Castro’s Racism Reinforced by Congressional Buffoons
The downtrodden African-Cuban population was drawn to the promise of equality and opportunity by the charismatic leader Fidel Castro who came from a prominent Criollo (pure European ancestry) family. However over the half century the Cuban repressive regime has remained in power, Castro has not brought about racial equality but instead has only widened the gap between white and black. The recent visit of members of the Congressional Black Congress to Cuba demonstrated a perverse total ignorance of the state of race relations by members of Congress who might be the last “Uncle Toms” left in America.
The low status of Cubans of African ancestry is not a secret nor has it been denied even by Cuba’s leader. Ignacio Ramonet, editor of the French monthly, Le Monde Diplomatique held conversations with Fidel Castro between 2003 and 2005 which were published by Cuban Council of State in 2006 as a 718 page book, 100 Hours with Fidel. Castro is directly quoted saying the following “”Blacks do not live in the best homes; they’re still . . . performing hard jobs, sometimes less-remunerated jobs, and fewer blacks receive family remittances in foreign currency than their white compatriots,”
In June of 2007, the Miami Herald published a series of articles looking at race in Cuba. They reported that many blacks were initially hopeful that the Cuban revolution brought about by Castro would finally bring equality to a society that discriminated against those of African ancestry. Although access to health care and education was better than before the revolution for the poor there was still a an inequity. Poor black Cubans were described as being in a “Catch 22” situation not happy with their progress under the Castro regime but fearful that change could leave them worse off.
In January of 2009 a rare look at what the Cuban public is thinking was published in Islas magazine. Cubabarómetro is a polling agency under the direction of Dr. Darsi Ferrer in Havana which did a study in September and October of 2008 looking at how Cubans viewed race. From a sample of 425 people evenly divided between blacks, meztizo (mixed), and whites there was seen to be compelling agreement on the disadvantages of blacks in contemporary Cuban society. Blacks were viewed consistently by 80% or more of respondents as having inferior housing, more hassles with police, more likely to commit crimes, live in worst neighborhoods, and making less money. Uniformly all agreed that blacks were under represented in the arts and in leadership positions in government.
Perhaps what is most disturbing is not just that Cuba gives blacks less opportunities but as many claim that it punishes blacks more severely for opposing the government. Many black dissidents have been imprisoned for years or killed.
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez was told during his trial that blacks should be especially appreciative of what the Castro regime had done for them and therefore deserved severe punishment for opposing the government. He was an imprisoned political prisoner for 17 years and constantly signaled out in prison for being a black dissident which is described in El Mercurio in Santiago, Chile. May 6, 2007.
One Cuba’s best known dissidents, Oscar Elías Biscet González, is a black physician who is currently serving a 25 year sentence as a political prisoner for committing crimes against the sovereignty and the integrity of the Cuban territory. He has been widely recognized world wide as a dissident voice by the United Nations, human rights groups, and governments including the United States which awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. According to the Black Caucus agenda he is expendable. Some members of the Black Caucus when asked about him did not seem to know who he was.
Congresswomen Barbara Lee, the self proclaimed spokesperson for the Congressional junket, was once romantically involved with a close friend of Fidel Castro, the leftist Premiere Maurice Bishop of Grenada. J. Michael Waller’s PoliticalWarfare.org is reporting that declassified documents from the National Archives may implicate Ms. Lee in tipping off Cuban forces that American military forces were being sent to rescue Americans in Grenada in the 1980s.
Despite all these well known documented facts about racism in Cuba when the Congressional Black Caucus went to Cuba Rep. Emanuel Cleaver said ““if there is repression in Cuba we didn’t see it.” Why did not these educated leaders read up or consult with authorities about Cuba before they jumped on a plane to Havana. Why did they not ask Raul Castro if they could visit imprisoned black political prisoners or even ask what is being done to give not just black Cubans but all Cubans the basic rights outlined by the United Nation’s charter?
While the Congressional Black Caucus was meeting with Castro, Reps. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, and Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, held a news conference featuring live testimony from former political prisoners in Cuba outlining racial discrimination and repression in Cuba. This was recorded on CSPAN but otherwise received little mention in the mainstream press.
The story of Cuban repression is a personal one. Even though I am Mexican-American for more than 20 years I have been married to a Cuban born woman whose family fled Cuba when she was a girl. In the course of travels across Latin America and meeting hundreds of people who have fled Cuba, no one I have ever met has ever rendered the same opinion as Emanuel Cleaver.
How ironic but sad that elected African-American officials would celebrate a government that would put them in prison for just saying the name, Martin Luther King, if but for the grace of God they had been born in Cuba and not the United States.
Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Revew
