Cuba

“Elections? What for?”
— Fidel Castro, January 1960

“The United States stands with the brave Cubans who have taken to the streets to oppose 62 years of repression under a communist regime.”
— President Biden, July 22, 2021

Take a look at the opening quotes to this essay, pause, and think about them. There is a long litany of American miscalculations, cowardice, gamesmanship, indifference, condescension, and exploitation centered on Cuba, the Cuban people, and Cuban-Americans. It has been a bipartisan problem for decades, with a lot of American political rhetoric; one double-crossed, failed invasion attempt; and brutal communist intransigence.

Thousands of anti-Cuban regime protesters gathered outside the White House Sunday and stayed overnight into Monday to pressure Joe Biden to do more to address socialist Miguel Díaz-Canel’s actions against the people of Cuba.

The group stayed into the night for a planned candlelight vigil at midnight to mark the 26th of July Movement, a Cuban national holiday commemorating the 1953 attack when Fidel Castro led his first attempt to overthrow then-Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

‘I’m 27 and I never thought I would live to see something like this,’ Alex Perez, a Florida resident who came to the United States from Cuba seven years ago, told the Miami Herald as he joined the protest in Washington,D.C.

Sunday July 11. Demonstrations erupt in the main cities of Cuba. Tens of thousands of people take to the streets. They know they risk being brutally arrested, sent to jail, possibly tortured and killed by the police. They reject the communist dictatorship that has oppressed them for 62 years. They shout “Libertad”: freedom. They hold up Cuban and American flags — once again, the symbol of people who yearn to breathe freely.

Those who dream of communism for the Western world first kept silent, then, while making a few criticisms of the dictatorship in Cuba, blamed it on an American embargo. They failed to point out that if the Cuban dictators cannot trade with the United States, they still can trade with the rest of the world; and also failed to point out that Cuba has nothing to sell: its leaders have destroyed the country’s economy.

Governments in Western Europe have made no comment to date; they seem to prefer avoiding the subject.

On Sunday, July 11th, the world took note of a historic event in Cuba, as thousands of citizens took to the streets to protest against the government. Many shouted “Patria y Vida!”—Fatherland and Life—the title of a banned but extremely popular rap song that riffs on a slogan coined by the late Fidel Castro: “Fatherland or Death.” Many also shouted “Libertad!”—Freedom—and similar phrases that are not only heretical but, when shouted in protest, illegal in Cuba, where the Communist Party is the sole legal arbiter of political life.

Nothing better illustrates the utter bankruptcy of communist ideology than Cuba’s basket case economy, which has resulted in the country suffering its largest wave of anti-government protests in at least three decades.

To date, at least one protester has been killed and hundreds more detained, as the communist regime founded by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has responded with characteristic brutality to the outpouring of nationwide dissent.

The beginning for the end of freedom in Cuba seemingly happened without warning to those who living on the island nation. It’s not that they didn’t see it coming. They just didn’t want to believe it.

Cuban exiles, including those in my family, remember the years leading up to the revolution. They understand that liberty is fragile because they watched it slip from their grasp and their lives were upended. They warn that in some ways, the United States is on a similar path.

There’s a man from the government playing love songs in the park. Orlando Fuentes has a table, an awning against the hard Caribbean sun, and a sound system from which floats Silvio Rodríguez’s Cita con Ángeles. A woman says that she can’t listen, that it’s a beautiful song ruined by being played at too many government rallies.

After 16 months of pandemic and a week of unprecedented protests, the Cuban government wants to soothe the anger. Music is being played in parks across the country.

“I call for solidarity and not to let hatred take over the Cuban soul, which is a soul of goodness, affection and love,” tweeted Cuba’s president Miguel Díaz-Canel.