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History,
race must be factored into Cuban equation
MIAMI
— Cuba is just 90 miles off the southern tip of
Florida. But the distance between this country and
the one that Fidel Castro has ruled for the past 43
years can be best measured in terms of warped
history, not miles.
When
President Bush came to Miami on Monday to take part
in the celebration of what organizers called the
100th anniversary of Cuba's independence from Spain,
virtually no one challenged this misread of history
— or its impact on the troubled relations between
these two countries.
Back
in 1902, it was the United States, not Spain that
dominated life in Cuba. Spain's colonial control of
the Caribbean island had been effectively ended
three years earlier by the Spanish American War. By
1899, American imperialism had replaced Spanish
colonialism as the controlling force in Cuba.
The
U.S. occupation ended in 1902, but not before
Congress imposed two concessions on the new Cuban
government. It was forced to grant Washington the
right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to cede
control of Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. military.
Franklin Roosevelt voided the intervention agreement
in 1934, but the American occupation of Guantanamo
Bay continues today.
So
ironically, the Cuban-American celebration of a
century of Cuban independence also marks 100 years
of uninterrupted control of a valuable piece of the
Cuban nation by the United States.
Even
more remarkable, Bush — who is hardly a student of
history — parrots the call of Florida's Cuban
exile leaders for "a return of democracy"
to Cuba, a country that has been ruled by dictators,
despots, Mafia front men and communists for nearly
all of the past century. Shortly after Fulgencio
Batista, Castro's predecessor, seized control of
Cuba in a military coup in 1952 his picture appeared
on the cover of Time magazine with a caption that
called him the man who "got by democracy's
sentries."
Many
of the people who fled Cuba when Castro came to
power in 1959 were the beneficiaries of Batista's
bloody rule. Largely white, they were the middle
class of his dictatorship and benefited greatly from
a class structure that afforded Afro Cubans few
rights and relegated them to the lowest rungs of
Cuban society.
Unfortunately,
Bush doesn't know this bit of history. He is instead
imbued with the belief that the revolution Castro
led ousted a democratic government. Bush's warped
sense of Cuban history — and his desire to help
his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, win re-election
in November — blinds him to the truth.
By
calling for a return of democracy to Cuba, the
president courts the Cuban-American voters his
brothers is depending on to help him win a second
term.
But
his pandering is shortsighted. There is little
chance the political stalemate that has defined
U.S.-Cuban relations for more than four decades will
end soon if the leaders of this country don't
understand the history of our relationship with Cuba
and the true nature of the democracy struggle on
that island.
Most
people in Cuba are of African descent. Most Cuban
Americans are not. Long after Castro passes from the
scene, the struggle between these two groups will
continue to undermine U.S.-Cuban relations if they
are not taken into account by those who truly want
to end the current impasse.
While
Cuban exile leaders pine for a return to their
ancestral home, many people of African descent in
Cuba say they will never let that happen.
Understanding this rift is as important in resolving
the political standoff between the United States and
Cuba as is the ideological tug-of-war between the
communist state and this country's demands for
Castro to undertake democratic reforms.
For
George W. Bush and the Cuban Americans he panders
to, Fidel Castro is the roadblock to normal
relations between Cuba and the United States. But
just across the Florida straits, millions of Cubans
of African descent have a far better understanding
of the events that unfolded over the past century.
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