University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Journalism & Mass Communications: Student Journalism and Mass Communications, College Media of

2003

Cuba: An Elusive Truth

Dakarai Aarons University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Joe Duggan University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Sarah Fox University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Matthew Hansen University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Melissa Lee University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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Aarons, Dakarai; Duggan, Joe; Fox, Sarah; Hansen, Matthew; Lee, Melissa; Pekny, Shane; Pesek, Cara; Zeman, Jill; Hahn, Marilyn; Huddle, Catharine; Blackbird, Ken; Grieser, Lindsay; and Lueninghoener, Quentin, "Cuba: An Elusive Truth" (2003). Journalism & Mass Communications: Student Media. 22. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/journalismstudent/22

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journalism and Mass Communications, College of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journalism & Mass Communications: Student Media by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Authors Dakarai Aarons, Joe Duggan, Sarah Fox, Matthew Hansen, Melissa Lee, Shane Pekny, Cara Pesek, Jill Zeman, Marilyn Hahn, Catharine Huddle, Ken Blackbird, Lindsay Grieser, and Quentin Lueninghoener

This article is available at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ journalismstudent/22 • Table of contents Depth Report No. 32 Where have you gone, Jose Martí? Racism no light matter 4 By Matthew Hansen By Dakarai Aarons 46 Diverging journeys One student’s experience 10 By Dakarai Aarons By Dakarai Aarons 49 Tr uth and propaganda Double shifts 12 By Shane Pekny By Melissa Lee 51 A hard time changing An international icon 16 By Shane Pekny By Cara Pesek 54 A new economic engine Medicating political ill will 21 By Shane Pekny By Matthew Hansen 56 The cost of sex Papa blurs borders, time 25 By Jill Zeman By Matthew Hansen 59 From heartland to Cuba A blessing with a catch 29 By Jill Zeman By Joe Duggan 63 Living with AIDS in Cuba A single ray of light 31 By Jill Zeman By Melissa Lee 66 Hope, threat or sellout? Perception vs. reality 34 By Sarah Fox By Cara Pesek 69 Spying in on loss of trust Husker haven in Havana 35 By Sarah Fox By Joe Duggan 72 Dissident tries to overcome past The jaded generation 41 By Sarah Fox By Cara Pesek 74 Dissent can mean jail What’s in store after Fidel? 44 By Dakarai Aarons By Melissa Lee 78 To order the magazine send a $10 check or money order — payable to UNL — to the College of Journalism, 147 Andersen Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0474, attention Cuba: An Elusive Truth. For more information call (402) 472-3041 or e-mail [email protected]. (Fee includes shipping, handling and sales tax.) © Copyright 2003 by the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Searching for the truth Early on the morning of Jan. 1, a dozen University of Nebraska journalism students left familiar surroundings in Lincoln for Miami and Havana. Their goal: To find the truth about Cuba. For six months, they had prepared for the mission. They read scores of newspapers, mag- azine articles and books. They scoured Internet sites and analyzed documentaries. They chatted with U.S. senators and Nebraska farmers. Before leaving, they felt confident their extensive research had yielded certain immutable truths about Miami’s large exile community and Cuba’s history, politics, econ- omy, culture and customs. During the 12-day trip, the students con- ducted 186 interviews. They interviewed U.S. congressional leaders and the president of Cuba’s parliament. They interviewed members of Miami’s most powerful exile groups and the CEO of Cuba’s chief import agency. They interviewed news directors of Miami’s Radio Martí and editors of Cuba’s state-controlled newspapers. From each of the official voices, they heard many truths. In between, they also interviewed doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, bus drivers, cab- bies, psychiatrists, prostitutes, tour guides, AIDS patients, social workers, teenagers, artists, musicians, street hustlers, dissidents, Hemingway scholars, bartenders, economists, reporters, priests, santeros, farmers, fishermen and Castro's former mistress. From all the unofficial voices, they heard many more truths. On Jan. 12, when their plane touched down in Omaha, the students were confident of only one thing: The truth about Cuba — elusive as a tropical breeze — lies somewhere between Miami and Havana. In Havana, for example, some students were lied to by government spies. In Miami, some exiles accused the students of being government spies. Meanwhile, some Cubans who had agreed to interviews feared government reprisal. To protect them, their names were either changed KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star or only first names were used in this report. Cuba’s state-controlled newspapers may be the country’s official voice, but its people speak their own Three months after leaving Havana, the truth. students learned another truth: The fear of speaking out was not an unfounded one. number of journalists — and charged them In the end, this report is dedicated to the In early April, the Cuban government with undermining the socialist system. All search for truth — for which 28 Cuban jour- rounded up 75 dissidents — including a were quickly convicted and many sentenced nalists were collectively sentenced to 546 years to lengthy prison terms. in prison. — Joe Starita

3 Where have you gone, Jose Martí? He dreamed of an ideal Cuba. More than a century after his death, the street-level view reveals much gray and one black-and-white truth: The poet’s dream has left and gone away. By Matthew Hansen In truth, man speaks too much of danger. Poison sumac grows in a man’s field, the serpent hisses from its hidden den, and the owl’s eye shines in the belfry, but the sun goes on lighting the sky, and the truth continues marching the earth unscathed. —Jose Martí

They’re marching down a Havana street single file, olive uniforms giving them away even if you somehow miss the black rifles resting on their shoul- ders. The tour group spills off a Mercedes bus and into Revolution Square, American eyes fixating on El Comandante’s army first and the buildings compris- Jose Martí ing the heart of his regime second. To the left, a towering gray granite statue of nationalist poet Jose Martí, the backdrop of many a famous speech. Behind that, the Palacio de la Revolucion, the country’s political headquarters. Farther left, the Department of Defense, where generals once plotted tactics against certain inva- PHOTOGRAPH BY ALBERTO KORDA, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE KORDA PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION OF GEORGE BURKE HINMAN sion from the north. A single peasant sits casually atop a lamppost high above Havana’s Revolution Square on July 26, And up to your right, beyond the soldiers, sits 1959. Thousands of peasants from throughout Cuba gathered in the square to hear Fidel Castro the Ministry of the Interior. You’ll find the eight- celebrate the revolution’s triumph.

Oct. 29, 1492 1511 1597 Christopher Columbus’ son, The Castillo del Columbus lands Diego, settles Morro, a fort in and claims Cuba under Havana’s harbor, Cuban island for Spain’s rule, is built to pro- Spain. where it stays tect the island for 400 years. from invaders. 1500 1600 story edifice on many a postcard because a towering black-metal mural of beloved Che fills one side. That side also has no win- dows. Unseen, the younger broth- er heads a government arm from his hidden den. “You would not like to go over there,” the tour guide says through a thin smile. The square itself could pass for the abandoned parking lot of a closed Kmart, all cracking asphalt and sagging power lines. No activity save for those dozen-odd soldiers marching slowly out of sight. To belittle this place, of course, is to ignore half its truth. Here, in Revolution Square, is where hun- dreds of thousands once cheered GEORGE BURKE HINMAN when he bellowed freedom from Above: Che Guevara’s mural covers one side of the Ministry of the Interior building in Havana’s Revolution Square. Below: Batista, freedom from poverty, The granite statue of Cuba’s best-known poet and nationalist leader, Jose Martí, serves as the backdrop for many speeches freedom from America. Right in Revolution Square. where the people stood when a dove fluttered from the sky and head. Good luck. You are standing sick sister, a half-dozen dying landed on his shoulder, a sign at ground zero in his city that’s the plants and the clutter from a life- from the Santeria gods that he backbone of his country that’s so time as a psychiatrist. was their Chosen One. very different from your own. The government promised to This is where it began, a And you are so very far from repair the building years ago. regime that’s outlasted 10 U.S. the truth. Maybe the workers don’t come presidents, a half-century Cold “Listen. Cuba is an illogical because they’re busy. And maybe, War and countless hot ones, sur- temple,” Gregorio says, pointing he thinks, they don’t come vived both a 42-year-old embargo toward a sunlit sky. “You have to because he’s done something by the wealthiest democracy in be able to see the illogical temple.” wrong. the world and the death of a The conversation proceeds in communist empire. Man loves liberty even if he does fits and starts, blocked by barriers It’s a regime that struggles on, not know he loves it. He is driven of language and age, culture and weakened but still marching, to by it and flees from where it does money, three layers of paranoia this day. not exist. lacquered on top. In this wide-open square you The old man speaks in rapid talk of truth quietly. But in the The old man eyes you for a Spanish and broken English and narrow streets of Havana the talk is second, maybe less. “Buenos universal hand signs. One minute, growing louder and more diverse. días,” he grunts. he is admiring what El Maximo There, amid the salsa and stickball, Then he’s busy scanning the has created. He’s praising good between the tourists and the beg- empty street outside for the years of neglect obscured again by education, free health care and an gars, among the laughter, rum and omnipresent police. Coast clear, the possibility of rebirth. Past, infant mortality rate comparable rumba, that’s where you attempt to he ushers you into his first-floor present and future all disguise to America’s. piece together what the dead poet apartment. The building is like themselves under an unpainted Problems? None really. He claimed to find so easily. many in Havana — a whiff of shade of gray. nods. This is good. This is true. A 32-year-old artist shakes his former greatness obscured by Inside live the old man, his The next minute he leans

1762 1792-1815 1868-1878 1895 England declares The Napoleonic Cuba’s first war Cuba is again at war on Spain, Wars bring for independence war with Spain, takes Cuba and increased trade is thwarted by a fight for inde- trades it for in tobacco, Spain after 10 pendence that Florida in 1763. sugar and other years of heavy will last more crops to Cuba. fighting. than four years. 1700 1800 1900 forward, whispers to put the pen “Listen. Cuba is an down and starts in about how Cuba’s economy is failing. How illogical temple. You he can’t get the right medicine for have to be able to see his sister’s Parkinson’s. How the police tap the hotel phones and the illogical temple.” punish contrary voices. Gregorio, artist Then quickly back to the party line, a cyclical rumba leav- ing your notebook full of posi- Cuban courts sentenced 75 tives, your ears filled with nega- dissidents to jail sentences as long tives, your mind still searching. as 28 years for “working with a Later that day, a cab driver foreign power to undermine the named Jose, speeding along the government.” On April 11, a city’s outskirts, laughs when told Council of State ruling sent three the story. men to the firing squad wall, “Three words: People are where they were executed for afraid.” attempting to hijack a ferry head- An hour here will teach you ed to the United States. The that the island Columbus stum- bullets came eight days after their bled on five centuries ago is all of arrests and five days after their that — and so much more. It’s convictions. the salsa’s infectious beat and the The jailed dissidents and exe- rhythm to match. Caring doctors, cuted hijackers are just the latest tough teachers, world-class boxers additions to a group of untold and loving mothers live here. It’s a thousands wasting in prison cells sports purist’s heaven, where you and decomposing in graves. sidestep a raging stickball game or Their crime? They didn’t the wayward soccer ball. It’s listen. Charlton Heston’s hell — guns “No one crosses the impossible to come by, deadly Comandante,” Smith says. man-to-man violence unheard of. They’re still toeing the line in It’s the nervous excitement of a official Cuba, both in the halls of University of Havana student power and in the classrooms of a close to graduation and the real typical social workers school. world. It’s easy laughter and a There the tour group begins to hand on your shoulder and some- KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star fire questions at a select group of thing abstract tugging at your The average street in downtown Havana is narrow and crowded. In the teenage students. soul. background is the Cuban Capitol, modeled after the U.S. Capitol. Question: Favorite music? And it’s those old man’s eyes ... Answer: Cuban rap and tired, clouded by a lifetime of fear. tion, crooked elections and both A.C.: “He gave them pride in American pop. They’re more straightforward, American business and organized being Cubans. He put Cuba on Question: Favorite movies? more honest, than anything to crime sticking fat fingers in an the map.” Answer: Horror and shoot- pass through his lips. They know already thin economic pie. The change, to its leader, also em-ups. that talking freely ignores Fidel B.C.: “Cubans tended to meant controlling what his people Question: Favorite movie star? Castro’s 44-year stranglehold on believe they were a little banana said, heard and thought. It meant Answer: Jackie Chan. mouths. Talking freely ignores republic that didn’t count for one voice — the truth! — bold- Both American and Cuban what he’s done for Cuba, and anything. Just a place where faced across front pages, blaring smiles circle the classroom. talking also ups the fear. Americans came to get drunk on from the evening news and Question: How are you differ- The respect comes from some the weekend,” says Wayne Smith, staring right back as every ent from your parents? notion that this Cuba is an former head of the U.S. Special “Socialismo o Muerte” billboard Uneasy silence. The only boy improvement over what came Interests Section in Havana and a whizzed by. in the group, quiet until now, before, most notably a regime leading expert on Cuban affairs. It meant months like April. stands up and locks eyes with the marked by widespread corrup- questioner.

Feb. 15, 1898 July 1, 1898 1901 After the explosion Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Congress adds the Platt of the USS Riders charge San Juan Hill and Amendment, limiting Maine in defeat the Spanish in one of the Cuba’s right to self-rule. Havana most famous battles in Under it, the U.S. could Harbor, the American history. intervene militarily at Spanish-American War begins. any time. 1900 Answer: “Politically, we are no different from our parents.” His stare never wavers.

He who turns inward and only thinks avariciously of cultivating his appetites loses his humanity and becomes loneliness himself. He carries in his heart the dreariness of winter. He becomes in fact and appearance an insect.

The first question is always the same. “Where you from?” If the answer is the United States, they tell you of a brother in New Jersey or a cousin in Miami. Then it’s down to business. Want cigars? Need a tour guide? A good restaurant? A good time? I’m your man. Businessmen sell newspapers and coins of Che. Artists draw caricatures. Cuban musicians form makeshift street bands, recruiting a German or Spaniard to fill in on the maracas. For dinero, always dolares, KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star part of a burgeoning capitalist The Tropicana is a popular cabaret for tourists visiting Havana, but few Cubans ever see the extravagant shows. spirit rooted in the economic ruin of the 1990s and Cuba’s subse- pled with cash, the total subsidy tions its people wrestle daily. In ahead. quent return to tourism. amounted to about $6 billion this system, hotel bellboys make The artist complains about “Cuban people are friendly annually. Back then, democratic more than doctors. Although a tourism’s evils as young Cuban because they want something revolution neatly coincided with a dollar goes a long way, 26 pesos, men lead tourists into his gallery. from you,” says Pedro Ugarte plummeting sugar market. Smith its supposed equivalent “can’t buy The cabbie blasts the tourist sys- Bravo, a 31-year-old cook and estimates the Cuban economy you no shit,” said Mateo, a gov- tem minutes after volunteering to erstwhile tourist aide. “It’s a fake shrank by half during the early ernment employee. Foreign com- drive you 10 miles even though friendship.” years of what Castro ironically panies build four-star tourist he’s not a licensed taxi driver. And Back in 1959 Castro pro- dubbed “the Special Period.” hotels next to crumbling apart- the cook admits he’s trying to fig- nounced the tourist persona non The worst year was 1993, ments. Most Cubans can’t get two ure out ways to pry dolares from grata. Foreigners had brought artist Gregorio says. Blackouts feet into these hotels before secu- you right now. only corruption, gambling, prosti- lasted days. A once-reliable food rity stops them. That same securi- “That’s how we live,” Pedro tution and drugs, he said. ration dwindled to nearly noth- ty often looks the other way when says. “Nobody lives on salary. “They didn’t want to be mon- ing. No paint or brushes or hope teenage jiniteras wearing heavy Nobody.” keys in a zoo, with the tourists to be found anywhere. make-up, high-cut skirts and watching them,” Smith says. It’s gotten better mostly profit-hungry smiles glide People are made of hate and of “But, in 1992, what are you going because of Cuba’s campaign to through the entrance, headed to love, but more of hate than love. to do? Back to tourism.” bring in European tourists, adver- the bar. But love, like the sun that it is, sets For decades, the Soviets had tising the country’s beaches and So men and women force fire and melts everything. imported raw Cuban sugar and natural beauty as an affordable themselves into the tourist game, nickel at an inflated cost and alternative to Aruba or Cancun. becoming the proverbial insects, Raúl Costoya seems like a rea- exported finished products at bar- But Cuba’s tourism boom also sometimes to provide the bare sonable man. He sits at activity’s gain-basement prices. When cou- creates a series of moral contradic- necessities, sometimes to get edge in Miami’s Domino Park,

1928 1940 1943 Cuban President Gerardo The Constitution of Soon after Cuba enters World War II in Machado declares it ille- 1940 entitles all classes support of the United States, President gal to run against him in to equal rights, ensures Fulgencio Batista legalizes the the presidential race. He a minimum wage and Communist Party of Cuba and estab- wins the election without calls for equal pay for lishes relations with the Soviet Union, an opponent. equal work. an ally of the United States. 1920 1940 1950 populace to some degree. To hear the shrillness of voices on either side of the Gulf Stream is to know hatred. To witness the passion of those same voices is to know love. “One of the things about revo- lution and counterrevolution is that it’s a very polarizing process,” says Max Castro, a senior research associate at the University of Miami, a Miami Herald colum- nist and a Cuban-American who advocates ending the embargo. “The other side, the enemy, is black and white. If I say, ‘look, there are 99 bad things about Cuba but one good thing,’ they are going to point at that and say, ‘You are a friend of Castro.’” The dead poet himself hasn’t escaped the polarization. Both Castro and Cuban opposition leaders claim his words as their own, which is why you can walk KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star out of Miami’s own federally A newly married Cuban couple speeds along the Malecón in a 1950s-era Edsel. funded Radio Martí, board a plane and land an hour later in the epicenter of the aging Cuban- Havana’s Jose Martí International American community. Behind Every Cuban speaking wants to see Cuba bet- Airport. him perhaps 75 elderly Cuban The hard-line anti-Castro men and exactly one elderly tered, at least from his or her own perspective. Miami Cubans, the Cuban gov- Cuban woman play cards, chess They may hate Castro, and each other, but ernment and, increasingly, more and the game that lent the park moderate voices on each shore — its name. hard-liners, moderates and Castro sympathizers they’re fighting for minds, too. The 78-year-old retiree just alike share one thing: They all love the island. They want you with them on the whipped out a well-padded wallet embargo, on Castro, on the truth. to show off faded black-and-white And so it goes. Schedule a photos of two daughters, three meeting with one Miami doctor Revolution.” neighbors — “Crazy,” says a con- and arrive to a full-fledged, 10- grandsons and one great-grand- Welcome to Miami. At last struction worker named Anthony daughter, all living in Cuba. He person Cuban Liberty Council count, 650,000 Cuban Americans standing on the Capitol steps, presentation complete with a prattled like a proud patriarch, lived in Miami-Dade County, spinning finger around ear for listing names, ages and jobs in Cuban lunch, Cuban coffee, a some forcibly removed from emphasis — even though Miami video about Cuba and more pas- excited Spanish. Cuba, most landing on Florida’s Cubans send millions to relatives So, a mistake. You ask what sion in one afternoon than you’d shoreline by choice. on the island each year. In fact, normally encounter in a month. positives came from the Sometimes, it’s hard to believe those $10 and $20 bills make Revolution. And now Raúl is star- Let the superlatives fly. that they and Cuba’s current remittances the island’s largest “Everything that you hear in ing as if the Bearded One himself inhabitants came from the same single source of income, trumping just plopped down on the next Cuba is B.S., completely B.S.,” planet, much less the same island, even sugar sales. says one speaker. park bench and asked the exile to because their relationship to For their part, Miami Cubans light his Cohiba. Then people scream. A Cubans, and vice versa, marches are the strongest supporters of an woman cries. “There has not been “Nothing. In Cuba everything to the strangest of truths. embargo whose effects, any expert that was good came before the one country that has gone as Cubans ridicule their northern will tell you, hurt the Cuban wrong as Cuba in the history of

July 26, 1953 1959 April 1961 Fidel Castro leads Castro’s revolution A CIA-trained Cuban revolutionaries in overthrows Batista, exile force lands at the a raid on the who flees country. Bay of Pigs and tries to Moncada United States formally initiate a popular revolt. Army recognizes his new Castro’s military crushes the ill- Barracks. At least 70 of his men die government. fated invasion in three days. and he spends two years in prison. 1950 1960 all mankind,” says another, oblivi- speech, an action that may ice ous to Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s over any previous thaw. Soviet Union and Pol Pot’s Which is not really the issue, Cambodia. many Miami Cubans say. You’re A growing number of Cuban- missing half the truth again. The Americans think this rhetoric is, gray obscured by all the black and well, crazy. A recent Cuba Study white is that every Cuban speak- Group poll shows 46 percent of ing wants to see Cuba bettered, at Miami Cubans favor lifting at least from his or her own perspec- least the embargo’s travel ban, tive. They may hate Castro, and while 28 percent wish to end the each other, but hard-liners, mod- long-standing policy altogether. erates and Castro sympathizers Those numbers jump higher alike share one thing: They all love among recent Cuban immigrants, the island. eroding overall support for a poli- Exit Havana’s aforementioned cy that, for decades, has spurred Martí airport to see why. Miami exiles to donate money Hundreds of people crowd one and time to the powerful Cuban- another outside, bodies pressed American political lobby. close to a security fence. And then Max Castro helped organize a the right person — a brother, March 2002 conference in Coral mother or best friend — emerges Gables to discuss ending the from the double doors, luggage in Cuban embargo. Three hundred tow. And a Havana Cuban and a Miami Cubans showed up, which Miami Cuban hug. Right then, wouldn’t and couldn’t have hap- they’re both just Cuban. pened a decade ago. As Cuban as the poet. So There is also evidence that the whose side is he on anyway? The power of the Cuban American answer, of course, is enveloped in lobby, always so crucial in deliver- gray. ing congressmen, senators and “I read my Martí,” artist even presidents to Washington, is Gregorio says. “It’s like my Bible. KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star waning. The CLC is a splinter of The government says they follow With a little help from his friend, a laborer delivers the goods in Havana. the once-mighty Cuban American Martí. The Miami Cubans say National Foundation, which lost they follow Martí. No. I know my popularity after the death of Martí.” has been since morning. He’s the police, the fear, the poverty. charismatic and controversial struggling for the right words in He wants to see the world. He leader Jorge Mas Canosa. Cuban- Man is a wing. English, some final truth to offer needs to dream. American leaders themselves before you board the Mercedes Which, of course, is only half admit they don’t have the The music is very near the tourist bus ushering you to an the story. resources to compete with big truth. official Cuba he knows little Gregorio provides truth’s book- American business interests intent It’s Sunday afternoon in about. end on your last day in Havana. on ending the embargo. Central Havana and a rumba Finally, a declaration. The artist looks at this place, and “The estimates say we’ve spent rages, all drums, hips and catcalls. “Fidel Castro is a son of a bit,” he sees the same goodness. He’s $300,000 to $400,000 in the The band is loose and fast, forever he says, eyes locked on yours. bitter about the same injustice. whole last five years,” says lawyer nearing a sure collapse into rhyth- “Son of a bit.” And, yes, he’d like to march Marcell Felipe, who sits on the mic anarchy, never totally collaps- He loves so much about this the earth unscathed, the danger CLC’s board of directors. “Archer ing. A crowd of mostly poor, place – this dance, his friends, and gone, the light his guide. Daniels Midland, in the last two mostly black Cubans meets the most of all, a 9-year-old daughter. So why not leave? He has years alone, their group has spent dizzying pace, fueled by cheap “She is beauty,” he says. money. The Cuban borders are 5 million. And that gives you a lit- rum and the sort of joy you can’t But he can’t stand it anymore, open. Florida’s coastline and U.S. citizenship await. tle bit of an idea how things shape buy with a Master Card. WORLD PHOTOS AP/WIDE up.” Roberto leans into a wall, “Maybe I am Cuba. I am Of course, this all happened exhausted. His breath proves he’s illogical. I love my country. before Cuba’s crackdown on free swigging rum from a beer can and “Do you understand?”

October 1962 1991 April 2000 May 2002 April 2003 The Cuban Missile Crisis The fall of the After a daring President Jimmy Carter Castro’s government occurs when America finds Soviet Union throws raid, 6-year-old visits Cuba promoting imprisons 75 dissi- Russia building intermedi- Cuba into economic Elián González is the Varela Project and dents and executes ate range nuclear missiles despair, an era ultimately chastizes Castro for his three suspected ter- in Cuba. Russia removes known as the reunited with his disregard towards civil rorists for the hijack- them 11 days later. “Special Period.” father in Cuba. rights and liberties. ing of a ferry. 1990 2000 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Cuban American men play dominoes in front of a huge mural of leaders of the Americas in Domino Park in Miami’s Little Havana. Diverging journeys Miami’s exile community complex, ever changing By Dakarai Aarons Their mother, however, was socialist nation, she as the elected community with great power not thrilled. She cried the entire representative of a thriving both in South Florida and in the Ileana Ros-Lehtinen smiles as flight, sad to leave her homeland, democracy. United States. As chairwoman of she begins the story of how a little Ros-Lehtinen recalled. “Pan Am has gone out of the Subcommittee on girl from Havana became the first The family didn’t plan on business, but we are still here.” International Operations and Hispanic woman in the United staying long. They simply were And Ros-Lehtinen is no Human Rights, she wields a good States Congress. But first, she coming to wait out the revolution longer a 7-year-old girl from deal of congressional influence on must tell the story of how she got that had just placed Fidel Castro Havana who spoke no English. Cuban policies. to Miami. in power. She is now a seven-term congress- The Cuban American exile Ros-Lehtinen was 7 when she, “We bought round-trip tickets woman representing Florida’s community has had a steady her parents and brother boarded because we thought (the revolu- 18th Congressional District. Her hand of influence in shaping U.S. that fateful Pan Am Airlines flight tion) would be months at most.” district of approximately 640,000 policy toward Cuba for decades. in 1959. But, more than 40 years later, people stretches from Miami It is also a community that is ever “My brother and I were Castro and Ros-Lehtinen both Beach to Key West, with Miami’s changing. In today’s Cuban thrilled,” she said. “It was our first remain in their respective places Little Havana section as its center. American exile community, there flight.” — he as the stalwart head of a Ros-Lehtinen represents a is no such thing as a simple

10 answer. Ask the same question of partially because their view is not two people, and the result is often politically popular, and also out of two very distinct answers. loyalty to their exiled parents. Enter Max Castro. Castro, no “Even for myself, basically, my relation to Fidel, is a senior father had died and my mother research associate at the was out of it before I started University of Miami and a speaking out,” Castro said. columnist for The Miami Herald, “There’s this very close relation- El Nuevo Herald and La Opinión ship of almost guilt, because their newspapers. parents made such sacrifices to A sociologist, he studies M. Castro García Ros-Lehtinen come to this country, working refugees in the Western two or three jobs and so forth. So Hemisphere, including in his you have sort of a silenced gener- native Cuba. ation that doesn’t have, by and The issue arguably the most “If Cuba was such a paradise, why are large, the same beliefs.” divisive among the community people dying — literally — to come to the This change in view is appar- now is the United States embargo ent in a February poll conducted on Cuba. United States? The answer is there is no for The Miami Herald. Castro agrees with some por- future in Cuba, no future in communism.” In the poll, 54 percent of the tions of the embargo, like the ban Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 400 Cuban American exiles inter- on selling weapons to Cuba, but viewed supported the Cuban he said the current U.S. policy is American National Foundation’s misguided. public office 21 years ago. But about is that the Cuban people talking with Cuban officials in “I think that an embargo lifting the ban on trade will not suffer at the hands of that regime, hopes of discussing a democratic should be undertaken, number help anyone but Fidel Castro, she and those who participate with transition in Cuba. one, under the conditions of a said. that regime are (increasing) that Additionally, 56 percent were multilateral agreement and for a “How has the 40-year embar- suffering.” in favor of a meeting between very short period of time where go helped the Cuban people? It Ros-Lehtinen agreed. exiles and Cuban officials about there might be some result,” he hasn’t,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “It has “We have been a very positive the island nation’s relationship said. “But in this case, you’re talk- not brought the people closer to influence in the American socie- with the exile community. ing about a unilateral embargo, a freedom.” ty,” she said. “We may not be Yet 52 percent said Cuba very broad embargo. An embargo The embargo must remain, strong in terms of numbers, but would become a democracy only should be targeted.” Ros-Lehtinen said, until Cuba we make our opinions heard in a by the forceful removal of Castro’s The primary reason the grants freedom to political prison- very real and direct way.” communist regime. embargo still exists is because of ers and becomes a democratic Yet, Ros-Lehtinen said she felt If his removal does occur, nor- the influence of a select group state. no pressure to vote a certain way malized relations with Cuba within the community, “hard- “We want to see free, interna- on Cuban-related issues. could be a possibility, said Ros- liners,” who are controlling the tionally supervised elections,” she “I just vote my conscience and Lehtinen. agenda, Castro said. And that, he said. “The embargo doesn’t pre- explain to my constituents why I “I think in my lifetime I will said, could be inhibiting the vent free elections in Cuba. (Fidel vote the way I do,” she said. see a free Cuba,” she said process of change. Castro’s) the one who says ‘elec- Cuba has been in desperate And of the demise of Fidel “It concerns me, too, because I ciones para que?’ Elections for need of money since its primary Castro? “May that day come,” she think it’s something that retards what?” economic partner, the former said. change in Cuba,” he said. “There Meanwhile, Joe García, of the Soviet Union, collapsed in the Max Castro also sees the possi- are plenty of people in Cuba who Cuban American National early 1990s. Since then, Cuba has bility of that happening, but he are very positive toward seeing Foundation, said his group’s run up a debt with countries said there are opposing views on things change, but they don’t efforts are often misunderstood. around the world and wants to whether the end of Castro’s reign want people in Miami controlling “You know everybody is going add the United States to that list, would be positive immediately. their fates.” to say: ‘Well look at this. This is a Ros-Lehtinen said. “I think probably the hard- Controlling Cuba’s destiny is crazy Cuban speaking for Miami, “Castro doesn’t pay his bills. liners would party and the other not her intent, Ros-Lehtinen said. trying to force his will.’ No, I am He owes everyone money, and group would worry about what “We don’t impose an embargo not a crazy Cuban. I am proud to the U.S. would be no exception,” would happen,” he said. “You to destroy the regime. People be an American, but America she said. “I think Castro will could have civil war in Cuba. You blame the U.S. for what are stands for more than just sales.” come up with the cash for the know, Castro has enough charis- essentially Castro’s failings,” she The CANF’s primary concern first initial sales, but it won’t last ma to control without tanks on said. “The Cuban people are is the destiny of the many family long.” the street, but what happens dying, and your Band-Aids are and friends left behind in Cuba, García agreed. when someone like (Fidel’s broth- not going to help them. García said. “How can a bankrupt dicta- er) Raúl takes control who is not “If Cuba was such a paradise, “It’s become politically correct torship be a good business part- as politically able?” why are people dying — literally to somehow blame Cuban ner?” he asked. “It is like doing Whatever the end result may — to come to the United States? Americans for having too much business with the Mafia. Once be, members of the Cuban The answer is there is no future say on (the) foreign policy of you start down that road, trust American exile community say in Cuba, no future in commu- Cuba. Why?” he asked. “We may me, no business is worth it.” they will be there, helping to nism.” have been wrong about some But Max Castro says he is not create a peaceful transition. And helping create a future for things, and we have been correct- alone. There are people in Miami her homeland is one of the rea- ed when we have been wrong. who hold views similar to his, but sons Ros-Lehtinen first sought “But what I am not wrong many are not willing to speak,

11 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Radio Martí employees work the control room while guests are interviewed in the station’s Miami headquarters. Truth and propaganda

But Radio Martí was there. littered with anti-Castro rants By Shane Pekny The station, which broadcasts Office of Cuba and pre-1959 nostalgia, they’ve news and entertainment to Broadcasting lost trust in Radio Martí. On Dec. 17, 2002, Oswaldo Cuba 24/7, reported live from Indeed, listenership surveys Payá stood at a podium before Strasbourg, France, courtesy of Annual budget: $25 million showed a decline between 1995 626 delegates of the European U.S. taxpayers. and 2001. The drop coincided Parliament to accept the Employees: 163 “Mr. Payá is in there,” Radio Martí weekly broadcast with the station’s move from Sakharov Prize for Freedom of recalled Margarita Rojo, Radio Washington, D.C., to Miami. Thought, a prestigious interna- hours: 168 Martí’s acting news director, TV Martí weekly broadcast Political disagreements tional honor for the soft-spoken “and he walks and he starts talk- among factions of the Cuban opposition leader from Cuba. ing. The people of Cuba are hours: 28 American community continu- But his photo didn’t appear tuning in. And they were listen- Headquarters: Miami ally wrack the Office of Cuba that day in Juventud Rebelde, AM radio transmitter: one of the island’s most promi- ing to him. … And I thought, Broadcasting, which runs Radio nent newspapers. Instead, it was personally, that’s it. That’s our Marathon Key, Fla. and TV Martí. The Miami Fidel Castro on the front page, $23 million right there.” Shortwave radio transmitter: Herald reported more than two inspecting a new art exhibit in But three weeks later, Greenville, N.C., and Delano, Calif. dozen investigations, audits, Havana. The headline read, Josefina, a journalism student at TV transmitter: Cudjoe Key, Fla. inquiries or policy reviews at the “Artistic nature dazzles.” Havana University who request- office in the past 15 years. Cubans weren’t supposed to ed anonymity, posed this ques- Nevertheless, supporters in hear about Payá or his Varela tion: “So, tell me, do you know ting through. Congress set aside about $15 Project, which had submitted what is the Varela Project?” Some Cubans cannot tune in million for Radio Martí and $10 11,000 signatures to Cuba’s When asked, many of her to Radio Martí because it’s million for TV Martí in fiscal National Assembly demanding fellow Cubans didn’t know, jammed by the Castro regime. year 2003. It’s worth the money, a referendum on democratic either. It seemed the multimil- Many others simply tune it they say. Just as Radio Liberty reforms. lion-dollar message wasn’t get- out. After 18 years of broadcasts helped liberate the Eastern Bloc,

12 Radio and TV Martí will help liberate Cuba. But the station’s critics say those millions of dollars are wasted. “It’s just another rambling exile station with all the same crap and bullshit that the exile stations have,” said Wayne Smith, a former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. “Except this one is paid for by the American taxpayer and goes out as the official word of the U.S. government. It’s dis- graceful.” After gaining clearance from the guard, driving through the outside security fence, emptying their pockets and passing through a metal detector, visitors find themselves in front of a wall. Three nicely framed portraits hang there: one of President George W. Bush, one of Vice President Dick Cheney and a KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star larger painting of Jose Martí, the Orlando Rodríguez is the former director of Radio Martí. His contract expired in February 2003. Cuban poet and freedom fight- er, a martyr in the war of inde- Its first big victory was the on behalf of the International pendence from Spain. initial broadcast of Radio Martí “The press ought to Broadcasting Bureau — count- Welcome to the Office of in 1985. TV Martí went on the ed far fewer listeners. While Cuba Broadcasting. This ware- air five years later. be inquiry and weekly listenership held steady house-like building in west From 1985 until his death in censure, never hate at 9 percent from 1998 to 2000, Miami is owned by the U.S. 1997, Mas Canosa served on a or anger, for neither it fell to 5 percent in 2001. government, embroiled in anti- presidential advisory board that Radio Martí’s most ardent Castro politics, intertwined with was supposed to ensure the fair- leaves room for the supporters dismiss the lower per- Cuban culture and history, both ness and accuracy of Martí free expression of centages, saying Cubans on the ridiculed and applauded in the broadcasts. But his critics island may be afraid to admit debate over U.S.-Cuba relations, accused him of using the station ideas.” they listen to the station. On the and intended — in the spirit of to campaign for the presidency Jose Martí, 1875 other hand, say critics, surveys Martí himself — to serve the of post-Castro Cuba. conducted in Miami include people, to deliver the truth. Jay Mallin, Radio Martí’s “Oh, definitely,” said Mallin, primarily those fed up with the Through Radio and TV news director from 1985 to who contracts with the station Castro regime — a segment of Martí, the office sends to Cuba a 1990, said “political hacks” domi- to host a show aimed at Cuba’s Cuban society more likely to mix of news, analysis, commen- nated the station throughout the military called “En Marcha.” “It seek foreign media. tary, music and entertainment — 1990s, skewing content toward became more of an exile station Nevertheless, when compar- overall, a typical program lineup, the foundation’s point of view. than a government station. … It ing apples to apples, Radio despite its unique history. Starting in 1996, per the became “Calle Ocho.” Calle Martí’s audience shrank, but did Radio Martí was based origi- wishes of Cuban American Ocho, or Eighth Street, is the not disappear, between 1995 nally in Washington, D.C., but House members, the Office of main commercial strip in and 2001. it was born in Miami’s exile Cuba Broadcasting moved to Miami’s Little Havana. And despite that decline, sur- community. The station’s father Miami. Rep. Lincoln Diaz- Meanwhile, listenership veys both on the island and in was Jorge Mas Canosa, the fiery Balart, R-Fla., said Radio and dropped significantly. A 1995 Miami revealed that Cubans lis- founder of the Cuban American TV Martí could take advantage U.S. government survey of tened to Radio Martí more than National Foundation. of the “immense human recent Cuban arrivals in Miami any other foreign radio station. Mas Canosa created the resources and expertise available found that 76 percent had In 1999, after seeing evi- foundation in 1981 and quickly in South Florida.” And he tuned in weekly. In 1999, dence of declining listenership, made it one of Washington’s extolled the more than 150 new another survey of travelers to the Inspector General’s Office in most powerful lobby groups. Its jobs the move would bring to Miami found listenership had the U.S. State Department stance was unwavering: no his home district. dropped to 58 percent. asked a panel of independent appeasement of Fidel Castro, no A more recent series of sur- journalists to review Radio lifting of sanctions, no easing of Did the move to Miami veys — conducted in Cuba by a Martí broadcasts. tensions with Cuba. change Radio Martí? European market research firm The question: Did the station

13 The Broadcasting Board of Governors In 1942, the Voice of America’s first broadcast began with a pledge in German: “The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” Since then, U.S. government broadcasters have learned a few more languages – 60 more, to be exact. Radio and TV Martí are only a small part of a $550 million effort to reach every piece of the globe that doesn’t have free media. The Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees Radio Sawa (Middle East), Radio Sawa Iraq, Radio Farda (Iran), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Afghanistan, Radio Free Asia, the Voice of America (worldwide), Worldnet satellite KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star television and myriad other Miami-Cubans (clockwise, from top left) Marcell Filipe, Dr. Alfredo Melgar, Dr. Lidia Usategui, Alfredo Manrara stations. and Dr. Rigoberto Rodríguez discuss conditions in their homeland at Cuban Liberty Council offices in Miami. Altogether, these stations broad- follow the Voice of America the predawn raid for four hours. committee hearing, Salvador cast 2,800 hours a week and Charter, as required by law? “I wasn’t the news director, Lew, director of the Office of employ nearly 2,500, according The answer: no. luckily, luckily,” said Rojo, who Cuba Broadcasting at the time, to the board’s 2001 annual The panel reported incidents took the position in November defended the delay. report. of on-air vulgarity, unbalanced 2002. First of all, he said, borrow- commentary and unprofessional, Although she didn’t partici- ing a signal from Cuban media Radio and TV Martí are run by unrehearsed monologues. Its pate, Rojo guessed why the edi- would expose Radio Martí to an the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, report stated: “Substituting criti- torial meeting that morning last- international copyright dispute, which reports to the nine presi- cism and editorial commentary ed four hours. and second, he didn’t trust the dent-appointed members of the for analysis was a recurring “I am sure it was happening. regime would broadcast the Broadcasting Board of problem in news broadcasts — How to do it? How do we trans- speech objectively. perhaps the most glaring and mit it? How do we inform it? But Phil Peters, an adviser to Governors. The board must disturbing problem of all, from What sound bites? the House Cuba Working ensure that all broadcasts follow a journalistic standpoint.” “Elián was a tough cookie,” Group, told the subcommittee the Voice of America Charter. So the report recommended she added. “Elián was tough that Lew and his predecessor, a series of reforms to ensure because everybody had an opin- Herminio San Román, had no editorial decisions were made at ion. It was so difficult to recuse excuse for delaying momentous favored personal acquaintances the top, not on the fly. But yourself, to detach yourself and news stories. in hiring. The 74-year-old either way, with momentous, your personal opinion from “It seems quite clear,” he resigned April 1, explaining that divisive news events on the what you were going to report.” said, “that both stories were the directorship was a bad job horizon, editorial decisions at Two years later, Radio Martí’s withheld because they were con- for someone who had quintuple the Office of Cuba Broadcasting newsroom faced another test. troversial in Miami, where many bypass surgery two years ago. would become only more On May 14, 2002, former opposed Elián González’s return “There was a lot of pressure difficult. President Jimmy Carter gave a to his father’s custody, and many and a lot of vested interests,” he speech at Havana University in opposed President Carter’s views told The Miami Herald, “and I On April 22, 2000, armed which he praised the Varela on Cuba policy and his dialogue didn’t have another choice. It federal agents seized Elián Project. Cuba’s state-run media with Cuban authorities.” was either my life or take a González from the home of his aired his words live, but Radio The Inspector General’s retirement for the moment.” great-uncle in Miami. The news Martí didn’t broadcast the whole Office released another report in Some of Lew’s stress may spread worldwide in minutes, speech until the next day. January, which found, among have come from his concerns but Radio Martí didn’t mention In a June 2002 House sub- other problems, that Lew had over espionage. He alleged in

14 the June 2002 hearing that interfering with other stations, agents of the Cuban government TV Martí must transmit a tar- had infiltrated Radio and TV geted signal from a blimp teth- Martí. International ered 10,000 feet above Cudjoe Broadcasting Bureau Director Key, Fla. Conniff said operators Brian Conniff added that Radio repeatedly adjust the beam’s Martí is “obviously a target of direction and switch between infiltration on the part of the three UHF channels to keep the Castro government.” jammers on their toes. Much like Lew, who used to TV Martí airs from 6 to be Mas Canosa’s spokesman, 10:30 every evening. But its nar- Pedro Roig, the newly appoint- row signal, sent from only one ed director, has roots in the transmitter, is simply too prone hard-line Cuban American com- to jamming. Aside from the munity. In fact, he trained under U.S. Interests Section in the CIA alongside Mas Canosa Havana, which receives the sta- in preparation for the 1961 Bay KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star tion via satellite, TV Martí of Pigs invasion, according to Some Cubans who still live on the island say they listen to Radio Martí. seems to air without an audi- The Miami Herald. ence. Even Rojo conceded the Roig is the third new director television jamming is “quite, of the Office of Cuba The Voice of America Charter quite effective.” Broadcasting in six years. Once The Voice of America Charter, drafted in 1960, became law in 1976: “I wouldn’t go as far as 100 again, the new guy will have to percent,” she said. “But I would unite a diverse staff. “The long-range interests of the United States are served by communi- say effective jamming.” “There are different factions cating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Furthermore, many Cubans jockeying for support right Voice of America must win the attention and respect of listeners. These cannot afford televisions. now,” said Mallin, host of “En principles will therefore govern Voice of America broadcasts. According to the CIA World Marcha.” Factbook, the island has one TV The infighting at Radio and 1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. for every 4.3 Cubans. TV Martí is not unique in U.S. VOA news will be accurate, objective and comprehensive. “I’m always delighted to talk government broadcasting. 2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, to TV Martí,” said Smith, the Gene Sosin dedicated 33 and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of signifi- former head of the U.S. Interests years to broadcasting through cant American thought and institutions. Section. “I can say anything I the Iron Curtain, first with want to and I know it’ll never be Radio Liberty and later when it 3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effective- seen nor heard.” merged with Radio Free Europe. ly, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these He said the station hired many policies.” Jamming, political infighting, Soviet émigrés and military fears of espionage, critics on all defectors. things to do than listen to lies. ment, Radio Martí airs 24 hours sides — Rojo doesn’t worry “They had a lot of hatred (Radio Martí) is fake news.” a day on five frequencies — one about these things. She’s worried against the Stalinist regime and And from Guillermo, a near- AM station at Marathon Key, about explaining a complex wanted to get even,” Sosin said. ly toothless 58-year-old retiree, Fla., and four shortwave fre- story — like that of Payá and At the same time, he added, came a different take: “Yes. quencies from Greenville, N.C., his Varela Project — to a highly exiles served his station well Everybody listens to Radio and Delano, Calif. literate, albeit sheltered, audi- because they were — sometimes Martí.” The Cuban government ence. And always in her mind is literally — brothers and sisters On the island, answers vary attempts to jam all five frequen- Radio Martí’s historically impor- to the audience. tant mission. widely. But the most common cies, a difficult and expensive response is yes — with this task, considering the signals come “Go to Poland,” she said. “Go And that’s what broadcasting caveat: The news is good, but from three directions. The jam- to Russia and ask how much is all about — the audience. the commentary is bitter, anti- ming is most effective in Havana Radio Free Europe and how Asked about the state-run Castro rhetoric. and other urban areas, said Rojo, much Radio Free Russia and media in Cuba, Pedro, a soft- “It’s part of true,” Pedro said. the station’s news director. Radio Liberty meant to those dis- spoken government employee “Part of true. … For example, it Radio Martí has sought per- sident and opposition leaders.” who requested anonymity, is true that journalists here can- mission to broadcast from When change does come to shook his head. not speak. We don’t have the Caribbean countries, which the island, the message sponsored “Ringling Circus,” he said. freedom of choice. It’s true. would make the signal even by U.S. taxpayers will be the first So do Cubans listen to Radio “It’s not that easy,” he added. harder to jam, but U.S. officials outside voice Cubans hear — be Martí instead? “It’s very biased, and it’s very could not find a workable loca- it propaganda or the truth. “No, no, no. That’s the other misleading. Very misleading.” tion, Brian Conniff said at the But as best said by George part of the circus.” But before Cubans can June 2002 House subcommittee David, a straight-shooting radio Abel Contreras de la Guardia, choose whether to trust Radio hearing. veteran and TV Martí’s technical a translator and tour guide for and TV Martí, they must receive The options available to operations chief, “One man’s the Cuban government, echoed the signals. To overcome jam- overcome television jamming are propaganda is another man’s his employer’s sentiment. ming by the Cuban govern- much more limited. To avoid truth.” “People here have better

15 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star The streets of Cuba are a chaotic mix, thanks in part to the four-decade-old U.S. trade embargo and Castro’s unyielding policies. A hard time changing Castro’s rule, U.S. policies complicate life in Cuba By Shane Pekny government here is the other part.” lost my country,” he said, shrug- embargo-weakening language. Cubans are tired of fearing the ging his shoulders. “I mean, it’s The bill arrived on his desk Jose motored down a narrow revolutionary police, Jose said, still there.” without any such language. Havana street in his little white speaking on condition that he not For anti-Castro exiles, U.S. For the rest of the United Fiat, the wind messing his curly be identified by his real name. policy is a tool to reclaim what States, Cuba is a footnote. The gray beard. He jockeyed for space They’re tired of ration cards and Castro stole, to get back what Cold War has long passed, and with three-wheeled taxis, bicycles, bare shelves. Tired of hearing they deserve — libertad. members of Congress have been Soviet-built Ladas and Fords and about el bloqueo, the decades-old And U.S. policy is a tool visiting Cuba and promoting Chevys, circa 1955. U.S. trade embargo. they’ve come to grasp firmly. The engagement, not isolation. He passed shops and homes, Ninety miles to the north, more than 650,000 Cuban Business groups are lobbying some crumbling, sick-looking, all another Cuban, Marcell Felipe, is Americans in Miami-Dade against the embargo. Farmers in need of paint. He passed tired of Fidel Castro’s govern- County can swing the vote in want to sell more food to Cuba’s dozens of children who eyed his ment, too. He and many fellow Florida, and Florida, as in 2000, hungry people. foreign passengers, some plan- exiles in Miami lost everything — can determine who occupies the But in April, Castro, always ning, rehearsing, waiting to beg homes, friends and family, their White House. split between limiting internal for a dollar. country — to the 1959 revolution. The current occupant, up for dissent and appeasing current and “The embargo is part of their But Felipe, stridently pro- re-election next year, threatened in potential trade partners, ordered a tragedy,” the 57-year-old said. “It’s embargo, doesn’t feel sorry for February to veto a $390 billion crackdown on dissidents. Seventy- part of their problems. But the himself. “No, I don’t feel like I’ve spending bill if it contained five were jailed for allegedly con-

16 spiring with the U.S. government. Three men who tried to hijack a ferry to Florida were executed. At least for the current session of Congress, the crackdown has shifted the embargo debate, said Brian Alexander, executive direc- tor of the Cuba Policy Foundation. “Hard-line embargo support- ers have been given the upper hand by Castro,” he said, “and I believe that you will see reduced enthusiasm on the Hill for easing the embargo.” Indeed, the Cuba Policy Foundation’s director, board chair- man and directors resigned in mid-May to protest the recent wave of repression in Cuba. But supporters of engagement say the embargo has failed. Castro, 76, still runs Cuba. Meanwhile, Europe, Canada, Mexico and Israel have allowed KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star their companies to invest billions Above: Vegetable sellers ready their goods for buyers at a public food market in Havana. Below: Many Cubans still use in the Cuban economy since the horse and buggy for transportation. 1990, heading off the regime’s bankruptcy. or death. From one side, trade and In February, directors of the investment. From the other, an Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA embargo. The contrasting policies and FBI warned about many cancel each other out, providing threats to U.S. security, but did the Castro regime with financial not mention Cuba. support and, as Jose pointed out, However, Cuba remains on political cover. the State Department’s list of “The embargo is the most stu- nations that sponsor terrorism. In pid thing that the United States May 2002, John Bolton, under- did,” he said. “You made Castro a secretary of state for arms control, hero.” accused Cuba of developing bio- logical weapons. Secretary of State The embargo exists today Colin Powell later distanced him- partly because it existed yesterday. self from the accusation. George W. Bush is the 10th U.S. Smith, as a senior fellow at the president to enforce it, and like Center for International Policy in his predecessors, he’s not about to Washington, has written several let history absolve Castro, the articles regarding Cuba’s link to Cold War fighter who never sur- parts have dealt with him in Cold release from a North Vietnamese terrorism — or lack thereof. rendered. War fashion, despite an undeni- prison, several U.S. soldiers “There is no objective reason “Do you want to go down as able fact: The embargo has failed recounted how Cuban interroga- at all for keeping Cuba on the ter- the first president who dealt with to force political change in Cuba. tors had tortured them. rorist list,” he said. “Keeping it Castro?” asked Wayne Smith, for- Still, Felipe, a director of Smith, who has spent hun- there is simply part of our govern- mer head of the U.S. Interests Miami’s Cuban Liberty Council, dreds of hours speaking with ment’s hard-line and somewhat Section in Havana. “There’s a cer- doesn’t call it a failed policy. Castro, said the leader “had over- irrational policy toward Cuba.” tain psychosis that American If the embargo were lifted, he riding, powerful internationalist But hard-line exiles say politicians tend to see Castro as a said, and Cuba recovered eco- objectives. He wanted to play on nobody should consider lifting bearded little pip-squeak — he nomically, Castro would pick up the world stage.” the U.S. embargo until Castro may be 6-foot-3, but his country right where he left off — export- But Cuba, reeling economical- ends the embargo he imposes on isn’t — who has defied us and ing violent revolution. ly, eliminated four-fifths of its his own people. jeered at us, in a sense, and got In 1975, Cuba sent hundreds armed forces in the 1990s, Indeed, the Cuban govern- away with it. There’s nothing of thousands of soldiers to fight in according to the U.S. Arms ment controls nearly everything more likely to drive a superpower the Angolan civil war and inter- Control and Disarmament — media, employment, food crazy than that.” vened in the war between Somalia Agency. At a 1996 Senate rations, medical care, driving priv- So the slogan lives on — and Ethiopia. Cuban forces also Intelligence Committee hearing, ileges, even perks like Internet “Socialism or death!” — and so fought for leftist factions in the CIA warned not of the Castro access. Cubans on the streets of does Castro. Through four Colombia, Bolivia, Nicaragua and regime, but of the instability that Havana say dissent is not tolerated. decades, his Washington counter- Venezuela. In 1973, after their may follow his resignation, ouster “If the president speaks, you

17 PHOTOS BY KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star executive director of Miami’s Niurka Gonzalas Cuban American National holds the ration Foundation. book she uses Although a 1997 report by for food as Oxfam America did not mention Marcos Villa, high-priced aspirin, it did blame the father of her the embargo for many shortages three children, in Cuba’s health care system. looks on. Below: The report said Prostaglandin, Pedro Alvarez, a drug used to aid child birth, was who heads unavailable in Cuba because Cuba’s import Upjohn is a U.S. company. agency, says the According to Oxfam America, embargo cuts U.S. companies produced half of Cuba’s potential all world-class drugs developed exports by 20 between 1972 and 1992. percent. “The United States did not cause the health care crisis in Cuba,” reported Oxfam, “but the United States should cease meas- have to go,” said Jose Antonio, a ures that exacerbate that crisis.” Cuban Democracy 44-year-old whose place of Oxfam also reported that employment had recently closed. Cuba had maintained its dedica- Act of 1992 “It’s an obligation. Otherwise, you tion to health care. According to (also called the lose your job.” UNICEF, Cuba’s 2001 child mor- Everything sold to Cuba passes tality rate — the number of Torricelli Law) through the government. deaths per 1,000 children 5 and The president, by denying them Therefore, food, medical supplies, younger — was nine. In 1990, assistance, should dissuade for- investment dollars — everything that rate was 13, and in 1960, it is used first to benefit those in was 54. Cuba has almost caught eign countries from dealing with power, Felipe said. up with the United States, which Cuba. Ending the embargo would had a child mortality rate of 29 in Foreign-based subsidiaries of deliver a great victory to Castro, 1960 and eight in 2001. U.S. companies may be penalized he added, and a psychological Even though Cuba must pay defeat to dissidents within Cuba. higher prices and shipping costs, for dealing with Cuba. “You can imagine if you were The Economist reported in Professor Trumbull said its econo- Ships that stop at Cuban ports a dissident and you are constantly May 2001 that some of Cuba’s my could do far better. He com- may not dock at any U.S. port for bombarded with only one source creditors had either stopped lend- pared Cuba to New Zealand, a 180 days. of information, which tells you, ing or started charging higher geographically isolated country ‘You’re little, we’re big. You’re with few natural resources. New Donations of food and medi- interest. The U.S.-Cuba Trade nothing. You are not going any- and Economic Council, which Zealand’s economy is booming, cine are exempt from the embar- where.’ And now, all of a sudden, collects investment data from the he said, despite its dependence on go. Sales of medicine and medical you have gotten the news that the Cuban government, reported that distant trading partners. supplies are exempt, too; howev- United States has lifted the foreign investment dropped from However, as Alvarez, Cuba’s er, a strict licensing system dis- embargo. Well, all the hope that nearly $450 million in 2000 to top import official, pointed out, you had is crushed.” $39 million in 2001. U.S. ports will not accommodate courages medical sales. But the impact of the embargo any vessel that has visited Cuba in The United States should be In a global market, where is not insignificant. The United the previous six months. That prepared to ease the embargo in everyone trades with everyone, it’s States would become a new restriction encourages many ship- “carefully calibrated ways” when difficult for any single country — source of credit and a vast new pers to exclude Cuba from their even one with the world’s largest market for Cuban goods. Pedro regular trade routes. Cuba installs a transition govern- economy — to bankrupt another. Alvarez, who heads Cuba’s import ment and schedules free, multi- So how much has the U.S. agency, said it cuts Cuba’s poten- Asked about Cuba’s lack of a party elections. embargo hurt Cuba’s economy? tial exports by 20 percent. free, independent press, Renato “Of course, the embargo has Dr. Marilyn Claro, vice direc- Recio, a writer for the Cuban an impact, but relative to all the tor of the Frank País Public newspaper Trabajadores, respond- other factors that are killing the Health Center in Havana, said ed the way the rest of the island’s Cuban economy, the impact of other countries in Latin America loyal revolutionaries do. the embargo is small,” said profes- can get aspirin for 5 cents each. “Obviously, we do not say sor William Trumbull, who Cuba, because it cannot buy from everything that we could say. teaches a class at West Virginia U.S. companies, pays 15 cents. When a country is at war, the University on Cuban economics. Hard-liners consider such country must take special meas- Among those other factors is claims mere propaganda. ures.” foreign debt, which according to “(Castro) can buy aspirin at a For many Cubans, this the World Bank equaled 92 per- 20th of the price of the U.S. mar- wartime rhetoric does not ring cent of Cuba’s gross domestic ket in Venezuela or Costa Rica or hollow. They have seen many product in December 2001. anywhere else,” said Joe García, U.S. attempts to topple the revo-

18 engagement leads to reform can be lost.” Neither the House nor Senate holds enough votes to lift the embargo entirely, according to the foundation’s analysis. Alexander said the next political battle will occur this summer, when he expects Congress to debate the 2004 budget and embargo-related amendments. Congressional support for eas- ing the embargo is backed by even greater support among the general public. Respondents to a 2001 nationwide poll favored lifting the embargo entirely by a margin of 52 percent to 32 percent. The poll, conducted by an independent firm on behalf of the Cuba Policy Foundation, also found that 67 percent wanted the KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star United States to permit travel to Workers load tomatoes on a farm just outside of Havana using a 1970s Russian tractor. Most of Cuban farm Cuba, while 24 percent supported equipment is outdated and from the former Soviet Union. the current ban. Meanwhile, Cuban Americans lutionary government. But Castro in South Florida are becoming decries el bloqueo — meaning Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act less bitter and their number more “the blockade,” a more militaristic of 1996 (or Helms-Burton) diluted. term than “embargo” — more Data from the 2000 Census than anything else. U.S. nationals who owned property in Cuba before the revolution, including revealed a startling fact: Miami’s While many Cubans call it a Cuban Americans who left Cuba after 1959, may file suit in U.S. courts against Little Havana, the heart of the blockade, too, others are more foreign nationals who deal with that property. This provision, known as Title III, Cuban American community, was likely to say “embargo.” Still oth- slightly less than 49 percent ers, like Jose Antonio, the unem- has never been enforced. It has been suspended repeatedly by both former President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. Cuban. Immigration from ployed 44-year-old, call the Mexico, the Dominican Republic wartime rhetoric “bullshit.” The United States may deny entry to any foreign national who deals with and other Latin American coun- Without the embargo, the Cuban assets that belonged to a U.S. national before the revolution. tries had vastly outpaced new Cuban government wouldn’t arrivals from Cuba. know whom to blame, said Max If an international financial institution grants Cuba a loan, the United States will withhold payment of an equal amount of money to that institu- Those numbers were later dis- Castro, a University of Miami puted, but even conservative esti- professor and Miami Herald tion. However, Cuba is a member of neither the World Bank nor the mates showed the Cuban columnist. International Monetary Fund, the world’s two primary lenders. American population in Miami- “The state of siege that the Dade County was roughly equal Cuban government imposes on to that of other Latin Americans. the population … It’s like what you ran it for 40 years and it did- of the Washington-based anti- In February, a Miami Herald happened here on 9-11 multi- n’t work, you’d probably try some- embargo organization. survey found 54 percent of plied by 100 times over 44 years. thing different.” And after the jailing of 75 dis- Cuban Americans supported a … It would erode, and then they Congress may be poised to do sidents in April, Castro may no proposal by the Cuban American would have to deliver.” just that. It already opened one longer seem to be, as Nebraska National Foundation to hold talks Embargo supporters recognize small crack in the embargo by Sen. Chuck Hagel said in fall with high-level officials in the it helps Fidel Castro stir Cuban legalizing cash-only food sales to 2002, “a toothless old tiger.” But Cuban government — other than nationalism, but they contend his Cuba in 2000. Since then, the Hagel, Osborne and other mem- Fidel and Raúl Castro — while real source of power is not excuses. United States has become Cuba’s bers of the Cuba Working Group 39 percent opposed the idea. “Fidel’s power comes from one largest source of imported food, haven’t abandoned their argu- Even in the early 1990s, polls thing: repression,” said Omar according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade ments for engagement. They just revealed substantial support for López Montenegro, a leader of and Economic Council. might have a harder time defend- this sort of dialogue. But a large the Cuban American National An analysis by the Cuba Policy ing those arguments. majority — 77 percent in 1992 Foundation. Foundation found that opponents “Lawmakers’ skittishness will — usually favored U.S. military of the travel ban outnumber sup- be based on a much more blunt intervention. By April 2002, a “I guess I’ve drawn the analogy porters in the House 230-148. A argument,” Alexander said, poll commissioned by the Cuba from time to time,” said U.S. majority of the Senate is aligned “which is that an opponent in a Study Group, an organization of Rep. Tom Osborne, the former against the travel ban, too. campaign could charge them with prominent Cuban Americans, Husker football coach who now However, the Republican leader- coddling Castro or being soft on found support for “abrupt and represents Nebraska’s rural west- ship, with the president’s backing, human rights. When that hap- violent” change in Cuba had ern district, “that if you were run- will seek to quiet that majority, pens, the much more complicated dropped to 16 percent. ning a certain football play and said Alexander, executive director and nuanced arguments of how “When people left Cuba,” Max

19 Seeking a multilateral embargo all by itself In February 1997, a Wal-Mart manager in Winnipeg, Canada, removed Cuban-made pajamas from his shelves. Why? Because, he told the Winnipeg Free Press, “It is in conflict to a U.S. law.” Shortly thereafter, reported the Christian Science Monitor, thousands of Cuban pajamas disappeared from 135 Wal-Mart stores across Canada. But Canada wasn’t about to let a U.S. law hinder its foreign trade. Under pressure from government officials, Wal-Mart Canada soon began selling the pajamas again. The Cuban pajama flap, as it came to be called, high- lighted the disagreement between the United States and the rest of the world regarding Cuba. Before 1989, the embargo had little effect because Soviet subsidies — between $5 billion and $7 billion annually — fortified the Cuban economy. After the Soviet Union collapsed, it seemed the embargo could finally put pressure on Fidel Castro. But Cuba found two major ways to survive: trading with foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies and court- ing investors from third countries. Congress cut off the foreign subsidiary loophole with the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, known as the Torricelli Law. But it didn’t topple Fidel Castro. With tourism, foreign investment and limited free market reforms, Cuba climbed out of the so-called Special Period. In March 1996, a few weeks after Cuban fighter jets shot down two airplanes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, an anti-Castro exile group, President Bill Clinton signed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, known as Helms-Burton. It aimed to discourage foreign companies from dealing with Cuba. The Torricelli Law and Helms-Burton applied U.S.- Cuba policy to third countries, and those countries were KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star not pleased. Above: Some side streets in Havana resemble a 1950s movie set. But like the ’50s, the In fact, every year since 1992, the U.N. General city has its share of public works problems that include foul air and living space. Assembly has voted by growing margins to condemn the embargo. The most recent vote in November 2002 was Castro said, “they were called worms. He doesn’t understand Miami’s exile 173-3. The only country to vote consistently with the They were called scum. Their homes community. He wants the embargo United States is Israel, a country that, in contradiction were taken. There are reasons for the lifted. of its vote, is one of Cuba’s most important sources of bitterness, but ultimately I don’t think In his day-to-day life, a few more investment. it’s a very good thing, to either individ- tips from U.S. tourists would go a In 1996, the Organization of American States deter- uals, to the community, for the long way. In his state-run world, he mined that the U.S. embargo was a violation of interna- prospects for Cuba, the people of cannot see how the embargo hurts the tional law. Many key U.S. trading partners, including Cuba. But I can understand it. I felt it. government — rather, the man who Mexico, Canada, Great Britain and the European I’ve had it myself. I’ve been cured of it.” dominates his life. Union, passed legislation that prohibited their citizens The Bush administration will Besides, Jose said, Castro’s revolu- from complying with the Torricelli Law and Helms- maintain its stance on Cuba, said tion delivered security. The rations Burton. Smith, the former U.S. diplomat in aren’t much, but they’re always there. It was one such law in Canada that compelled Wal- Cuba, but politicians cannot ignore After more than 42 years of the Mart to start selling those Cuban pajamas again. changing public opinion. U.S. embargo, Jose was supposed to In the late 1990s, the European Union and the “A great majority of Floridians see libertad. He was supposed to have United States locked horns over the embargo, but they want to see the embargo lifted,” he the right to speak freely. Havana was have since agreed to disagree, said Miami University said. “… So you may lose more votes supposed to be painted. Professor Joaquín Roy. They were not going to start a from holding to this position than Instead, he’s seen only different trade war over the embargo before Sept. 11, 2001, he you gain by kissing the asses of exiles.” shades of poverty, varying degrees of said, and they are much less likely to do so now. Issues repression. He’s been tired and afraid related to al Qaeda, Iraq and North Korea dwarf their Across the Gulf Stream, Jose cruis- for a long time now. disagreement over Cuba. es in his little white Fiat through the — Shane Pekny streets of an unpainted, socialist city.

20 A new economic engine Tourism, Rights of Cubans to enter hotels, quest for restaurants The current Cuban Constitution was U.S. dollars inaugurated Feb. 24, 1976. Article 43 equates the right of Cubans to enter act as fuel any hotel or restaurant with the By Shane Pekny most fundamental human rights: The State establishes the right, won On the 25th floor of the Habana Libre Hotel, the dance by the Revolution, of its citizens, club is packed with tourists, most- without distinction based on race, ly Canadian and European. At color, sex, religious creeds, national the bar, beer and rum and Coke origin, or any other type offending slide one way, U.S. dollars the human dignity to: other. Above, the ceiling is painted Have access, in keeping with black and speckled with tiny, their merits and abilities, to all posi- sparkling lights. It’s made to look tions and state and administrative like the night sky. Swirling cones jobs and of production and services of pink, blue and green light the Be given equal pay for equal stage, where a young woman, tawny shoulders exposed, strides work. toward the audience. Have a right to education at all “¡Cántelo conmigo! Da la, da national educational institutions, la, da da da…” ranging from elementary schools to The tourists half-heartedly the universities, which are the same repeat the melody. for all. The singer laughs. “Que Be given medical care in all med- pobres.” Outside the club, behind the ical institutions. reflection on the floor-to-ceiling Live in any sector, zone or area windows, under the true starry and stay in any hotel. sky, the dark city of Havana Be served at all restaurants and sleeps. Below, in the narrow other public service establishments. streets and alleyways of the old Use, without any separations, all city, live the true pobres of Cuba. means of transportation by sea, land Down there is where Juancarlos works for new shoes. and air. His current pair, black canvas Enjoy the same resorts, beaches, with no laces, flop with every parks, social centers and other cen- long-legged stride. He might slow ters of culture, sports, recreation for a moment to smile at a friend, and rest. to wave with one of his big black KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star hands, but not for long. A turista suns herself near the Habana Libre Hotel’s swimming pool. Tonight it’s a three-peso note, the one with Che Guevara’s The Che note acquired, U.S. dollars — illegal until But not everyone can wait photo. He can trade it to an exchange made. “You need some- 1993 — now can buy anything, tables. Plenty of Cubans still teach English-speaking man down the thing else?” Juancarlos asks. “Are anywhere. Cuban pesos can buy and practice medicine, living their street for an Alexander Hamilton. you hungry?” fewer things, smaller things — lives within the socialist frame- But it could be almost any- and only in certain places. work. On their way to work every thing — rum, cigars, marijuana, Tourism is Cuba’s new eco- Therefore, many Cubans ask, why day, they see plenty of people cocaine, girls or maybe just direc- nomic engine. It hums in the big study medicine or engineering or earning more money than they tions to a good restaurant. hotels, little shops and narrow journalism when I could wait do, both on street corners and Juancarlos has no use for any of it streets throughout Havana. tables? through the windows of Havana’s himself.

21 in January, claiming the flow of visitors had recovered, Tessie Aral, vice president of Miami’s ABC Charters, said in April that travel to Cuba had subsided again. She attributed the drop to three fac- tors: War in Iraq and related ter- rorism concerns. An April crackdown, in which the Cuban government jailed 75 citizens for allegedly con- spiring with the U.S. government and executed three men who attempted to hijack a ferry to Miami. The possibility that the U.S. government would ban direct flights to Cuba, as it has twice previously amid increased tensions between the two countries. Several groups planning trips with ABC had recently canceled, Aral said. In recent years, hard-line opposition to Castro’s regime had become less popular politically, KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star and according to the Cuba Policy Showgirls perform at the Tropicana Cabaret in Havana. In its heyday during the 1950s, the club drew the likes of Nat King Foundation, majorities of both Cole, Josephine Baker and Carmen Miranda. the House and Senate are aligned against the travel ban. finest restaurants. A July 2002 study predicted The tourists in those restau- — absent the travel ban — that rants carry more than dollars; they the number of U.S. tourists visit- carry ideas, too. And while ing Cuba would climb to 2.8 mil- tourism hasn’t allowed Cubans to lion during the next decade. The speak freely, to read what they study, commissioned by the please, tourism has at times Center for International Policy in allowed them to speak with for- Washington, D.C., assumed eigners who know what a free Americans would visit Cuba as society is like. often as Canadians. For that very reason, post- But, like so many events in the 1959 Cuba forgot tourism. In the past, the April crackdown on dis- march toward socialism, Fidel sidents has re-inflamed U.S.-Cuba Castro didn’t want decadent, cam- relations, and the easing of sanc- era-toting capitalists spoiling his tions remains politically difficult. revolutionary party. But in the The U.S. government already early 1990s, when Soviet subsidies closed one major avenue to Cuba disappeared and the sugar market on March 24 — less than a week plummeted, Cuba had no choice. after the crackdown began — It desperately needed a new dance when it stopped granting certain partner. Canadians are the most com- But U.S. tourists seeking only educational travel licenses. While Since then, tourism has mon tourists in the streets of a good time must either pretend students still may travel to Cuba become the Cuban government’s Havana, followed by Germans, to fit one of those categories or fly as part of their coursework, alum- largest source of revenue, accord- Italians, French, English and to Cuba through a third country. ni groups, museum staff and ing to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Spaniards, said Antonio Díaz, Cuba accommodated nearly other cultural organizations no Economic Council, which collects vice director of the Cuban 80,000 U.S. travelers — legal and longer will be granted licenses. data from the Central Bank of tourism firm Havanatur Celimar. illegal — in 2001, excluding Rumors abound that tighter Cuba. Americans, however, are rare. those of Cuban descent visiting restrictions are on the way. Tourism revenue totaled $1.8 U.S. law aims to prevent them family members, according to the “I believe due to the overall billion in 2001, compared with from visiting Cuba. Certain cate- U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic feelings of this administration and $243 million in 1990 and $84 gories of travelers, such as stu- Council. Only 7,400 such travel- the recent events in Cuba, the lift- million in 1985. Last year, Cuba dents, journalists, humanitarian ers visited Cuba in 1990. ing of the travel ban may have hosted nearly 1.7 million tourists workers and those with family liv- Cuba’s tourism industry took a been pushed off a couple of — almost five times more than in ing on the island, can apply for hit during the worldwide slump years,” said Aral, who recently led 1990. special permission from the Office that followed September 11. a group to Capitol Hill to lobby of Foreign Assets Control. While Díaz spoke optimistically against the travel ban.

22 Even if the travel ban ended, a shortage of hotel rooms and resulting price increases would hamper an accelerating tourism industry, Aral said. Debt may slow Cuba’s tourism industry as well. Nearly all of Cuba’s hotels and resorts were built with the help of foreign investors. Cuba’s inability to make loan payments slowed foreign investment in 2001, and as a result, the development of tourist accommodations may slow, too. Nevertheless, said Aral, whose firm booked 36,700 travelers to Cuba in 2002, U.S. businesses — especially Florida tourism firms — have an eye on Cuba, thinking the travel ban, the embargo and even socialism won’t last forever. “I think there are a lot of peo- ple doing analyses,” Aral said, “because they think, again, that it is a fountain that is waiting to be drank out of.” KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Laundry hangs behind scaffolding, a common sight because much of Havana is in some stage of renovation or disrepair. Lazario leaned against the rail- ing at his second-story paladar, the restaurant the government tee. Lazario charges about $6 for a licenses him to own. The sun sat four-course meal and $1.50 for a low in the west, reddening his bottle of beer. In one hour, he can tanned face. easily gross the equivalent of a “None of these people work,” month’s salary as a teacher. he said, nodding to the street Lazario said a recent crack- below, where dozens of young down on oversized, tax-delin- men strolled about, asking each quent restaurants had put many passing tourist what time it was. proprietors out of business. U.S. Dozens of young women strolled Paladares, therefore, are tough to U.S. travelers, not the street, too, asking foreign men find. including individuals of Cuban if they desired company for the The Cuban government owns descent visiting relatives, entering tourists evening. the vast majority of restaurants in Cuba on charter flights and through Havana. Employees don’t earn Like them, Lazario profits third countries. directly from tourists. He is dollars. Their government salary allowed 12 seats in his restaurant, — often the equivalent of $7 to which doubles as the porch of his $10 per month — comes in Source: U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council family’s home. But unlike those Cuban pesos, which cannot be below, he pays hundreds of dollars used in most well-stocked stores. in taxes every month, regardless of For government employees, income. even tips are hard to keep, as Lazario earned a university those who work service jobs must U.S. degree and teaches at a technical pay a tax. Other service workers school. At 5 p.m., his day is far take no tips at all. business from over; he waits tables at the “I’m not supposed to accept paladar until 11 p.m. or later. tips,” said Pedro, a soft-spoken representatives He looked tired, but spoke government employee who proudly: “Tourists leave here very requested anonymity. “But I’m Estimated number of U.S. business representatives visiting Cuba satisfied.” not supposed to starve either. Source: U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council The Cuban government strug- That makes a little bit of a contra- gles to control the money spent diction.” by foreigners. After all, the origi- nal purpose of investing in Alberto, a 26-year-old who tourism was to rescue the socialist works the streets daily, showed a regime from bankruptcy. ticket that a police officer had just At the same time, tourism can issued him, he said, for speaking undermine the equality that to a Canadian tourist. The fine socialism was supposed to guaran- equaled roughly $40. If Alberto Quentin Lueninghoener

23 don’t have trouble — or show any trepidation — about con- versing or even sitting down for a beer with foreigners. But at certain hotels and restaurants, a security guard is likely to stop anyone who even looks Cuban. At the Habana Libre, only when escorted by for- eigners may Cubans enter the lobby unencumbered. However, younger female Cubans often enter freely. Pedro Alvarez, Cuba’s top import official, rejected the claim that Cubans are barred from all the hotels in their own country. “There are certain restrictions now,” he said. “But there are many hotels where Cubans can rent a room. All of the hotels are not restricted for international tourism.” As with any tourism-depend- ent Caribbean country, economic barriers remain. Canadians enjoy a per capita gross domestic prod- uct 13 times greater than that of Cubans. Therefore, even when permitted, few of the island’s resi- KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star dents can afford to eat or drink at Above: Tourists check in and mill about the lobby of the Hotel Nacional, a Havana landmark. Below: 1950s-era American a table next to their foreign guests. cars crowd the parking area at Jose Martí International Airport outside Havana. So how do you feel when you walk past the hotel and see Fast facts tourists eating such good food? “Como perro,” said Alberto, Tourism has become the Cuban the 26-year-old independent government’s largest source of tourist guide. “Like a dog.” revenue, according to the U.S.- Tourism has brought billions Cuba Trade and Economic Council. to the Cuban government and — on a good day — it puts $50 in Tourism revenue totaled $1.8 Alberto’s pocket. But while it’s million in 2001, compared with made many Cubans richer, it’s left $243 million in 1990 and $84 mil- many more feeling poorer. lion in 1985. Aral, the vice president of Canadians are the most com- ABC Charters, was born in Cuba in 1957. Her family left four years mon tourists in Havana, followed later, disenchanted with the direc- by Germans, Italians, French, tion of the revolution. She sees English and Spaniards. tourism altering that same revolu- tion today. didn’t pay it within two months, So it’s not only foreign curren- cultural and political ambassadors? “The dream is not there,” she he explained, he’d go to jail. cy that penetrates the socialist “No evidence, no studies that I said. “Everybody is not the same, But it wasn’t just money state; tourists bring ideas, too — know say American tourists can obviously. You have people who Alberto sought from the tourist. ideas that may undermine the bring political change,” said Jaime graduated as engineers working as He also wanted information. He Castro regime. Suchlicki, director of the Institute cab drivers because they can make said he doesn’t trust Cuba’s state- “The more American citizens for Cuban and Cuban American a better living for their family.” run media, and he has doubts, in the streets of Cuban cities, the Studies at the University of But Aral said she hopes tourism too, about the news he hears on better the cause for a more open Miami. “In that case, let’s send will never alter the island’s true Radio Martí, the U.S.-govern- society,” said Wayne Smith, who American tourists to North Korea allure — Cuban culture. ment radio station that broadcasts headed the U.S. Interests Section and Iraq.” “You go to a hotel there, and from Miami. in Havana during the Carter and Either way, the Cuban govern- there’s music. Here, you know, To discern truth from rhetoric, Reagan administrations. ment, in subtle ways, attempts to you go to a hotel, and it’s quiet.” Alberto said he learns “por extran- But can tourists — most of limit interaction between Cubans jeros,” or through foreigners. whom seek only recreation, few of and foreigners. On the streets or whom speak Spanish — really be at sidewalk cafés, Cubans usually

24 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star The streets of Havana are the workplace for jiniteras, Cuba’s “good-time girls,” who try to make money for themselves and their families. The cost of sex Cuban women learning an old lesson: Sex sells By Jill Zeman hope their money will be well movie moguls learned long ago: spent. Sex sells. Especially when an Fast facts This story begins with young The story will end later in a increasing number of well-heeled Cuban prostitutes can girls giggling at El Oasis, a bar darkened room … in heaps of foreign men descend on an island earn anywhere from $40 to along Havana’s tourist-driven dis- clothes and a fistful of cash. where the average Cuban earns $80 for an hour with a man. For the men, it’s just another less than $10 a month. trict called the Prado — a place The average Cuban who where Cubans are charged a $5 day on vacation. But for the girls, Some of these girls do it strict- cover, tourists $3. it’s their way of life. They are the ly for cash — so their children works for the government It continues in a dark corner, jiniteras, Spanish for “jockey,” can have shoes. Some dream of can earn $80 in salary in where a pony-tailed man with his derived from the verb “to ride” — being swept away out of Cuba. about 10 months. a Cuban pun. And some do it just for the wedding ring intact drinks a Jiniteras look for men in Cristal — a popular tourist beer On any given night, this story chance to go out, to break the — as he strokes the knee of a is replayed in countless Havana humdrum of daily life. tourist areas, such as the young Cuban woman. hotel lobbies, bars, restaurants, Either way, one thing is cer- Prado and the Malecón. They Nearby, girls laugh flirtatiously dance clubs, plazas and in the tain: Tourism has fueled a prosti- also hang out near major streets. tution boom providing thousands together, share pints of ice cream hotels such as the Habana and caress the men beside them. The motivation is simple. of desperate young Cuban The men — all European — eye Young Cuban girls have discov- women an opportunity to pocket Libre and the Nacional. each other, compare the girls and ered what savvy advertisers and valuable American greenbacks in

25 Some jiniteras wear skimpy, shiny skirts — often gifts from tourists — while others bundle up in whatever mishmash of cloth they can find. Rosa is of the latter. On consecutive January nights, she wore a faded Los Angeles Raiders metal-snap coat — a gift from a tourist. But their wardrobes aren’t important to the men, who come in all shapes and sizes, races and nationalities. Typically, Rosa sees men in their 30s, though it’s common for a man 30 or 40 years older to request her services. A man’s passport means little to the jiniteras. It’s the wallet that counts. The money Rosa brings in after an hour or two of work goes to food, clothing, diapers and other necessities. Without it — and with a government KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star job — she, her husband, Jose, Hotels crowd the waterfront in Havana. Jiniteras are a common sight in areas frequented by tourists. and 2-year-old Juan Carlos would have to survive on this cash-starved country. monthly food rations that last Biographies of “My father earns 195 pesos only five or six days, she said. jiniteras (about $7) a month,” says Rosa, “I was very afraid at “I stay out until 3 or 4 in a 21-year-old jinitera, “…and I the beginning, but the morning if I can’t get any can make $40 or $50 per man.” money,” she says. “Right now, Name: Rosa Interviews with numerous the need (for money) we just eat whatever we can Age: 21 prostitutes, their friends and pushed me to do it.” get.” Time on the street: five years family, government officials and Janet, a 19-year-old But Cuban officials argue activists reveal a number of eco- jinitera the situation is not that bleak. Sound off: “If I get a different nomic, social and political All Cubans are guaranteed food, job, I’ll take it.” issues tied to the burgeoning says Ricardo Alarcón, president prostitution problem. Among shoes, fashion dress, so they go of the National Assembly of them: into hotels. Then …” Milagros People’s Power and potential Name: Janet Cuba’s struggling econo- Martínez says, shrugging her Castro successor. The meals are Age: 19 my offers little reprieve from shoulders. nothing fancy, but it’s enough Time on the street: two months poverty outside the tourism But leaving that life may not to live on. Sound off: “We don’t want industry. The sought-after dol- be possible when tourists repre- “Nobody in this country lars are in tourists’ pockets. sent an oasis of cash for the really needs to beg in order not people copying our behavior. Although Fidel Castro girls. to starve,” he says. “No women We’d never suggest people live says prostitution is illegal, “It’s worthless, now, to have or men have to prostitute him- this life.” police choose to enforce the law a job if it doesn’t pay enough,” self or herself to eat.” arbitrarily. says Janet, a 19-year-old prosti- Name: Jean Despite its high-profile tute. “I wouldn’t do what I do if It’s not the men or her prostitution, Cuba boasts the I had a good job.” health that scares Rosa the Age: 18 lowest AIDS rate in the most. It’s la policia. Time on the street: two months Caribbean, which is attributed Girls as young as 9 or 10 Prostitution is an accepted Sound off: “I go out on the to education and readily avail- work as prostitutes on Havana’s illegal practice in Cuba. Kind of streets one or two times a week, able condoms. streets. like jaywalking in the States. Even though these girls put Their high-pitched voices People do it all the time — just to keep myself eating. The food on the table, it’s not an give it away. But when it’s time police see it all the time — but money doesn’t last long because ideal lifestyle, especially when to work, these girls strut the there’s always an unlucky few things are so expensive.” they don’t always know what strut of confidence. who get caught. they’re getting into, says Ana Rosa didn’t start until she At work on the Prado, Rosa Milagros Martínez, of the was 16 but has worked nearly speaks softly and nervously, Federation of Cuban Women. every night since. constantly scanning the street “Sometimes they don’t know “The Americans, they’re the for police. If busted, she will be they are prostitutes. They say best,” she says, “because they fined, jailed or both. they are looking for fashion give me lots of gifts.” She may have been more

26 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star The Malecón, a sea wall that runs along the edge of Havana, is a popular place for lovers and tourists — and prostitutes. nervous because less than 15 Pssst! Señor! Te gusta? minutes earlier, her friend If he likes her, he’ll stop, Alberto was ticketed for speak- Castro on prostitution they’ll talk. If he doesn’t, she’ll ing to some Canadian tourists. “One day when I was down in Brazil, an Argentinian asked me, ‘Is it true try another. The fine? He’ll have to shell Once she gets a bite, they’ll out 450 pesos — an average that some girls who are university graduates sometimes practice prostitu- go to a restaurant, a bar, take a Cuban’s two-month salary. tion?’ I replied instantly, without thinking, ‘That proves prostitutes in Cuba walk. The night always ends the Rosa’s friends have been have a university level.’” same. arrested for prostitution. And — Fidel Castro during a speech to the Cuban workers’ congress in Havana. For Jean and her friend, 19- one ticket can undo a week of Source: Reuters, May 1, 2001 year-old Janet, the story’s the work, if not more. It’s a scary same. risk, she says. And nearly all the girls will Jean, an 18-year-old prosti- Prostitution may be a social about social ills like prostitu- finish it at a casa particular, a tute, shares Rosa’s fear. problem in Cuba, but it’s not as tion. private home licensed by the “I haven’t got in trouble yet, bad as it was following the col- According to a May 1, 2001, government to rent rooms to but (the police) always ask for lapse of the Soviet Union — a Reuters story, Castro champi- visitors. Owners look the other my ID. It’s scary, because all of time Castro calls the “Special oned Cuba’s education system way, say Jean and Janet. my friends have been busted.” Period” — or before the revolu- in a speech to close a workers’ If they’re lucky, Janet says, Although the police pose a tion, says Antonio Díaz, vice congress in Havana: they’ll go to a hotel. But to constant threat to the jiniteras, director of Havanatur, a govern- “One day when I was down make it upstairs, the man must some say the government isn’t ment-run tourism company. in Brazil, an Argentinian asked bribe the bellboy at the elevator, doing enough to stop prostitu- And it’s not as though the me, ‘Is it true that some girls as Cubans aren’t allowed in tion. government ignores prostitu- who are university graduates many hotels. Milagros Martínez, of the tion. Educational programs sometimes practice prostitu- Jean and Janet can earn $50 Federation of Cuban Women, explaining the dangers of prosti- tion?’” Castro said. “I replied to $60 per night, and only go says it’s painful to see the girls tution have been set up to dis- instantly, without thinking, out on the streets once or twice out on the streets. Federation courage the jiniteras, he said. ‘That proves prostitutes in a week. And though the girls members sometimes go onto “The problem is not tourism Cuba have a university level.’” leave much richer, working as a the streets, find prostitutes and — the problem is the economy. jinitera is by no means a walk take them home. But often, the Tourism is the solution, not the A typical night for Rosa in the park. girls go right back. problem.” starts on the Prado. She sits “I just think about finishing, “We know that they are Castro, like many Cubans with fellow prostitutes — but when it will be over,” Janet says prostitutes. But we just can’t who support communism, Jose and Alberto are never out of what it’s like having sex with catch them and send them to often touts the island’s successes of eyesight — and whistles at strangers. jail,” she says. when speaking to reporters tourists as they walk by. But for Janet, the strangers

27 Why? Because very few peo- ple in Cuba have cars, and peo- ple need rides. Besides, it’s easier on the body than construction or other physical labor. And Jose and Rosa know one thing for sure: They’d never wish their lives on young Juan Carlos. Though their lives aren’t easy, none of the jiniteras could set a timetable on how long they’ll sell their bodies. “I’m trying to do this for a while (to make some money), but I know in the back of my head, I must stop,” Janet says. Yet it’s not something the girls are ashamed of. Both Jean and Janet say they’ll tell their future children they worked as prostitutes. “We’ll tell them we had to do it. But we would never want this kind of life for them,” Jean KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star says. The streets of Havana are dark after night falls, but they’re busy with traffic and streetwalkers. “We would never suggest people to live this life.” are almost always cordial. American physician and direc- An ideal life, for Jean, would El Maximo’s Neither she nor Jean have tor of the Cuba AIDS Project. be to work legally for the gov- feared for their safety while Cubans can get tested for free at ernment in the tourism sector. maxims: working. clinics and hospitals throughout She’s still in high school, and “The enemy preaches the habit of And the experience is still the country, he said. hopes to find a job that will pay for her necessities. theft, and in their mass media, they new for the girls. Jean and Janet Most jiniteras are aware of both decided to start working the risks their lifestyle incur, Janet, who completed the try to stress, to insinuate, to incul- on the streets two months earli- and protect themselves accord- 11th grade, is now saving as cate the idea of theft, of breaking er because they needed money ingly. much money as she can. She the law, in the middle of shortages for food, for clothes, for their “I’m not worried about my hopes to save enough so she won’t need to work on the and difficulties -— which is what families. health at all,” Rosa says. “I’ve “I was very afraid at the always practiced safe sex — streets while she attends college. forces us to strengthen all the beginning, but the need pushed every time.” But there’s also a paradox measures against that and to me to do it,” Janet says. The threat of AIDS is com- facing these young girls: strengthen all the measures against And unlike Rosa, the two pounded by more foreigners While increased tourism brings more money to the manifestations of prostitution and don’t have the support of their who provide more business for families. the girls. country, it also brings more to punish very severely all corruption “Our families don’t agree, It’s hard for the jiniteras to tourists to the girls, thus mak- of minors.” but it’s our decision … they’re gauge whether there are more ing it more difficult to stop — Castro in a speech to the Credit and getting accustomed to it,” Jean tourists now than 10 years ago. working on the streets. Service Cooperatives, International says. After all, many were still wear- And tourism is what has Conference Center, Havana, ing their yellow primary-school made the illicit prostitution industry explode, says Milagros June 3, 1998 Soap, toothbrushes, sham- skirts at the time. poo and aspirin are hard for They just know there are Martínez of the Federation of Rosa to find in Cuba, but she enough foreign men out there Cuban Women. “We began taking adequate “Tourism has a risk. That measures to combat these out- has no problem obtaining con- to keep food on their tables. doms or other contraceptives But Rosa and Jose’s friend, risk was prostitution … It’s a breaks (of the AIDS virus). And we from local pharmacies. Alberto, is one of countless social problem. There are many are still perfecting our methods. ... Cuba initiated a hefty educa- Cubans who resent the influx. people that come to Cuba to promote prostitution. They We understand this problem, and tional campaign to help curb “I feel like a dog when I the spread of AIDS. HIV look through the windows of come and they leave, and then our methods are human.” screening is mandatory for all the Habana Libre,” he says of a where is the problem? It is — Castro quoted in Reuters, expectant mothers, people popular tourist hotel. here.” May 2001 who’ve had sexual contact with HIV patients and those with Jose hopes his 2-year-old, sexually transmitted diseases, Juan Carlos, will grow up to be says Dr. Byron Barksdale, a chauffeur.

28 From heartland to Cuba Georgia. It was in Lantana, Fla., Cubans, but he thought that North Platte 60 miles north of Miami, that was all he could do from Cuba became more than an Nebraska while still working island to him. full-time as a pathologist. doctor runs As Americans watched their Then he met Father country creep closer and closer Fernando on his first trip to AIDS project to the brink during the Cuban Cuba in 1997. The priest had Missile Crisis, Barksdale next to nothing in his wallet, By Jill Zeman watched Army Jeeps drive south which made an impression on toward Miami. When he was in Barksdale. “The remarkable thing about grade school, he watched ships “This is a guy who basically the Cuba AIDS Project is that it travel along the South Florida had 12 cents in his wallet and is direct, personal and immediate. coast from West Palm Beach to he brought people in, spending It is people helping people…The Cuba. And in high school in everything he had — blood persons with AIDS whom I met Tallahassee, he became friends Dr. Byron Barksdale sweat and tears — spending all in Cuba are not numbers and with many Cuban Americans. of his own money, helping peo- photographs; they are real. Their Later on, his brother, John, Occupation: Pathologist, ple worse off than him, and he lives are difficult, their stories was stationed in Guantánamo international director of the wasn’t particularly well off,” inspiring. This is a trip I will Bay, Cuba, from 1969 to 1972. Barksdale said. His job was to eavesdrop on Cuba AIDS Project. “So I said, ‘This is a guy I never forget.” — Brooks Johnston, Dallas, Texas. Cuba for the U.S. Navy. Age: 52. will try to help if I can.’” Medical school took Goal: To send Americans to He donated money, medi- In 1997, Byron Barksdale Barksdale to the University of Cuba to provide patients with cine and personal hygiene sup- went from tourist to doctor on Kentucky in Lexington. A resi- plies for AIDS patients who dency in Dallas was followed by necessary supplies. meet at Father Fernando’s his first trip to Cuba. It was then he was called to a brief stint in Charleston, S.C. Visits to Cuba: Eight church. But apart from that, his assist a gravely ill man he After that, Galveston, Texas. Born: Claxton, Ga. role in the Cuba AIDS Project referred to as “a walking corpse.” And in 1981, he saw an Lives: North Platte, Neb. was limited. opening for two pathologists in Until October 1999, when The man survived, as did Quote: “I don’t know how Barksdale’s love affair with all North Platte. Barksdale and his Barksdale received a call from things Cuban. wife, Lyle, took the offer. And many people in D.C. read (about Lucia Escobar, treasurer of the they’ve been there since. the Cuba AIDS Project) and say, Cuba AIDS Project, saying Barksdale, a North Platte pathologist, since has taken ‘Here’s this hick, rural Alberto Montano had died in “Just wanted to let you know Miami. seven more trips to Cuba. He Nebraskan Republican patholo- can’t get enough of it. Today he that I delivered several bags of If the project were to contin- visits the island not as a tourist, items to Father Fernando, I men- gist — why do we want to listen ue, Barksdale was told, he but as a man renowned for how tioned your name (Byron) and to him?’” would have to lead it. much he’s contributed to Cuban was warmly greeted.” — Steve “And I said, ‘Wait a minute. Faytis, Sanibel, Fla. The original deal was that I was society, via the Cuba AIDS Angel or not, Barksdale ini- Project. supposed to go down there, When Father Fernando de la tially had no intention of spear- basically be able to see Cuba The project sends heading the Cuba AIDS Project. Americans, with hard-to-find Vega is alone, he sometimes sits without any responsibility. This in Havana’s Montserrate Church In 1995, his quest to learn is not supposed to happen. It’s personal hygiene items and more about Cuba led him to over-the-counter medications in with the lights off and worries like a bad movie,’” Barksdale about how he’ll pay his bills. Alberto Montano, an HIV-posi- recalls with a laugh. tow, directly to Cuba, circum- tive Cuban American living in venting the U.S. travel embargo. He worries about having “And I said, ‘OK, I’ll try.’” enough food to serve his AIDS Miami who then led the Cuba But he had a wife, four chil- It’s a nonprofit, humanitarian AIDS Project. project, and Barksdale has support groups. He’s afraid he’ll dren and a full-time job — in have to conduct Mass in the Montano told Barksdale in a Nebraska. served as its international direc- telephone conversation that the tor since 1999. dark if he can’t find money to “It was a huge commitment pay for utilities. project needed him on the for him to do,” Lyle Barksdale Although not literally, Cuba board of directors. He argued is in his blood. But still, he has faith. Faith said. “But I was eager for him to in God and in people like Byron that with a medical doctor listed pursue it. It was a very good Barksdale. as a director, the project could effort for him, because of his Twenty-two years in gain easier access to prescription Nebraska, and Byron Barksdale “But always, there are wing- interest in Cuba and because less angels that appear and say, medicines to take to Cuba. Cubans have so few resources.” can’t shake that Southern accent. Barksdale said OK to the fig- As a child, he moved with ‘Look, you can have $20,’ and I She didn’t once doubt her can pay the electricity.” urehead role. He wanted to see husband’s ability to take over his family between Florida and Cuba, he wanted to help

29 the project. “He’s got a lot of energy, drive and dedication. “I have traveled pretty much He’s got a great sense of humor, around the world, and I thought I too, which helps him communi- had experienced it all. Cuba how- cate, no matter what language.” ever, was an experience like no Moving to Miami wasn’t an other I had ever had. The warmth option. But allowing Americans of its people, the depth of its cul- to visit Cuba and deliver much- ture and the civility and kindness needed items to AIDS patients which I was exposed to were over- was. whelming.” — Tim Firestone, Barksdale — to whom Cuba AIDS Project participant Father Fernando and others at the Montserrate Church refer as If and when the U.S. trade “Dr. Byron” — told Father embargo is lifted, Barksdale will Fernando he could promote the open the Havana Bay AIDS project by setting up a Company. Web site. He dreams of a day where “Soon every time people Cuban products can be sold came to Cuba they brought a openly in the United States. small bag of medicine or per- Cohiba cigars. Havana Club sonal items for our group,” rum. Original paintings. Hand- Father Fernando said. woven clothing. And since October 1999, He’s already got the signs, hundreds of them have done the T-shirts, the works. just that, strictly through word- There’s a sign with the of-mouth advertising. Phone Cuban flag, but Barksdale calls and letters about Cuba replaced the trademark white pour in to Barksdale’s business star with the Havana Bay and home, his wife, Lyle, said. Company logo. “There’s only so many hours Another sign advertises Golf in the day, but he’s managing it Cuba, with the logo in place of quite gracefully,” she said. a golf ball. Barksdale regrets never meet- In his garage, he stores hun- ing Alberto Montano in person, dreds of blue T-shirts that say but he doesn’t regret the drastic “Scuba Cuba,” which he gives turn his life has taken. to everyone who talks to him “I hate to think that my life, KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star about Cuba. or anybody’s life, is predeter- Dr. Byron Barksdale wants to sell T-shirts with the Cuban flag on them. Barksdale doesn’t know when mined, but it’s kind of mysteri- he’ll be able to sell these shirts in ous sometimes how things come those are favorites — and presi- Cuba. Or when he’ll be able to together, and then, you’re doing “They’re too close dential memorabilia. show Americans what treasures it.” More people are getting they can buy from the island. for us not to be ahold of Cuban stock certifi- “They’re too close for us not “The trip truly changed my interested in them.” cates, so Barksdale doesn’t sell to be interested in them. And if life, and I am grateful for all of I can play just a small part in Dr. Byron Barksdale many of them. He’s more inter- your help. I will be in touch, and ested in the historical value of that, then why not have that as I hope you can keep me updated them anyway. a small purpose in my life.” on the needs of the church so we The biggest problem hasn’t He feels, though, the day is can start to collect supplies here.” keeps them sealed in plastic been finding rare certificates, inevitable. He predicts that 100 — Tammy Chang, University bags. He’s got thousands of rail- autographed photos of presi- years after Fidel Castro’s ascen- of Michigan Medical School road, sugar and other financial dents or a letter Lyndon sion to power, Cuba and the stock certificates — from when Johnson signed Nov. 23, 1963, United States will again be allies. Byron Barksdale can’t stop Americans owned the bulk of on Air Force One as he became “You can’t be 100 percent collecting anything about or business in Cuba — rendered president. isolationist to Cuba. There’s got from Cuba. Just ask his wife. worthless by Castro’s removal of It’s where to put the stuff. to be these points of light that “He’s accumulated so much the Cuban Stock Exchange in “I had them in the house, get back and forth, whether it’s over a number of years, just 1959. and my wife said, ‘Do you really (cooperation on) hurricanes, or from calling people and looking Barksdale hunts for the cer- need any more of these? Why AIDS, or whatever, we’ve got to on eBay. He looks for anything tificates online, has a network of don’t you do something worth- be able to signal each other. with any reference to Cuba.” history buffs across the country, while with them, like burn “And I’m hoping that I can And they’ve got a garage and then occasionally sells the certifi- them or put them in the trash? crawl through one of those win- basement full of boxes to prove cates on eBay. I’m going to start charging you dows of opportunity.” it. He also collects certificates rent for all this excess space you Barksdale collects worthless from late 19th century Texas, use for your Cuba crap.’” Cuban stock certificates and early Playboy certificates –—

30 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star HIV-positive men gather at Montserrate Church in Havana for the Thursday night AIDS support group. Cuba has the lowest AIDS rate in the Caribbean. Living with AIDS in Cuba Controversial means keep infection rates low By Jill Zeman push of a button. The island maintains the lowest who was diagnosed three years But no one at the church has AIDS rate in the Caribbean, ago. It’s 6 o’clock on a Thursday ever seen the gift from a which many attribute to: “In Cuba, we know we will Portuguese tourist come to life, Cuba’s innovative and con- die, but they help us live longer.” night in Havana’s Montserrate Church, and Father Fernando de because no one can find any C- troversial tactics, such as quaran- la Vega is trying to explain the cell batteries. Batteries are just tines, the destruction of foreign Walk through one door of the mishmash of souvenirs that deco- one of many hard-to-find, highly blood products and mandatory room where the Thursday night sought-after goods on the island. HIV testing. support group meets and you end rate the church’s upstairs. As volunteers cook chicken The scarcity of items doesn’t Cuba’s ability to gain access up in the sanctuary of the and rice for the night’s AIDS sup- stop Father Fernando’s group to medicine and supplies neces- Montserrate Church. Walk port group meeting, Father from thriving, however. sary to treat AIDS patients through the other, and you’re in Fernando points to a plastic fish Like many Cubans, he has despite the trade embargo. the room where Father Fernando that sits atop a bookshelf. It’s a learned to make do with next to “It’s a privilege, living in Cuba parks his red Soviet Lada. Big Mouth Billy Bass, designed to nothing. with AIDS, if you compare it to On Thursdays, gay men spring into song and dance at the In the fight against AIDS, the rest of the world,” said gather at the church. There’s a Cuba itself has done the same. Houari Abdelaziz, a 50-year-old Wednesday night group for

31 to plague the island, so HIV is rarely transmitted that way. And thanks to the foresight of Dr. Jorge Perez, only 10 cases of AIDS have been transmitted through blood transfusions, Barksdale said. Before the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in Cuba, Perez, an infectious disease expert, suspect- ed blood product transmission of AIDS was possible, Barksdale said. So in 1983 — two years before AIDS hit the island — he called for the destruction of all foreign blood products in Cuba. “I’m sure there were people saying, ‘This guy’s crazy,’” Barksdale said. “It’s like President Bush calling all the Red Crosses and saying we need to destroy all the blood.” In America, 16,175 cases of AIDS have been transmitted via blood transfusion, according to the World Health Association. Cuba’s first case of AIDS — diagnosed in 1985 — came from KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star a soldier returning from Father Fernando de la Vega and Sister Fara González work with HIV-positive and AIDS-infected people in Havana. Mozambique. Perez and govern- ment officials knew then that By the numbers drastic measures were in order. At the time, no one under- Since 1983, 4,517 people have stood the nature of the virus, tested positive for HIV in Cuba. Barksdale said. And if it turned 1,050 of them have died of AIDS. out to be highly contagious, Cuba’s chronic recession, the U.S. 116 patients died in 2001. trade embargo restricting the 85 patients died in 2002. availability of modern clinical lab- Since 1983, 12 children have been oratory testing and the scarcity of diagnosed with AIDS. antibiotics and prescription drugs could prevent it from stemming Six have died. the tide of an epidemic. Six have survived. So Cuba quarantined anyone who tested positive for HIV. Barksdale, Perez — and many How AIDS is Cubans with AIDS — are quick transmitted to say the patients weren’t put in prison. Sexual intercourse. They were isolated in sanitari- IV drug use. ums until doctors figured it out, Blood transfusions. Barksdale said. The first such sanitarium, Mother-to-baby in childbirth. Santiago de las Vegas in rural Source: Cuba AIDS Project, February 2003 Havana, took in patients diag- nosed with AIDS and taught them what types of medicine to take and how to care for them- straight people with the disease. They sober up, though, when for pregnant women, and those selves. And on this Thursday night, a visitor asks how they contracted testing positive must deliver via Restrictions were slowly rolled the men are festive. They laugh, the disease, because most attribute Caesarean section, said Dr. Byron back over a seven-year period, hug each other and perk up when it to carelessness. Barksdale, a North Platte patholo- Barksdale said. First, patients were the group leader hands out gift AIDS in Cuba is not transmit- gist and director of the Cuba allowed weekend visits with their packages full of vitamins, Band- ted from mother to child. The AIDS Project. families. Next, they were allowed Aids, razors and soap. government mandates AIDS tests Intravenous drug use has yet to work outside the sanitarium.

32 Today, newly diagnosed Cubans stay for an average of three months before being sent back out to society. “I thought my life was over when I was diagnosed,” said Ariel Dominguez, 27. “They gave me help and support. … They told me not to be afraid of life, and that society will finally accept me.” Father Fernando’s AIDS sup- port group started with a concert. With a musician friend, he planned a benefit that raised about 500 pesos — a little less than $20. With the money, he prepared snacks for AIDS patients he invited into his church. About 15 people showed up. And they kept showing up, even though Father Fernando was run- ning out of money and food. So he wrote letters to friends in the United States and Puerto Rico, who sent money. And he turned a snack into a meal. The number of patients dou- KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star bled, then tripled. And relatives Houari Abdelaziz (left) and Ariel Dominguez participate in an AIDS support group each week at Havana’s Montserrate Church. and friends in the States began sending money, medicine and ship, and the diagnosis is not the because of the embargo or what- was possible for me to get AIDS.” personal hygiene items through last of life.” ever, Cancun’s going to have some Before he was diagnosed, tourists. competition.” Garcia studied nursing. He had to Four years after the group Barksdale wishes Americans quit school and spent three started, Barksdale visited the could understand why AIDS in In Cuba, health care is provid- months in the sanitarium, where church, and Father Fernando Cuba affects them. ed by the government, so there’s he took lessons called, “Learning explained how the North Platte About 180,000 Americans no doctor or prescription bills for to Live with AIDS.” doctor could help. visit the island annually, and after AIDS patients to pay. He gets an injection three Barksdale, who took over as the travel embargo is lifted, mil- Cuba produces seven anti-viral times a week and takes a vitamin director of the Cuba AIDS lions may make the trip, he said. medications domestically, complex each day to treat his dis- Project in 1999, now arranges for Barksdale worries not only Barksdale said. The government ease. And so far, he feels good. Americans to visit Cuba legally, about Americans carrying the also offers support facilities for Although Garcia no longer provided they bring over-the- virus to the island, but also about nutrition, patient education and attends school, he now speaks to counter medicines, vitamins and their contracting it and bringing it prevention, he said. young Cubans about the dangers personal hygiene items for Father back to the States. The Cuban HIV/AIDS prevention is of HIV/AIDS. He speaks with Fernando’s church — the largest strain of AIDS is African and taught in schools, and educational people at Father Fernando’s support group in Cuba — and genetically differs from the United radio and television spots run fre- Montserrate Church, he talks to other sites throughout the island. States’. The morphing of the two quently. Members of at-risk students and he works with Visitors can circumvent the strains could create a new strain, groups also receive information young, gay Cubans. U.S. travel embargo with Cuba setting back medical research and about the virus, said Dr. Marilyn Ariel Dominguez, who has under the project’s travel permit. changing how the disease should Claro, vice director of the Frank AIDS, respects Cuba’s educational Those who go to Cuba must be treated, Barksdale said. Pais Orthopedic Hospital in efforts, but says the country still declare they are traveling for He wants the U.S. govern- Havana. has a way to go. Despite Cuba’s humanitarian purposes, not ment and health care providers to “If someone gets infected, it’s AIDS education through televi- tourism. understand that AIDS in Cuba is not because of a lack of informa- sion, radio and print, a lot of Along with supplying food a public health concern for the tion,” she said. taboos remain — as they do in and medicine, Father Fernando United States. “The government really takes the United States, he says. brings in doctors and psycholo- “I don’t think there’s 180,000 care of people, but I wasn’t paying “Some people will see us and gists to meet with the patients or 1 or 2 million Americans who attention,” said 19-year-old say, ‘Oh, AIDS. It’s a plague,’ and each week. go to Sub-Saharan Africa each Salvador Rodríguez Garcia, who they get away from us. The interaction between group year, and it’s free travel,” he said. tested positive when he was 16. “We live to be accepted by a members has been beneficial, he “We can go to Sub-Saharan Africa “I was very young when I was society with no kind of taboo or said. right now, and you don’t see diagnosed. I had no clear ideas remorse.” “They have understood that spring breakers going to Zaire. about myself — I didn’t protect they’re all together in the same But as soon as Cuba opens up, myself, because I didn’t think it

33 SARAH FOX Antonio Díaz and Ofelia Acevedo examine red paint splashed by Cuban police in December on the Havana home of Acevedo and her husband, Oswaldo Payá. A friend said the red paint is a threat symbolizing blood. Payá is the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, the group sponsoring the Varela Project. Díaz was sentenced in April to 20 years in prison for his involvement with the project. Hope, threat or sellout? Varela Project incites mixed opinions eigners. He tells a reporter that if And what is the Varela tionship among dissidents, By Sarah Fox police approach, she should tell Project? It depends on whom you Miami exiles, the Cuban govern- them he is her friend. While ask. On the one hand, it’s simple ment and the U.S. government. Isaías likes talking to tourists. police try to keep him from talk- — a petition drive of 11,020 sig- More than 45 interviews with The 25-year-old Havana ing to foreigners, they’ve also suc- natures presented to Cuba’s dissidents, ordinary Cubans, cashier dodges police to practice ceeded in isolating him from fel- National Assembly of People’s Cuban government officials, U.S. his English — and to learn the low islanders. Power in May 2002. Sponsored diplomats and Florida Cubans truth about the outside world. Like many Cubans, Isaías has by dissident leader Oswaldo reveal that el Proyecto Varela is “Many people say capitalismo never heard of a petition drive Payá’s group, it asks that Cubans viewed largely through the eye of is a monster. It likes to eat people. that could bring him the freedom be allowed to vote on freedom of the beholder. Specifically: I ask myself, ‘Why do people say to talk about whatever he wants. speech, amnesty for political pris- Dissidents say it’s a nonvio- that capitalismo, America, the It’s called the Varela Project — El oners and the right to form busi- lent way to reform a repressive United States, is a monster?’” Proyecto Varela — and it is hotly nesses, among other things. On government that harasses, detains, Isaías wants to know the debated by some and unknown the other hand, like many Cuban imprisons and silences its citizens. answer, but police can ticket and to many. issues, it reflects a complex rela- Some Miami exiles dislike fine Cubans for talking to for-

34 the project because it tries to reform Cuba’s government instead of advocating its end. The Cuban government views it as an illegal movement fueled by the American media and Washington imperialists that could infiltrate and destroy Cuban socialism. “Somebody decided in Washington, D.C., that every- thing has to be Varela,” said Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power and Cuba’s former U.N. ambassador. “It is not for AP, not for CNN, not for The New York Times to tell other countries how to have a constitution.” Regardless of viewpoint, the project was largely unknown in Cuba until former President Jimmy Carter spoke about it in a nationally televised speech at the University of Havana during a May 2002 visit to the island. SARAH FOX Petitioners gathered 30,000 more Omar Rodríguez Saludes, an independent journalist, interviews a woman he thought was a human rights signatures after his visit, said dis- activist in her Havana home Jan. 9. Lily Collazo’s husband, Roberto Martínez, looks on. The U.N. Universal sident leader Vladimiro Roca. Declaration of Human Rights, hanging on Collazo and Martínez’s wall, is reflected in the mirror. Many say the gathering of all those signatures — out of Cuba’s 10.9 million people — is unheard of. They say it shows the culture of fear is changing. Spying in on loss of trust “It’s not the Varela Project that changes the society; rather, it’s the By Sarah Fox never talked to a foreign days and he drinks sugar water society changes that has brought reporter. And I knew, too, you when he runs out of food. He the project,” Roca said. “The How do I know you’re not a should always start with the can’t work because he lost his Cuban government is character- spy? easy questions. glasses a few weeks ago. He has ized by complete immobilization. The first time I heard this, it So I pitched him a softball. to wait eight or nine months It always wants to stay where it is. came from a 29-year-old Cuban What’s it like to live in Cuba? for a new pair because there’s “(But) 11,020 signed. They’ve with a black scrub of a goatee Alarmed, he pitched one no wood and no glass. And manifested their desire that there and a necklace of blue and back to me. speaking negatively about the be change in this place.” green beads. It was early How do I know you’re not a government, said this father of January, and I was walking spy? an 8-year-old girl, could land Marlene, a middle-aged day through Old Havana, and he I told him, of course, he someone in prison for 10 to 15 care worker, is looking for had scraped up his English to could tell I wasn’t a spy. I spoke years. tourists. ask me where I was from. Spanish with an American A few months later, I called Seeing an American walking New York? Washington, D.C.? accent. a Miami psychiatrist to ask him through Old Havana, she He was so persistent — as I He wasn’t convinced. about a dissident still back in approaches with a big smile, as if look back on it now, he was So I unzipped my coin Havana. the American were an Avon rep- looking for money — that I purse and pulled out a How do I know you’re not a resentative and Marlene had just decided to turn the tables and University of Nebraska-Lincoln spy? run out of makeup. Does the asked if I could interview him. student ID card and my Kansas I told him the name of the American have an extra pair of After all, I did need to interview driver’s license. person who had sent me to him blue jeans for her daughters? No? ordinary Cubans, and since he See? It says Universidad de and gave him my professor’s How about some gum or tooth- wanted to talk to me, I may as Nebraska. name and phone number so he paste? well try. He looked at the university could verify that the UNL jour- It takes a few steps to a soli- We sat down near Havana ID, the picture so faded you nalism college really was doing tary lawn, a few cautious looks Bay so if anyone wanted to could hardly see it. He exam- a depth-reporting project on for police and 10 more minutes eavesdrop, we would see them ined the driver’s license, the pic- Cuba. of chitchat before Marlene will coming. ture of me with longer hair He said it was OK; he trust- talk about what’s on her mind — I knew the young man instead of short hair. ed me. But he held back during her imprisoned uncle. According wearing jeans, a khaki baseball Finally, he said OK. the interview. There was a to Marlene: cap and a green, yellow and He told me his monthly In 1996, her uncle broke up blue striped shirt probably had food ration lasts seven to eight See SPY page 37 with his girlfriend. To make him

35 “It’s an ideological racism. God created the world so we could have dignity. We are not doing an unjust cause.” Elsa Morejón, wife of political prisoner Oscar Elías Biscet González

women were coming to his hos- journalists he met in Russia made pital for abortions as part of him think. Cuba’s free health care system. “I knew them and understand Cuba has 56.6 abortions for that I don’t be a real journalist,” every 100 live births, but health Rivero said. “I be like a messen- officials are now trying to pro- ger between the government and mote contraceptives more, the people.” according to Christopher Baker’s When he renounced his book “Cuba.” membership in a Cuban writers’ In April 1998, Biscet and a union and a Cuban journalists’ friend made public a clandestine union in 1988 and left the state abortion study they’d researched press for good, it was the end of a the previous year. In June 1998 “long and painful process.” they officially delivered it to the “We haven’t press in Cuba. Cuban government and asked the The press is dead. No, it’s not government to end all abortions dead — it’s been murdered by in Cuba, according to informa- the government,” he said. “It’s tion from Biscet’s Web site. terrible people have to read these He and his wife lost their jobs stacks of propaganda.” that same year. But Biscet became Because Rivero didn’t have a more involved in human rights, job at first, he depended on his including organizing a march to wife and relatives to survive. He protest the government’s political sold his watch, his car, his COURTESY PHOTO prisoners. clothes. In 1995, he founded his Elsa Morejón is married to political prisoner Oscar Elías Biscet González. He has Then he became one himself own news agency, CubaPress. been in and out of prison since June 1998 and was sentenced April 10 to 25 in November 1999. Rivero saw the independent years on charges of “acts against the sovereignty and independence of the The now-41-year-old Biscet journalist movement grow to national territory.” Morejón said her husband’s only crime is upholding human spent three years in prison and about 100 journalists in about rights. was re-sentenced April 10 to 25 20 news agencies who wrote for years in prison on charges of “acts foreign Web sites, newspapers against the sovereignty and inde- and magazines. They even pub- feel sorry for her, the girlfriend set Varela Project facts pendence of the national territo- lished a magazine, “Of Cuba,” herself on fire. She died. And her ry.” Left behind and prohibited within the country in December The project calls for a referen- father was a policeman. from working, 44-year-old 2002. dum — the submitting of a The father talked with all the Morejón had her fax machine, But Rivero was arrested judges and the testifying doctor personal pictures and medicine March 20, the same day U.S. measure, proposed by a legislative the day of the court verdict, body or popular initiative, to taken away by police in March, military action against Iraq where the uncle was sentenced to according to Vicente Lago, a began. The week saw a sweeping popular vote. 25 years for murder. Miami supporter of the couple. arrest of dissidents and independ- The project was started by the She said she and her family “It’s an ideological racism,” ent journalists, who were charged have written letters to the govern- Morejón said. “God created the with collaborating with U.S. Christian Liberation Movement, a ment but can’t talk outside the group that promotes human rights world so we could have dignity. diplomats to undermine the family about what they see as an We are not doing an unjust Cuban socialist state. and peaceful change. CLM mem- unjust imprisonment. cause.” After a one-day trial in early bers started gathering signatures “It’s been very cruel,” Marlene April, Rivero received a 20-year said. “If you don’t have a family in 2001 to submit to the National Raúl Rivero gets up and prison sentence. that’s police here, you’re nobody.” Assembly of People’s Power, similar moves to an open window several times. He needs to smoke. While Marlene, Morejón and to Congress. Elsa Morejón also knows a “I am stressed, generally,” the Rivero wish they had what the The leaders submitted the peti- prisoner. She tells a foreign jour- 57-year-old says in January. Varela Project could bring them, nalist the following: According to Rivero, these are the Cuban government said the tion and 11,020 signatures May 10, In 1998, she and her hus- two days before former President among the reasons why: project is unconstitutional and band, Oscar Elías Biscet In 1976 he had just finished a represents foreign meddling. Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba for a González, had good jobs — she four-year stint as the Moscow “How many signatures do visit. Petitioners gathered 30,000 as a nurse, he as a doctor of inter- correspondent for a state-run Americans need to have universal more signatures after Carter’s nal medicine. Cuban news agency, Prensa health care?” asked the National But something troubled him. Latina. But the other foreign Assembly’s Alarcón. “I know that visit, said dissident leader He noticed hundreds of Vladimiro Roca. 36 the U.S. Constitution cannot be amended that way. “Give me the name of another country in the world that can change its constitution because a number of signatures asks for that.” According to Article 137 of Cuba’s Constitution, the constitu- tion can be modified only by a vote of at least two-thirds of the members of the National Assembly. In some cases, a major- ity of citizens must also approve the assembly’s proposal, according to the article. The constitution cannot be changed by a petition drive, and therefore the Varela Project is not worth the National Assembly’s time, Alarcón said. “I receive every day — every day — different kind of propos- als, complaints, requests ... that normally I don’t feel necessary to SARAH FOX publish,” he said. Milagros, 15, helps her 8-year-old friend Leisy gather coconut husks after the younger girl’s mother cut the However, dissidents and some husks to get the coconuts. The girls were working just outside the Havana home of a Cuban government spy U.S. experts disagree with who had pretended to be a human rights activist since 1990. Alarcón’s analysis. Alarcón is wrong when he says many political prisoners Cuba month. In a country where the the project is trying to change the SPY from page 35 Cuban Constitution, said dissi- had and what her organization average salary is $10 a month, did to publicize their plight, she they earn considerably more dent Roca, who recently spent wedge between us, as if I had spoke more slowly so we’d be than the average Cuban. five years in prison. The project is accidentally mixed up his name sure to understand. But it doesn’t come without trying to change Cuba’s laws, not or called him at home at 11 Soon, a man in a blue base- a price. The police frequently its constitution, Roca said. p.m. ball cap and blue shirt stepped visit journalists, confiscating Varela supporters say the proj- Later, I asked another through the open screen door their cameras, typewriters and ect is constitutional because it Miami doctor a sensitive ques- with a tape recorder. Lily asked fax machines. They pick them conforms to many constitution tion about the same dissident. us to excuse her for a minute. up before news conferences articles, specifically Article 88: The only reason you would Her friend Omar Rodríguez with dissidents and drop them “The proposal of laws is the need to know that is if you’re Saludes, an independent jour- off miles away from the meet- responsibility of ... the citizens. from the FBI or the Cuban intel- nalist, also had come to inter- ing, according to a New York In this case it is an indispensable ligence. If you ask any more ques- view her. Times profile of Omar in May prerequisite that the proposal be tions like that, this interview is Hot on the pursuit of news, 2002. made by at least 10,000 citizens going to end very soon. Omar held up his battery-oper- He was ecstatic when my who are eligible to vote.” On some reflection, I ated, metal tape recorder and classmate and I told him we’d The Varela Project calls for a thought it entirely plausible that asked her about a recent release read about him in the Times referendum. Theoretically, the Cuban government spies might of Cuban political prisoners. last fall. normal procedure for a referen- pose as journalists and call up Lily’s husband came out to Great! Someone read it and dum in Cuba would be to pres- Miamians who had ties to dissi- watch. knows who Cuban independent ent the petition to the National dents. It was probably wise of Omar was one of about 100 journalists are! Assembly, said Hans de Salas-del these two men to be wary of independent journalists work- Lily took a picture of us — Valle, a research associate at the me. Spies were probably fairly ing in Cuba. Forbidden to pub- two American students next to University of Miami. If the common. lish inside Cuba, they write for Saludes, grinning broadly under assembly passes it with a majority It wasn’t long before I found Web sites, newspapers and his baseball cap. We stood in vote, Cubans would get to vote out just how common. magazines in Florida, Spain and front of a collage on Lily’s wall on it. After the Cuban citizens I had taken a taxi the after- Latin America. They report on — pictures of the U.S. Capitol vote, the assembly formally noon of Jan. 9 to the bumpy, things the state-run media may dome, the White House and approves the voters’ decision. uphill streets of San Miguel de be reluctant to publish, such as pink fireworks exploding in Besides the constitutional Padrón, a tumble-down neigh- an ammonia leak from a factory Washington, D.C. complaints, Alarcón said he is borhood in Central Havana. or a teacher shortage. They send Omar left to write his story, tired of hearing about the Varela Another UNL student and I their stories by fax or dictate and we finished the interview. Project from Americans, who he had come to talk with a human them by phone. Foreign “The government doesn’t said are using it as a tool to rights activist. employers wire money to their want to give up birdseed,” said undermine Cuba. Lily Collazo greeted us bank accounts — $30 to $75 a Pedro Alvarez, director of a warmly. When we asked how See SPY page 39 Cuban food and agricultural

37 reform the system. Schroth & Associates, a Washington, D.C., and Miami polling firm, conducted a poll in February for The Miami Herald. The poll of 400 Cuban- Americans in Miami-Dade and Broward counties found: 43 percent said the fact that the Varela Project is allowed to operate in Cuba is evidence that supporters are being manipulated by the Cuban government. 23 percent said they opposed the project. 19 percent had an unfavor- able view of Oswaldo Payá. One of the Herald’s colum- nists, Max Castro, said many Miami Cubans see the revolution in black and white. “There are people who denounce (the Varela Project) because they want to see ... four days open season on commu- nists,” he said. “Payá has a differ- ent approach. He talks about dia- logue and compromise. The peo- ple who don’t like that approach SARAH FOX to politics would get on the radio Efrén Fernández, seen here in a friend’s Havana home, said in January that police regularly watch Varela Project support- and attack him.” ers’ homes. Fernández was arrested in March and sentenced in April to 12 years in prison on charges of trying to under- Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a mine the socialist state. Miami Cuban American radio talk show host, said she thinks Payá is courageous and is entitled import company, said in reference ing organization, said in January to his own opinion but works too Varela Project to the United States’ travel ban the project is truly Cuban, not much with the government. that Cuba does not try to change American. history “We don’t necessarily support the American government. “It’s the same demagoguery the Varela Project because we feel The project is named for Félix Varela, “We do not demand the we’ve heard for years,” said that it is within the socialist con- a 19th-century priest who opposed Americans to have six parties or Fernández, who was arrested in stitution,” she said. “We support to elect a Democrat or a March and sentenced in April to slavery and is considered the first changes but not within the sys- Republican,” said Alvarez, direc- 12 years in prison on charges of Cuban to advocate a complete sepa- tem.” tor of the government-run undermining the socialist state. ration from Spain. Pérez Castellón also criticized Alimport. “We work with “Who are the thousands of peo- Payá for comments reported by The project seeks: Republicans, and we respect ple who’ve signed it? They’re not The Washington Times that Payá Freedom of speech them. We work with Democrats, foreigners. They’re Cubans. made about the U.S. government and we respect them.” “Nobody says, ‘If you don’t Freedom of association in December when he was in Father Varela fought for inde- sign this, you can’t work. If you Amnesty for political prisoners France to receive a human rights pendence from foreign powers, don’t sign this, you can’t go to the The right to form businesses prize. and it is rude to Cubans to name university.’” Election reform “To me, if you receive a prize a U.S.-supported project after for human rights and you travel Varela founder Oswaldo Payá bases the him, Alarcón said. He also While many Varela backers to Europe to say that you are deplored the naming of U.S.-gov- thought the project was a hope project on various articles of Cuba’s against the U.S. embargo and ernment-funded Radio Martí, for a new Cuba, many Miami 1976 Constitution. One article says citi- that it is immoral for Afghanistan which broadcasts to Cuba from Cubans shied away because of its zens may propose laws if the proposal is prisoners to be held in Miami. leader, Oswaldo Payá. made by at least 10,000 Cubans eligible Guantánamo, I don’t think you’re “It’s really insulting to have Mutual dislike of Payá may be doing much harm to the regime,” to vote. The project calls for the assem- first Jose Martí to be manipulated one of the only issues on which she said. bly to let Cubans vote on the proposed by the U.S. government and then some Miami Cubans agree with Raúl Janes, a 70-year-old laws within one year. Thus far, the Father Varela,” he said. “By next the Cuban government — Miami Cuban who was sitting year it will probably be (1800s although for very different reasons. assembly has ignored the project and with friends near domino tables general) Antonio Macéo.” While Cuban government passed another referendum in June in Little Havana, also said he Dissidents had other views. officials dislike Payá because he 2002 that makes Cuba an irrevocable does not support the Varela Efrén Fernández, a member of threatens their power, some socialist state. Project. the Christian Liberation Miami Cubans say Payá is a com- “It excludes the exiles in Movement, the project’s sponsor- munist because he is trying to Miami (and) does not recognize

38 the sacrifice of political prison- ers,” he said. 12 infiltrators from the Cuban his mind. Jorge González, who used to SPY from page 37 government who spoke at the “Our children have to wave be involved in the Christian trials. every day with their hands high Lily, president of the Pro Liberation Movement and now Lily, who had worked in saying, ‘I want to be like Che lives in Hialeah, Fla., said Payá is Human Rights Party. “They’re human rights as a spy since not elections — it’s the day of Guevara,’” Rivero told me. “I not a communist and in the past 1990, revealed herself as “Agent selections, because they select don’t want them to be like Che distrusted ex-communists. among the communists. We Tania.” Her husband said he Guevara. I want them to be “I think he had the following want a change, but it has to be was “Agent Ernesto.” who they want to be.” idea that a communist would a peaceful change.” Sickened, I thought of how At the trial, Orrio always be a communist until That night, I told my pro- I’d probably told Lily the names announced he was really “Agent death,” González said. “Payá was fessor about our day. of other dissidents and journal- Miguel” and had worked for always anti-communist by con- Remember the reporter we ists I’d interviewed that week. the State Security since 1992. viction.” I’d asked her if she’d known one Rivero was sentenced to 20 read about in The New York Times article, Omar Rodríguez of them when he was in prison. years in prison. But Miamians who question Saludes? We met him today! I wondered if Lily talked about I wondered what Lily and Payá’s relationship with the gov- My professor was happy. us at the trials, if she had a pic- her husband thought that day ernment shouldn’t fear. Many So you were just there in that ture of us with Omar and as we sat in a home decorated experts say Cubans will never get house, and he stepped in to inter- whether her husband used it in with a framed U.N. Universal to vote on the Varela Project. view the person you were inter- his testimony against him. Declaration of Human Rights Antonio Jorge, an economics viewing? That’s amazing. Great That same week, I spent two on the wall. Did they feel any and international relations profes- you got him. hours with another independ- pangs of conscience leading sor at Florida International Had we come later, we ent journalist. Manuel David Omar on, doing “interviews” University, said it seems like there wouldn’t have had him at all. Orrio, the head of two journal- for him, giving him names and has been no official response. In early April, Lily and her ists’ organizations, had told me locations of political prisoners, “I don’t think you can ask a husband sat in a Cuban court- he was a former economist who even gaining his family’s trust so totalitarian system to reform itself room and revealed they were had an “immense necessity to that when Omar was briefly and to reform itself into its oppo- spies from the Cuban State be able to express what I arrested early one morning in site,” said Jorge, who was once Security. The husband, Roberto thought.” He told me neigh- 2000, his then-9-year-old son Castro’s chief economist. “It’s Martínez, testified against 37- bors shouted “worm” and “trai- called Lily? beyond me how people insist on year-old Omar during a series tor of the homeland” and that Or were they so convinced the idea that Castro may reform of one-day trials for 75 dissi- his son was denied the right to they were rooting out the ene- the system.” dents and independent journal- play in a chess tournament. mies of socialism and those who Jaime Suchlicki, director of ists. The 75 were charged with In the end, he testified allegedly would seek to under- the Institute for Cuban and conspiring with the U.S. gov- against a man he’d worked with mine their country that Lily Cuban-American Studies at the ernment to overthrow Cuba’s for seven years, Raúl Rivero, and her husband felt morally University of Miami, said the socialist government. whom I’d also interviewed. justified? project is constitutional. Alarcón On April 7, Omar was sen- Rivero, the former Moscow cor- So whom can you trust? says it isn’t because he doesn’t tenced to 27 years in prison, the respondent for a Cuban state- As long as it’s “socialism or want to lose power, Suchlicki second-longest of anyone. run news agency, founded an death” in Cuba, you may never said. When I read about the trial, independent news agency, know. “Alarcón’s position is that you it took a while to sink in. Lily CubaPress, in 1995. He said can have a plebescite but not a and her husband were two of he’d wanted to be able to speak plebescite asking for political change,” he said. In fact, the government recently supported a project of its own. In June 2002, the National Assembly passed constitutional amendments approved by about 8.2 million voters out of 10.9 million people who live in Cuba. The amendments say among other things that Cuba is an irrevocable socialist state and will never return to capitalism. Luciano, a 40-year-old Havana man, remembers the June referendum. “The whole Varela Project, they threw the kitchen sink at it,” he said. “Oh, it was turmoil. After that, we had to sign a paper DAKARAI AARONS — you agree that socialism is the Reporter Sarah Fox plays a hand-clapping game with Cuban children outside the home of a human rights best way. ... Pressure to sign was activist. The activist announced during an April crackdown by the Castro government that she was a spy. so subtle.”

39 The price to pay for an involvement with Varela Things were going well for names in news stories. Varela Project supporters in early “We give support,” he said 2003, if not so well for Fidel before the arrests happened in Castro. Oswaldo Payá, leader of March. “They come up with the project, traveled to France in their own strategies. They know December 2002 to receive the what they’re doing, and they’re European Union’s top human sharp enough not to let them- rights award, the Sakharov Prize. selves be used as pawns in the Under prodding from the EU, whole battle.” Castro allowed Payá to leave But the section experienced Cuba for the ceremony. several clashes with Castro in Before Payá returned to Cuba early March, before the arrests. in February, he took a 48-day Some came after the top U.S. tour and met leaders including diplomat in Cuba, James Cason, Pope John Paul, U.S. Secretary invited independent journalists of State Colin Powell and to his home for a workshop on Mexican President Vicente Fox. ethics and met with dissidents in The recognition may have a dissident’s home. Castro called kept him safe; many of his sup- Cason’s actions a “shameless and porters are now in prison. defiant provocation.” In March, Cuban state secu- “Cuba can easily do without rity agents started arresting dissi- this office, an incubator for dents and independent journal- counter-revolutionaries and a ists the day after President command post for the most George W. Bush gave Iraqi offensive, subversive actions President Saddam Hussein a 48- against our country,” Castro said hour ultimatum. in a story reported by Reuters. This ended several years of Cason said his office in Cuba relative tolerance by the Cuban operates no differently than government toward its opposi- American embassies in other SARAH FOX tion movement. Courts tried 75 countries. He said earlier this Yasmany, 15, front and his friend, Jorgito, 8, play marbles in their Havana dissidents and independent jour- year Cuban diplomats in neighborhood. They were playing a few feet from the home of a spy who nalists for two weeks in the Washington, D.C., have more posed as a human rights activist for 13 years. beginning of April. The arrested freedom than he does in received one-day trials and sen- Havana, according to The Varela numbers Alarcón said the June refer- tences of six to 28 years in Miami Herald and The endum was not a response to prison. About half the dissidents Associated Press. 11,020: Number of signatures the Varela Project. were Varela Project supporters. The Bush administration presented to the National Assembly in “I think it’s really sad to see Government prosecutors said announced May 13 it would people repeating like a blue- May 2002 in support of the Varela the dissidents were conspiring expel 14 Cuban diplomats in print that we did that in Project. with U.S. diplomats to under- New York and Washington, response to the Varela Project,” mine Cuba. The U.S. govern- D.C., for “inappropriate and 30,000: Number of signatures he said. “Who decided that? ment says the Cuban govern- unacceptable activities.” Associated Press? CNN? collected since former President ment is afraid of free speech. Cason said U.S. diplomats “Why don’t you believe us?” Jimmy Carter spoke about the Varela The U.S. Interests Section in are not “subversive” or “provoca- Project during his May 2002 visit to Havana, which is technically not tive” and that the arrests show If the government never an embassy since the United the Cuban government is trying Cuba. gives Varela backers a response, States does not have formal to make people afraid, according dissidents say they will keep diplomatic relations with Cuba, to the AP and The Herald. 8.2 million: Number of signa- working and try other projects. tures in favor of constitutional helps Varela backers in several Wayne Smith, a former chief But it may not be soon ways, or at least it did up until of the Interests Section, said in amendments that declare Cuba’s enough for Isaías. the March arrests. January he thought Interests socialist state “irrevocable.” The “I don’t know if I’m going to It let Varela supporters use Section support would hurt the National Assembly approved the believe the news or (the photocopy machines, Internet Varela Project. amendments in June 2002. tourists) on the street,” he said. (which most Cubans are not “I don’t think it’s helpful for “I want to leave here and find allowed to have in their homes) the U.S. Interests Section to give 10.9 million: Number of peo- out for myself.” and meeting rooms, according the impression that they are ple who live in Cuba. to a U.S. official who said it was behind the dissidents at all,” he policy for Interests Section said. “It’s the kiss of death.” Sources: The Miami Herald, Vladimiro Roca, employees not to use their — Sarah Fox 2002 constitutional amendments

40 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Vladimiro Roca, who supports the Varela Project, was a politi- cal prisoner in Cuba for almost five years. His father was a founding member of the Cuban Communist Party. Seen here in his Havana home, he sold his car, the fami- ly’s china, mirrors, sil- verware and paintings to pay the bills after he was fired from his job in 1992. He went to prison in 1997.

Dissident tries to overcome past

By Sarah Fox changed again when the son their young daughters. embraced Catholicism, which “The fact that I think Bits of brightness from the he says helps him forgive the bulb reveal religious artwork and Many Cubans remember communist government that differently from them photos of the granddaughters in summer 1953 as the beginning locked him up. doesn’t mean I’m not Tampa, just one-and-a-half of Fidel Castro’s Revolution. In some ways, this is a story hours from SeaWorld and Vladimiro Roca remembers of two men — both fathers, Cuban, that we’re not Universal Studios and Walt it as the summer he, his siblings both sons. Both hoping for a brothers born under Disney World. Their grandfa- and cousins hit a recycling jack- better government for Cuba. the same sky.” ther’s collection of mirrors and pot at the beach one day. Both knowing the fear of living artwork are gone, sold to pay “There was one Sunday that under repressive governments at Vladimiro Roca the bills after he was fired from we gathered 230 bottles,” the the opposite political ends. The his job as an economist in 1992. now 60-year-old Roca said. “It father went into hiding for five- He speaks slowly and delib- was an incredibly productive The son has been out of and-a-half years while the dicta- prison for a year and is one of erately and looks stern behind day.” tor’s police visited his family, car- his white beard — formidable Roca’s life changed forever the few Cubans left in his rying away food and even bed Central Havana neighborhood, — an important political pris- that hot July afternoon half a sheets. oner. He’s the president of the century ago when his father an area of spacious homes occu- The father helped build a pied mostly by foreigners. A sin- Cuban Social Democratic Party. drove to the beach, suddenly new government — one for the But he patiently answers ques- took his mother away from the gle light bulb dimly illuminates people and by the people. Un the dining room. tions, telling reporters exactly family vacation and disappeared Gobierno that one day would how many bottles he picked up for 15 days. Five-and-a-half Grappling with nationwide send revolutionary police to the electricity shortages, Roca — on average that summer and years later, it changed again son’s house to carry away books, what kind of bugs lived in his when a new government like most Cubans — keeps the computers and a video camera. house dark at night. It’s just prison and how much weight he became sympathetic to the fami- That would lock up the son in a gained there. ly views, putting the Rocas in him. His 53-year-old wife and humid prison filled with com- 19-year-old son are gone It’s in this home he seeks lib- high positions. mon criminals, scorpions and erty from the past by forgiving It changed again when his tonight. His 34-year-old daugh- snakes. A father and a son ter is gone for longer. She left his captors. father’s government took the 54- plagued by repression, buscando “I sincerely believe they are year-old son and imprisoned Cuba in 2001 and now lives in la libertad. Seeking liberty. Florida with her husband and mixed up,” he said in a copy of him for almost five years. And it The father is dead now. an interview obtained through

41 his political party. “The fact that for us,” Roca said. “We under- Cuba’s 1976 Constitution. As Vladimiro Roca I think differently from them stood that the political situation the son of a founder of the Dec. 21, 1942: Born. doesn’t mean I’m not Cuban, had turned bad.” Cuban Communist Party, Roca that we’re not brothers born On July 25, when his father trained as a pilot in the Soviet 1953: Cuban revolution begins, under the same sky.” passed in front of a fort in the Air Force, served in the Cuban father goes into hiding. city of Santiago de Cuba — the Air Force and earned a degree in Vladimiro Roca learned the Moncada Barracks — someone international economic relations. Dec. 31, 1958: Gen. meaning of “brothers” early in else had plans for that fort. But while serving in the Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba with life, growing up in a Havana A 26-year-old lawyer named Cuban Air Force from 1963 to home of 14 people in four Fidel Castro had attacked the 1971, he chastised himself for his supporters. rooms. barracks with 122 other men not being patriotic. Jan. 1, 1959: Father comes “Relationships of common early July 26, hoping to spark a “I started to doubt the out of hiding. coexistence, of sharing whatever general uprising against Batista. Cuban government, and not we had among all — even the They lost profoundly. The only Cuba, rather all the Eastern January 1959: Fidel Castro beds,” Roca said. 30-minute battle also put the European governments,” Roca and his army march triumphantly In July 1953 the family was lives of other opposition leaders said. “The written (constitution) taking a break from life in in danger. The father, who was wasn’t like that in practice.” into Havana. bustling Havana, filled with involved in the Cuban Karl Marx defined commu- 1961-63: Trained as a pilot in Americans who’d come to gam- Communist Party, fled with nism as a society of abundance, the Soviet Air Force. ble and seek black-eyed señoritas Roca’s mother to a clandestine a place where the workforce has amid the rising hotels and small house the party had prepared. full liberation, Roca said. But in 1963-71: Serves in the Cuban skyscrapers. His father, then a Castro at this time was not a the 1960s, Cuba had food and Air Force. member of Cuba’s House of communist, and Roca’s father clothing shortages worse than Representatives, was spending a knew no plans today’s, he said. 1968: Starts re-reading Karl few days in the province of for an attack, “In a place Marx’s writings. Santiago de Cuba to celebrate but Batista felt “Since I left where there’s his birthday. His mother, a threatened by all prison, I don’t such scarcity, it 1987: Graduates from Raúl housewife, was at the beach, opposition can’t be commu- Roa Superior Institute of along with his grandmother, groups. have the peace I nist,” he said. International Relations, licensed in three siblings, an aunt and four In the five- had when I was in In 1968, international economic relations. cousins — most of the room- and-a-half years convinced he mates from the Havana home. his father was in prison. Life is was misinter- 1990: Declares publicly he dis- On July 26, having finished hiding, the more agitated.” preting Marx’s agrees with the government. the birthday celebration, the Communist Vladimiro Roca writings, the 25- father was driving to the beach Party gave the year-old Roca 1992: Fired from job as an when he heard some disturbing family money started re-read- economist. news on the radio: There had for rent and ing “to see been a rebellion against Gen. food. When Roca was 13 or 14, where I was mistaken so I could June 17, 1997: Releases a Fulgencio Batista at a barracks in he got a job washing windows rectify myself.” document with three other dissi- Santiago de Cuba. and cleaning hallways for spend- Finally, he decided he didn’t dents calling for democratic elec- He rushed to the beach and ing money. He did visit his believe in his father’s govern- drove away with his wife — for- father in secret, but Batista’s ment or in Fidel, whom he tions, economic liberalization and bidding her to tell the children police kept a close eye on the sometimes encountered in the improvement of human rights. where they were going. family. Police detained his moth- Roca home. July 16, 1997: Arrested. At the time, Roca said he er, siblings and cousins — even “(Our government) didn’t wasn’t too worried about his par- once carrying away bed sheets agree with Marx or with social- September 1998: Charged ents’ absence. and food from the house. ism or with communism,” said with sedition. “I was still very green,” he “We started to feel the rigor Roca, who said he was not nec- said. of repression on our family,” he essarily opposed to communism. March 1999: Tried and con- While the parents were gone, said. “It doesn’t permit the economic victed of sedition. the 10 people left on vacation The rigor of repression lifted liberation. It uses production to : Released from still had to pay weekly rent. So on New Year’s Eve 1958, when control people.” May 5, 2002 the children went fishing and Batista and his closest supporters Roca worked in a state eco- prison. gathered trash from the beach to fled by plane to the Dominican nomic collaboration agency dur- May 12, 2002: Jimmy Carter recycle — usually 40 to 60 bot- Republic. Roca’s father left hid- ing the 1980s but eventually tles a day on the weekends. ing. Soon, Castro and his guer- decided constructive criticism arrives in Cuba. During his five-day After 15 days, Roca’s mother rilla army marched triumphantly wouldn’t change anything. visit, he gives Roca an auto- returned. His father wouldn’t be into Havana. So in June 1990, during a graphed book, “Keeping Faith: back for five-and-a-half years. The Roca family was happy meeting at his job, he Memoirs of a President.” “We asked her, ‘Why have when Castro started working announced he disagreed. you been gone so long? Why with the communists, then Roca told his co-workers he did we have to stay in the beach signed a pact with the Soviet didn’t support Cuba’s govern- house?’” Union in 1960. His father ment, which could be “Fidelism, His mother told her children became highly esteemed in the fascism, totalitarianism — not “there would be very hard years new government, helping write socialism.”

42 He said he was the first child couldn’t prove for sure God did of a high revolutionary leader to not exist. become a dissident, and he “He told me that his prayers doesn’t know of any other cases. and that his conversion was very His father had died by 1990. important for him to accept his “It was a very, very scandal in reality without making him Cuba at that time,” said Jorge change his mind (about poli- González, a co-worker of Roca’s tics),” González said. “I admire during the ’80s. “Everybody was him very much to have the talking about it a lot. ‘You know courage of living in this without Vladimiro, he’s Blas Roca’s son changing his mind.” and he declared himself a dissi- Roca even gained 13 pounds dent.’” because he couldn’t exercise or go Important Cubans received outside. He said his only major special privileges, such as a car medical problem in prison was and extra food and clothes, high blood pressure. KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star González said. Former political prisoner Vladimiro Roca talks to reporter Sarah Fox. “God helps those who are “I remember Vladimiro had needy,” Roca said. “He doesn’t gas, he had no problem with deny them.” dressing,” said González, who He left prison on May 5, now lives in Hialeah, Fla., and is Article 62 of the 1976 Cuban Constitution 2002, a week before former the manager of a Web mainte- President Jimmy Carter arrived nance and design company. “To None of the freedoms which are recognized for citizens can be exercised contrary on a highly publicized first visit be an important man’s son is to what is established in the Constitution and the law, or contrary to the existence to Cuba by a former or sitting practically a good way to be safe, and objectives of the socialist State, or contrary to the decision of the Cuban people U.S. president since 1928. to have some privileges. to build socialism and communism. Violations of this principle can be punished by law. In the end, the son says he Everybody realized that knows his father would still love Vladimiro was getting rid of all him if he were alive. those privileges and assuming González said he was the Roca family on a course last- “My relationship with my the risks.” impressed but worried. ing almost five years. Roca and father was, from infancy, respect- Another risk was losing “When I read the document, the other three dissidents were ful, cordial and trustful,” Roca friends. Some stayed, although I just told to myself the govern- held for more than a year before said. “He instilled sufficient con- they disagreed with Roca’s politi- ment will not forgive they were formally charged with fidence in me to talk with him cal views, and some didn’t. Vladimiro,” said González, who sedition in September 1998. about anything that worried me “They stopped dealing with by then had moved to The prison in Cienfuegos or that I didn’t understand.” me and greeting me,” Roca said. Venezuela. “I thought there Province, an eight- to 10-hour Even the son’s views on gov- “It’s a right that they have. I could be different choices, send- round-trip bus ride from ernment. respect that, and I don’t impose ing him to jail if he did, or even Havana, was full of flies, bed- Before the 1976 constitution my presence on anyone.” simulating an accident and bugs, cockroaches, scorpions and — which his father helped write His biological brothers were killing him, or sending him to snakes, Roca said. — was released, the son told his tolerant of his new beliefs, he prison.” “And over all, a grand humid- father he was worried about said. He was right. ity.” Article 62. The article states that “Independent of how we Police came at 5 a.m. on July Housed in the same prison as citizens cannot exercise their free- think, we are family,” he said. 16, 1997, almost a month to the criminals, Roca worried about doms contrary to socialism — Although his family still day of the document’s release. his health. So did his family. He and those who do can be pun- accepted him, Roca was fired in “They arrived with large entered prison with chronic lung ished. 1992 as a specialist for the eco- lights as if he were a murderer or problems and received medicine “He said this article was nec- nomic collaboration committee. a delinquent,” said Miladys only when it was available. His essary to avoid that enemies use He eventually sold his car, the Castro, who like her brother, wife, Magalys de Armas, could these rights to eliminate social- family’s china, mirrors, silver- Arian Rodríguez, was at the visit once a month for two to ism,” Roca said. “I responded, ware and paintings to pay the Roca home at the time. “In the three hours. ‘OK, the only right we have is to bills. His family received money door they were yelling, But he misses prison. help socialism although we may from his wife’s family and from ‘Vladimiro, Vladimiro.’” “It was the peace, the tran- not agree with what it’s doing.’” U.S. sympathizers, said his The police stayed until 5 quility that accompanied me,” When the constitution came daughter, Miladys Castro. p.m. They registered the family he said. “Since I left prison, I up again in conversation, the son But the worst was yet to and carried away books, at least don’t have the peace I had when again told his father he didn’t come. one computer and a video cam- I was in prison. Life is more agi- agree with it. On June 17, 1997, Roca and era a foreign journalist had given tated.” “He looked at me tranquilly, three other dissidents released a Castro to film her young daugh- Sitting in prison, Roca had without reproach,” Roca said. document called “The ter’s birthday, she said. plenty of time to think. He con- “Our relationship continued Homeland Belongs to All.” It “I don’t like to use the word verted to Catholicism the same the same, because he always called for the government to ‘hate’ but they really annoyed year he was arrested and was respected my opinions, like I did hold democratic elections, liber- me,” Castro said. “It was a very baptized in prison. Roca said he his.” alize the economy and improve disagreeable day.” previously was not religious but human rights. The disagreeable day started wasn’t an atheist because he

43 Dissent can mean jail

KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Castro jails Journal Star Angel De Fana is a 63-year-old exile dissidents, who now lives in Miami. He spent 20 years in a Cuban journalists prison after being convicted of By Dakarai Aarons conspiracy against the state. De Fana As soon as Odilia “Lily” was released in Collazo Valdés sees Omar 1983. Rodríguez Saludes appear in the doorway of her modest home on a January afternoon, she jumps up to greet him. “Excuse me,” she says to the American journalists She must do a quick interview. With tape recorder in hand, Rodríguez, one of Cuba’s most well-known independent journal- ists, asks Collazo, president of the Pro-Human Rights Party of Cuba, about her party’s announcement of the recent release of seven political prisoners. After the interview, Collazo tells Rodríguez how to treat his daugh- ter’s stomach ache and offers him some coffee before he heads out the door to write his story. Fast forward three months. The Cuban government starts a massive crackdown on its dissi- dent movement, raiding the homes of nearly 80 independent journalists, human rights activists and opposition leaders. They are thrown in jail and after a series of trials, none of which lasts more than a day, 75 dissidents are sent to prison. The dissident. Today, I have the privi- what the Cuban government legitimate decision to defend our- recipient of the second-longest lege of telling you that I am one knew. The U.S. Interests Section selves using our laws and our legal sentence: Omar Rodríguez of the persons selected by the gov- — particularly its leader, James institutions, has generated reac- Saludes, 27 years. ernment of Cuba, by the Interior Cason — should take note, he tions.” Collazo was among a group of Ministry; precisely today, I can said. And Omar Rodríguez Saludes dissidents the government used as openly show everyone that I am “He should know that there now has become what he went to principal witnesses against the an agent, Agent Tania.” are no stupid people here, and Collazo’s house to interview her accused. At the end of her state- Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez that while he got here only a about: a prisoner of conscience, a ment on the witness stand, this Roque showed her videotaped tes- short time ago, he has to consider political prisoner. exchange took place: timony during a press conference the task he has undertaken; or we He joins a long list of others in Prosecutor: “Witness, Odilia after the sentencing. will have to continue organizing a similar predicament. In Cuba, Collazo Valdés, are you really a Roque said the testimony of his meetings and attending the human rights activists and dissi- dissident? Are you only and exclu- Collazo and nearly a dozen other cocktail parties he throws,” the dent journalists are considered sively the President of the Cuban Cuban agents who had pretended Cuban National Information counterrevolutionaries. Party for Human Rights?” to be dissidents for more than a Agency reported Roque as saying. Additionally, the Cuban govern- Collazo: “Well, I’m not really a decade provided a mere taste of “Finally as it is apparent, our ment has accused them of being

44 mercenaries paid by the United States, charges the U.S. govern- ment has vehemently denied. Laida Carro, a human rights activist with the Coalition of Cuban-American Women in Miami, said imprisoning those who disagree with Fidel Castro’s government has long been the practice in Cuba. “Fear has taken hold of a Cuban population trained to be loyal and subservient to a revolu- tion that monopolizes their lives from birth,” she said. Carro has been documenting cases of human rights abuses against political prisoners for more than a decade. Among the tactics used against them, she says, are the loss of jobs, hospitalization in psychiatric wards and swift, closed trials with stiff jail sentences, like the one that put Rodríguez behind bars. The only crime they have PHOTOS BY KEN committed, Carro said, is daring BLACKBIRD/Lincoln The crackdown to “be free in a land where the Journal Star Since Marchl, Fidel Castro’s Marcell Felipe rule of law does not exist. government has raided the homes “My country (Cuba) has been (above left), a pawn.” Laida Carro of nearly 80 independent journal- Activist Vladimiro Roca knows (above center) ists, human rights activists and well the price of dissenting. He and Lida opposition leaders. spent five years in a jail cell after Usategui are Three men who tried to hijack Cuban exiles in being arrested along with three a ferry out of Cuba were execut- others for writing a book titled Miami. Left: “The Homeland Belongs to All of Omar Lopez ed. Us.” Montenegro Seventy-five dissidents were Roca was a member of the lobbies for the sent to prison, some for more Internal Dissidents’ Working freedom of than 25 years. Group for the Analysis of the political Cuban Socio-Economic Situation prisoners. when he was arrested in 1997. The other three arrested were released in May 2000, and Roca was released in May 2002, just pied by the bed. In a military trial with no experience, said Omar Lopez before former U.S. President Angel De Fana also knows defense, De Fana was convicted of Montenegro of the Cuban Jimmy Carter’s visit to Cuba. He what it is like to be in prison. The conspiracy against the state. American National foundation, a remains chairman of the Social 63-year-old exile now lives in When he went to prison, De Miami-based lobbying organiza- Democratic Political Party of Miami, but spent 20 years of his Fana had been married for just 32 tion that tracks the cases of Cuba’s Cuba, which he founded in 1996. life on la Isla de Juventud — the days. He later got divorced and political prisoners and lobbies the Jail in his country is not a Island of Youth — starting in has seen the woman he married Cuban government for their free- place anyone should experience, 1962. just once since. dom. he said during an interview in his The reason for his arrest was The conditions in prison were In some cases, he said, people Havana home. simple, he said. terrible, he said. De Fana said he pay the ultimate price for speaking “Cuban prisons are for ani- “Because I was not a commu- was not allowed any visits from out. “I have never killed anyone mals, not for humans. The pris- nist and I tried to change the gov- friends or family for the first three who is against me, but Castro has ons in the United States are a ernment in Cuba.” years. Food came through a hole killed people who are against him.” four-star hotel in comparison.” He fought with Fidel Castro’s in the door of the small cell. And While the dissident movement Roca was in the provincial forces against former President inmates were not given uniforms is momentarily crippled by the prison in the town of Ariza in Fulgencio Batista, but later — they wore only boxer shorts. recent crackdown, the people can Cienfuegoes Province, nearly 125 became disenchanted with the After being released from rise again and fight, Lopez said. miles from his home. He said his revolution. prison in 1983, De Fana was “The greatest power lies inside cell was 4.9 feet in width, 6.6 feet “We knew the revolution that forced to leave Cuba by the gov- the minds of the people held in in length and 12.1 feet in height. we fought for was not the demo- ernment. He spent nine months in bondage of fear.” There was no shower, and the cratic one announced by Fidel Venezuela before going to Miami. majority of the room was occu- Castro, but a communist one.” De Fana is not alone in his

45 Racism no light matter Cubans disagree over its existence By Dakarai Aarons In a section of Habana Vieja, a 20-some- thing man sits at the base of the Catedral de la Habana dressed in red and black. A black knitted hat with “Canada” emblazoned on it covers his fuzzy cornrows. Alan dresses his best to look the part of a tourist. But it does- n’t fool the armed policemen who routinely pass by to make sure he isn’t talking to tourists. In the warm January sun, Alan, who asked that his last name not be used, laughs with his friends, who like him, sit outside the catedral every day after work, looking for tourists with whom they can practice their English. When the conversation turns to race, however, the black electrical technician stops laughing. “We are not free,” he says. “Listen to me when I tell you that.” When President Fidel Castro’s revolution- ary regime took over in 1959, the govern- ment changed laws to curb Jim Crow-style practices that had kept Cuba’s black and mixed populations on the fringes of society. Consequently, said several Cuban officials and citizens, racism in Cuba is an issue of a distant past. “We don’t have problems with racism,” said Pedro Alvarez, chairman and CEO of Alimport, Cuba’s importing arm. But others tell a different story. According to them, racism is alive and well in Cuba. They say being black in Cuban society puts them at a disadvantage. Those with darker skin are often singled out for mistreatment, for they are perceived to cause many of the country’s problems. Specifically, they say citi- zens of color in Cuba: KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Encounter more discrimination in Cuba has what many say is one of the most integrated societies in the world. access to hotels, restaurants and jobs. Receive far fewer remittances from the Cuban exile community in the United States. Point Counterpoint Are less likely to be hired for higher- “Blacks and whites are the same here. We don’t paying tourism jobs. Are more likely to be harassed, ticketed have that kind of problem.” “It has gone from blacks being unable to go to and jailed. exclusive clubs to not being able to enter any hotel in Pedro Alvarez, CEO of Alimport, Cuba’s import agency Are far more likely to be victims of Cuba. Things are worse.” Omar Lopez Montenegro of CANF

46 racial profiling. “We have practically apartheid in this country sometimes,” said Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, director of the Communist Party-owned Juventud Rebelde newspaper. Nevertheless, Cuba has what many consider one of the most integrated societies in the world. Interracial marriages are common and not the contentious issue they often are in the United States, according to some Cubans. Indeed, mixed couples mingle freely everywhere in Cuba, on the streets, on the beaches and in parks. Despite racial equality on some levels, many Cuban citizens were reluctant to discuss the mat- ter. Some government officials also didn’t want to address it, or became uncomfortable when pressed. So what is the truth about KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star racism in Cuba? Like many com- A man cuts pork for sale in an open market just outside Havana. Interracial couples are common in Cuba. plex issues involving Cuba, it depends on who is asked. going. Anyone can be invited to Some Cubans say there is dis- go with you anywhere. There are Said Ricardo Alarcón, presi- “Anyone can be invit- crimination not only of race, but thousands of Cubans who stay in dent of the National Assembly of ed to go with you of nationality. Hotels are often a hotels.” People’s Power, Cuba’s parliament: place reserved primarily for Not so, said Juan. “Unfortunately, these things (dis- anywhere. There are tourists. While the constitution “You have two problems,” he parities in the treatment of blacks thousands of Cubans guarantees Cubans the right to told a black American reporter. and whites) are very common in who stay in hotels.” stay in any hotel and be served at “You look Cuban and you are Cuba.” any public establishment, several black, and you know what that It is a situation exacerbated, he Pedro Alvarez black Cubans said that right exists means. If I were you, I would said, by the introduction of capi- only on paper. have been in big trouble.” talism into Cuba’s socialist society The reality, they say, is that not by the country’s burgeoning “When you like me, I like you, only can’t Cubans stay in the The discrimination goes tourism industry. OK.” hotels, but black Cubans don’t beyond the hotels into the streets, But listen to Alimport CEO Skin color is irrelevant. need to even bother going in to where black Cubans say they are Alvarez: “Blacks and whites are “It’s the soul,” she said. “See sip a mojito. They won’t be constantly asked to show their the same here. We don’t have that the spirit, see the soul.” served. national identification cards and kind of problem.” But Fuentes, Juventud “As a policy, we blacks never are generally harassed by police. Matlilde Skeete Planes agreed. Rebelde’s director, said racism is go to hotels,” said Juan, a tourism Cops do stop white Cubans as Born in Guantánamo, Planes, deeply rooted in Cuba’s history employee who asked that his real well, Alan said, but less frequently 60, who is black, moved to and would not disappear name not be used. than they stop black Cubans. Havana in 1960 to study neurolo- overnight. “If I have dollars, they would In one instance, Juan said, he gy. “It is not something you can take it, but not because I am tired heard a cop refer to a black sus- Race, she said, has never been solve by decree,” he said. and want to go to sleep. It’s not pect as “obvious color.” a major issue for her. Planes mar- Years of marginalization of the law, but it is unofficially But Cuban officials say such ried a white man and her brother blacks and mulattos had occurred legal.” racial profiling is not the norm. is a mulatto. Her daughter also before the revolution, and the Alan said even dollars don’t Roberto de Armas, of the married a white man. National Assembly of People’s guarantee service. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said “There is no difference,” she Power has addressed the issue a “(Hotel security) don’t let you Cuban police are not trained to said. number of times in recent years, take your break in the hotel,” he detain individuals based on race. Most of the racism Planes said Fuentes said. said. “If you don’t have foreign “Black people are not being she had encountered was from As a newspaper, Juventud friends, you can’t sit down and be detained on the streets of Havana European tourists, who make Rebelde has also addressed racism. waited on.” or any other city just for being comments about the interracial The paper has encouraged send- But Alimport Chairman black,” he said. “If there is some- couples they see on the streets. ing social workers out into the Alvarez strongly disagreed. one being detained by police, it is And since she became a Christian more impoverished communities “The information that is aired for a reason. It’s not because of a in 1992, Planes said race mattered to address some of the inequities about us outside of Cuba is com- policy.” even less to her. that exist, including racial profil- pletely distorted,” he said. Asked if Cuban police were “Knowing Jesus Christ, that ing, Fuentes said. “Normally, anyone can go to any trained to think of people with relation is simpler,” she said. hotel here. There is no ban on darker skin as more prone to be

47 “Black people are told they are nothing and not able to progress by themselves so they must give in to the regime.” Omar Lopez Montenegro. Cuban American National Federation

they must give in to the regime.” Things were better for Cuban blacks under the leadership of President Fulgencio Batista because they had the opportunity to move up in society, Lopez said. But according to Cuba histori- an Christopher Baker, there were places even Batista was not allowed, simply because he was JOE DUGGAN/Lincoln Journal Star mulatto. Tourists sightsee and Cubans work in a square in front of the Catedral de la Habana in the old section of Havana. The Havana Yacht Club, for example, turned out the lights problematic, he said: “Usually. that those who send remittances when Batista approached to let And that’s something that hap- Ethnic groups to Cubans are white Cuban the Cuban president know he was pens everywhere. According to the 2002 CIA World Americans.” not welcome, Baker said. “Usually, there are certain sec- Remittances are received by 30 However, Lopez said, there is a tors of the population involved in Fact Book, Cuban ethnic groups percent to 40 percent of whites, difference between Batista not certain practices.” are: compared to 5 percent to 10 per- being able to enter an exclusive Drug trafficking, illegal trade 51 percent: Mulatto cent of blacks, according to an arti- club and Cuban blacks today not and prostitution are among the 37 percent: White cle by Cuban independent journal- being able to go to hotels. practices that police want to curb, 11 percent: Black ist Claudia Márquez Linares. “Even all the people who were white weren’t allowed in,” he said. but black people aren’t necessarily 1 percent: Chinese In that same article, according the ones committing the crimes, to Cuba’s Center for “It has gone from blacks being de Armas said. Anthropology, 80 percent of those unable to go to exclusive clubs to “Particular police can be racial- According to Cuba’s Center for in the tourism industry are white not being able to enter any hotel ly biased. That doesn’t exist in the Anthropology: and 5 percent are black. in Cuba. Things are worse.” police as a body. They have been 80 percent of those in the Overall, the Cuban population Meanwhile, the chance to taught it is something they have is 51 percent mulatto (of black move ahead in society exists now to avoid.” tourism industry are white and white heritage), 37 percent more than ever before, said 5 percent of those in the tourism white, 11 percent black and 1 Juventud Rebelde Director Meanwhile, Alan would love industry are black percent Chinese, according to the Fuentes. to get a job in the tourism indus- 2002 CIA World Fact Book. Despite the racial issues, Fuentes said, he is optimistic try, but for now is relegated to his Antonio Díaz, of the Ministry And those statistics are indica- about the nation’s future. low-paying job as an electrical of Tourism, strongly disagreed. tive of the racial division that Cuba was the second to last technician. The problem, he said, In terms of chances for blacks exists, said Omar Lopez country in Latin America to free is not his qualifications — he is and whites getting tourism jobs, Montenegro of the Miami-based its slaves, which it did in 1881. university educated — but his he said: “There is no difference in Cuban American National Only Brazil had slavery longer, skin color. Cuba.” Foundation. and its effects have yet to leave “The best jobs are in all tourist Anyone with the right qualifi- “Black people have a worse Cuba, he said. areas: hotels, restaurants, any- cations could get a job in tourism, condition in Cuba,” he said. “(The National Assembly) are where that use dollar,” he said. Díaz said, though he wouldn’t “Castro says ‘You are nothing the ones pushing free and equal “All the good jobs in Cuba go to specify what those qualifications without me.’” access,” Fuentes said. “This is a white people.” were. Castro — “the white super- question that comes from cen- White Cubans, Juan said, have Meanwhile, according to hero”— defends the poor blacks turies ago, and a revolution is a better chances at getting jobs than National Assembly President in what Lopez calls a “Tarzan syn- process of years. black or mulatto Cubans because Alarcón, the U.S. government’s drome.” “We are not a perfect society, they are viewed more positively by embargo on Cuba has serious “If you are black and against but we have the willingness to society. implications on the socioeconom- the regime, you have double erase these problems.” “We are thought to be prob- ic equity among races. repression,” he said. “Black people lem bearers — drugs, prostitu- “For example, Cuban blacks are told they are nothing and not tion, thievery, harassing tourists.” are not in Miami. That means able to progress by themselves so

48 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Dakarai Aarons asks a question of National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón during a meeting in Havana. One student’s experience By Dakarai Aarons address me in a language that is and then greeted me with a not my native tongue? “Each evening, I gruff “Excuse me” as I walked What they did know was I past him and pressed the button “You look Cuban.” look like the 62 percent of would enter the to return to my room. This was a phrase I was to Cuba’s population that is either elevator lobby to go The guard told me he could- hear many times during the black or mulatto — of black n’t speak English, so I informed week I spent in Havana. But and white heritage. to my room, and him that I spoke Spanish. Now the stereotyping started even Shortly after arriving in each evening, the communicating effectively, he before then, when security Havana that Saturday afternoon, told me he needed to see my agents at Miami International a part of our delegation went to hotel security guard identification. I was puzzled by Airport gave me instructions a restaurant near the Malecón to would stop me and this but showed him my elec- in Spanish without asking eat lunch. The waiter demand to see proof tronic room key and said I was a if I spoke Spanish. When I approached our table and dis- guest at the hotel. entered the plane, the flight covered members of the group that I was a guest in The guard informed me it attendant directed me to my speaking English. So he imme- the hotel.” was not enough, so I asked him seat in Spanish. Meanwhile, diately came to me and started Dakarai Aarons what he specifically wanted to my white companions were speaking Spanish. see. He did not give a clear nearly always addressed in Having people speak only answer, so I showed him my English. Spanish to me would be the business center of the Habana Maryland driver’s license. None of these people could least of my experiences as the Libre Hotel and walked across Flustered, he waved me on have known that I have been result of looking like a black the second floor hall to the ele- and I went about my way. I had studying Spanish for eight years Cuban. vators in the hotel lobby. The confused him. The guard and am semi-fluent in the lan- One morning, I had just fin- guard grumbled something in assumed I was Cuban, and as I guage. So why would they ished checking my e-mail in the Spanish in my direction at first was to learn later, the unwritten

49 rule in Cuba is that if you are passed through the lobby once Cuban, you do not go to the more, the guard who had origi- good hotels — especially if you nally stopped me immediately are black. held up his hands as if preparing I shrugged off this incident, to defend himself from a physi- but it was not to be the last cal attack and said, “No proble- encounter I had during my stay. ma.” He then smiled and It was just the beginning. extended his hand. I accepted By Tuesday, the procedure his handshake and bade him a had become familiar — and good night before continuing. maddening. Each evening, I On another day, I was ver- would enter the elevator lobby bally assaulted and even grabbed to go to my room, and each by security officials while in a evening, hotel security would club. That evening, I wrote: “I stop me and demand to see feel like a marked man, a crimi- proof that I was a guest in the nal, and I have committed no hotel. I soon learned to carry crime other than being black around the “identification card” and male.” we were given with our room It was the meeting at the assignments. It was a paper card Juventud Rebelde newspaper with my name and room num- that made clear for me just how ber on it — proof I was indeed much of an issue racism was in a guest of the Habana Libre. I Cuban society. I once again am sure most of my colleagues recounted my experiences, this have but a vague recollection of time for Roberto de Armas of the identification cards, as they Cuba’s Foreign Ministry and were never asked for them. Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, the That morning, our group newspaper’s executive director. met with Pedro Alvarez, who is During this conversation, de in charge of importing for Armas said the words I had Cuba. I recounted my experi- heard so many times that week. ences in the hotel to him and “You don’t look American. You asked what Cuba would do to look Cuban.” make sure such treatment would He continued, implying that not be the norm if the United people who looked like me were States lifted its travel ban on often known to be male prosti- Cuba. Would other black KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star tutes, drug traffickers and Americans have to face the same Many Cubans are not allowed in hotels and restaurants in Cuba. thieves in Cuban society, which treatment? is why I was being stopped “I don’t know the reason you The next day, we interviewed and that there was no reason to repeatedly. have been asked for your ID,” Ricardo Alarcón, president of stop me. The guard was sur- “Black people are not being he said. “As a general rule, all of the National Assembly of prised by my reaction and began stopped in this country just for the Americans here are well- People’s Power, Cuba’s parlia- apologizing profusely. being black,” he later said. “It is treated.” ment. His answer was different. This time was also notable something that is simply non- Such treatment, Alvarez said, Cuba has an issue with because five of my colleagues existent.” was unheard of, and certainly racism, he said, but it is made were with me when I was This is not true, said one not due to racism. In fact, he worse by capitalism and eco- stopped. They had listened sym- black Cuban I interviewed. found my experience to be nomic disparities between blacks pathetically throughout the There is much he loves about unbelievable. and whites. week as I had relayed my Cuba, but its belief that racism “I think some of these ques- That evening, hotel security encounters with security. But is a non-issue is something that tions are moving into the science stopped me twice within the this time, their reaction was not bothers him. “I love my country, fiction area,” Alvarez said. “We space of three hours. Except the one of mere sympathy. They and I love my revolution, and I don’t have problems with racism second time, I did something were angry and indignant about can tell you this because you here. Blacks and whites are the they did not expect. I was being the way I was being treated. It understand,” he said. “Why are same here. We don’t have that stopped even though the securi- had become real in their minds. we doing this?” kind of problem.” ty guard — who was black — One of my colleagues asked me His question will remain In the hotel later that had conferred with the white what it felt like to be the victim unanswered until everyone can evening, I underwent the usual officer who had stopped me just of racial profiling. I told him agree on the answer to another security interrogation — but hours earlier. When he asked me that I would never wish anyone question: “Does racism exist in this time with a new feature. if I was a guest, I whipped out to endure being humiliated, Cuba?” One of the security guards rode my card and proceeded to tell devalued and criminalized for And the day that occurs the elevator for the sole purpose him that I had already been no other reason than the color seems far away. of seeing that I disembarked on stopped earlier by the other of his skin. the 18th floor, then he went guard he had just spoken with Later that evening, as I back downstairs.

50 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Women comprise a growing slice of the Cuban workforce, but Cuba remains a machismo society.

What is a machismo Double shifts society? One like Cuba, in which men Women struggle to balance careers, families are the dominant breadwinners and women are expected to By Melissa Lee to work evenings and weekends working mothers have long strug- maintain the family and home, on a moment’s notice. But she gled to balance their professional as well as their careers. She couldn’t leave him in day was also a young wife and moth- and domestic duties — a dilem- care for 12-hour stretches. Her er, one whose husband expected ma women say men don’t always maternal instinct said so. her to raise the couple’s infant understand. Still, numerous What did the And she couldn’t leave a grip- son, maintain their small Havana interviews and research show a ping, late-night story. Her jour- apartment and have dinner ready post-revolutionary Cuba has revolution do for nalistic instinct said so. when he arrived home — a become one of the world’s leaders Cuban women? Margarita Barrio Sánchez tough juggling act. in gender equity, though women could think of only one way out. “This was my goal: to be the in some cases remain stymied by Gave them better opportuni- “Many times, my son became best mother and the best journal- a male-dominated society. ties in education and employ- a special correspondent,” the 42- ist,” she says during a brief break Specific gender issues in Cuba year-old reporter says, laughing. from her shift at Granma, the today reveal a number of trends. ment. Now, many Cubans con- Indeed, it seems Barrio Cuban government-owned daily. They include: sider men and women to be on “This required much dedication.” Cuba has reached salary Sánchez had few options 20 years equal footing in terms of ago. She was a young, university- Yet her situation grows less equity, a right guaranteed by the uncommon each year. In both nation’s constitution. opportunity. educated journalist with lots of spunk and potential, one willing the United States and Cuba, Women comprise a grow-

51 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Jackie works as a taxi driver in Havana during the tourist season. ing slice of the Cuban workforce, arguably made gender equality she says. tute who has been through 12 a trend experts and citizens attrib- — at least in terms of numbers But with a college degree — grades, maybe university.” ute to more educational opportu- — an early priority. and maybe a marriage proposal But not all the numbers are nities for young women and to “Thank goodness for Fidel, or — on the way, Brito knows she equal. girls’ higher expectations. I would not be in this position I must start thinking about how According to the federation, Men, however, still occupy am in today,” says Mariela the rest of her life is going to play women currently hold just over most high-ranking positions, Fernández Moreno, 23, a Havana out. one-quarter of all government which both genders say is partial- security officer. “He doesn’t know what I positions. That’s a jump from 6 ly because many women don’t Fernández Moreno is neither a want,” she says of her 22-year-old percent before Castro took the want to abandon families for wife nor mother, but she plans on boyfriend, with whom she has reins, federation officials said. demanding top jobs. holding both titles. Her job won’t made wedding plans. “He thinks Still, consider the Cuban Cuba remains a machismo be in trouble, she says, because women should cook and clean. Parliament, the island’s supreme society — one where the stereo- her office established a special day “We have fights, because I governing body. Of 609 mem- typical male is the family bread- care center specifically for work- don’t agree with him, of course.” bers, just 28 are female — about winner and the stereotypical ing mothers. The older children 4.5 percent. female is a dutiful wife and there are given “mini-lessons” Brito and other female college Federation members hope mother. each day in various subjects, so students aren’t the first to hope to that number will keep growing. Although many agree women Fernández Moreno isn’t worried enter the workforce. They were “We don’t have to replace have made considerable strides they will be neglected. preceded by a post-revolutionary men. We want to join them,” since Fidel Castro took over more And she thanks Castro for the generation that’s nearly balanced says Ana Milagros Martínez, the than 44 years ago, women also fact that she pulls in about 350 out the numbers: Now, 45 per- FCW’s official for foreign rela- will tell you there’s plenty of work pesos a month (around $14) — cent of the Cuban labor force is tions. “It’s our goal to have more left. the same as the male guard stand- female — up from 12 percent in women in decision-making posi- “Is Cuba a good place to live? ing opposite her. Gender, 1950 — according to Federation tions.” I think so,” Barrio Sánchez says. Fernández Moreno says, plays no of Cuban Women data. Cuban That goal has yet to be “But I think we should get a new part in her performance evalua- women do almost everything: reached. A sampling of institu- mentality. We have to change tions. They sew stitches. They teach tions around Havana shows minds. “The government doesn’t pay English to elementary-aged chil- women are well-represented in “Women are the ones who because of sex. It’s the work you dren. They represent Cuba as for- the staff, but when it comes to have to fight.” do,” adds Karen Brito, 20, a stu- eign ambassadors. They carry the higher-ups, they’re significantly dent at the University of Havana. Cuban flag at the Olympic more sparse. For example, the In Cuba, numbers help tell Brito wants to become a journal- Games. employees at Juventud Rebelde, a the story of a woman’s experi- ist, which she knows will earn her Much of this is because an government-owned youth news- ence. a starting wage of 400 pesos a increasing number of women are paper, are 60 percent male, 40 Each, as mandated by the month — not quite $20. looking to earn a college degree, percent female, says Director Cuban Constitution, is paid the So it’s not about the money. experts and citizens say. Rogelio Polanco Fuentes. same as her male counterpart. Brito has a generous uncle in “Women are starting to learn. But of the paper’s editors, just That’s unlike the current wage Holland. That’s why she’s wearing The Cuban woman today is not one is a woman. gap in America, where a woman $48 Steve Maddens and $38 the Cuban woman of 40 years “Yes, yes, this is a problem,” now makes about 77 cents for Levi’s. It’s about having a success- ago,” says Frank Hernandez, a Fuentes says. “We have made a each dollar a man earns. ful career, doing something she translator for the government. lot of efforts. But still we have to Some say that progress can be loves. “Now a Cuban woman may make a lot of discussion. This is a linked directly to Castro, who “I have to be a journalist,” become a prostitute, but a prosti- problem of society in general.”

52 And at the Frank País Orthopedic Center, Vice Director Dr. Marilyn Claro estimates 70 percent of her 1,500-member staff is female. Yet of the 200 doctors (most of the rest are nurs- es and lab technicians), she says very few are women. That’s partly because men have a more acute sense of their “social awareness,” Claro says, and work harder to get to the most “important” positions. Women, on the other hand, are content with nursing duties because they tend to be more car- ing. Also, doctors’ hours are hec- tic; women prefer to have stabili- ty so they can care for their chil- dren, she says. But she adds: “We have that link, that inclination, to study medicine.” Still, according to the Federation of Cuban Women, that statistic doesn’t necessarily KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star ring true across the entire island. Cuban women are paid the same as their male counterparts, an improvement many attribute to Fidel Castro. The federation’s data say 70 per- cent of Cuba’s doctors and teach- But the mind is changing.” ers, and 66 percent of techni- Some Cuban men, however, cians, are women. remain confused when asked if Says Milagros Martínez: “I men and women stand on equal think we have gained a lot. footing. Women can study any career in Says one: “Do you like men? Cuba.” Well, that is the answer.” Another: “Men and women Enter the federation. are together.” Founded in 1960, it’s now the Another: “Ah … Sí.” largest women’s group in Cuba, Orlando Díaz, a 36-year-old claiming 85 percent of females Havana taxi driver, gestures casu- aged 14 and over. That’s 3 mil- ally down the street to a rigid- lion women dedicated to raising looking female police officer. awareness of gender issues, says “You see,” he says, flicking a ciga- the 45-year-old Milagros rette to the ground, “women and Martínez, who herself has been a men, we work the same job. member since she became eligi- Police, taxi drive, it is all the ble. same.” The group’s work begins at Presented the same question, a the grassroots level, says Milagros woman offers an exaggerated eye Martínez, sitting in the comfort- (“Girls”). Because of a strict trol is free and available to all roll and exclaims: “No time. I am able Havana headquarters. Its budget, the magazines are not the women. That shows a commit- off to lunch. I would need to walls are coated in soft pink and quality they could be, she says, ment to women’s health from the write you long, long essay!” adorned with real rosebuds, mir- but they’re well-read and inspir- government, Milagros Martínez For her part, Barrios Sánchez rors and Che Guevara posters. ing to women all over Cuba. says. thinks she’s finally found a solu- Outside, the rose garden is per- The federation’s work is in “Those were nice. They were tion. fectly symmetrical, with a large some areas measurable. For exam- nice times,” she says of the victo- She’s old, she insists, and she statue of a nude woman sitting in ple, before 1992, women could ries. “We felt like national thinks she may have weaned her its center. Women quietly enter leave their jobs with full pay for machinery those days.” husband and son, now 20, from and leave as Milagros Martínez only three months after they gave their machismo beliefs. sips coffee and discusses the fed- birth. But after heavy lobbying And what of Cuban men? “They take care of me,” she eration. from federation representatives, Many still have a firm grasp says with a smile. “My son cooks “Farmers, actresses, sports- the government extended mater- on their machismo beliefs, now. My husband helps, too. women — they can all join,” nity leave to one year. women say. But many are also “Well … they are trying to.” Milagros Martínez says. She dis- Also following the group’s becoming “proud of their out- plays the group’s two monthly efforts, women now receive free standing wives,” Milagros publications, “Mujeres” breast and cervical cancer tests Martínez says. (“Women”) and “Muchachas” every three years. And birth con- “The old mindset still exists.

53 An international icon By Cara Pesek Jose Martí “… Traiago en el corazón, las He is perhaps Cuba’s best- doctrinas del maestro …” known poet and second-best- “I bring in the heart, the known orator after Fidel Castro. doctrines of the teacher.” He spent much of his life fight- The words hang above Fidel Castro’s head on a billboard in ing — with words — for Cuba’s Havana. Behind him is the independence. image of another man, one much less known in the United Born in Havana in 1853, he States but as well-known as Fidel began his career as an activist in Cuba. early on, which first got him in The face. Thin and angular, with piercing eyes, a high fore- trouble in 1870 when he was just head. And the mustache, the 17. He was found guilty of writ- trademark mustache, its ends ing a letter considered unpatri- waxed into points, as distinctive otic, and the following year he and recognizable as Castro’s beard. was deported to Spain. He spent Peering from billboards, much of the remainder of his life carved into granite, painted onto in exile, mostly in New York City. walls, Jose Martí keeps an eye on Cuba. On this billboard, he During the years he spent in keeps an eye on Fidel. exile, he wrote many poems and In Cuba, Martí is a hero, an icon. During his lifetime, he was letters advocating an independ- a poet, journalist and a national- ent, democratic Cuba. He was ist, who fought — mostly with killed fighting for these things in words — for Cuba’s independ- a battle with Spanish soldiers in ence from Spain. He died in Cuba in a battle against Spanish 1895. soldiers in 1895 at the age of 42. “He was ahead of his time,” Although his parents were mid- says Daniel Salas González, a dle class, his talent as a writer 19-year-old journalism student and thinker allowed him to run at the University of Havana who with an intellectual, influential views Martí as a role model. KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star This bust portrays Jose Martí, a Cuban poet, journalist and nationalist. crowd. González wants to become a He became political during journalist, he says, because of the the Ten Years War of 1868- power the press has to improve Like Martí, they would like to Cuba, is viewed as a hero, role 1878. In 1870, he and a friend society. see a democratic Cuba. And model and accomplished writer wrote a letter criticizing another “Our profession is not exact- Martí’s face, while not as visible on both sides of the water. friend for attending a pro- ly what we can change, but you as in Cuba, is still prominent in That is significant, says Spanish rally. The Spanish gov- can move the conscience of the Miami — painted on walls and Marilu Del Toro, communica- ernment deemed the letter people to bring about change.” hanging in frames in the build- tions director for the Directorio unpatriotic and questioned each That, González says, is what ings that house organizations Democratico Cubano, a Miami- about his part in it. Martí was so Martí’s words continue to do advocating these two goals. based organization focused on emphatic that the letter had today. Leaders of Miami’s exile bringing democracy to Cuba. been his doing that he was sen- community and those of social- “He’s a big pride for the tenced to six years hard labor, Across a 90-mile sliver of sea, ist Cuba rarely see eye to eye on Cuban nation in general,” she while his friend received a more the Cuban exile community in anything regarding the welfare said. “In Martí, there’s a poet, a lenient sentence. Miami also claims Martí as a of the long, slender island of 11 thinker, a journalist … He was After six months in the labor hero. Its members, too, would million people. But Martí, a like a Renaissance man.” camp, his health failing, some of like to see Cuba free. They, how- man who has been dead for Martí was born in Havana in Martí’s influential friends con- ever, are after a different sort of more than 100 years and who a simple yellow house with a vinced the government to have freedom — freedom from Fidel. spent most of his life away from terra cotta tile roof in 1853. him deported. In 1871, when

54 he was 18, Martí left for Spain. particularly the young, have He would spend most of the become disillusioned with rest of his life away from Cuba, socialism, she says, and tend to trying — mostly in vain — to view many of the messages the get back in. After attending col- government sends their way — lege in Spain and living briefly the Martí billboards, for exam- in Mexico, Martí ended up in ple — with a good deal of skep- the United States where he split ticism. his time between New York and “The dissidents are trying to Key West, which then was a kind of rescue (Jose Martí) from center of Cuban exile activity. the Cuban government,” she From these cities, he wrote says. about his loathing of the corrup- The government doesn’t see tion within the Spanish leader- it that way. ship in Cuba. He praised The stuff on TV/Radio democracy. He expressed his Martí, they say, is propaganda. fears of imperialism and his dis- JOE DUGGAN/Lincoln Journal Star The voice the political dissidents trust of the United States, Images of Jose Martí (left and below) are common in Cuba; those of give Martí doesn’t ring true. which, he thought, was trying to President Fidel Castro are seen less often. The Cuban government’s gain control of Cuba by manip- attitude seems to be this: Jose ulating the sugar market. And Martí is a national hero. To he wrote about what he wanted “Martí belongs to all associate him with anything that Cuba to be. could be perceived as anti-Cuba “ … not … the unjust pre- Cubans, regardless of is a slap in the face, both to domination of one class of citi- where they live.” Martí and all of Cuba. zens over the rest, but the open Orlando Rodríguez, former Ricardo Alarcón, president of and sincere equilibrium of all director of Radio/TV Martí Cuba’s National Assembly of the real forces of the country, People’s Power, called the United and of the free thought and States’ use of Martí’s name for desire of all citizens.” These people, like Vladimiro an anti-Cuban broadcasting out- Martí didn’t stay away from Roca, a member of the Cuban fit “really insulting.” Cuba entirely. He returned in Social Democratic Party and a TV/Radio Martí is not even 1877, using a falsified passport. former political prisoner, feel a taken seriously in Cuba, says He was deported once again, kinship with Martí. Like him, Wayne Smith, a former head of however, after he was found to they are fighting a revolution the U.S. Interests Section in be conspiring against Spanish Martí broadcasts alternative pro- with words rather than with Havana. officials. gramming to the Cuban state- weapons. “It’s a waste of money now, His return had been a risky run TV and radio stations. They “War,” Martí wrote, “does and now it’s just another ram- one. The name printed on this include, among other things, not make government impossi- bling exile station with all the passport was Julian Perez. Julian news, news-analysis and music ble but neither is it the proper same crap and bullshit that the was Martí’s middle name, and programs. exile stations have.” school to learn the art of govern- Perez was his mother’s maiden The Cuban government has ing.” name. Martí later remarked to a done what it can to block TV Roca admires this about Neither group — those in friend that lies should have at and Radio Martí. It has also Martí. Miami or those in Cuba — is least a little truth in them. accused the United States of “He was very peaceful, very happy with the way the other But by and large, his fight for stealing a national hero and tar- tolerant and very open — a side has latched onto Martí, but Cuba’s freedom was one fought nishing his name by broadcast- complete opposite of the Cuban both, it appears, draw some- from across an ocean. ing anti-Cuban propaganda. government,” Roca says. thing from him, even if the part It is this that Cuban exiles in Rodríguez, though, believes Just as the Cuban govern- of Martí they admire is only a Miami and elsewhere say they the Cuban government’s claim ment accuses the United States piece of the man, rather than have in common with Martí. to Martí is no greater than any of tarnishing Martí’s reputation the whole. “He lived in New York for other because Martí was a uni- as a hero, political dissidents say Rodríguez of TV/Radio years and years and years,” said versal figure. Castro does the same. Martí unhesitatingly says he dis- Orlando Rodríguez, the former “Nobody limits if “The Cuban government has agrees with the way the Cuban director of the information cen- (Americans) can use Washington manipulated the sayings of government embraces Martí. ter and media monitoring at or Lincoln,” he says. But he says it’s good the two Martí,” Roca said. “They use TV/Radio Martí in Miami. “He only the parts of Martí that’s countries can at least hold some- was another exile.” Inside Cuba, there is another convenient for them.” thing in common. Like Martí, Rodríguez and group for whom Martí is a sort Del Toro, with the “Martí belongs to all others who work at TV/Radio of patron saint. The nation’s Directorio Democratico Cubans, regardless of where they Martí say they are trying to political dissidents, citizens who Cubano, is glad people like Roca live,” he says. change the political structure of have tried to rally support for are showing a side of Martí the Cuba from outside. Funded by human-rights laws and democ- government does not. Cubans, the U.S. government, TV/Radio racy.

55 SHANE PEKNY New Yorker James Henry Creedon is one of 60 Americans enrolled in Cuba’s Latin American School of Medical Sciences, a free school designed to edu- cate students and then send them back to their native countries to practice medicine in poor rural and urban areas. Medicating political ill will U.S. students attend Cuban medical school despite controversies By Matthew Hansen a tug of war involving history, pol- the fuss. It is, after all, just a red, itics and medicine. “They’re supposed white and blue piece of cloth. The flag represents the 60 “It’s strange, that people care so Twenty-four flags line these American students included in to be this renegade much that we’re here,” says Jose walls, one country’s pride melting Cuba’s experimental attempt to anti-imperialist Eduardo De Leon, a 23-year-old into the next in a blur of patriotic educate mostly poor Latin nation, and they’re Californian. “Honestly, I just primary colors and powerful black American medical students and wanted an education.” lines. then return them to their native educating U.S. stu- Twenty-three don’t get the lands. It’s all free, with only one dents and sending It’s finals week, and, all around, pleasure of the outdoors — the catch: Students must pledge to them back to where students scurry toward last-minute host country’s flag dances alone in work with the poor following cram sessions or decompress fol- the breeze. And the 22 others graduation. help is needed. Yes, lowing their latest exam. You’re 31 don’t enjoy the notoriety of the Some say it’s a perfect example it’s a strategy.” kilometers northwest of Havana, Betsy Ross-designed stars and of the best this socialist govern- James Henry Creedon Cuba, but, just like at Berkeley or stripes motif demanding attention ment has to offer. State College, it isn’t hard to tell inside the visitor’s lobby at the Some say it’s just another costly who’s finished and who’s just Latin American School of Medical public relations ploy designed to begun. Sciences. merged in poverty. swing Latin American sentiment Those 60 students — a group That similarity may be the last Old Glory has long circled the toward Cuba and away from the between an American medical globe. But not here, not for 44 arguably as diverse as America United States, even as the coun- itself — say they don’t understand school and the education that years, and, even now, not without try’s own population remains sub- 6,056 students receive here.

56 The school is distinctly Cuban, Certainly not the American way. from the mandatory uniforms to “It’s inhumane, trampling on the emphasis on study groups to other people on your way to the the lack of hot water. top. I don’t want to be that way.” “In some ways, it’s kind of like being in school in the 1930s,” says The New Yorker knows inhu- New Yorker James Henry manity. He was there by early Creedon. The second-year student afternoon, a first responder to a leads a tour group around the for- tragedy that prompted countless mer Cuban Naval Academy. He responses. points out the half-built track, the He worked as a New York City cafeteria and the post office, all paramedic. And, really, was there evidence that this place is palatial anywhere else to go on September compared to an average Cuban 11? school. He searched for the living. He Technologically, though, it’s patched the wounded. Mostly, he still far behind American medi- dug out the dead. cine’s ivory towers. And, 16 months later, he does- Sometimes they run out of n’t really want to talk about it. latex gloves during dissections. But he did something else later There are no PowerPoint presenta- that week, something he’s got tions. “I copy down my biochem words for. notes off the blackboard,” James Henry Creedon met Creedon says. The students do George W. Bush. And the have Internet access, albeit limited American president and commit- — just 20 Internet-capable com- ted socialist shook hands. puters in all, one for every 300 Which doesn’t mean the med- students. ical student buys into the presi- And then, there’s the absence dent’s hard-line stance on his new of hot water, a detail the American home. media play up in story after story, “Poor Cuba,” he says. according to Eduardo Miguel “Oft-maligned Cuba. Supposedly Medua, a 24-year-old New Yorker. SHANE PEKNY the producer of chemical weapons. He thinks it’s another way the Two American students, above, and a group representing some of the 24 Supposedly this and that.” United States demeans its socialist countries at the school congregate outside during a break from final exams. Creedon shakes his head in dis- neighbors. gust, then quickly offers that his “Our existence here isn’t viewpoint isn’t one shared by defined by the fact that we don’t many of his U.S. counterparts. have hot water,” the first-year stu- Here, left-wing activists live dent says. “It’s defined by the fact side by side with the politically that we are becoming doctors.” uninvolved. Some privately criti- The doctor Medua becomes cize Castro’s government, De Leon will be one grounded in a decid- says, although they won’t blast the edly non-American tradition of government providing them a free medicine and medical education. medical education in public. The students here live in a The only thing everyone can structured world where atten- agree on is that living in Cuba dance, study groups and office changes you in some way. hours are all mandatory. “No skip- “I came here with an open ping class and downloading the mind,” says Issac Peralta, a student notes,” Creedon jokes. from Mexico. “Just being here They also live in a world where changes it.” class participation is valued over Castro’s first invitation to tests and social interaction American pre-medical students, becomes more important than students to help their struggling The strange food and stress delivered in a September 2000 independent excellence. classmates. from a heavy workload caused speech at New York City’s It’s a world with grades, except That line of thinking doesn’t sit him to lose weight and sleep. His Riverside Church, was filled with grades aren’t that important. well with everyone. Some 500 stu- grades slipped. He thought plenty the sort of politically charged lan- “You know what? It’s a num- dents have left the program since about hopping the next flight guage that turned an already wary ber,” De Leon says. it began in 1998. That number back to California. Then the U.S. government and the large The underlying reason for all includes at least 10 U.S. students encouragement from his 22-per- Cuban American exile community this, students say, is a simple dif- who packed up and left early. son, 19-country study group start- against the plan. ference in philosophy. The goal It has worked for De Leon, ed to help. So did the interaction The Cuban president blasted isn’t to weed out the weakest stu- who struggled with the transition with professors during mandatory the American medical system dents, as it is in the United States. from a comfortable Oakland-area office hours. while championing his own, Rather, professors focus on saving childhood to a medical education, Now, he wouldn’t want his which showcases free universal everyone and expect the stronger and a life, a long way from home. medical education any other way. health care and a Third World-

57 Papa’s Cuba open to U.S. academics

A 44-year freeze can’t be “There’s just a lot of completely thawed by sharing warmth, person to person,” Ernest Hemingway. Spanier says. Both Cuban and American Outside of politics, the joint academics hope, though, that effort won’t unearth anything the November agreement to likely to lead the 6 p.m. news. share and preserve Heming- So far, the scholars have learned way knowledge will bring that Hemingway was remark- cooperation. ably fluent in Spanish. Notes of “We can link the culture of instruction to the Cuban ser- the Cuban and American peo- vants show the writer had a ple through him. This legacy previously unknown command belongs to both of us,” says of the language. Gladys Rodríguez Ferrero, And they’ve found that Cuba’s leading Hemingway Hemingway was heavily expert. involved in those domestic Under the agreement, affairs. The bullfighting afi- North American document cionado also worried about the SHANE PEKNY conservation experts and their cats’ grooming. He bet on Jose Eduardo De Leon, a 23-year-old student from Oakland, Calif., says Cuban Cuban counterparts are map- cockfights and he cleaned, or ideas about health care education are preferable to the U.S. medical mindset. ping out a way to salvage the at least told others to. thousands of archived docu- And a more complete leading 6.5 percent infant mortali- They will have endured a six- ments damaged by decades of Hemingway is the whole ty rate. month pre-session highlighted by the hot, humid Cuban climate point, Spanier says. Following that speech, the pro- an intensive Spanish course. They and a lack of proper preserva- Fifty years from now a gram’s supporters, led by the will have survived the first two tion materials. sophomore English teacher Congressional Black Caucus and years at the Latin American Cuban and U.S. Heming- will lecture about one of the two anti-embargo religious groups, School of Medical Sciences and way experts met again in May greatest 20th century writers. fought to let American students go four more at another Cuban med- as part of an international And what she says will be to Cuba. A year later, the first ical school. They will have symposium on all things Papa. affected by the work happen- dozen did. returned home only for summer U.S. experts like Penn State ing today at the Finca Vigia, Today, the American students break. scholar Sandra Spanier shared 17 kilometers outside of — even staunch Cuban support- They will have overcome barri- their expertise of Hemingway’s Havana, Cuba. ers — recognize that their oppor- ers of language, culture, politics early life in Illinois, his time in “Literature always matters,” tunity is fueled at least partially by and those pieces of cloth. Key West and his last days in Spanier says. “It lasts longer politics. The school’s ultimate success Idaho. than many governments. Cuba’s commitment to the or failure will be judged by Ferrero and Cuba experts, “It endures.” Third World impresses De Leon, American medical eyes waiting to in turn, can fill in blank spots who says it’s refreshing to know see how the students perform on about his time in Cuba. — Matthew Hansen that everything doesn’t come their U.S. exams. And, simply, they’ll talk. down to “how much money you But, to Creedon, the program have in your pocket.” is already successful, even if what But even the New York social- is learned has nothing to do with ist knows there’s more than gen- medicine. He has befriended erosity at work here. Africans and studied Portuguese “They’re supposed to be this with Brazilians. His classmates renegade anti-imperialist nation, have found adventure and ques- and they’re educating U.S. stu- tioned their beliefs. And the flags dents and sending them back to have blurred together, one into where help is needed,” Creedon another, like so many pieces of says. stained cloth. “Yes, it’s a strategy. The Cuban “If this isn’t an education,” he government is strategic. It’s how says, flashing a rare finals week they’ve survived.” grin, “I don’t know what is.” In four years the first group KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star will go back. Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” for sale in a Havana bookstore.

58 Papa blurs borders, time By Matthew Hansen

That morning, Rodolfo had hooked one. Not just any ordi- nary one, either, not just the biggest of that Friday or of the entire week. To hear the middle- aged men near the calm Gulf Stream waters chatter as they grilled some of the day’s catch, this one was legendary, the kind you talked about deep into the night, the kind you remembered deep into life. The kind you tell a story about. There were 10 inside of it when they cut it open, the bearded one tending the grill tells you. “About 140 libras dry,” says the portly man to his right. A third friend, the tallest, senses a visual aid would help, and so he’s spreading arms and holding hands apart at an outrageous length. Now, finally, you under- stand. This is one big goddamn marlin. A fish — a story — that Papa would’ve appreciated. And then the connection’s broken and life sneaks on again in the fishing village of Cojimar, on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, not far from where the Illinois-born and Paris-weened and Spanish Civil War-hardened son of a doctor bought his sec- ond house, loved and hated three wives, cemented his legend and slip-slided into a madness ended only by a shotgun blast in Ketchum, Idaho. Not far from here, on prop- erty named Finca Vigia, two countries presently mount an effort to save the writer’s past, PHOTOGRAPH BY ALBERTO KORDA, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE KORDA PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION OF GEORGE BURKE HINMAN understand the island’s influence In 1960, to honor the famous author Ernest Hemingway, Castro attended Havana’s annual Hemingway Marlin on his work, restore his full Tournament. Hemingway challenged him to enter the contest and at the end of the day congratulated Castro identity for future generations. for catching the biggest marlin and winning the competition. Mostly, they share — strange cooperation indeed for Fidel’s defiant island and Dubya’s worn path to, of all things, a Mostly, it is a fish story. Rodolfo’s prize. “It’s not fantasy. miniature golf course — this is “Have you read ‘Old Man It’s true.” embargo-enforcing empire. Why the fuss? Because this where he nudged his most and the Sea’?” asks an old slice of shore you stand on — famous hero out to sea. woman named America, sitting He first loved the Gulf yes, the beach littered with trash, The resulting 93-page Nobel only two blocks from the water Stream, this sliver of blue that yes, the half-dead grass leading a Prize winner is many things. where the fishermen recount connects Florida’s southern

59 He slips sick Cubans money for medicine, he berates fourth wife Mary about the price of cat food, he jokes with boat captain Gregorio Fuentes, he screams at waiters and laughter and slam- ming doors and Blacker Ass and looser reins and cresting, tum- bling and rolling again and again. . . . But out here, the Gulf Stream drifts calmly. Captain Fuentes steers toward the day’s destination, and the majestic Pilar responds. He’s watching the four lines, feet rest- ing against the metal braces, and he’s doing what every other fish- erman does. He’s waiting. “It’s an almost magical con- nection to the Gulf Stream,” says Eduardo González, a Johns Hopkins English professor. “Home, to Hemingway, was about an emotional connection. Maybe the intensity of experi- PHOTOS BY KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star ence makes it home.” Above: A view of Hemingway’s bedroom, where his famous Royal typewriter sits on a bookcase to the right. He first visited Cuba in Below: Hemingway reluctantly left his Cuban home, the Finca Vigia, in 1960 to move to Idaho. 1928, checking into Havana’s Ambos Mundos Hotel with sec- shoreline to Cuba’s northern ond wife Pauline. The visits edge before heading toward increased through the years, Europe. coinciding with the pair’s It isn’t hard to see him out estrangement and his budding there, crooked cap yanked down affair with fellow writer Martha low over his bearded face to Gellhorn, a close friend of block the sun’s harsh afternoon Eleanor Roosevelt’s who had rays. He’s heavier now, older, won acclaim for a series of short rigid in movement, suffering stories about the Depression and from a grab-bag of injuries — her work as a war correspon- bad back, bad eyes, bad kidneys dent. — sustained from a lifetime of Gellhorn despised the hard living and simple bad luck. cramped quarters and constant It’s on the island where he activity at the hotel. She spends half his adult life, and shopped around for a suitable grows to know both the joy home, eventually finding a 13- Cuba has to offer and the bur- acre plot with a farmhouse, den of being Ernest watchtower and swimming pool Hemingway. the musicians in fluent Spanish daiquiris in the afternoon, wine to rent. Although Hemingway He sometimes mixes work and something about him hit with meals. Every so often he kept the hotel’s mailing address and play beautifully, rising early me — enjoyment: God, I scales back to only the wine. It (he was still married to Pauline), to write, finishing by lunch, fish- thought, how he’s enjoying him- never lasts long. he moved 17 kilometers outside ing in the afternoon, socializing self!” says “Papa Hemingway” And the waves crest, tumble of town, to the property named in the evening before an early biographer A.E. Hotchner, and roll violently and more vio- Finca Vigia, Spanish for bedtime. describing their first meeting in lently still, crashing into a per- Lookout Farm. In 1940, after Other times, the ‘clack, clack’ 1948. fectly constructed life. divorcing Pauline and marrying of his Royal typewriter can’t Sometimes he does not own He shoots pigeons with the Martha, he paid $18,500 for the block out writers begging to himself. He becomes sullen, sub- Brooklyn Dodgers during their property, using earnings from write his biography, critics skew- dued, even mute. He calls it “the spring training. He suffers liter- the movie version of “For ering “Across the River,” produc- Black Ass.” Today’s doctors call ary critics worse than before. He Whom the Bell Tolls” to buy the ers bargaining for the movie it depression. starts a youth baseball team in home, which he would adorn rights. Through it all, he drinks way his hometown of San Francisco with a half-dozen cows and 18 Sometimes he owns this too much, absinthe to start, de Paula. He bashes a dead F. varieties of mango trees. place. straight tequila before he fishes, Scott Fitzgerald in angry letters. He would always travel. But “He stopped to talk to one of until the last year of his life, he

60 would never really leave. “Character like me, the whole world to choose from, they naturally want to know why here,” Hemingway told Hochner. “Usually don’t try to explain. Too complicated.” The typewriter still sits on a bookshelf in his bedroom, 4 feet from the ground, because its owner insisted on standing when he wrote. The stuffed heads of cape buffalo, gazelle, impala and kudu he shot in Africa line the walls. A Picasso hangs on one side of the living room, and 900-odd records fill shelves on the other. Out back, behind the pool, grave sites memorialize four of the family dogs. tourist after one sip. “It’s quiet,” says Hemingway The legend may be just that, expert Sandra Spanier, a Penn but the rest of the place rings State English professor and the authentic — burnt mahogany general editor of the bar, bartenders in white starched Hemingway Letters project, shirts, a decent amount of booze whose end goal is to produce a flowing for 1 p.m. multi-volume edition of his let- It isn’t hard to see him hun- ters. “It’s easy to imagine it being kered down at his favorite table. a real retreat for someone who He’s gulping double rum, no courted fame in a way, and was sugar. He’s entertaining, maybe also dogged by it.” Jean Paul Sartre, maybe the It’s almost as if he “had just Duke and Duchess of Windsor, stepped down the driveway to maybe Ava Gardner or Spencer pick up his mail,” Jenny Perkins Tracy. remarked last November. More likely it’s the deaf Perkins, the granddaughter PHOTOS BY SHANE PEKNY Roberto Herrera, Fuentes and of longtime Hemingway editor Legend has it that Cojimar fishermen donated their boat propellers to be the Black Priest, a Catholic cler- Max Perkins, spoke to reporters melted down and formed into Hemingway’s bust at this memorial near gyman who’d traded his cloak on Nov. 11, a historic day at the the Gulf Stream shore. for a Republican Army machine finca. Earlier that Monday, gun during the Spanish Civil Castro and U.S. Congressman War. James McGovern, a Hemingway’s time in Cuba has country did he spend the most He’s holding court while eat- Massachusetts Democrat, for- been minimized by the agendas time of his life? ing shrimp, which he sometimes of power, by two polar govern- “Which is most important?” bites both the heads and tails off mally agreed to allow American and Cuban academics to work ments and their leaders, by a of. together to restore and preserve lack of access and by racism, The Papa double dares you. Blink, and the past is gone, thousands of Hemingway docu- ignorance and spite. It’s lunch time, and the tourists replaced by a mostly European ments stored on the property. In short, life got in the way. inside El Floridita goad each crowd hitting Hemingway’s For the United States, the And, now, she’ll say no more, other to try the bar’s most haunt between trips to their collaboration meant first look at because, finally, it’s stepping famous drink, first ordered more resort beaches. The only Cubans 2,000 letters, 3,000 photographs aside. than a half-century ago by its here wait tables, tend bar or play and several pieces of his first The scholar rises from her most famous regular. in the band. drafts. For Cuba, it signified the seat on the Finca Vigia’s cracked A daiquiri, double the rum, “They don’t drink here,” says end of Westerners ignoring the front steps. Before she leaves, hold the sugar. In his day the the doorman, Juan Francisco. island’s importance in the though, a series of rapid-fire bartender used only Bacardi “Too expensive.” writer’s life. parting shots, six questions with White Label rum and added the While Papa may be just And how did that happen? one answer. juice of two limes, half a grape- another tourist hook in a city “No comment,” says Gladys “Where did he win the fruit and six drops of maraschi- full of them, he’s much more Rodríguez Ferrero, the Nobel Prize? Where is the medal no cherry. than that, the academics tell Hemingway Museum’s former for that Nobel Prize? Where did Legend has it that he once you. Almost every Cuban reads director and the collaboration’s he finish ‘For Whom the Bell drank 16 and walked out under “The Old Man and the Sea” in foremost Cuban expert. Tolls?’ Where did he write his own power. school, and many relate to the Then she comments. ‘Islands in the Stream?’ In what “No way,” says an American American child who chose to

61 No one pays much attention to it sitting there near the fishing village’s main highway, not far from a roadside stand selling Cristal beer for cheap. It proclaims him the Nobel Prize-winning author for the book based in this Cojimar, but it does so under layers of grime and through cracks in its base, seeming to spite the fishermen who once donated their boat propellers to build this memori- al. Those propellers were melted down and cast into his bust, which sits beside a fort at the water’s edge. No matter. You won’t find him there, anyway. He’s walking down the shoreline, if you care to join. The amateurs cast off the SHANE PEKNY rocks as darkness falls. Only a The Hemingway memorial and a centuries-old Spanish fortress sit by the Gulf Stream’s edge in Cojimar. few bites, one man tells you. And then just small fish not call Cuba home. enclaves in and around Havana suited for dinner. Another man “He understood the people “He’s a symbol of in the 1950s. He honored the tries to sell Cohiba cigars to the here, the fisherman,” Ferrero country simply by calling it passing tourists, turning back to says, “And that makes us draw the connection there home for more than two his rod when they decline. close to him.” … he’s really a bridge decades, Castro said during the Keep walking the shoreline, Havana University Professor Finca Vigia speech. He did so down past the teenaged children Carmen Fournier traces Cuba’s between the two cul- even as he retained his fiercely searching for bait. The group of love affair with Hemingway to tures. That’s impor- independent American identity. four is 20 feet out, floating on his acceptance of the 1954 Which may be the point. makeshift Styrofoam rafts, Nobel Prize. During his speech tant to Cuba.” “He’s a symbol of the con- hoping to catch minnows to he dedicated the medal to the Sandra Spanier, English nection there … he’s really a sell to the fishermen. characters who inspired the professor at Penn State bridge between the two cul- The water curves east, and a book and called himself a tures,” scholar Spanier says. small boy and his father come “Cubano sato,” a slang term University “That’s important to Cuba.” into view. The boy casts errati- meaning half breed. And then, maybe most cally, and the man urges him on “He really felt that deep of a from Hemingway’s words. importantly, there’s the book gently, stepping forward every so bond with his host country,” During his November speech itself. It chronicles a Cuban fish- often to adjust the boy’s hands Spanier says. at the Finca Vigia, the Cuban erman’s epic Gulf Stream fight or offer advice. The bond, to Cubans, could president talked at length with- with a marlin. The plot takes Then, you reach the marina. be affected by the history of out notes, wowing academics place mostly at sea, but the hero The docked boats bob in the Hemingway’s leftist leanings and and journalists with his Santiago returns to his home. If mild waves. Some fishermen also his mixed American and Hemingway knowledge. He told you take the main character out stand around, the day’s work Cuban past. them about reading “For Whom of Cojimar, part of the essence done. Others idle their motors, The author began to the Bell Tolls” while he had disappears. preparing to head out once again. embrace socialism, or at least waited in the mountains, “I have a feeling that if some- It’s not hard to imagine him favor it over fascism, during the preparing to fight dictator one told Hemingway that the here, crossing the bridge, open- Spanish Civil War of the late Fulgencio Batista’s forces. character Santiago was not ing the gate, entering their 1930s. Though certainly never Today, as socialism disap- Cuba, he would punch them in world. Today he would hear as socialist as many of his literary pears, academics and the the face,” González says. about Rodolfo’s prized catch, contemporaries — this writer Floridita’s doorman alike are No surprise then, that asking listen to wild exaggerations kept a copy of the U.S. more comfortable talking about random Cubans to name their about its size. Today he would Constitution at the Finca Vigia how the writer links the United favorite novel gets the same look and act like one of them, — Hemingway did cover the States and Cuba. response over and over. and America would blur togeth- Loyalist (socialist) cause favor- Hemingway, unlike many The doorman is no excep- er with Cuba, and the village’s ably and even wrote an article Americans before and since, did- tion. It’s the fish story. past would melt into its present. for Stalin’s Pravda praising the n’t trivialize the small island just “If you went to Cojimar and Because he’d like to tell a Loyalists while lambasting fas- off Florida’s coast. He lived in a asked about Ernest Hemingway, story. And they’ve got a story to cism. small Cuban village, not in one they would tell you beautiful tell. Fidel Castro reportedly took of the many wealthy American things,” Ferrero says. some revolutionary inspiration

62 JOE DUGGAN/Lincoln Journal Star Inocente del Rio Salazar sings God’s praises at a packed Sunday service in a Methodist Church in Havana. A blessing with a catch Castro accepts organized religion if politics don’t enter the pulpit By Joe Duggan pink blazer leads the congrega- ized religion, those who believe tion in song. Men on conga and in a higher power still find it all Fast facts The drums provide the bata drums pulse like royal a little novel. Most lived through Cuba is home to some 1.2 million rhythm; the people provide the palms in the wind, children clap, a time when all communists Catholics and more than 200,000 praise. sweat streaks brows, the song were officially atheists, when Protestants. ends and dozens of spoken proselytizing was illegal and Every stained glass window African slaves brought to Cuba of Inglesia Metodista de prayers reverberate throughout when Castro cribbed Marx in Universitaria lets in a cool, the chapel. calling “religion the opiate of the some 300 years ago created cloudy Sunday morning to Church member Pablo masses.” Santeria when they blended Roman refresh the humanity within. Cubela leans forward and says of While strong-arm tactics Catholic worship with the native reli- the woman leading the cancion have failed to silence dissent and Well-dressed faithful stand, wave gion of the Yoruba African tribes. a hand skyward, tilt their heads de Señor: “She’s a member of end exodus from the island, sta- backward and sing to Señor. the party.” tioning police in Protestant serv- The Jewish community of Havana At the front of the overflow- In other words, a communist ices, Catholic Masses and once supported five synagogues, but ing church, a woman wearing for Christ. Santeria rituals put a kabash on after 25 years of state repression, tight curls, a loose dress and A decade after Fidel Castro religion. But El Presidente has gave his state blessing to organ- since reversed himself, seeking a only a couple thousand Jews remain.

63 peaceful, even mutually benefi- bolizes Chango, the orisha of cial, coexistence — provided fire and thunder, and Our Lady pastors don’t preach politics of Charity (the patron saint of from the pulpit. Cuba) correlates with Ochun, But isn’t there a government the “queen of love and every risk in allowing the proletariat to sweet thing in the world.” put its faith in something big- Satin, embroidered drapes ger? For many years, the state cover the statues in a color that engendered a paternal relation- corresponds with each orisha. ship with the people, feeding, Molina instructs the tourists to sheltering, teaching and even kneel before the shrine, place healing them. Since the cash money in a nearby bowl and pipeline from the former Soviet make a wish. Union shut off in the early After the offerings, Quintana 1990s, however, the government turns on a tape player that fills struggled to fulfill its role as the apartment with the pulsating provider, and the people sought rhythms of Cuban salsa. He spiritual deliverance from their mixes Cuba Libres with cola and sufferings. astringent rum poured from a “Come before the Lord and plastic bottle. Then he dusts his pray,” says the Rev. Lazaro head with cascarilla, a chalky Alvarez in his sermon to the white powder that protects from Methodist congregation. “He’s bad luck and misfortune, and your only God. Recognize him! offers the powder to others in Love him! It doesn’t matter what the room. you have done in the past. It Dressed entirely in white, a doesn’t matter if you have failed requirement for those going him. If you repent, he will for- PHOTO BY GEORGE BURKE HINMAN (Above), KEN BLACKBIRD (Below)/Lincoln Journal Star through initiation, Quintana give you.” Practitioners of Santeria attend to Osha shrines in their homes to beseech downs his drink, then spins a It’s hard to find statistics on the African god for good fortune, health and love. Below: Cubans carry the dance in the crowded living the number of practicing faithful casket of a friend during the funeral ritual of the local African Cubans at room. in Cuba, but in a country of 11 the Little City of the Dead in Havana. Molina explains that while million, a government survey there are many Yoruba orishas, found more than half are believ- worshippers commonly call ers of some sort, according to upon about two dozen. There author Christopher Baker in his are many rituals and symbols to 2000 book “Cuba.” Church learn, a process that takes a life- officials on the island say there time. And when the lifetime is are an estimated 1.2 million over, an Osha believer’s friends Catholics. While Protestant and family hold a special cere- churches count an estimated mony so their loved one can 200,000 in the fold, they are begin life anew. growing at a more rapid rate Molina recalls the days when than the Church of Rome. And the government discouraged the island still has a few thou- Osha, when worshippers had to sand followers of Judaism, a offer their sacrifices in secret. remnant from the days of World Those days are only a memory. War II when Cuba welcomed And what about the Christians Jews fleeing the Holocaust. who consider Santeria paganism? Outnumbering them all are “We love the Catholics and practitioners of Regla de Osha, the Christians,” Molina said. an indigenous blend of tourists into a tiny apartment vene on behalf of the humans Father Fernando de la Vega is Catholicism and the Yoruba reli- with four cramped rooms. who appease them. a tall, thin, priest with sharp fea- gion of Africa, started by slaves They’ve come to see an Osha Molina has guided his tures and a soft-spoken manner. in Cuba some 300 years ago. shrine and learn a little about a American acquaintances to the Looking at his delicate frame, it’s The religion is more commonly religion that seems exotic by home of his friend, Joel hard to imagine he once known as Santeria, or saint wor- Christian standards. Quintana, who has just com- opposed the Batista regime and ship, and while it has no temples Molina, a 33-year-old pleted his one-year initiation joined the revolutionaries in or churches, many Cubans English teacher at nearby into Osha and is ready to cele- their struggle to overthrow it. attend to Osha shrines in their University of Havana, says he’s a brate. But after the struggle pre- homes to beseech the African santero, a teacher who instructs In the corner of a room with vailed, de la Vega returned to his god, Olodumare, for good for- Osha neophytes in the rituals a concrete floor stands the studies in the seminary. By the tune, health and love. and prayers needed to seek the shrine, a succession of three time he emerged as a priest in Not far from Inglesia favor of Yoruba orishas. The saint statues that reach to the 1961, El Presidente was singing Metodista, in the Havana neigh- orishas are holy beings, each rep- low ceiling. Molina explains that a new political song, and this borhood of Vedado, Dennys resenting a different aspect of each statue represents an orisha. time, de la Vega wasn’t about to Molina leads five American Olodumare, and they can inter- For example, Saint Barbara sym- join the chorus.

64 “I realized we were on the road to Marxism, and I knew that Marxism is against religion. They have no beliefs,” he says through an interpreter. The government gave him a choice: Castro or Christ. He chose Jesus and went to jail for six months. When he got out, Castro had launched his persecution of the Church. The government forced some 800 of the island’s 900 priests to flee the country, de la Vega says. Furthermore, Castro took lands and properties con- trolled by the Church and closed seminaries and parochial schools. Attendance at Mass plummeted as the Communist Party forbade its members to practice their faith. Those who weren’t party members did not want to risk association with the Church for fear of losing their jobs or being arrested. “It was very hard. There were mostly old women at Mass,” de la Vega says. “No younger peo- ple, no children.” Although the situation improved after the fall of the Soviet Union, it took the 1998 visit of Pope John Paul II to stage a true Catholic comeback in Cuba. It’s impossible to overstate what the pope’s visit did for the spirits of the faithful — and also among those who believed he toppled communism in Poland and might do it in Cuba, too. “He said not to be afraid,” de la Vega says. “The pope came here to show us the truth about man. He said there were huge differences between Marxism and Christianity.” In the pope’s wake, the KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star church pews filled to capacity in A Cuban woman prays at the tomb of Señora Amelia Goyri and asks for her help. Goyri died while giving birth and some many of the 800 Catholic years later her tomb was unearthed and she was found to be holding the remains of the child in her arms. Believers churches spread throughout the always keep fresh flowers on her tomb in the Necropolis Cristobal Colon or Little City of the Dead in Havana, Cuba. island. But not even the pope could undo the harm of a gener- ation raised in a moral vacuum, economy are often greater than Pope John Paul’s petitioning of wise. All this on top of nourish- de la Vega says. Abortion is ram- the church can provide. And, the Castro government to adopt ing the spiritual needs of their pant, child prostitution is com- when a priest periodically speaks more freedoms for the people. flocks. mon, suicide rates have soared against the government from the Other forces, meanwhile, contin- The old priest still has the fire and many Cubans worship false pulpit, he finds himself relocated ue their attempt to fashion the of a revolutionary, but he directs gods, he says. off the island courtesy of the Church into an opposition party. it all toward his ministry now “We lost that generation.” government, de la Vega says. And The old priest believes the And, frankly, he’s got all he And the Catholic Church suf- so, there are still limits to the church should resist such efforts. can handle. fers from an extreme shortage of state’s religious largess. There’s so much to do to fulfill “Sometimes we pay very priests. Few Cubans enter the Of all religions in Cuba, the the teachings of Christ. He and heavily the consequences. So we seminaries and only 200 priests Catholic Church most frequently other priests minister to those have to be careful.” attend a flock of 1.2 million. butts up against those limits. In with AIDS, attempt to alleviate Their basic needs for food and some cases, the decision to do so hunger and alcoholism and tend clothing in such a dysfunctional is made within the Church, as in to prisoners, political and other-

65 A single ray of light

By Melissa Lee Natalia “Naty” If it’s true that all Cubans can Revuelta find humor in anything, then Naty Revuelta and I, on that Age: 77 warm Havana afternoon, may Birthplace: Havana, Cuba simply have run out of time to say all that could have been said. Former socialite who had an We met in the lobby of the affair with Fidel Castro during bustling Habana Libre Hotel, the 1950s and is the mother of the mid-afternoon January light drawing tourists past us and his only known daughter, Alína onto the streets, and after brief Fernández, who now lives in introductions, she immediately Miami and regularly blasts her requested our interview not be taped. father’s regime on a radio show. “You understand, I have just Quote: “If you are too sensi- had surgery, and I don’t like my tive, life itself will trample over voice now. I don’t want my voice to be remembered this way.” you. I’m not a psychologist. I’m A joke, maybe, to follow? not a philosopher. I just know No. She made no lighthearted what life has taught me.” crack about the lower, scratchier pitch of her voice, no gentle dig on what years of cigarettes have Naty is stylishly dressed, heavily done to her larynx. bejeweled. The blonde hair is Later, she would weave in gone, the green eyes faded, but and out of American and Cuban she remains gracefully beautiful, politics, and family, and litera- striking. A petite woman, she ture, and music, and, of course, wears a patterned dress and the two men whose passage into heels, bright pink lipstick, gold her life changed everything for- hoop earrings and gold rings on ever — the one a charismatic almost every finger. She uses a revolutionary on the cusp of gold cigarette holder and holds seizing Cuba, the other a hand- her coffee cup with only her some young rebel whose blue- thumb and index finger. gray eyes pierced hers like an “It is a very nice and kind azure stone that long-ago after- life,” she says simply. noon in Paris. KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star And why not — it’s a life All this, and still I did not Naty Revuelta was Fidel Castro’s confidant and lover. granted in part by her half-cen- leave believing she was a comedi- tury link to El Maximo. They an of any kind. Yet Naty told me, enter Havana’s tourist hotels — met one day in 1952, the same firmly, that laughter lies at the It is easy to forget, when you and she does so without a glance day he was first arrested as the core of each Cuban personality. are talking with Naty Revuelta at the security guards, though leader of a secret movement “We’re good-humored,” she in a spacious, quiet, pre-mojito- their eyes discreetly linger on the against the hated dictator said, tapping her cigarette into hour ballroom cooled by air woman a bit longer than you’d Batista. Without that day, Naty an ashtray. “We have many simi- breezing in from the Malecón expect. And that unlike most would have remained a rich, larities among us. We can make and lit only by sunlight pouring Cubans, Naty can travel abroad stunning woman with revolu- a joke out of anything.” in from floor-to-ceiling win- — and she does so frequently, tionary sympathies, a woman Then: “I am so Cuban I dows, that she has achieved even to the United States, where who enjoyed yacht parties and don’t know how to get away near-celebrity status in Cuba. a 47-year-old daughter born of weekly tournaments at the from the description.” That she has climbed higher on an affair with the charismatic Vedado Tennis Club provided Finally, just before the long, the social ladder than she proba- revolutionary waits for occasion- by a wealthy husband. But now slender cigarette is drawn back bly ever thought possible when al visits, for news of her birth- she would become a rich, stun- into her mouth: a brief, beauti- she was a 19-year-old, blonde, place, for the end of the regime ning woman in love — and ful smile. green-eyed socialite. That unlike she so passionately hates. secretly involved with — a man most Cubans, she is allowed to Unlike most Cubans, too,

66 whose growing army of support- phone as I wait for her to con- ers was moving ever-closer to tinue. spreading Fidelismo to every “I used to call her ‘the sprite’ corner of the island. because she was so beautiful and The attraction was instant so happy. So well-groomed. that day. It was the beginning of “Such a great smile, you the end of both of their mar- know?” riages. It was the beginning of a fiery love affair that would result Natalia Revuelta is an only in the birth of Fidel Castro’s child who was born in only known daughter. It was the December 1925 just across the beginning of a new purpose in street from the University of her life. Havana. Her parents divorced Naty, as Castro biographer when she was very young, and Tad Szulc writes, was “one of an she moved in with grandparents extraordinary contingent of beau- who did most of the child-rear- tiful and/or highly intelligent ing. women who, in effect, dedicated “I was brought up with the their lives to him and his cause idea that you have to be good, — and without whom he might because life plays terrible tricks not have succeeded.” She took on you,” Naty says. “I’ve had a the first step by lending him a hard life.” key to the Vedado mansion she Early on, she learned the shared with her husband in case value of good people and good he needed a safe haven from the books. Her favorite childhood police, who had already arrested adventure was “Heidi.” Now, him numerous times. JOE DUGGAN/Lincoln Journal Star having recently finished Kahlil In turn, Castro eventually Revuelta says although the revolution was far from perfect, Castro will Gibran’s “The Prophet,” she selected her to type and hand- be remembered as a man who tried very hard. plans to tackle a Castro biogra- deliver to leading politicians and phy, then the memoirs of her major newspapers copies of the views, but she does not. days. No TV. No salt with the friend Gabriel García Marquéz. manifesto he was planning to Instead, thin wisps of smoke dry red beans at dinner. Her copy of his autobiography is issue following what he thought drift around us for several min- “Everything was turned personally signed — Marquéz would be a successful attack on utes. “I knew she had a life of upside down. The cartoons dis- wants the dedications torn out the Moncada Barracks on July her own,” she says of her daugh- appeared … Mickey Mouse dis- of the book when he dies, Naty 26, 1953. Naty was the only one ter. “She had her choices.” A appeared. Food disappears. says. outside Fidel’s tight circle to pause. “Now, I try to live my Warm and tender, it all disap- She reads history, fiction, know in advance of his bold plot. life. I try not to be an economic peared. biographies, poems — in Despite the chaos Castro had or moral burden.” “What else can I say, from a French, English and Italian, brought to Cuba, he continued Another pause, this time a child’s point of view?” which she learned when she the affair. It was during a brief long one. “I couldn’t supply for The poverty eventually attended high school in period in 1956 between prison her. I couldn’t be a mother to her. became too much, though she Philadelphia at age 13. terms that Alína Fernández was “She became a woman too did not share any plans with her Back in Cuba, she entered born. soon.” mother. The worry, Alína says, the labor force at 19 and hasn’t Today, in the deserted ball- She takes a long, deep drag would have been too heavy a looked back. “To me,” she says, room, faint shadows start to on her cigarette, and suddenly burden. Besides, Naty already “work is work.” Naty’s work in appear as talk shifts to Naty’s it’s gone. She snuffs it out in a knew her daughter was speaking administrative and commercial daughter. Alína escaped Cuba in brimming ashtray. It was the with political dissidents on the positions continued through her 1993, disguised as a Spanish only drag she took. island. 1948 marriage to heart surgeon tourist, and now regularly blasts Naty heard of Alína’s escape Orlando Fernández and to her father’s communist regime Ninety miles north, a daugh- from Cuban radio. Weeks later, Castro’s revolution. She worked on Miami radio. The mother, ter struggles to describe what mother and daughter spoke by endless hours sewing uniforms however, is steadfast in her loyal- was, too often, a life without telephone. If Naty was upset, from cheap department-store ty to the cause. food, without Christmas, with- she concealed it. fabric and making military caps Slowly, she lights a fresh ciga- out security. “She’s a very strong person,” — each exactly to Fidel’s liking. rette. It’s her second during our Alína Fernández remembers Alína says. “You will never see And she took her service a step conversation. She says she the beard towering over her, the her failing. Or cry, you know? further: Naty turned over her smokes six each day, but that she rough hand stroking her baby- You could never guess if she was 6,000-peso savings and pawned can make an exception today. I fine hair. “I wanted to bite his suffering.” her sapphires, emeralds and dia- don’t ask why. For a brief hand,” she says. The daughter a slender monds to finance the revolu- moment, I think Naty might say, She recalls little else of her beauty but with dark hair tionary army’s cause against the “Don’t you feel special?” with a father. But the nicks his military instead of blonde — pauses for corrupt Batista dictatorship. laugh or make a joke about how actions caused in her young life some time. There’s only the Remembers Alína: nervous she gets during inter- were sharp: No presents on holi- occasional static on the tele- “Everything fell apart. We had

67 nothing.” Her anger, she says, PHOTOGRAPH BY daughter living in the United came later, when she realized ALBERTO KORDA, States. It was in 1992 that Naty what kind of revolution had REPRINTED WITH reconciled with Nina, her older unfolded. PERMISSION FROM child from her marriage, after Gently but firmly, Naty THE KORDA decades of silence. Now, she points out that was not the PHOTOGRAPH says, they maintain regular elec- revolution she was fighting for. COLLECTION OF tronic correspondence. Her ideals included a priority GEORGE BURKE And suddenly, unexpectedly, on education and abolishing HINMAN a very American-sounding joke: Naty Revuelta corruption. She hoped to see “Thank God for e-mail.” reforms, she says. says Che Looser now, she pulls pic- She doesn’t say outright that Guevara was tures of her family from a Castro has failed to follow forceful and leather wallet and passes them to through on promises of democ- austere, me. She speaks proudly of racy. Instead, she names his suc- somber and Alína’s radio show and praises cesses and commends his brav- grim in the her writing skills. It’s possible ery in facing both Cuban and days before Alína will return to Cuba when U.S. opposition. Castro, she he rejected the Castro era is over, Naty says. says, will be remembered as “a Castro’s But the mother will never man who tried very hard.” revolution. leave the island, I think as I lis- Then she adds, “Some love ten to her. The United States him more, some love him less.” intrigues her, but it could never It’s clear where Naty falls. be her home — it is too imper- In 1953, Fidel and a handful sonal, too crass, she says. In of his troops found themselves America, you never know your in an Isle of Pines prison after a neighbor’s name. In Cuba, that failed assault on the Batista gov- people will be warm and open is ernment. Trapped in solitary a given. Everything in Cuba is confinement, he received letters silenced completely in the fading familiar, and that is comforting. of encouragement from all over light of a second-floor ballroom “She’s a very strong “I love the people, I love the Cuba — including many from of the Habana Libre Hotel. climate, I love the light — the Naty, as well as his wife at the It was during a 1964 trip to person. You will transparency of light,” she says, time, Mirta. Paris that she first came across a never see her failing.” gesturing, as she often does. Naty sent him sand in an dashing young soldier who had Alína Fernández, “And the people are so very nice. envelope to remind him of the been a key player in Batista’s Here, I feel very Cuban.” beach. From a concert, she sent ousting. Both had begun to dis- Revuelta’s daughter She is comfortable now, a program with the director’s tance themselves from Fidel. In relaxed in her tan wicker chair. signature scrawled across it. She a year, Che Guevara would The ballroom is dim, the deep- sent him books — Dostoevsky, resign from all his posts and give very alone in Havana — she has ening shadows darkening her Freud, Hugo — and then fol- up his Cuban nationality in no family left there, and many face. As she stands to leave, she low-up letters to discuss the front of Castro. In three years, of her friends have gone. She closes another button on her readings. She sent photos from a he would be executed in Bolivia. and Fernández divorced in 1959 cardigan. Greek folk-dance performance That afternoon, the pair dis- after he discovered the affair, and And as she fishes in her faded because the lead dancer remind- cussed politics and their youths she’s never remarried. She purse for a business card, she ed her of him. and the need to motivate the learned to face life with only a leaves me with one last line — a Fidel wrote back with pas- new generation. Che spoke few friends. And, over time, she last reminder of the essence of sion. Wendy Gimbel’s 1998 forcefully, intensely, but with a has learned that she must take the Cuban character. novel “Havana Dreams” quotes self-discipline she admired. care of herself. The card is plain, with only one love letter to Naty: “I am on “He was very austere. He During our three-hour meet- her name, phone number and e- fire. Write to me, for I cannot be demanded a lot of himself,” she ing, Naty makes no use of a mail address printed in small let- without your letters. I love you says. “And he had very penetrat- handrail on the staircase. When ters on one side, a single palm very much.” Another: “There is ing eyes. He could look right a photographer starts to stack tree in the lower right-hand cor- a type of honey that never sati- through you.” chair cushions so she will appear ner. ates. That is the secret of your This is what Naty remem- taller, she waves him aside and “A lonely palm tree,” she letters.” bers: a somber, grim Che and a does it herself. When a server says. “A lonely palm tree — Naty, though, never wanted dark, quiet Paris. “There,” she comes to clear our table, she that’s what I am.” the affair to become public, and says, “all the lights turn off by 9 gathers the garbage for him. Naty hands it over and gives she prefers not to linger on it. or 10.” “If you are too sensitive, life me an eye. Then she slips out The past, she says, should Her tone carries regret, as if itself will trample over you,” she the door and into the lengthen- remain exactly that. Paris is simply ill-fated, as if it tells me. “I’m not a psychologist. ing shadows of a Havana “I don’t like to talk too would be such a wonderful I’m not a philosopher. I just evening — but not before she much. I like things to stay as place if only the lights were know what life has taught me.” smiles and laughs, a sweet, wry they are.” never switched off. One lesson: Family is what laugh at her own very funny you have when you have noth- joke. Still, the past cannot be In some ways, she is now ing else. Alína is not her only

68 Perception vs. reality A look at how Americans, Cubans see one another By Cara Pesek

When Eduardo Miguel Medua, a New York City native and recent graduate of Connecticut Wesleyan University, decided to study medicine in Cuba, he knew what he was doing was something newswor- thy. So he wasn’t surprised when the reporters from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and the Chicago Tribune showed up at the sprawling Latin American School of Medical Sciences on the outskirts of Havana. But surprise did come. It came when Medua read the arti- cles about what he was doing. The stories painted a picture PHOTOS BY KEN BLACKBIRD AND CATHARINE HUDDLE/Lincoln Journal Star of American students giving up “Cuba Si, Bloqueo No” echoes the sentiments of many Cubans. Below: Abel Contreras de la Guardia gives a tour. lives of luxury to live in poverty, of the sacrifices students made just to get an education. Every with Fidel as its leader, have to international television sta- single article, Medua says, lin- obliged. Today, a travel ban and tions, newspapers and magazines, gered on the fact the students an embargo keep most U.S. citi- and Americans have seen only stay in dormitories without hot zens and products out of Cuba. restricted media coverage of Cuba water. Despite efforts on the part of and have been, for the most part, “Our existence here is not both governments, though, imag- unable to visit. defined by the fact that we don’t inations have wandered across the But somehow, in those 44 have hot water,” he says. “It’s 90-mile slice of ocean separating years since Castro came to power, defined by the fact that we’re Florida from Cuba. Over the Americans and Cubans don’t becoming doctors.” years, the realities of both coun- seem to have drifted all that The reporters’ perceptions of tries have blurred and myths have much, says Wayne Smith, a for- the students, Medua says, illus- come to be viewed by some as mer American diplomat who was trate how out-of-touch fact. Among the most prevalent stationed in Cuba. misconceptions: “There is almost a mystical Americans have become with Cubans since Fidel Castro rose to That America is a near bond between Americans and power in 1959 and swiftly kicked utopia where anyone can live a Cubans,” he says. “Cubans rich, happy, free life. understand Americans, and out as much American influence as he could. Since then, Castro That Cuba is a backward, Americans, as they get to know has worked hard to ensure the dangerous country whose citizens Cubans, understand Cubans.” number of American vices and harbor a resentment toward the The reasons, Smith says: A virtues allowed into his country United States. shared sense of humor. A love of remain at a minimum. The truth, of course, lies jum- baseball. And a bond.Something, And U.S. leaders, saying they bled somewhere in between, mis- Smith says, he can’t quite explain. don’t want to support a country placed during the 44 years that A bond that was apparent to a Cubans have been without access group of architecture students

69 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Once tourists and Cubans meet, stereotypes are likely to fade.

from Auburn University who vis- The students were surprised by school, has noticed this fascina- ited Cuba in January. other things, too: the poor condi- “To be rich in Cuba is tion, too. She remembers a con- They studied up on Cuba tion of the roads, bad food, beau- versation she had with a 5-year- before they left. They knew about tiful — though disintegrating — like being poor in the old Cuban boy about the world. the pre-1959 American cars, often old buildings, crummy hotel United States. And He could tell her about Cuba, repainted in sherbet-colored house rooms without the comforts they about his family and what he was paint, that rumble down the streets were used to. being poor in Cuba is learning in school. But he could of Havana. They knew about the But most puzzling was the rela- like being really, real- name just two countries. cigars. About the embargo, the tionship Cubans have with Fidel. ly, really poor in the “The United States and Cuba lack of material goods, the shortage “Our tour guide told us that were the only countries he knew,” of soap. The basics. when Fidel speaks, Cubans United States.” Weeks said. But the Cuba they encoun- smoke,” Ross said. “They clap Antonio, a 25-year-old According to Antonio, Cubans tered was very different from the when they have to. not only know about America, impoverished country they had “I’m still trying to figure it Cuban tour guide they want to be in America. read about back home. out.” Walking down a dusty road to his Tracye Tidwell, a 21-year- American T-shirts, jeans and hats home, made partly of corrugated old student, said she expected There are no American stores has never been to the United metal in a part of Havana seclud- Cubans would be hostile toward in Cuba. But, on many citizens States. Instead, the clothing was ed from the tourists, Antonio puts Americans because of 44 years’ walking down most any street in likely given to them by American it this way: worth of hard feelings between Havana, traces of the United tourists or relatives living in the “To be rich in Cuba is like the two countries. She thought States are everywhere. Bandanas United States. But according to being poor in the United States. the impoverished people would printed with the American flag Antonio, a 25-year-old Cuban And being poor in Cuba is like be downtrodden. tied over dark Cuban hair. tour guide, the predominance of being really, really, really poor in “I was shocked with how Sunglasses from Old Navy. Jeans American clothing reflects more the United States.” happy everyone was despite their from the Gap. And T-shirts. T- than the generosity of American conditions,” she said. shirts from American concerts, friends and strangers. It has Daniel Salas González dislikes Heather Ross, also 21, was from American fun runs and become a way for Cubans to the United States government. similarly surprised. blood drives. T-shirts with logos express their fascination with the The 19-year-old studying journal- “I guess I thought I’d have to of American sports teams, soft United States. ism at the University of Havana hold onto my purse a little harder drinks and cars. Matina Weeks, another says he wants to be a journalist to than I had to,” she said. The vast majority in these American studying at the medical report on global movements

70 against the spread of imperialism. This, he says, gives Cubans hope that the revolution can continue. González is an intern at Juventud Rebelde, a state-run newspaper geared at roughly the Cuban equivalent of Generation X. There, he works on the interna- tional desk. He says he believes in Castro’s revolution. The Cuban government is for the people, he says. It takes care of their needs so they can be free from the hassles of survival that plague those who live in capitalist societies. Although he does not like the American government, he has nothing against Americans in gen- eral. “(Americans) look a lot like us,” he says. “In their way of thinking they look a lot like us. As people they are good, as opposed to their government that carries a hostile attitude. “I have a very good attitude of Americans.” KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Cecilia Garcia, a 23-year-old Many outsiders think poverty and oppression are all there is to life in Cuba. Below, one of many vintage American cars Cuban street vendor, says navigates a crowded Havana street. Americans are among her favorite customers. changed. “They like the music. They don’t barter with her like They like the reggae and the salsa. European tourists do, she says. “The United States is similar “They pay full price.” to Cuba.” In college, Medua majored in It’s similar, the American med- Latin American Studies. He was ical students say, and it’s not. well aware of the stressed relation- It’s true that Cubans and ship between the United States and Americans laugh at the same jokes Cuba. Before he left, he couldn’t and like to dance to the same think of another place in the world music. It’s true that some share where the perception of Americans the same religion and that both would be more negative. He was value education and tradition. prepared to be disliked. But it’s different, too. Former diplomat Smith says After living in Cuba, Medua Medua’s initial fear is a common says, it becomes apparent that one among Americans traveling to there is more than one way to do Cuba. everything — get a ride into It’s also, he says, an unfounded town, study for an exam, go shop- one. ping for food or run a country. “I don’t think there’s another None of those ways, he says, is city in the world that Americans necessarily wrong. could feel quite so comfortable in And that, more than any mis- as they do in Havana,” he says. “If conception or stereotype he might you haven’t been here, you’d say, have had about Cuba before mov- ‘Anti-Americanism is rampant. ing there, is what has really sur- Will we be safe down there?’ prised him. Christ, yes. It’s safer than most “You realize,” Medua says, “that American cities.” whether you’re in the United States Even Jose, a 27-year-old artist or in Afghanistan in a cave, you’re who lives in Havana and doesn’t going to be frustrated. All those particularly like the hordes of material things (in the United tourists that clog the streets of his States) may make life easier, but city, says Americans are OK. not quantitatively better.” “The people in the United States like to party,” says Jose, whose name also has been

71 Husker haven in Havana By Joe Duggan Gustavo Rodríguez, In Nebraska, some paint also known as themselves red, scream them- “Garrincha” selves hoarse and drink them- Age: 40 selves unconscious on game day. Others transform a room, even Birthplace: Havana, Cuba an entire home, into shrines of Job: Editorial cartoonist at Cornhusker memorabilia. Still Juventud Rebelde, a others commit records and stats Communist Party-owned to memory and can imagine no higher discourse than debating newspaper in Havana. the greatest gridiron hero ever to Interests: Serious wear a red jersey. Nebraska Cornhusker fan and Fanatics for sure. lover of the blues. But how many can say they learned to love the Huskers Quote: “I’m a lucky guy. while living in a communist I’m afraid I can’t say the country where few can find same about Frank Solich.” Nebraska on a map? Where sports fans risk prison time for watching ESPN through a con- already was, and in part because traband satellite dish? A place Fidel Castro loved the game. where old timers perpetually Cubans have excelled at baseball argue whether Mantle was better ever since, winning Olympic than DiMaggio, but go blank if gold in 1992 and 1996, and sev- asked whether Unitas was better eral defectors have proven them- than Baugh? selves in the major leagues. Sí, es verdad. The Huskers But Rodríguez has always felt more attracted to sports played have a man, or rather a fan, in JOE DUGGAN/Lincoln Journal Star Havana. on rectangles than diamonds. Being a fan of Husker football and the blues makes Gustavo Rodríguez And so, through some smuggled Honest comrade. an oddity in Cuba. His name is Gustavo Sports Illustrateds and the occa- Rodríguez. He goes by sional pirated radio or TV broad- cast, he has nurtured a love for Garrincha. pirated radio broadcasts, Phillips squandered his talent He’s a 40-year-old political American football in the cradle of Rodriguez follows the team. In and opportunities. Believes if Caribbean communism. and social cartoonist with a pop- fact, he needs only seconds to Eric Crouch deserved the ular communist newspaper in “You have to go to great identify his paramount Husker Heisman, so too did Frazier, his lengths to follow football here,” Cuba. He lives on an island, iso- moment: the 1996 Fiesta Bowl favorite Husker of all time. He lated from the rest of the world he said from his home in Nuevo thrashing of Florida, a game a even grumbled and groaned Vedado, a Havana neighbor- as much by his government as friend was able to pull in from along with the Husker Nation by the blue-green depths that hood with manicured lawns, Miami on a night when atmos- during the past season of discon- tropical shrubs and swanky surround it. “Zero” describes the pheric conditions were radio tent. number of international news- 1950s houses. “I’ve never seen a perfect. “I’m a lucky guy,” he said. football game alive. Call the papers, U.S. radio broadcasts or “It was sweet, believe me,” he “I’m afraid I can’t say the same satellite TV stations he has Ticketmaster for me when you says with a wistful smile, once about Frank Solich.” get back.” access to legally. again hearing Tommie Frazier He acquired that apprecia- Yet American football The oldest of three sons of a break so many Gator arm tack- tion despite the fact that futbol mechanical engineer and school intrigues him greatly, and of all les in his memory. Norteamericano isn’t played in teams, none intrigues him more teacher was born in 1962, the Not only does Rodríguez any organized way in his home third year of the revolution, the than the college powerhouse claim allegiance to a state uni- country. At least not in his life- that plays 1,500 miles away in first year of the Bob Devaney era versity he has never seen, his time — the University of and the beginning of the home North America’s middle — a Huskerspeak is remarkably flu- Havana once had a team, for a place as far from oceans and sellout streak. At a young age, he ent. He deeply admires Tom brief period, during the 1950s. found himself attracted to soc- Caribbean breezes as is possible. Osborne. Thinks the Blackshirts But after the revolution in Despite having seen only one cer, which, unlike the rest of need better coaching. Is still 1959, biesbol became the Latin America, was not widely Big Red game on TV and hav- puzzled by how Lawrence national sport, in part because it ing heard only a few more on played in Cuba. But Rodríguez

72 and his friends followed the exploits of international stars like Pele and a humble Brazilian right winger by the name of Manuel Francisco dos Santos. Fans knew Dos Santos by the nickname Garrincha, a nimble bird that darts low over the sur- face of rainforest rivers. “It is said that watching him play was a joy for the soul,” Rodríguez said. Besides soccer, Rodríguez loved to draw and while still in college, he began submitting satirical cartoons to various pub- lications around Cuba. After years as a freelancer, he earned a staff position in 1995 with Palante Magazine, the oldest humor publication on the island. A couple years later, he landed a job at Juventud Rebelde, the journal of the Union of Young Communists, although it should PHOTO COURTESY OF LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR Tommie Frazier’s performance in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl made a fan of Gustavo Rodríguez. be noted, Rodríguez is not a party member. Early in his freelance career, watching a rare game on TV dead,” Fell said. Husker football is all about.” he took to signing his works with a picture so clear he still The two developed a fast Nowadays, Rodríguez is one “Garrincha,” as a tribute to the marvels at the memory. Option friendship, strengthened through of the relatively few Cubans working-class soccer hero of his left, option right, up the middle, meeting twice more in Havana with legal access to the Internet. youth. quarterback keepers, power foot- and once in Washington, D.C., It makes following the Huskers Well before his art career ball. And this quarterback, the when Rodríguez was able to get a breeze. At times, it’s an over- took off, Rodríguez was exposed guy Sports Illustrated made a visa. Fell would love to get dose for a junkie used to getting to the game the Americans sound no more able to throw a him into Memorial Stadium on his fix on nothing but fumes. played with helmets and shoul- pass than Castro could hold a an October Saturday. He’ll be reading closely this der pads. His interest in free election, this guy was making “I’ve told him he knows fall, asking his radio wizard bud- American football even helped completions all over the place. more about Husker football dies to ply their skills on a clear him learn English, which he “He went crazy. It was great.” than most people who consider night. If the U.S. State speaks and writes fluently. In the He became a Frazier fan that themselves fans.” Department ever approves 1980s, friends and family in the day. The next season, as best he Frazier, now a husband and another visa request, he’ll try to states got him copies of Sports could, he followed the drama father living in Omaha, found it time the trip in the fall so he can Illustrated. He even once got his with Frazier’s blood clots and his incredible that someone in Cuba see the hallowed ground in hands on a football textbook, gutsy performance in the even knows his name. He felt downtown Lincoln. which revved his learning curve Orange Bowl. And gradually, he honored his Big Red found a He hopes the new defensive into warp speed. began to love the team Frazier way to penetrate Castro’s big coordinator can right the Finally, he felt he knew quarterbacked. red. Blackshirts. Like many Husker enough to teach his soccer bud- In 1999, a quirk of fate “I think it’s special for a per- fans north, he relishes the dies how to play, a challenge cemented his kinship with the son all the way from Cuba to thought of meeting and beating considering most had seen little, Cornhuskers. At an academic follow Nebraska football because Miami, Florida or Florida State if any, actual football. For weeks, exchange involving American of me,” he said. “It just shows in another national champi- on Sundays, they played near his political cartoonists in Havana, you that college football draws onship game, though he’s not home and once attracted the he met Paul Fell, the well- fans from all over the world.” terribly confident the current attention of an older man in the known Nebraska editorial car- Indeed. Last season, fans head coach can return the neighborhood. He told them he toonist whose work appears in from nearly two dozen countries Huskers to their former heights. played for the defunct the Lincoln Journal Star. logged on to the Internet to lis- Asked to identify the greatest University of Havana team and Fell admired Rodríguez’s work ten to Husker radio broadcasts, triumph of the revolution, most offered some pointers. and told him so when they met. said Athletic Director Steve Cubans cite free education and “He was teaching us the T When Fell mentioned that he Pederson. None were from health care. But Garrincha formation,” Rodríguez said. lived in Lincoln, Neb., Rodríguez Cuba, however. offered a different take: “Can you imagine? The T for- declared his affinity for the “I think it’s really neat,” “Frank Solich isn’t in Cuba.” mation. We didn’t know any- Huskers and started pumping Pederson said when told about thing about the T formation.” Fell for the latest team news. the Husker in Havana. “But I’m Then, in 1993, he was “That just knocked me not shocked. That’s what

73 GEORGE BURKE HINMAN Young Cubans will grow up with free education and health care in a socialist government system. The jaded generation Young Cubans disillusioned with revolution By Cara Pesek his fluency in English allows up with free education and Factors like these, says him to freelance, giving private health care. And all their lives, Wayne Smith, a former U.S. Among his friends, he’s tours of Havana. His job gives they have been surrounded and government official in Havana, known as “the lucky one.” him a social status slightly high- watched over by the heroes of have made young Cubans long Antonio is a 25-year-old er than most in the communist the Cuban Revolution: for change. Cuban who lives in Havana country of 11 million. Monuments to Che Guevara, “The younger generation in with his grandmother. He Antonio, along with his 40- schools and streets named after Cuba is totally disenchanted works for the government as a year-old mother, his 10-month- Jose Martí and giant billboards with communism, with the sys- tour guide, a job that allows old brother and millions of of Fidel. tem,” he says. “They don’t him to make, on a good day, other Cubans, has grown up But although they’ve never believe in it.” $20 in tips. The average completely within this Cuba, known anything but socialism, Among the reasons: monthly salary in Cuba is the one created by the many now have this in com- A lack of material goods, between $8 and $30, depending Revolution in 1959. mon: They’ve grown restless a thriving black market and a on whom you ask. When Cubans like Antonio and disillusioned with post-rev- visibly crumbling Cuba have A lot of people want to work — those born after 1959 — olution life. They feel cut off showcased the socialist system’s in tourism. So Antonio, whose studied the alphabet, they and adrift. And they fear for the shortcomings. name has been changed, feels learned that F was for Fidel and future — both their own and An influx of tourists, con- fortunate to have the job. And R was for Raúl. They’ve grown that of their country. tact with friends and relatives in

74 the United States and limited He asks a few more people access to the Internet have where he can find a car. No introduced young Cubans to a luck. So he and the tourist take new world. a ferry to Old Havana, where The reality that unskilled they’ll tour a gothic cathedral merchants can make more than and wander along cobblestone doctors and engineers has made streets lined with old buildings many question the necessity of — some restored by the govern- a college education. ment and converted into hotels, Better markets overseas restaurants and shops for have lured away many young, tourists, and others where educated Cubans with promises Cubans live, with laundry of far better salaries and more strung out on rickety balconies fulfilling careers. and asterisks of masking tape Not everyone under 44 is on the windows to prevent completely disenchanted, them from breaking during though. Take Josefina, a jour- storms. nalism student at Havana The day won’t be a bust — University, who believes that far from it. socialism is working. Cubans, Cubans are flexible. she says, are free as long as they believe in socialism. But as Cubans learn to make And, she says, Cuba takes do with less and less, they’re care of its citizens. seeing more and more. Namely, “Nobody will be left alone,” more European and North she says. American tourists, who bring But even she would like to their cameras and camcorders, see some change. She’d like to designer walking shoes and see higher wages. She’d like a leatherbound travel journals, freer press. sunglasses and cell phones. And for herself? In 2000, 44 percent of “I’d like a cell phone.” Cuba’s income was from tourism, says Antonio Díaz, It’s a sunny January after- KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star vice director of Havanatur. noon and Antonio is with an A Cuban woman lights a cigar during a rumba festival in a Havana alley. Canadians make up the biggest American tourist, looking for a Below: Music stores carry Latin American tunes, but none from U.S. artists. group — more than 300,000 way to the beach. He asks a few visited in 2002, he estimates. people on a busy Havana street That’s quite a difference where he can find a ride. After a a small boat back into Cuba to ness muscles. from 1990, when Cuba was the few tries, a bent, middle-aged smuggle his mother, grand- “Cubans are natural entre- 23rd-most-popular vacation man with leathery skin and sev- mother and sister out. But the preneurs,” Smith says. “Just give spot in the Caribbean. Now it’s eral missing teeth tells Antonio government caught him, and he them their heads and they can number nine. Cuba now boasts and the tourist to wait in front is now stuck in Cuba. solve a lot of these problems six times as many hotel rooms, of a pharmacy for a red car. What would help keep themselves.” and employment in the indus- They wait for half an hour. The Antonio and others of his gen- Like finding a way to the try has doubled in the past 10 car never comes. eration in Cuba, Smith says, is beach. years, Díaz said. “That’s how it is here,” to give them a little more Antonio and the tourist Meanwhile, Castro has done Antonio says. He’s not particu- opportunity to flex their busi- abandon their pharmacy post. his best to shield Cubans from larly disappointed. In Cuba, what he considers bad influ- where many things — cars, ences. International newspapers, refrigerators, bicycles, furniture magazines and television sta- — are at least 44 years old, it’s tions are virtually non-existent. common for things to break Internet access is a little easier down. to come by but not widely It’s also a reminder of how available. And it’s illegal for a things in Cuba don’t change. In Cuban to own a VCR or a his lifetime, Antonio says, gov- satellite dish. But the tourists, ernment rations of beans, rice, while bolstering the Cuban coffee and sugar have never economy, are also walking bill- increased. When he was 16, he boards for what Castro fears. had had it. He left on a raft for Jose sees these billboards the United States. every day. He made it (another reason The 27-year-old Cuban his friends call him the lucky artist says he doesn’t much care one). But after six years in for tourists in general. Jose, Michigan and Florida, he whose name also has been missed his family. He took changed, knows that Cuba has

75 in a large, open-air market in a fixed-up area of Old Havana. There, she sells the sterling sil- ver necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings her mother makes. Cecilia attended Havana University, where she studied civil construction. But peddling jewelry is still more profitable, even though her family must pay $168 each month in rent and another 60 pesos per day in fees to the government. “The money is still better than other jobs,” she said. Díaz, the vice director of Havanatur, said it was common for even educated people to try to break into the tourism indus- try. “The pay in tourism is high- er,” he said. “There is income other than salary.” Cubans — particularly young, resourceful ones —have found all sorts of ways to pick KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star up a few dollars off tourists. Cuban couples sit along the Malecón. Below: A man holds his baby. Some rent rooms in their homes or draw caricatures of good-natured foreigners. Others benefits other countries don’t turn to prostitution or begging. A vacation spot — the oft-mentioned free So lucrative is tourism that In 2000, 44 percent of Cuba’s health care, free education some young Cubans are choos- through the university level income was from tourism, says ing to become bellhops or wait- and, most importantly, he says, ers over lawyers or teachers, said Antonio Díaz, vice director of equality. But tourists, specifical- Jaime Suchlichi, director of the Havantur. ly women he’s had relationships Institute for Cuban and Cuban More than 300,000 Canadians with from France, Canada and American Studies at the Italy, have opened his eyes to a visited Cuba in 2002, Díaz esti- University of Miami. bigger world. Enrollment at Havana mates. And then there’s the issue of University, he says, has Cuba is now the ninth most money. decreased as the number of popular vacation spot in the Tourists have it. Cubans tourism jobs has climbed. don’t. And with more tourists “You can do better in Caribbean, compared with 1990, traipsing through than ever when it was ranked number 23. tourism,” he said. before, Cubans are more aware The result has been the Cuba now boasts six times as of how little they have, Jose emergence of two classes in many hotel rooms, and employment says. Cuba — the tourists and the in the tourism industry has doubled “I don’t have the money for locals. And within the local nada. I don’t have the money said. “I get mad.” in the past 10 years, Díaz says. class, two more groups have for new shoes,” he says, gestur- And lately, he said, the ID emerged — those with access to ing toward worn brown boots. has worked less often. Antonio tourists and those without. There’s also the issue of class. looks more Cuban than when Díaz acknowledges more In many parts of Cuba, only he first returned. His tan is cracks have appeared in Cuban tourists can get into a hotel or deeper, and his feet have society, but he doesn’t think the restaurant. Only tourists can become callused and cracked. industry is to blame. visit the beach. Cubans spend a lot of time “The problem is not It angers Antonio that only a in the sun, and they walk more. tourism. The problem is the faded Florida driver’s license economic problem we faced gets him into some businesses As tourism grows, so does after the collapse of socialism in in his own country. It angers the number of Cubans who Russia,” he said. him more that other Cubans — want to work in the booming “Tourism is a solution.” those who haven’t lived in the industry — where American United States and don’t have dollars will buy many things Tourism is not a solution for American identification — can’t that Cuban pesos won’t. everyone, however. Thousands get in at all. Cecilia Garcia, a 23-year-old flee Cuba every year and many “My friends get mad,” he Cuban, works with her mother go to Miami.

76 That’s where Eudel Cepero ended up. Before he left Cuba in 1999, Cepero, now 41, worked for the Cuban Environmental Agency. But during the 16 years he worked for the government, he grew frustrated realizing his research and recommendations were often futile. “Cuba is a closed circle,” he says. “If an industry is polluting a river, who is responsible? The government.” Now, he works for Florida International University, where, he says, he is more free to pur- sue his goals. “I have a lot of challenges here,” he says. “I can see what is in front of me and can do what I want.” The allure of challenge, and making big bucks for it, has lured away many smart, young, educated Cubans, Cepero says. KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Janisset Rivero is another Brothers Dewis Villa (left), Renaldo Poey and Eric Villa (right) sit in the shadows on the concrete ledge beneath a hole in who left. the ceiling of their apartment. Below: Young Cuban women walk among some bicycle-drawn taxis that carry tourists. Rivero, 34, who now works for the Directorio Democratico Cubano, a Miami-based organi- Others want to go back. zation promoting the spread of Javier de Céspedes is one of democracy in Cuba, left with those. her family when she was 15. At 36, Céspedes has visited She had become disillu- Cuba but has never lived there. sioned with Fidel a few years His parents fled to Mexico before she left. Though her par- before he was born. Now he, ents ardently opposed the revo- like Rivero, works for the lution, Rivero learned to be a Directorio Democratico socialist in school and tried to Cubano. He is the organiza- be a good one. tion’s president. “At the beginning, I thought On paper, Céspedes is my parents were crazy,” she Mexican and American — he says. “I believed more in my has citizenship in both coun- teachers.” tries. In his heart he is Cuban. She began to question what “My family’s been in Cuba she was learning, however, 500 years. You can’t just unplug when she got in trouble for that.” writing a letter to her aunt and Nearly everyone agrees that grandmother, who had fled to the day when Cubans and Venezuela. Americans are able to come and “I said, ‘Why is this like a go freely is coming soon. crime? How is it affecting my This will present another set point of view or my ideology?’” of challenges, says Alberto “I don’t know which group talism and democracy work Despite her protests, she Ibarguen, publisher of The will be more disappointed,” their way into Cuba. But he can Miami Herald. Ibarguen says. think of only one way for that says, the incident could have jeopardized her plans to become Making money in the to happen. a member of the Communist United States is not as easy as It’s late afternoon, and “He’s sick, you know,” Party and study at the universi- commonly believed in Cuba, he Antonio and the tourist are fin- Antonio says. “He got sick after ty. says, and the Cuba of 2003 is ishing up their tour of Old he was bit by a mosquito. His And then there’s Antonio, nothing like the Cuba of 1959, Havana. He is telling her how blood sugar is high.” who left once and hopes to 1975, 1989 or even 2000. With frustrated he is, how impatient Antonio is hopeful that the leave again. Cuba’s humid climate, paint, he is for change. He wants to end of a 44-year era could come Is he unusual? wood and stone deteriorate go back to the United States soon. “Everyone wants to leave,” quickly. Buildings can erode but is unsure whether he’ll get “He has to die sometime.” he says. “Everyone.” significantly, or even crumble, the chance. Failing that, he’d in just a few years. like to see at least a little capi-

77 What’s in store after Fidel? A question that obsesses Cubans at home, away By Melissa Lee The first time you ask, the 40- year-old unemployed Cuban father of three finishes the query for you. Surprising, you think. He’s a smart one. You ask it again, this time to a 20-year-old University of Havana student. “So, I’m curious …” She quickly jumps in. “Sí … What do I think will happen when Fidel dies, that is your question, ¿no?” Yes. That’s it. So … ? Karen Brito, an aspiring jour- nalist, shakes her head and combs her fingers through brown curls. “Ah, no sé, no sé. We’re scared. We don’t know. After Fidel, there is going to be great sadness for the Cuban people.” Alonso is a 20-year-old Havana waiter who prefers anonymity. He looks you straight in the eye and says, in carefully practiced English, “Death, it is a bad thing to wish on another per- son. “But I tell you a secret: Every day I wish it for Fidel.” Ninety miles and a world away, Heriberto García, a 78- year-old who in 1959 boarded a raft bound for America, lights a cigar and leans heavily on his cane in Miami’s Little Havana. “Before Fidel, I had freedom,” he says finally. “When he dies, I’m sure it’s going to be better than now. It’s going to be easier.” Whether on island or main- land, it’s a question that obsesses and haunts 11 million Cubans and Miami’s large and powerful exile community. They’ve heard it a thousand times — around the dinner table, in hushed street conversations and especially in their own thoughts. And for good reason: Fidel Castro has kept an iron-fisted KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star grip on Cuba for more than 44 Fidel Castro and Jose Martí look out from a large sign celebrating the 50th anniversary of Castro’s July 26, 1953, years. His presence is felt every- attack on the Moncada Army Barracks that failed but brought him national prominence. The sign says, “I carry where — on billboards lauding the doctrines of the teacher in my heart.” his leadership, in headlines from

78 government-controlled newspa- pers, in a stroke of the Cuban Fidel Castro chin when his name comes to Born: Aug. 13, 1926, to Spanish mind. Castro’s most extreme crit- farmer Angel Castro y Agriz and ics say his countrymen are at his mercy 24/7. the family housemaid, Lina Ruz But with the coming of his Gonzalez. 77th birthday this August, many Birthplace: Oriente Province, increasingly ponder what’s in store Cuba. for the isolated socialist island after its leader dies. Some, like Education: Catholic schools in Brito, say they will mourn the Santiago de Cuba; Belen College, a death of a revered leader. Jesuit high school in Havana, 1941- But others, including anti- 45; University of Havana Law Castro Americans dedicated to building a free Cuba, are driven KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star School, 1946-50. A sign with Castro’s image reads: “We will know how to be capable of fol- by the hope that his passing will Occupation: Supreme ruler of lowing your example for them. Eternal glory.” bring democracy and an opportu- the only communist regime in the nity to lift the 42-year-old trade Western Hemisphere. and travel embargo between The contenders America and its neighbor. Political history: Protested as Interviews with numerous Raúl Castro, Fidel’s brother, No. 2 on the Cuban power ladder and leader of a law student; worked in Colombia Miami exiles, Cuban experts and the military. Many used to assume he was the automatic heir to Fidel’s throne. against formation of Organization citizens reveal several significant But like Fidel, he is in his 70s, and some say he lacks his brother’s charisma. of American States; ran for elec- issues leading the post-Castro debate. Specifically: Ricardo Alarcón, National Assembly of People’s Power, president. tion to Cuban Chamber of His successor. The candi- Carlos Lage, vice president. Deputies in 1952, but Gen. dates include a brother, just four Felipe Pérez Roque, Castro’s former secretary and current minister of foreign Fulgencia Batista canceled elec- years younger, who already con- affairs. tion; became a revolutionary and trols the military; a Harvard-edu- cated former Cuban ambassador spent three years in jail after July to the United Nations; a young, 26, 1953, attack on Moncada handsome minister of Foreign Military Barracks; continued to Affairs — or an ordinary civilian amass following until Jan. 8, 1959, no one can name. when he accepted the mantle of Whether the growing move- Castro Alarcón Lage Roque ment within both countries to power. end the embargo will succeed. Quote: “Very few who meet Whether the United States free elections and democratic But in a true democracy, there will play a role in Cuba’s transi- reforms. Cuba was to see new life, would have been competition for him are not seduced by his per- tion period — and if so, what he vowed. some of those 609 spots, Castro’s sonal charm, even those who vio- plans exist for possible reconstruc- But he’s not fulfilled those critics note. lently disagree with him on ideo- tion. promises. In fact, critics say, “This is a very evil, repressive logical grounds. He has a special They are complex issues, and Castro has long since taken his system,” says Javier de Céspedes, no exact answers can be pinned “Viva la Revolución” mantra to president of the Miami-based quality shared by few politicians, down. But all agree on one thing: terrifying extremes. For four Directorio Democratico Cubano, of giving his undivided attention to Castro isn’t likely to loosen his decades, he and his government an organization that fights for anyone speaking to him, no mat- grip willingly, and when his have controlled everything: democracy in Cuba. “Repression ter how lowly he is or how insignif- throne becomes vacant, Cuba whether citizens can own a car, happens all your life. There’s could find itself in limbo. what makes its way into the com- nothing in your life that’s private. icant his comments. He also has “Something will have to munist-run media, who can enter It all belongs to the government.” the capacity to pick the brains of change. I don’t know what, but what establishments. Wonders Florida his visitors in a way that is flatter- something is going to change,” In January’s parliamentary Congresswoman Ileana Ros- ing to them and at the same time says 69-year-old Erena Peña, a elections, all 609 candidates ran Lehtinen, who left Cuba with her Miami resident who fled Cuba in unopposed. Political dissidents family at age 7: “If it’s such a great of immense value to him.” — 1967. “History says that. refused to participate and encour- place, why are people literally Peter Bourne, who met Castro “But he’s a devil. Devils don’t aged their fellow citizens to follow dying to come to America? as a representative of the U.S. die easily.” suit; nevertheless, Castro and “There’s no future in Cuba. government in 1979. other government officials were There’s no future in commu- A post-Castro Cuba cannot be among millions to cast a ballot nism.” considered until a Castro-con- that day. To the disgust of many tary conflicts and countless assas- trolled Cuba is understood, for Cuban dissidents, Vice President Where, then, can Cuba find a sination attempts — this much is his face, his messages, seep into Carlos Lage told reporters the new future? certain: He will die. every aspect of Cuban life. elections were “truly free and Many hope it’s in Fidel’s suc- In a trip around the island in When his rebel troops over- democratic” because candidates cessor. For although he may seem summer 2001, the Cuban leader threw dictator Fulgencio Batista spent so little money on their invincible — he has outlasted 10 repeatedly complained of the in 1959, he delivered promises of campaigns. U.S. presidents, a number of mili- heat. And in June that same year,

79 he collapsed from heat exhaustion does know what he’s crossing his during a two-hour rally just out- fingers for. side Havana. “This is all I have, you know?” Many Cubans panicked, he says, gesturing to his denim thinking their hero’s end was jacket and jeans. “I have nothing approaching. But Castro quickly else. This ration system, it is bull- allayed those fears, telling citizens shit. I have rice, potatoes, every he was fine. Later, surrounded by night. Meat? No. I do not reporters, he hinted at his succes- remember the last time I tasted sor’s identity. meat. “If they tell me tomorrow “The Cuban people, we have morning, ‘You’re having a heart PHOTOS COURTESY OF TOM REIBER to hope, you know? Because this attack,’ a sudden death or if I Fidel Castro visits with a group of American businessmen and farmers dur- is all we got, we at least got to have an accident … and I go to ing an eight-hour dinner in January 2002. Tom Reiber (below far right), a hope for something better.” sleep for eternity, Raúl is the one farmer from Gibbon, Neb., was among those invited to accompany a dele- with the most authority and gation from Minneapolis-based Cargill to meet with Cuban officials and But no one’s saying Castro’s experience.” deliver 25,000 metric tons of American corn to the island nation. successor will lead Cuba as he has. So, the first candidate: Fidel’s In fact, most contenders have younger brother, Raúl, four years indicated they’d be open to an his junior, who runs the country’s idea rapidly gaining support both military and is No. 2 on the in America and Cuba: lifting the Cuban power ladder. 42-year-old trade and travel Long hailed by most experts as embargo. the one to fill Fidel’s combat President Bush, however, has boots, Raúl is the frontrunner for said repeatedly that he supports a variety of reasons — his family the embargo — or, as Cubans call lineage, his knowledge of the sys- it, the “blockade” — until there tem and his control of the are free, democratic elections in weapons among them. Also, Cuba. according to Article 94 of the His hard-line stance has not Cuban Constitution, in case of gone unchallenged. Members of absence, illness or death of the Congress, including Nebraska president, the first vice president Sen. Chuck Hagel, are pressuring assumes responsibility. Bush to dissolve the embargo. But there are doubts. For one, And even Miami’s Cuban he’s not much younger than his American exile community, older brother. And he’s been criti- whose support Bush used to cized for drinking and smoking experts say he will simply main- recent years. An experienced count on, is wavering. A February too much and not getting enough tain his stronghold on the mili- worldwide traveler, he was presi- Miami Herald survey showed a sleep — a far cry from Fidel, who tary and appoint a little-known dent of the University Student majority of Cuban Americans exercises regularly and long ago government figure, or even a civil- Foundation at the University of supported lifting the embargo. stopped smoking his beloved ian, to lead the country. Havana, where he earned both And despite current restric- Cohiba cigars. “He is already running the medical and law degrees. Yet in a tions, more and more Americans There’s another problem: Raúl country,” says Jaime Suchlicki, 1999 interview with the Madrid- are traveling to Cuba. Almost is decidedly less charismatic. Even director of the Institute for Cuban based Cuban Liberal Union, it 176,000 of them flew through those who hate Fidel admit he has and Cuban-American Studies at was suggested Lage might be the Mexico, Jamaica or Canada to get an uncanny ability to cast people the University of Miami. “He will one to follow Fidel. Lage’s swift to Cuba in 2001, according to the under his spell. continue behind the scenes in reply: “Frankly, no.” Castro’s suc- Cuba-U.S. Trade and Economic “Fidel, son of a … ” growls control. He’ll probably allow cessor, Lage told the reporter, Council, a New York City-based García, the Miami Cuban exile. some civilian to take over.” needs to have a bit more “person- organization that keeps tabs on He says fleeing was difficult at Raúl’s hat is not alone in the ality.” the Cuban economy. first, because it was easy to believe ring of speculation, however. That makes Felipe Pérez In Miami, too, businesses are the lofty promises. Another belongs to Ricardo Roque, Cuba’s current minister of preparing for the day Castro dies. “I was under the psychological Alarcón, president of the National Foreign Affairs, a definite possibil- They’re poised for possible trade impression of Fidel,” says García, Assembly of People’s Power. The ity. Energetic, handsome and, at opportunities, according to sitting on a bench in Miami’s 65-year-old Alarcón is savvy, well- age 37, significantly younger than Alberto Ibarguen, the Herald’s Domino Park, where elderly respected and well-educated — he other government leaders, Roque publisher. Ibarguen joins other Cuban Americans gather to boasts a Harvard degree, has is especially popular among experts in saying it’s only a matter smoke, chat and play dominoes. served as Cuba’s minister of younger Cubans. And it was of time now before the embargo “Fidel is charming. He can trick Foreign Affairs and was Cuban Roque who helped Castro off the disappears. everybody. Raúl, no. ambassador to the United podium when he collapsed in “When Fidel dies, I think “The only good thing would Nations for nearly 15 years. But 2001. there’ll be an attempt … by com- be if Fidel died … but we cannot many doubt he has the charisma Most Cubans hesitate to pick mercial Miami to start trading find anybody to take leadership. to replace Fidel. one name from the pool. with Cuba,” he says. “I have a Who knows?” There’s also Vice President Alonso, the young Havana feeling things will change.” Another reason Raúl may not Lage, 51, who has helped Cuba waiter, has no idea what will hap- Locally, Nebraska’s leaders also be Cuba’s next president: Some through tough economic times in pen when Castro dies. But he have pushed for opening trade

80 with Cuba. They say the state could reap substantial economic benefits from trading rice, beans, grains, flour and other products. According to a 2001 study by Texas A&M University, America would see $411 million in Cuban exports if the embargo were lifted — with Nebraska ranking in the top 10 states receiving financial benefits. Some Miamians are disgusted by those arguments, though. Nebraska is simply singing the song of capitalism, they say, with- out regard to the welfare of Cuban citizens. “It’s awful Nebraska wants to trade,” García says. “They are looking for business, for money, not freedom, peace. Nebraska doesn’t care. They only think about marketing.” Agrees Antonio Jorge, Castro’s former chief economist and now a PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALBERTO KORDA, REPRINTED WITH professor of economics at Florida PERMISSION FROM THE KORDA PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION International University in OF GEORGE BURKE HINMAN Miami: “This amazes me. This Above: In 1963, a year after the Cuban really I find amazing. Please don’t Missile Crisis, Castro visited Russia. tell me how Nebraska farmers are During a visit to Nikita Khrushchev’s losing sleep over the poor under- dacha outside Moscow, Castro uses a nourished Cuban children.” Polaroid to photograph the Russian Then, later: “Perhaps I was a premier and his family. bit harsh on your Nebraska farm- Left: Looking much like your weekend ers. Nothing personal.” hacker, the socialist revolutionary indulges in capitalist recreation. A final question is whether Cuba will need assistance during He’s been studying English phras- its post-Castro transition — and es, he says. whether the United States will “Crux of the matter, you know lend a hand. that one? Once in a blue moon, Suchlicki, of the University of you heard of that one? I’ve been Miami, has led the Cuba reading … ” He pauses to kiss Transition Project since he initiat- your hand. “You can send me ed it in 1967 when he came to American books when you get the United States from Cuba. It’s back? A dictionary? I want to a series of publications dealing learn, to learn. with various Cuban institutions “I want to be the best when I that could falter after Castro’s get to America. When Fidel dies, death — its judicial system, econ- that is when I will go.” omy, educational system, military Near Miami’s Domino Park, and health care. Four booklets establishing a timetable for because Castro’s Revolution runs Erena Peña fingers her large gold have been published, and 21 are holding free, internationally deep in Cuba. And the people hoop earrings and smoothes her forthcoming in the next years. supervised elections. may not be ready for immediate metallic-gold pants before speak- Depending on Fidel’s succes- legalizing the formation of change; most will grieve consider- ing of the country she once loved. sor, Cuba could need plenty of opposing political parties. ably at Castro’s death. She doesn’t care to guess what U.S. help, Suchlicki says. observing civil liberties and “It’s not a master plan,” he may come of her homeland when He and Congresswoman Ros- human rights for all Cubans. says. “You can pass beautiful laws, Fidel Castro dies. Other people Lehtinen say officials in Miami establishing a free, inde- but if the attitude of the people is may know, she says. Not her. are ready to help Cubans set up pendent press, radio and televi- not there, it’s not going to work. “But I think there is hope,” sophisticated infrastructure, such sion. “It’s going to take a long Peña says, smiling. “Hope is the as phone lines, fax machines, opening up Cuba to foreign time.” last thing you lose. Internet — none of which today’s visitors. “You always have to have average Cuban has access to. revising the Cuban For at least one young Cuban, hope.” According to Suchlicki, pri- Constitution and legal system. the post-Castro era matters little. mary goals for U.S. officials aid- It will be difficult and time- Ángel, 22, stops you on a Havana ing a transitioning Cuba are: consuming, Suchlicki says, street, eager to show what he’s got.

81 SOURCE LIST A Malecón Angel De Fana, ex-Cuban political Houari Abdelaziz, 49, Cuban Dr. José Carro, Cuban Liberty prisoner now with Cuban American man with AIDS in Havana Council, Miami National Foundation (CANF), Ofelia Acevedo, wife of Varela Laida Carro, Cuban Liberty Miami Project leader Oswaldo Payá Council, human rights activist, Father Fernando de la Vega, Ricardo Alarcón, president of Miami Montserrate Church AIDS Cuba's National Assembly of Humberto Castello, executive edi- support group, Havana People’s Power tor, El Nuevo Herald, Miami José Eduardo De Leon, 23, Brian Alexander, executive director, Ninoska Pérez Castellón, radio talk American medical student in Cuba Policy Foundation, show host, Cuban Liberty Council Havana Washington, D.D. member, Miami Marilu Del Toro, communications Dr. Lazaro Alvarez, head of neuro- Marta Castillo, elderly woman sell- director, Directorio Democratico logical disorder clinic, CIREN, ing memorabilia in La Plaza Cubano, Miami Havana de Armas, Havana Antonio Díaz, vice director, The Rev. Lazaro R. Alvarez, pastor Dr. Miladys Castillo, Latin Havantur, Havana of Iglesia Metodista Universitaria, American School of Medicine, Antonio Díaz, Christian Liberation Havana Havana Movement member, Havana, sen- Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Ramon Humberto Colás Castillo, tenced in April to 20 years in prison Alimport, Cuba's chief import director of Independent Libraries of Nidia Díaz, chief of international agency Cuba, Miami information, Granma newspaper, José Antonio, 44, unemployed bak- Max Castro, University of Miami Havana ery worker, Havana researcher, Miami Herald columnist Orlando Díaz, 31, unemployed Tessie Aral, vice president of ABC Miladys Castro, 34, daughter of father of two in Havana Charters, Miami Vladimiro Roca, lives in Tampa, Orlando Díaz, 36, taxi driver, Fla. Havana B J. Cisnero, 22, Havana bank Ariel Dominguez, 27-year-old man Dr. Byron Barksdale, North Platte employee with AIDS, Havana pathologist, head of Cuban AIDS Dr. Marilyn Claro, vice director, Felix Dominguez, 43-year-old Project Frank País Orthopedic Center, meatpacking employee, Norfolk, Michael Blake, 22, Auburn Havana Neb. University architecture student Abel Contreras de la Guardia, Jenny Dominguez, 20-year-old studying in Havana Havana tour guide Havana resident, daughter of Felix Pedro Ugarte Bravo, 31, cook, Raúl Costoya, 78-year-old Cuban- Dominguez ourist aide, Havana American in Domino Park, Miami Karen Brito, 20, University of James Henry Creedon, New Yorker E Havana journalism student studying medicine in Havana Salvador Gonzáles Escalona, Cuban Pablo Cubela, member of Iglesia artist, Havana C Metodista Universitaria, Havana Guillermo Cabrera, director of Jose F Martí International Press Institute, D Amaury Febles, Havana resident Havana Roberto de Armas, U.S. specialist Marcell Felipe, Cuban-American Mario Calzado, 15-year-old boy with Cuba's foreign ministry, attorney, Cuban Liberty Council fishing on the Malecón Havana board member, Miami Carlos Manuel Cardella, 42-year- Javier de Céspedes, 36, president of Alína Fernández, daughter of Fidel old candy-maker fishing on the Directorio Democratico Cubano, Castro, radio personality, Miami Miami

82 SOURCE LIST Efrén Fernández, Christian Jorge González, Web design M Liberation Movement member, company manager, Hialeah, Fla. Jay Mallin, former news director, Havana, sentenced in April to Ricardo González, independent Radio Martí 12 years in prison journalist, Havana, sentenced in Ana Milagros Martínez, Federation Gladys Rodríguez Ferrero, Cuban April to 20 years in prison of Cuban Women Hemingway scholar in Havana official, Havana Susan Fischli, 23, American H Gerardo Martínez, friend of former student in Havana Liliet Heredero, journalism political prisoner Vladimiro Roca, Juan Fransisco, doorman at student, Havana University Miami Havana's El Floridita Frank Hernandez, Cuban translator Roberto Martínez, aka Agent Mike Fuller, New Yorker teaching in Havana Ernesto, Cuban government spy English at Jose Martí Press Institute, Jesus Joel Díaz Hernandez, former whose testimony helped put inde- Havana imprisoned Cuban journalist now pendent journalist Omar Rodríguez Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, director, in Texas Saludes in prison Juventud Rebelde newspaper, Ron Hogan, volunteer for Cuba Rene Perez Massola, Jose Martí Havana AIDS Project, Cape Coral, Fla. Press Institute official, Havana Boris Matos, 67, Cuban-American G I who fled after revolution, Domino Cecilia Garcia, 23, jewelry vendor Alberto Ibarguen, publisher, Park, Miami at Old Havana street market The Miami Herald Eduardo Miguel Medua, 24, Heriberto García, 78, Cuban- American medical student, Havana American in Miami who fled Cuba J Dennys Molina, 33-year-old in 1959 Raúl Janes, 70, Cuban-American English teacher who practices Joe Garcia, president, Cuban who fled after revolution, Miami Santeria, Havana American National Foundation, Antonio Jorge, former Castro econ- Omar López Montenegro, Miami omist, now at Florida International executive director, CANF, Miami Salvador Rodríguez Garcia, 19- University Elsa Morejón, wife of political pris- year-old man with AIDS, Havana oner Oscar Elías Biscet González, Angel Garrido, psychiatrist, Cuban L Havana Liberty Council member, Miami Dr. Vicente Lago, gastroenterolo- Mariela Fernández Moreno, 23, Nicholas Giacobbe, U.S. Interests gist, Miami Havana security officer Section, Havana Carlos Lauría, Committee to Frank Aguero Gomez, director gen- Protect Journalists, New York O eral, Granma newspaper, Havana Juan León, director of international TomOsborne, Nebraska congress- Alicia González, Cuban women's relations, Cuban Ministry of man rights activist Agriculture Manuel David Orrio, aka Agent Daniel Salas González, 19, Havana Nadege Loiseau, medical student in Miguel, spy posing as independent University student, intern, Juventud Havana journalist, Havana; testimony put Rebelde Jorge Luis, caretaker of Iglesia several Cuban journalists in prison Daniel González, CANF volunteer, Catolica Santa Rita de Casia, in 2003 Miami Havana Eduardo González, Hemingway Julio Garcia Luis, dean, Havana P scholar, Johns Hopkins University University communications faculty Erena Peña, 69, Cuban-American Fara González, a nun who volun- Claudia Márquez Linares, director, who fled Cuba in 1967, Miami teers with AIDS patients, Havana independent news agency, Havana Isaac Peralta, Mexican medical

83 SOURCE LIST

student, Havana University computer science student Judy Tjiong, 34, Auburn University Emma Calderi Perez, 17, Havana Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-Fla.), architecture student University student, Juventud U.S. congresswoman, Miami in Havana Rebelde intern Heather Ross, 21, Auburn William Trumbull, professor on the Dr. Teresa Romero Perez, assistant University architecture student in Cuban economy, West Virginia medical school director, Havana Havana University Matlide Skeete Planes, 60-year-old Joaquín Roy, professor, University Havana resident, retired neurologist of Miami V Marcos Orlando Villa Poey, 26- Jose Orlando Ruiz, 70, former Odilia Collazo “Lily” Valdés, aka year-old Cuban janitor, Havana actor, famed Havana street person Agent Tania, spy posing as human Beatriz Polanco, medical student, rights activist, Havana; her testimo- Havana S ny helped put several journalists in Hans de Salas-del Valle, researcher, prison in 2003 R Cuban Transition Project, Alberto Velaquez, proud owner of Renato Recio, writer for University of Miami heavily modified four-door '57 Trabajadores, Havana Omar Rodríguez Saludes, inde- Dodge, Havana Nancy Remon, medical school pub- pendent journalist, Havana, sen- Ivan Verez, Cuban-American shop lic relations official, Havana tenced to 27 years in prison owner, Miami Naty Revuelta, mother of Castro's Margarita Barrio Sánchez, 42, Bertha Gomez Vina, member of only known daughter, Havana Cuban newspaper reporter, Havana Iglesia de Santo Angel Custodio, Raúl Rivero, independent journal- Tony Santiago, friend of former Havana ist, Havana, sentenced to 20 years political prisoner Vladimiro Roca, in prison in April Miami W Janisset Rivero, with Directorio Wayne Smith, former head of Matina Weeks, 22, American med- Democratico Cubano, Miami U.S. Interests Section, Havana ical student, Havana Vladimiro Roca, ex-political prison- Gene Sosin, former employee, er and now a leading dissident, Radio Free Europe Z Havana Sandra Spanier, Hemingway Yurisander Guevara Zaila, 19, Gustavo Rodríguez, Juventud scholar, Penn State University student, Juventud Rebelde intern, Rebelde cartoonist, Husker fan, Rochelle Spencer, Australian doc- Havana Havana toral student, Havana Johann Rodríguez, 23-year-old Esther Sterphems, member, Iglesia Miami Cuban Catolica Santa Rita de Casia, Orlando Rodríguez, former direc- Havana tor, Radio/TV Martí, Miami Jaime Suchlicki, director, Institute Paul S. Rodríguez, radio for Cuban and Cuban-American production specialist, Studies, Miami Radio Martí, Miami John Suárez, Directorio Pedro L. Vilches Rodríguez, Democratico Cubano Havanatur official, Havana official, Miami Sauro González Rodríguez, with the Committee to Protect T Journalists, New York Baz Talrue, musician, Havana Margarita Rojo, Radio Martí news Tracye Tidwell, 21, Auburn director, Miami University architecture student Roberto Romero, 28, Havana in Havana

84 SOURCE LIST The following list represents Fishermen, Cojimar N sources who requested anonymity. Franco, 21-year-old student, Navil, 21, journalism student, In some cases only their first names Havana University of Havana were used and in other cases the first names were changed. G O Gregorio, 32, artist, Havana Omar, 28, earned a degree in A Guillermo (Willy), 58, retired, hydraulic technology, now a tour Alan, 20-something electrical Rumba Festival patron, Havana guide, Havana technician, Havana Alberto, 26, Havana street hustler I P Alonso, 20, waiter, Havana Ileana, 44-year-old mother, Havana Pedro, government employee, Amilcar, AIDS support group Isaías, 25-year-old cashier, Havana Havana volunteer, Havana Pedro, 31-year-old cook who Ana, a 19-year-old jinitera on the J hustles tourists, Havana Malecón Janet, a 19-year-old jinitera on Ángel, 20-year-old waiter, Havana the Prado, Havana R Ángel, 22-year-old resident, Havana Jean, an 18-year-old jinitera on Roberto, 29-year-old cook, Havana Anthony, 29-year-old man on the the Prado, Havana Romero, a school volunteer, streets, Havana José, 31, husband of a jinitera, Havana Anthony, construction worker at Havana Rosa, an 18-year-old jinitera Capitol, Havana José, lived in New York as child, on the Malecón, Havana Antonio, 25-year-old who offers now lives in Havana horse-drawn carriage rides to José, 27, artist and Havana resident T tourists, Havana José, self-employed tour guide, Tessie, a 21-year-old jinitera Ariel, 25, Havana native studying pimp, wife is a prostitute, Havana on the Prado, Havana tourism service at Havana José, 57, guide, interpreter, taxi University driver, Havana Arturo, 48, sales clerk in a T-shirt Josefina, journalism student, shop near El Floridita, Havana University of Havana Juancarlos, 32, employee at a flower C shop, tourist guide, Havana Carlos, a 39-year-old artist, Havana Charly, 22, a university student, L Havana Lazario, 29, self-employed tour guide from Santa Clara D Lazario, 49, proprietor of a David, 57, retired electrical engineer paladar, professor at a technical from Holguín school, Havana E M Eduardo, 70, psychologist, Havana María, a 20-year-old jinitera on the Malecón, Havana F María, 36, saleswoman, Havana Fabio, 23-year-old encountered Marlene, 36-year-old woman, on streets, Havana Old Havana

85 Credits and thanks Reporters Dakarai Aarons Joe Duggan Sarah Fox Matthew Hansen Melissa Lee Shane Pekny Cara Pesek Jill Zeman

Copy Editors BILL KELLY/Nebraska Educational Television Marilyn Hahn Front row: Joe Duggan, Cara Pesek and Matthew Hansen, David Pittock. Back row: Professor Jerry Renaud, Professor Joe Starita, Catharine Huddle, Shane Pekny, Jill Zeman, Melissa Lee, Dakarai Aarons, Catharine Huddle Sarah Fox and Lindsey Kealy.

Photographers Page Graphic Dakarai Aarons Designer Designer Ken Blackbird Lindsay Quentin Joe Duggan Grieser Sarah Fox Lueninghoener Catharine Huddle

Shane Pekny Thank you: Cuban Liberty Council; Max director, Nebraska Press Students and faculty at Castro, University of Miami; Association; Paul Fell, the University of Nebraska Guillermo Cabrera, director Lincoln Journal Star; Peter Journalism College owe a general of the Jose Martí Levitov, University of Courtesy Photos good deal of gratitude to a International Press Institute; Nebraska International number of individuals whose Roberto de Armas, with the Affairs; the Lincoln Journal Tom Reiber kindness, patience and sup- Cuban Foreign Ministry; Star; Abel Contreras de la port made this report possi- Luis Fernández, first secre- Guardia, official tour guide; Lincoln Journal ble. That list includes: tary, Cuban Interests George Burke Hinman, Star Alberto Ibarguen, publisher Section; Father Fernando de unofficial tour guide. of The Miami Herald; Joe la Vega, vice chancellor of Finally, to the many George Burke Garcia of the Cuban the Havana Archdiocese; Cuban people in Miami and American National Maria Aral and Ana Limia, Havana who gave us their Hinman Foundation; Marcell Felipe ABC Charters; Allen time, thoughts and passion and Laida Carro of the Beermann, executive — muchas grácias.

86 KEN BLACKBIRD/Lincoln Journal Star Though not always free to speak their minds, Cubans dance freely throughout the island, as in this Havana restaurant.

87