In 1959 I turned 24. I was single, sighted and working at a drapery
factory full time and doing free lance photography evenings and
weekends.
When Fulgencio Batista was ousted as Cuba's dictator, I cheered. I'd
been following the struggles of Fidel Castro and his rag tag Freedom
Fighters. I clearly remember the photographs of Fulgencio Batista's
palatial surroundings, with his closets filled to overflowing with
top-of-the-line clothing.
These photos were in contrast to the ones of little ragged children,
barefoot in the dusty back roads, playing in the open sewers and
living in shanty towns. And at the same time we saw the gay lights
and fancy casinos and five star hotels with the Americans dressed in
their finery, laughing and contented to look away from the squalor.
And how well I recall the aristocratic Cubans fleeing, like Rats
deserting a sinking ship, crowding into Miami where they were
sheltered by a government that proclaimed to promote democracy around
the world. This ghetto of vermin has been an embarrassment to Freedom
Lovers in America for far too many years. They have given nothing but
contempt to hard working Americans.
It should be a national disgrace when we recall the efforts of the
Empire's government to sabotage, assassinate, and starve out Cubans.
But what can we expect, these people who would bring hardship to
little children in an effort to take control of their government,
these are the same people who think nothing of dropping drones around
the globe, scattering the broken bodies and limbs of little children,
women and elderly, and calling it "collateral Damage".
Carl Jarvis
On 7/26/15, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@freelists.org> wrote:
> http://themilitant.com/2015/7927/792702.html
> The Militant (logo)
>
> Vol. 79/No. 27 August 3, 2015
>
> (lead article)
> Cuba opens DC embassy,
> presses call to lift embargo
>
> BY OMARI MUSA
> AND MARY-ALICE WATERS
> WASHINGTON — Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla raised the
> flag in front of the newly opened Cuban Embassy here July 20 to strains
> of Cuba's national anthem and cheers from the more than 500 people
> gathered to celebrate the formal re-establishment of diplomatic
> relations between the U.S. and Cuban governments. Washington severed
> diplomatic relations with the island on Jan. 3, 1961, as Cuba's workers
> and peasants advanced their socialist revolution and the U.S. rulers
> prepared a mercenary invasion force they erroneously hoped would be able
> to crush it.
> Guests joining the celebration came from all over the U.S., from
> California to Massachusetts, Illinois and Florida. Many had been
> fighting for decades against the U.S. policy of trying to overthrow the
> Cuban Revolution through military action, economic warfare,
> assassination attempts, the financing of armed counterrevolutionary
> groups, countless subversive programs and increasingly futile efforts to
> isolate the island politically and diplomatically.
>
> The mood in the crowd was festive as several hundred waited more than an
> hour in the blazing heat and humidity of a Washington summer day for the
> activities to begin. During conversations many noted that it was the
> steadfastness and courage of the Cuban people and their revolutionary
> leadership that made this victory possible.
>
> Among the participants in the day's formal ceremonies and the reception
> that followed were members of the U.S. Congress, business people,
> students from Washington universities, Cuban-Americans who have worked
> for the normalization of relations and U.S. residents long active in
> defense of the Cuban Revolution. Representatives came from numerous
> African, Latin American and European embassies as well.
>
> Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere
> affairs, represented the U.S. government at the flag-raising and
> ceremony addressed by Cuba's foreign minister. Jacobson led the U.S.
> negotiating team during the bilateral talks begun after the joint
> announcements Dec. 17 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President
> Raúl Castro of the agreement to upgrade the existing Interests Sections
> of the two governments to full-fledged embassies. The completion of this
> process is understood as a first step toward normalization of relations.
>
> Rodríguez was received later in the day by Secretary of State John
> Kerry, following which they held a joint press conference where both
> spoke of the "profound differences" that continue to exist between the
> two governments and the "long and complex" process of addressing them
> that remains ahead. These issues include the lifting of the multifaceted
> measures of U.S. economic warfare Cubans call the blockade, as well as
> the return to Cuba of the U.S.-held naval base at Guantánamo and, in
> Rodríguez's words, discussing the "deep differences between Cuba and the
> United States with regard to our views about the exercise of human
> rights by all citizens the world over."
>
> At the same time, Rodríguez said, "we strongly believe that we can both
> cooperate and coexist in a civilized way, based on respect for these
> differences."
>
> Among those participating in the day's activities was a delegation of
> some 30 Cubans, including current and former members of the National
> Assembly, former diplomats long involved in U.S.-Cuba relations, and
> leaders from a broad cross section of Cuban society — science, industry,
> medicine, sports, women, farmers, artists, writers and musicians, youth
> and more.
>
> Ramón Sánchez-Parodi, who headed the Cuban Interests Section in
> Washington for 12 years following its opening in 1977, was among those
> present. In remarks published in the Cuban press he commented with
> satisfaction that he had been confident this day would come. "Decades
> have passed," he said, "but it was worth it because the United States
> has recognized the resistance of the Cuban people and now we enter a new
> stage in bilateral relations."
>
> World-renowned artist Alexis Leiva Machado, better known as Kcho, voiced
> the sentiments of many when he noted that the re-establishment of
> diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States was also Fidel's
> achievement. Without the revolution, "Cuba could not have done what we
> have done," he said, calling attention to the fact that Cuba was
> recently singled out by the World Health Organization as "the first
> country in the world to have eliminated the transmission of HIV and
> syphilis from mother to child.
>
> "The enemy has recognized it made a mistake," he said. "That's a victory
> of more than 50 years of the revolution which is the people."
>
>
> Related articles:
> 'Blockade must be lifted, Guantánamo returned':
> Speech by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on
> reopening of Cuban Embassy in US after 54 years
>
>
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>
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