Friends, This is my argument I have been
making for years. As a protester and believer in freedom of speech, I
would have been jailed by the Castro government. However, I have always
spoken out against any boycott of Cuba. Boycott Cuba, but do business
with recognized human rights abusers such as China and Saudi Arabia. This
is nonsensical. If Trump was interested in democracy in Cuba, he would
engage diplomatically with Cuba and end any boycott or ban on travel there.
Kagiso, Max
We
Understand Our Parents’ Pain, but the Cuba Embargo Continues to Hurt Our
‘Hermanos’ on the Island
Claire O’Hanlon and JennyLee Molina
March 15, 2019
Miami Herald
On March 4, the Trump administration took
another unprecedented foreign-policy step and activated Helms-Burton Title III.
This policy, which takes effect for 30 days starting on March 19, will allow
Cuban-Americans to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts against Cuban entities
benefiting from property expropriated by the Cuban government in the aftermath
of the revolution.
The activation of Title III represents a
major step backward in the normalization of relations between the U.S. and
Cuba.
The Trump administration now is considering
full implementation of Title III, which would allow these lawsuits to be filed
by U.S. and foreign-based companies benefiting from such property as well.
Title III, which no U.S. president has ever put into action, is part of the
1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as Helms-Burton
for its sponsors. It is incorporated into the 60-year embargo on Cuba.
We are Cuban-American women. We are the
daughters and granddaughters of Cuban exiles that Fidel Castro called gusanos —
“worms.” We believe that our political and economic isolation of Cuba
strengthens the Cuban government, rather than incentivizing democratization. It
drives them to ally with our adversaries, while exacerbating the incredible
difficulty Cuban people face finding and obtaining the most basic necessities.
Title III will have a chilling effect on
foreign investment in Cuba. Foreign investment is critical for preserving the
history and amenities that entice foreign tourists and make the island more
liveable for Cubans who remain. Yes, investment puts money in the hands of the
regime. We hate that, too. But it also puts money in the pockets of ordinary
Cubans, gives them more contact with the outside world, creates more
opportunities for private businesses to take hold and gives them hope that a
better future is possible.
For us to state publicly that we are against
the embargo and against the activation of Title III is viewed as a betrayal by
our families. We might as well be wearing Che Guevara T-shirts while shouting
“¡Viva la Revolución!” To our families, traveling to Cuba means we must be
communists. Trying to see Cuba as it is now is failing to remember what it once
was. Making any move forward is forgiving the regime for jailing our tíos, for
assassinating our primos, for expropriating the property of our abuelos, for
screwing up the economy so much that our padres were starving and for all of
the crimes that, by extension, were done to us.
We do not deny that our parents and
grandparents’ trauma is real. Their anger, pain and sadness are valid. We feel
anger, pain, and sadness, too. We empathize with efforts to fight for what our
families lost or, rather, what was stolen from them. But we will not engage in
this counterproductive mindset of eternal punishment.
U.S. policy toward Cuba is dictated by
hardliners in Florida like Sen. Marco Rubio. But the hardliners choose to
forget that the people who remained in Cuba also suffered, also had their
property and businesses expropriated. Their family members were jailed, killed
and traumatized. Cuban Americans do not have a monopoly on suffering at the
hands of the regime.
We are grateful that the United States, for
many years, welcomed Cubans with open arms and allowed our families to live in
the light, unlike many other immigrant communities that must live in the
shadows. But as Cuban Americans, our suffering at the hands of the Cuban
government is in the past tense.
We choose to bury the suffering of our
families with our ancestors. We are not forgiving. We are not forgetting. We
will always remember that the suffering is there, under the ground. We may even
visit it once in a while. But we refuse to carry it around with us and harden
our hearts toward the Cuban people. We choose to look forward to the future
instead of living in the past.
The tangled web of laws like Title III that
constitute the embargo ultimately hurt the Cuban people. They suffer at our
hands, at the policies we created to punish the Cuban government, at whose
hands they also suffer. All the while, the Cuban government has a perfect
scapegoat, the embargo, to blame for the problems they have created.
As Cuban Americans, we are free to call out
Rubio by name and engage in a political debate without fear that we will be
kicked out of school, lose our jobs or rot in prison. The same cannot be said
for our hermanos in Cuba. Our families sacrificed everything so we could have
what is truly important here in America. But we cannot let Rubio and his allies
dictate U.S.-Cuba policy just to avenge familial grudges — even our own.
Believe us. Everyone has suffered enough.
In addition to Claire O’Hanlon, of Los
Angeles, and JennyLee Molina, of Miami, this piece was co-authored by Natalie
Martinez Varela, of Washington D.C.; Alise Morales, of New York; Alexandra
Triana, Washington D.C.; and Elizabeth Estrada, of Philadelphia. In January,
they traveled to Cuba with the CubaOne Foundation.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center,
325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email:
mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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