Hecce, great stuff you are posting about Cuba since little is known about JW in Cuba. Keep it up as you remember stuff. Speaking with Cubans in the US, prior to FC, Cuba had a lot of Spaniards that also married with the Cubans and Jews, Chinese, Italians, etc. but after FC they ALL left, leaving the Island with Hispanic Cubans and Black Cubans. MY impression of Cubans is that they are not stupid but ingenious. They encourage their sons to get a higher education. They have a spirit of ruler as a people, taking every opportunity to be independent or professionals. Except for JW Cubans, in the US, you will seldom see Cuban employees for long, they break free and start their own business, the second generation become doctors, professors, dentists, politicians. I have observed that there is something that drives Cubans in the US to become greater. They are not a complacent people.
Fidel Castro and the WT
by Hecce 143 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Fisherman
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Fisherman
Hecce, back in the 70's in NYC, Jewish mobs persecuted JW, tearing their eye out, maiming them, spiting , beatings, etc. and getting away with it too. Anywhere in the US JW could preach except in Jewish neighborhoods. Should the JW cave in, have they no God? In Cuba, did God abandon JW to be devoured by a wild beast like the early "christians"? It would not be the WT that would look bad but God whom the JW trust for salvation and survival.
It is not about the WT but about God who is trusted by JW.
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Hecce
Fisherman
Thanks for your collaboration that enriched this thread.
With regards to the Cuban people, it is truth that most of them have a self employed spirit; however they are like every other community, a blend of good, mild and bad.
Interesting information about the problems in NY with the preaching.
Two areas that FC paid attention are public health and education; in both the people are way better off than before.
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Hecce
Something that I think will be of interest to you is that until the distribution of the Anti Soviet Awake we had the same liberties as before the Castro takeover. After that things started to change, the first one was the stoppage of the literature imports.
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Fisherman
Hecce, thanks for informing us of what actually happened and what JW experienced. What part of the Island where you with?
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Hecce
Fisherman
Small town outside of the capital Havana.
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Fisherman
I was just speaking with a Cuban gentleman some few minutes ago who said he went to Havana University and left in 1959 just prior to the FC victory. I told him that he should be proud of his Cuban heritage but he said that the Mariel people had given Cubans a bad reputation in the US and that now Cubans as a group in the US, are not viewed with the same respect they had.
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Hecce
Fisherman
The information that you got from that gentleman is accurate, he was part of the cream of Cuban Society that departed in the early stages of the Revolution. In 1965 FC played a gambit to release internal pressure and opened the port of Camarioca for a boatlift to the US. These action resulted in the eventual creation of the Freedom Flights to Florida, this was something very structured and the refugees were screened by US Immigration prior to departure.
The Mariel boatlift was a repeat of the early Camarioca try, it was very disorganized and the Cuban Government used the occasion to unload in the US the worse elements of their population. This was a completed reversal of the early Cuban migration to the US.
So after that we were stuck with a lot of bad characters and very few were returned to Cuba.
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Fisherman
Hecce, Interesting information about the "boatlift" you mention. I have heard Cubans ask other Cubans: Are you from Mariel, meaning it all in jest and laughter because not all Mariels are from the "scarface" category. And in speaking with Cubans i have also learned that they refer to people as the chinese, the black, the arab... but in Cuban language the Spanish words that describe the race of a person is not offensive and referring to a person by his race, is not offensive or hateful and in fact unlike English there are no hate words used to refer to a person because of his race, at most humor but not mockery. Cubans make fun of everything, even themselves but with no offense meant or allusion to something debasing.
Many years ago I remember a lot of elderly Chinese Cubans, probably off the boatlift you mention and it was so funny ( in an interesting way ) to hear someone chinese speaking with an unmistakable Cuban accent.
In my previous post I referred to Guajiros as gullible, but I did not mean that intellectually, I have never ever seen or heard of a Cuban who is "bobo," they are wide awake people and you you can't pull the wool over their eyes, except that the guajiros were very trusting and good hearted -which is a virtue to me and not a flaw, and gullible regarding fake miracles and visons of virgins and stuff like that (that is what I meant) and although many barely could read or write, they were not bobos by any means. A Cuban to rival for US President, that is some accomplishment. No GB Cubans. but hey, the Germans always had a foothold on FDS.
What a coincidence that since responding to this post I have been talking to quite a few Cubans, there are very few where I live, but anyway, I was just told that the Cuban that ran for office, I think Diaz or something, was related somehow to FC.
I heard that the prior to FC, Blacks in Cuba ( or African Cubans) were never hated or despised by the other Cubans like the African Americans in the US were viewed. To call someone black in Cuban slang is an affectionate term.
Prior to FC what is the truth about the Black Cubans, from someone that knows firsthand?
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Hecce
Fisherman
You raise a lot interesting issues that I will answer in due time, today due time constrains I will tell about just two of them.
The Diaz family, you are mentioning is the family descending from Rafael Diaz Balart, he was a prominent member of the Batista Government and his sister was married to Fidel Castro, his elder son came from that marriage. The Diaz Balart family has been dominant in Florida politics for a long time, at least two of the brothers were elected to he House of Representatives; Mario is still serving and the other one Lincoln retired from Congress and is heavily involved in trying to coordinate the changes that are happening in Cuba. His father Rafael died some time back and in the early stages of the Revolution he was a thorn in their side, he was a founding member of the Rosa Blanca; that was anti Castro Group and he went as far as testifying in front of the US Congress against Castro.
There was a race war shortly after Independence, like around 1912 or so since then race has never been an issue among the common people in Cuba, calling some one "negro, chino, blanquito" is not offensive unless it goes with another insult added. Now, as far as the high society that was a different history; in daily life they had to use and mingle with the common people and they showed one face, among themselves and in their inner circles it was a different deal. They had clubs like the Vedado Yacht Club with strict racial standards, even President Batista was not allowed to visit because he was a "mestizo".
In that respect in the early part of the Revolution the majority of the people were happy to see FC ending their privileges.