MistressBG
Posts: 38
Joined: 7/18/2006
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Being a cuban-american, having been to Cuba several times, not on vacation or as a tourist but visting my family and experiencing first hand what life is like for the people of Cuba, it's quite interesting to read here what some of you assume to be true.
On my last visit to Cuba I had such a terrible experience, to understate it, that I vowed never to step foot on that land until Castro was long gone. My mother and I went to visit my dying grandfather, my uncles, aunts, and cousins. We had a nice time over all because we were there with our loved ones, despite the heat, the lack of food, water, electricity, we managed to get through those two weeks in one piece. We took a short trip to these mountains and as I stood on top of the mountain I shot some home video for my dad back home which grew up in that area....I went about the rest of my trip and on the way back home to the US we were stopped at customs in the airport of havana... they took posession of my video camera and locked us in this very small room...needless to say my mother and I were scared to death...anyhow, we were later released, still not knowing what we had done wrong, we were able to run after the plane and come home(they never returned our camera or videos to us, btw). Once here we began to find out what had happened....turns out they accused my mother and I of being in the CIA....yes, my mother, a middled age Cuban woman, and me, a teenager at the time....the video I shot at that mountain top just so happened to over look "La Cierra Maestra" where Fidel fought his revolution in 58 - they accused us of trying to find strategic areas and accused us of spying....so of course they did the logical thing and destroyed my family's life by throwing them all out of their crappy jobs, taking away their little possessions, taking away their bikes (which = cars) one of my uncles was sentenced to a "trial" and sent to prison for 5 years - he later died in the prison very mysteriously...all of this over a very simple and innocent home movie taken by a teenager at a mountain top.
During our visit there I saw many things which stuck in my mind and made me appreciate the US more than I ever did before! We (my mom and I) would go to the tourist hotels (and everything there is for tourist, the people that live in Cuba are considered less than a rat...heck we have much more consideration for rats in this country than they do for the people of Cuba!) my family would have to wait outside because they were not allowed in, this was the same every where we went.
It's hard to describe such poverty and such oppression....the worst part for me was the lack of freedom and just the lack of human rights and justice...it's so basic! Cuba was never a 3rd world country, Cuba was a beautiful Island rich in many things, people never wanted to leave Cuba, hell not even those that weren't from Cuba wanted to leave .... many Americans loved travelling to Cuba, many even lived there... Batista was no doubt a jack ass, I won't argue that, but there is absolutely no comparison between the two.
My mother's uncle was very wealthy during Batista, he owned a chain of restaurants. That man worked very hard, he started with a small diner, worked his way up to a very succesful restaurant and became so succesful that he was able to open up a chain of them throughout Cuba, he owned a total of 17 homes throughout the Island ... Once Fidel took over, the gov't seized his business, took his homes and robbed him of everything that my moms uncle had worked so hard for all of his life. Imagine that happening here? Imagine a dictator taking over, literally kicking you out of your home, taking over the business you worked so hard for, taking your car, your bank account.... and add to that you can't even complain because if you do you will get shot, tortured, etc...
Someone here said there is no poverty or homeless in Cuba...that's the most absurd thing I have read here so far...well, one of the most absurd...there are only two classes in Cuba, 1.) Fidel and those very close to him 2.) the rest of the population....Unfortunately, the rest of the population are beyond poverty, they have no homes, business, cars, etc...because the homes they do have belong to the Fidel, not them.
Blessed day ~
< Message edited by MistressBG -- 8/2/2006 6:40:42 AM >
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RE: Castro - 
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