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It is in the breaking news sidebar!
Posted on 04/14/2003 1:17:24 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
For many young Cuban Americans who grew up in South Florida, the oppression, the mock justice, the summary executions that their parents and grandparents recall from Fidel Castro's dictatorship had become the lore of a hellish place that they had never known.
But now, for the first time in years, the Castro government is exhibiting the same type of behavior that drove their families into exile -- giving the younger generation a glimpse of modern-day oppression on the island.
It remains to be seen whether the crackdown on human-rights activists and executions of accused hijackers are enough to inspire them to carry on the anti-communist spirit of their elders. But at the very least, they say they see for themselves what the anti-Castro feeling is about.
''When you're young, the only opinions of dictatorships like Castro's are formed from what your parents and grandparents tell you,'' said Christy Fojo, 21, an English literature major at Florida International University. ``But when you see it happening now, it does open your eyes to the brutality going on there.''
In the past two months, as world attention has been focused on Iraq, Cuba has embarked on one of the biggest internal crackdowns since the 1960s, imprisoning about 80 human rights and pro-democracy activists after swift, secret trials. Sentences ranged from six years to life in prison.
Then on Friday, Cuba shocked South Florida -- and much of the nation -- when it announced the execution of three men who attempted to hijack a ferry in Havana last week to reach Florida. The men were arrested, tried in a secret proceeding and shot to death by a firing squad. The whole process took just over a week. Five others involved in the hijacking received stiff sentences.
Many Cuban exiles believe the men were just seeking freedom.
Yanelis Fernandez, 21, moved to Miami from Cuba when she was 7. For her, the news from Cuba today is more compelling, more immediate and more real than any stories she had heard from older generations.
''The young people, since they've lived here such a long time or were born here, they don't really care a lot about what's going on in Cuba,'' said Fernandez, a FIU student. ``But now we're seeing it with our own eyes -- it's not just stuff we're hearing from our parents.''
But a handful of the several Cuban-American students interviewed at Florida International University and the University of Miami on Saturday had not even heard of recent events on the island. Some of those interviewed cared. Some didn't. Some expressed outrage, others a sad, but detached lament of conditions on the island.
''I'm really indifferent or neutral about the whole thing,'' said Jennifer Landez, 25, a pre-med student from Jacksonville at the University of Miami. ``I guess we're just not exposed to it as much.''
Added Milko Dominguez, 25, a nursing major at UM: ``I don't think this is enough to get the younger generation to care.''
Jesus Arteaga, 30, came to the United States from Cuba in 1996. Now a business major at FIU, Arteaga is among young Cubans who believe the anti-Castro fight of the older exiles is dying among the young.
''The young are not carrying on the fight the old people started,'' Arteaga said. ``This generation doesn't seem to care as much. On one side, events like this open their eyes. On the other hand, they aren't keeping alive what their parents started.''
UM Professor Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute of Cuban and Cuban Americans Studies, said the younger generation of Cuban Americans is not necessarily more liberal than their parents, but they are less prone to be politically active.
''Their interest is in Cuban music, Cuban food, not as much as in Cuba as a political entity,'' Suchlicki said. ``They have other priorities and other views. The younger generation is more focused on their careers and their futures and so on.''
But news of the current wave of oppression may be just the thing to kick-start activist tendencies among an age group that many believe has forgotten about Cuba's problems.
''It gets me so mad I can barely speak about it,'' said Joaquin Prendes, 20, a computer engineering major at FIU. ``I don't think my generation is more liberal about Castro, but we are more open to compromises and getting the U.S. to engage and steer the Cuban government.''
Maabel Bacallao, 20, a psychology major at UM from Miami Lakes, said although she has heard countless stories of repression from her grandparents, it doesn't sink in until you hear that it's happening right now. And even then, it's hard to care.
''Since we weren't born there, we really don't know what it's like to be oppressed,'' Bacallao said. ``Even though we hear stories from our grandparents, and see things like that on the news, it's just not enough to know until you've lived it.
``We're lucky enough to live with the comforts and freedom of the United States.''
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Indeed... Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it...
There is much to learn, for those with the eyes & wits to see evil for what it truly is:
-The Fire Down South...( Latin America--)--
Some people entertain the illusion that you can negotiate with evil- that if you just manage to select the correct "process" or "protocol," or can figure out how to "frame the issues" properly the ravening nature of the skull behind the smiley-face will somehow be mitigated...
Yet even a cursory study of history belies that naive and happily foolish belief-- just look at the bloody road to the second World War- a road littered with the tattered remains of treaties & protocols & agreements between nations. Every one of them irrelevant once the bullets started flying and men started dying.
Actually his timing was precise and designed to make a propaganda point, that despite the US attack on Iraq, he is not afraid of the United States and will do as he pleases to his political enemies without hesitation.
With Title III and IV provisons of Helms-Burton continuing to go unenforced, and increasing clamoring by both parties to open up trade wih Cuba, Castro is betting that W won't make any overt gestures towards him lest W be called a warmonger.
He is therefore eliminating threats to his regime in the Communist fashion.
Come July, Bush will once again prevent Title III from beinhg implemented, and the lefties at the State Department will continue to balatantly ignore Title IV and give visas to officials of companies that traffic in confiscated property.
Unless W calls Castros bluff and smacks him upside his head.
After all, Cuba is in need of liberating as much as Iraq was.
This is how I imagine most of the younger generation to be. I hate this self-centeredness and apathy.
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