Fidel, the Embargo and More

In Cuba, every one calls him Fidel as if they not only know him, but have a personal relationship with him.  In a way, they do.  He has cast a long shadow over the island and those who live there or lived there at one time.  He has, directly or indirectly controlled almost every aspect of their lives.  Those who live in Cuba today depend on Fidel and his regime for their livelihood, their well being and even their sense of self worth.  Those who are Cuban, but have left Cuba are, for the most part sustained by their hatred of him and a desire for revenge that transcends reason. Fidel was born to the middle class in Cuba, but he, of course, rejected class in...

A Succinct History of Cuba

The thing about history is that no one really knows what happened because you weren’t there to see it with their own eyes.  Yes, I know, there are those strange folks (called historians) who study the evidence and write what they think happened.  I’m certainly no historian, but that’s what I’m going to do for the next several paragraphs, give you my version of what happened in Cuba.  You can believe it or not. In the beginning there were the indigenous peoples that for some reason we now call Arawaks.  I’ve got no idea where they came from or how they got there.  In any case, they lived here and multiplied presumably eating such as there was to be found in...