I Love Cuba!
Photos from my visit to Cuba, Dec. 23, 1999 - Jan. 6, 2000.
Havana Kids Cuba is not without its problems, but it's a great place to be a kid.
Trinidad, Cienfuegos and environs Where we spent Christmas.
Havana Everything you ever imagined it to be.
Vinales Gorgeous region in Pinar del Rio.
Note: place the cursor on each photograph to read its caption.
Some thoughts on life in Cuba and the case of Elian Gonzalez
I wrote this tract shortly after returning from Cuba and in
the heat of the Elian case. January 15, 2000
A superpower needs an enemy to kick around, and today that enemy is
Cuba. Thus presidential candidate Al Gore insults the decision of his own
agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, whose duty it is to
make the judgement that Elian Gonzalez should be returned to the custody of
his caring father in Cuba. Now the decision is caught up in the Florida
courts, by the wrenching idea that Elian would face ''imminent and
irreparable harm'' if he were returned to Cuba.
I recently visited Cuba, and I must tell you that these people who
would keep a son and his father apart know not of what they speak.
Ordinary Cubans adore America and love Americans. I told dozens of
people that I was from the United States, and every time, the listener's
eyes would light up. In fact, Cuba is the friendliest place I've ever
visited. I was repeatedly invited into the homes of strangers, introduced
to their families, and treated to coffee and hours of conversation.
Cubans are full of life! Children play baseball in the streets,
running and jumping with joyful abandon. Among the adults, conversation
fills the rooms and spills out onto the streets. Salsa music floats through
the air everywhere, all the time.
Racism is alien to Cubans in way that would bring a lump to the throat
of many Americans. People of different colors share houses, neighborhoods,
conversations, work, friendship and family with a natural ease that is
strikingly unfamiliar to us.
There is no denying that repression exists in Cuba and that people are
frustrated. Cubans are well aware of the regime's failings and express
their criticism privately. Yet I learned that Fidel has a level of
continued support and respect because in some important ways he has earned
it by serving the people. Americans may deny that a communist revolution
could produce any benefit, but the Cuban people recognize significant gains
under Castro's regime. For example, Cuba is not a country of shantytowns.
In all my travels, I never saw a house, however modest, that did not have a
firm concrete foundation, running water, and electricity. All the housing
is privately owned by the occupants. Education is uniformly excellent. The
most glamorous mansion in any neighborhood is always the school. Children
are prized and treated with the highest preference. The results are
obvious: I met intelligent, thoughtful conversationalists everywhere.
Cubans want a better life. They want an end to the embargo; they want
more contact with America; they want more opportunities to bring the
economic benefits of capitalism into their system. To illustrate how unreal
our image of life in Cuba is, these ideas are an exact paraphrase of what a
party functionary told me while standing in the local revolutionary
headquarters in Havana. He wasn't looking over his shoulder!
I know these observations go oddly against the grain of the image of
desperate people on rafts, risking their lives to arrive on our shores. But
these few, courageous boat people leave behind many more people in Cuba who
are proud of their country and aren't going anywhere. They want change;
but, like us, they can look beyond a political situation that is out of
their control to find good things to live for. Behind the veil of political
rhetoric, there are real people with hopes and aspirations just like yours
or mine - people with the dignity and power to overcome outer challenges
with inner strength.
I spoke with many people about Elian; they were disgusted with the
political game, and without exception they voiced strongly the view that
Elian must be returned. The reason was simple, having nothing to do with
politics: "Elian belongs with his family. He needs to be with his father."
If you were living under a regime from which you could not extricate
yourself, how would you want the rest of the world to treat you? Would you
want them to deny that you were capable, in spite of the meddling of any
government, of raising your child with love, care and respect? Of bringing
up a healthy, intelligent, self-motivated individual? Of developing
personal relationships with a value that transcends any ideology? If we so
deny that power of humanity, then truly we live in a hopeless time. I'm
afraid the American political scene is dominated by men who are oblivious
to the most basic morality of the family.
