys by the U.S. media.
There is an African proverb that reads âNot to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse.â Finding out why the majority of Cuban-Americans think that the Obama-Castro Accords are treasonous to the cause of freedom in Cuba is something desirable for the citizens of the last bastion of freedom on Earth. You can find from me, a Cuban-American who left his homeland at age 11, or you can find out from AntĂșñez, who served a seventeen-year sentence for calling out for political and economic reforms in his country. But, find out you must! It a crime to let the enemies of the United States to do the thinking for you!
Cuban-Americans want nothing more than a Cuba Libre. A Cuba without any political prisoners, where Cubans can participate in free and fair elections conducted under the supervision of internationally recognized observers. A Cuba that recognizes human rights and basic freedoms as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory nation. A Cuba that allows the establishment of independent trade unions and the creation of independent social, economic, and political associations. A Cuba that does not include Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, or any member of this family. A Cuba of the Cubans, by the Cubans, and for the Cubans.
Footnote: April 19, 2015. When I penned this article, I was perturbed by the way that most national media outlets had portrayed Cuban-Americans.  Part of the negative assessment dealt with the fact that most Cuban-Americans disliked the Obama/Castro opening to Cuba.  In order to highlight this White House initiative in a positive light and maintain its momentum, Cuban-Americans became a casualty. This decision was far from achieving the road to truth and flies in the face of the White Houseâs policy of fair play and transparency. An informed citizenship is the basis of a healthy democracy. Thus, I am glad that my op-ed has resonated with so many Linkedin readers, and I implore you to keep distributing it to your circles of influence. After all, Cuban-Americans have made substantial contributions to all fields of American culture. Their views deserve to be heard.
To listen to an interview on this article that I participated in on February 2, 2015, on the Silvio Canto, Jr. radio show, click on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/2015/02/02/the-latest-on-the-us-cuba-talks-with-jorge-ponce
To listen to the video clip that Silvio Canto, Jr. issued for this post, click on https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153031816811335%22%20data-width=%22466%22%3E / I’ve been on Silvio’s radio show on multiple occasions.
