Diaz-Balart brothers trace success to rise of Castro - U.S. House of Representatives

Orlando Sentinel ^ | January 6, 2003 | Maya Bell

[Cincinatus' Wife]

MIAMI -- Almost a half-century ago, Rafael Diaz-Balart stood up in Cuba's House of Representatives and foretold the future. He warned his fellow legislators they would regret freeing the young revolutionary who had recently attacked a military barracks.

"I believe that this amnesty, so imprudently adopted, will bring days, many days of mourning, of pain, of bloodshed and of misery. I ask God that I be the one who is mistaken. For Cuba's sake."

To his sorrow, Diaz-Balart was not wrong. He knew Fidel Castro too well. Years before, he had embraced his fellow law student as a friend, introducing him to his sister and to politics. Now, he told his colleagues his brother-in-law would install a "cruel and barbaric regime" that "would be very difficult to overthrow."

But Diaz-Balart could not predict that 47 years later his prophecy would assure his family legacy, propelling two of his sons into the U.S. Congress. On Tuesday, his youngest, Mario, 41, will be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a large swath of South Florida.

Standing at his side will be his big brother, Lincoln, 48, representing an adjoining district that now takes in a chunk of Pembroke Pines in southwest Broward County. Elected a decade ago, he has been returned four times with little or no opposition.

The first Florida brothers to serve in the U.S. House together, the Diaz-Balarts will join Congress' first sister act, Loretta and Linda Sanchez, who represent Orange and Los Angeles counties in California. The brothers are Republicans, the sisters Democrats. But they share the distinction of being the first Hispanic siblings to ascend to such heights of power -- a great source of pride, and sweet irony, to many Cuban-Americans.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S. college students studying abroad are increasingly bound for Cuba - By STEVE GIEGERICH, AP Education Writer - [Full Text] NEW YORK - Although Europe remains by far the top destination for U.S. college students studying abroad, more and more are choosing to enhance their education at an exotic location closer to home: Cuba. Long off-limits to all but a few Americans, Cuba allowed 905 U.S. students to visit during the 2000-01 school year, a 64 percent increase over the year before. The number is expected to grow the next time figures are released as students increasingly turn to the only communist nation in the Western Hemisphere. "It's sort of forbidden fruit," said University of Nebraska senior Shane Pekny, part of a contingent of 12 communications majors who will visit Cuba this month.

Before traveling to Cuba, a school must first obtain a license from the U.S. Treasury Department prohibiting the students from engaging in commercial enterprise during their visit. Each student must also obtain a visa from Fidel Castro's government. The vice president of educational services at the Institute of International Education said the mystique about a country largely inaccessible to U.S. tourists since 1963 is just part of the attraction.

"I think universities around the United States are seeing this as a good site to give students the opportunity to look at a lot of issues at once," Peggy Blumenthal said. "To look at the issue of Cuba, per se, is to look at a communist system compared to a capitalist system, as well as the opportunity to look at transition issues" facing a developing nation. During their one-week visit, Pekny and his classmates plan to study such things as Cuban agriculture, the impact on Nebraska farmers should the U.S. trade embargo be lifted, and the mechanical magic that keeps 1950s-vintage American cars on Cuban roads.

"The Cuban mechanics are practically gods," said Drake University philosophy professor Jonathan Torgerson, who has taken groups from Des Moines to Cuba every year since 1996. If relations between the United States and Cuba are normalized, Torgerson believes college students deserve part of the credit. "We have forged the way in terms of making contacts," he said.

Omar Lopez, a spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation - the powerful Miami-based group of anti-Castro exiles - said U.S. students who travel to Cuba are being used by Castro. Lopez pointed out that visits with dissidents or the jails holding political prisoners are not part of the itinerary. "What they're trying to do is have a charm offensive aimed at the United States," he said.

Sarah Phend was charmed during the three months she spent in Cuba last summer taking classes, working on a farm and mingling with ordinary citizens. "Cuba was always something I'd been taught to fear," said Phend, a senior communications major at Goshen College in Indiana. "And then, when I went, I wasn't afraid of it anymore. When I got back I could tell people Cuba is a very good place." Convinced she saw the real Cuba, Phend has spent the months since her return regaling classmates, relatives and others with tales about the people met during her visit. "Sometimes I wish I could talk to George Bush about Cuba and say, `Look, dude. These people aren't evil. What's your problem?'" Phend said. [End]

Eyes Wide Open***…..At the conference exhibit hall, the L.A. kids mounted a photo exhibition showing the underbelly of America. There were bleak images of life on an Indian reservation, of the homeless in Los Angeles. It was an eye-opener to some South Africans, who thought everyone in America was rich. "They were absolutely shocked," said Lynn Warshafsky, executive director of Venice Arts Mecca.

In turn, the L.A. group was surprised at the degree of anti-American sentiment, something they had to process. "They had to ask themselves questions they'd never asked before" about how others see them, Warshafsky said. ……..For Eamon, the highlight was hearing Fidel Castro speak. "I had thought of him as seriously evil. I realized he's not evil, he's doing what he thinks is best. He has this sort of demeanor about him. Whether you like him or not, you respect him. It opened my eyes." ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Semester at Sea Program Celebrates 20 Years at Pitt

Andrew Waples, of Bow New Hampshire, laughs next to Cuban President Fidel Castro December 6, 2002. Waples was one of more than 700 American students visiting Communist Cuba on a round-the-world educational cruise organized by the University of Pittsburg. REUTERS/Rafael Perez

Lloyd Lewan, dean of the University of Pittsburg's Semester at Sea round-the-world educational cruise, thanks Cuban President Fidel Castro for taking the time to meet with more than 700 American college students December 6, 2002. Castro spoke to the students for three hours. REUTERS/Rafael Perez

[Green Knight]

I went to high school with a relative of these folks. A cousin or nephew, I think. They live like 6 blocks away from me in a funky house.

a mayor from the United Fruit Co. town of Banes

And that's my father's home town. So he undoubtedly lived under this guys administration (He was born there in the 30's) It truly is a small world.

[Green Knight]

Pack of ignorant fools, the whole lot of them. Making nice with a murderous butcher. But hey, he's a Communist. So that automatically absolves him of any crime. Of course, if you were someone who posed laughing for a pic with Hitler, who's only killed a tiny FRACTION of the people that Communism has killed, then you're The Devil.

God, to be in Andrew Waples' place, and to have somehow concealed a weapon on my body. What I wouldn't give for that...

[ARCADIA]

If you were in Andrew Waples'place, and intended to continue your young career, it would be wise to laugh at Castro's jokes. The man is very dangerous and Waples doesn't wear a diplomatic shield.

[Green Knight]

I doubt that Waples guy is there because he was forced to. He's most likely there because he WANTS to be there. Most likely he's a Commie-Symp who enjoys yukking it up with a man who butchered a lot of innocent people in Cuba.

[tdadams]

I wouldn't assume he's a commie sympathizer. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's probably a naive student eager to please a leftist professor and knows nothing about Castro except to say "he's the leader of Cuba."

I think if some of these students knew the history of Casto, Guevara, the history, philosophy, and brutality of the Cuban revolutionaries, their outlook wouldn't be so rose-colored.

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[NRSC04]

For those of you that have been commenting regarding Mr. Waples – it is quite obvious that none of you know who he is, much less have even met him. It turns out that (as none of you know) that he is a card carrying Republican and only met Dictator Castro as a result of a Semester At Sea joke that was induced by one of his shipmates. So – for all of you that have offered despairing remarks about him – it might be advisable for all of you to stop acting like Democrats and actually find out the facts behind a situation before you form a conclusion.

-U.S.S.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You may be a card carrying Republican but you have a Democrat attitude. When I see someone laughing alongside a murderer, I tend to think they're having a good time in their company. Sorry if I misunderstood the picture. Too many of our young people are confused about the cruel nature of communism.