[Marxism] Guest commentary: The view of Washington from Cuba

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Different, more accurate report of daily life in Cuba.
The impression some have and others with to give that
all Cubans are actively interested in politics is just
not accurate. Politics are a major part of daily life 
on the island, but it doesn't pervade everything there.)
========================================================

NAPLES DAILY NEWS
Guest commentary: The view of Washington from Cuba

By RICARDO CHAVIRA, ricardo_parra1@xxxxxxxxx
Hispanic Link News Service via SHNS
May 13, 2005

In the United States, only million-dollar homes offer a majestic view like
that afforded from the heights of Havana's Puente Grande. The soft, rolling
hill, several hundred feet tall and topped with a plateau, allows residents
to see a broad stretch of the Cuban capital and the Atlantic beyond. There
are no fancy houses. As in much of Latin America, hilly terrain is not
desirable and it is left for the poor.

Puente Grande, a warren of cinderblock apartments and cramped homes, is
named for the large bridge that spans a wide wash at the bottom of the hill.
Footpaths connect the homes and aging apartment building. They also connect
lives.

The several hundred residents all know each other. They crisscross the
neighborhood for casual, unannounced, visits.

The lives of Puente Grande residents are filled with work and occasional
neighborhood gatherings. Vacations away from Havana or even nights out on
the town are beyond the reach of most Cubans.

Based on my 30-some trips to Cuba, I would classify the neighborhood on the
hill representative of the country today. It is home to a broad
cross-section of laborers, government bureaucrats, students and retirees.
Most have basic needs covered - food, shelter, medical care, a steady if
paltry income. And that's it.

In this sense, the status of working-class Cubans is no different than that
of Latin Americans all over. For some, what they have is enough. Others
yearn for more, much more.

In some important ways Cuba is unique among Latin American nations. In
others it is surprisingly alike. It is not a nation of prisoners, or of
blissful folk.

A visit with the Leyva family illustrates contemporary Cuba. Pedro Leyva,
his wife and two adult children migrated to Puente Grande from eastern Cuba,
a much poorer region than Havana. All of the family works. Pedro and his
20-year-old son Ariel are independent carpenters and masons. Edelia, Pedro's
wife, is a cashier. Daughter Yulemeys, 28, is a lab technician. Together,
they earn the equivalent of about $70 a month. Medical care is free, but the
cost of living eats up all that they earn.

The Leyvas are resigned to their status, but they sense things could be
better. "The country needs to open itself to more economic ideas, allow more
democracy," says Pedro. "We lived better when the Soviets were around to
help us. The way the country is run must change."

While Castro has long been the focus of quiet discontent on the island, over
the last several months President Bush has pushed aside Fidel as the more
feared and disliked ruler.

How did this happen?

It began with Bush's kick-ass and take-names foreign policy, highlighted by
wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. That was followed in June 2004 by substantial
tightening of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. The new measures limit
the frequency of family visits and the size of remittances that can be sent
to the island.

The Bush administration explicitly says its goal is to topple the Cuban
government and see it replaced with some form of democratic rule. The United
States U.S. says that goal will be achieved by aiding "democratic forces" on
the island. But the Leyvas see that as a fig leaf for eventual U.S.
intervention.

The family is keenly aware that they live in a one-party state, one ruled
solely by Castro. Like many Cubans on the island, they view the elderly
ruler with a mix of admiration, dismay and exasperation. They have no doubt
that he brought a greater degree of equality to Cuba but has fallen out of
touch with the times. Those who have not studied Cuba from the inside
wrongly believe that Cubans seethe with hatred for Fidel.

That is not the case. Instead, Cubans generally just wish he would step down
and allow someone younger and more in tune to take over.

Perhaps the bigger surprise is the dismay and disquiet with which Cubans
view Bush, a self-described promoter of democracy. The problem is that for
Cubans his actions contradict his words.

"I don't really understand or like politics," says Yulemeys. "I do know that
the Americans have always stood for democracy and human rights. Now what I
see on the news is that they are mistreating prisoners in Iraq and here in
Guantanamo. So, I am not sure what to think."

In the context of Latin America, where anti-Americanism is running higher
than usual these days, Cuba is not such an oddity. Yes, it is a dictatorship
and Cubans have to struggle to survive. At the same time Cubans don't endure
the rampant, savagely violent crime gripping most Latin American countries.
Kidnappings are unknown.

There is little doubt that better times are coming. Cubans have endured more
than 40 years of confrontation with the United States and withering economic
crisis. Through it all they have for the most part not been broken or
apathetic. The tragedy is that Washington, rather than making itself a truly
helpful ally in the transition to democracy instead has cast itself as a
threat.

Former Time magazine correspondent Ricardo Chavira is a contributing
columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. Now living in Southern
California, where he is writing a book on the Cuban people, Chavira may be
reached by e-mail at ricardo_parra1@xxxxxxxxxx
                                
        
Copyright C 2005 Naples Daily News.


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