The relationship between Cuba and the US has been on the rocks ever since Fidel Castro created a socialist regime that allied with the Soviet Union. Ever since, the US has Sanctioned and held an embargo over Cuba longer than any other country. More recently, Cuba has been given more attention in the media for when Obama spoke alongside Cuba’s President for the first time in 90 years, according to US News, and said, "The list of things we can do administratively is growing shorter…The embargo's going to end – when, I can't be entirely sure”. So, now more than ever, cubans who had fled their home during the revolution and found sanctuary in the US are speaking up and many are not here for it.
My family was one of the many who fled Cuba and headed to America to flee from the poverty and violence that struck Cuba during the regime of Fidel Castro. My grandparents and aunts slowly, one by one, made their way to the US and my mother, Sandra, who had grown up surrounded by these stories of horror had very strong opinions about the embargo. “Look, I would love to open relations with Cuba WHEN there is a regime change. As it stands, Cuban people have no future, have no rights, Are hungry and living in poverty.” she said.
But won’t lifting a ban on tourism help the economy of the people? This is the question that many ask throughout the media but Sandra says “First things first, we need to demand basic human rights and freedom for the Cuban people. Encouraging Tourism and lifting the embargo will only help the government become richer. It's not being passed along to the people”. And she’s not alone in this thinking, according to The Atlantic, 60 percent of Cuban Americans who left between 1965 and 1973 and 51 percent of those who left between 1974 and 1980 also oppose engaging the Cuban government. Many cubans, my family included see Fidel and his family as a dictatorship and believe they are being portrayed more positively than they deserve in the US. “Media paints a picture of an island that gives free education, free healthcare. A utopia...People need to think...Why would Cubans risk their lives, jumping in sharks infested waters on a make shift raft if Cuba was so wonderful?” Sandra says. She continues on by saying “Americans bury their heads in the sand and have selective hearing. They are only interested in the stories that move forward their agenda. Honestly, it's pure ignorance and elitism. Media paints a different picture of Cuba. Celebrities go and take pictures of old cars but Cubans are not free people”.
So what now? Under a new presidency, Cubans are nervous. Life wasn’t so certain before and now cubans are in a reality that forces them to worry about their relatives back home due to the uncertainty of it all. According to CNN, In January, Cuban President Raul Castro said his government wished "to pursue a respectful dialogue and cooperation on topics of common interest with the new government of President Donald Trump”. Its made apparent that no answers or plans will be coming soon and the ability to go to their home is now gone due to poverty and destruction. So what does the daughter of a man who fled the violent revolution have to say to those who don’t know much about Cuba? “Don’t have a romantic idea of a "Cuba, frozen in time. They’ve never lived under a dictator. What they don't show, is that protestors are arrested, hospitals are dirty and don't have linens or light bulbs, medicine is scarce, only available in black market, the media shows you only a sliver of the truth”. So heres to the optimism of the future, cigars, and cuban sandwiches.
No comments:
Post a Comment