Take a look at the picture in this article. Now tell me did this really rub you the wrong way? Now I do not have all the circumstances and why they did this, but it did rub me the wrong way.
I can see how the photo would rub some of us the wrong way:
1) Gloria's in the company of the latest moral-relativist director from La-La land, a man who spent 8 hours being "overly impressed" by a certain groucho-marxist hygiene-challenged dick-tater;
2) She's holding the flag of the country which served as the "petri dish" for same aforementioned hygiene-challenged burro-hole and helped spawn the plague that's had Cuba in its grip for 45+ years.
Gloria would play a better, more apropos role as La Niña del Escambray. Why doesn't she suggest that spiel to Steve?
exactly! You would think that after all this time they would of pitched something or better yet pushed for a movie or a role that would bring the suffering of the Cuban people to the forefront. What about a movie concerning Armando Valledares,Eusebio Penalver,Mario Chanes, Ana Rodrigues,and Dr.Biscet. The list goes on and on!!!
She hasn't say anything about dry-foot wet-foot, holds the flag of an enemy country for us Cubans, and smiles with Spielberg, who is a traitor to Jews (Munich anyone?) and Cubans alike. Do I have to add anything else? Why on freaking Earth doesn't she portrait one of the Ladies in White, la Niña del Escambray, the life of a regular Cuban woman, the story of Elian's mother, or something like that? The answer is simple: she is one of our silent celebrities. I have offered space in my blog for all of them to come and defend the Cuban people and the Cuban rafters, and I have hit their wall of silence. Her emporium only plays sanitized pseudoCuban prosalsa stuff. No Cuban rock, no Cuban alternative music, and nothing that can raise rabble. No Carlos Varela. No Porno Para Ricardo, no Zeus, no nothing that is the real Cuban thing.... The same apply to Andy Garcia: where are his movies about the Cubans who are fighting the dictatorship or the political prisoners? Why a Spaniard had to portrait the Cuban poet in Antes que Anochezca? Why a Spaniard had to portrait The Mambo Kings? I have too many questions, and no answers. Their actions say a lot.
Guys, the movie has to be sellable. If this is their initial foray into the movie business, then they would be hard pressed to make a movie that wont garner a major audience. Noone will finance it, no one will distribute it, etc. Look at the problems Andy Garcia had with getting distributorship for his Cuba movie. No one would touch it.
I also find it hard to criticize, I will say it once again, my own, when Gloria and Emilio and Andy have always been the first, thorughout the years, to be puntos fijos when it comes to Cuban issues.
And remember, the movie and music business, moreson than any other business, is all about PR. Sometimes you gotta swallow a bitter pill to later on get the sweets of success.
I am dying for them to give me the chance to eat crow. I will make it with my own recipe for Thanksgiving turkey, I will call it my Thanksgiving Crow. I will be glad to eat it. I criticize people, but I always give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope they prove me wrong!
Andy Garcia was wonderful in "For Love or Country" a movie depicting the life of Arturo Sandoval. Gloria Estefan did appear in this movie. I am big fans of both of them and it really hurt for me to post the link of her and it is Emilio, not Spielberg holding that flag. It just really rubbed me the wrong way! Val, your right it is hard to criticize one of your own. However, their has been silence for a while concerning many topics related to "Cuba" from the succesful Cuban-American entertainers. Easy for me to say, I do not have their hectic schedule or demands or the success that they enjoy.
Arturo Sandoval was a chivato del Partido. Many people I know were expelled from the National School of Music during his tenure there due to his witchhunting. Then he defects, Andy Garcia doesn't do his homework and portraits this lowly roach as a hero. Great thing. Imagine how insulting that shitty movie was to the Cubans in Cuba who cannot even get a job sweeping the streets thanks to Mr. Sandoval, the COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBER and DIRECTOR OF THE ESCUELA NACIONAL DE MUSICA ALEJANDRO GARCIA CATURLA. Nice, isn't it? This is the very same Sandoval who lied in his American citizenship application and had the citizenship denied two times because he "forgot" to tell that he was a party member and a party official with some decision making capabilities at that music school (I mean, life altering capabilities, one doesn't know if any of the students expelled rafted and die in the Straights of Death) Many of those rockers he expelled from that school made it to the States. Then the Estefans didn't give them any opportunity, since they don't play salsa or pseudo tropical music. I know a few of them who work construction jobs in Miami or sack groceries in WinnDixie. Conviniently, they "discovered" Cachao after he was literally starving playing bar and bat mitzvahs for a lot of years while these guys were already VERY rich and calling the shots in the music business. The sole fact that they were born in Cuba doesn't make them anygood, they are good when they defend their own, and help them to succeed in this country.
Boy when we talk about Garcia and the Estefans we sure have a BIZILLION god damn excuses as to why they are the ball -less pricks they are? Don't we? What? She needs to write a movie about a Latin singer in the 50s, just to "see" how it goes? Here, Carmen Miranda , it has been done , it sucked … MOVE THE FUCK ON!
In other words if she makes another 14 million MAYBE she will dabble in a political statement? Taking a cue from Mr. Garcia are we? pussyfoot around the issue let’s see how it flies and what kind of flack and cash we get out of it ? . Tackling KaSStro’s monstrous regime is TOO dangerous in Hollywood. Spineless PRICKS all of them! So we need to count on the Alejandro Sanz, Javier Bardem, Pedro Almodóvar and Robert Duvall’s of the world to stick their dicks out for us. FUCKING P-E-A-C-H-Y!
Just give us ALL a brake. This is not hiding dirty laundry man this is hiding it and spreading Lysol all over the place to mask the stench. Can not touch one of those Miami Cuban stars boy ... (what did Carmen say? “la niña linda de los Miamenses”) Cause there will ALWAYS be a HUGE excuse as to why they do what they do. Sounds mighty FIDELISTA to me.
And people in Miami criticize Paya?.. Gimme a fucking break! Let us screw some cojones and call them like we see them . Why would these “stars” even bother when they know that their Miami Cuban posee is there to back up every slap in the face they give the Cuban people? Oh , you do NOT know what they do behind close doors? well you know NEITHER DO I NOR THE PEOPLE WHO COUNT, THE PEOPLE IN CUBA! Here’s woman whose ONLY complaint about KaSStro (that I have read) is that his nails are TOO long? This from the daughter of a Batista guardaespalda!
These bastards may maintain their NORTH CUBAN status intact but as far as the REAL Cuba, they are lower than a fucking rattle snakes ass with a hemorrhoidal flare-up.
I am SO TIRED of the excuses. You don’t TEST the waters to see if you will commit to a cause , if you do you are even MORE of a PRICK.
I find this and the excuses totally and utterly reprehensible and if prominent Cubans do NOT protest and Miami Cubans keep covering their backs, what are we asking of the rest of the world to do? Why would Jesse Jackson speak against KaSStro and why DO YOU guys criticize him for it ?
I am tired of all the “IMHO” and all the "With all due respect..." charade. You have TWO (three if you count that Mr. Gloria Estefan pussy) "artists" who are nothing more than a disgrace to the country that saw them be born. SHAME ON THEM and on everyone who defends or rationalizes their hypocrisy And let the fucking chips fall where they may! I AM TIRED OF THE BULLSHIT!
Guys you are right! Everyone is looking to protect their own interest. No outcry from any one of them concering anything. Killcastro, Charlie Bravo, myself, and others have offered their blogs as a mean to use as tool to denounce the brutal regime and the dry-foot wet-foot policy. Again as I have said before, total silence from the majority of Cuban Americans on many issues. what I do not understand is with all the money floating around within the Cuban-American community no one dares to make a movie about the "real" situation in Cuba. What about those who have been imprisoned for over 20 years? can you imagine as individuals we collectively voice our opinions and denounce the evil system that has enslaved the Cuban people, we can make a difference. silence just helps the enemy!
Whenever a Cuban government sponsored group does one of their usual propaganda moves, like putting up and ad in the New York Times, or having a group of vociferous old haggard looking idiots in one centric corner of NYC with che t-shirts handing propaganda, my American friends ask me, puzzled: "What are you guys doing about this?" "Where are your celebrities and your CEO's?" "Why don't they take another ad? this is America!" Since none of the above mentioned celebrities, VIP's, CEO's, or visible talking heads do anything, that's why we have a blog. For once and forever, our celebrities are a bunch of rotten, greedy, airheards, no different from their celebrity neighbors in their bubble rosy world. Our VIP's and CEO's don't care, because the antikagasstrism industry is a niche business, that by all accounts is fading, in hands of a bunch of guys who are only effective when they send fund-raising letters. Do I want to mention the politicians here. I better not, since they are a bunch of slicks. Take for example "Silent Bob" Menendez. Talk about thick solid silence about the dry-foot wet-foot policy, not to mention the others who don't seize the oportunity to do anything about that regulation, just to talk about my pet peevee. (MORE IN KILLCASTRO)
I'm totally with Val. Since when are the Estefans AGAINST our cause? Just because Gloria and Emilio are holding a Mexican flag doesn't mean they'll be singing for Fidel in Havana anytime soon. We want our (Cuban) celebrities to be like us, think like us, and speak out like us. Fact is, they don't have to be any of that.
I've mentioned this before in previous blog discussions, and I'll bring it up again...Gloria and Andy Garcia have stepped up for the cause before. Have we forgotten their pleas to keep Elian in the U.S.? I saw it live on TV.
We want them to take up arms with us and go to battle. The only problem is, nobody's going down to Cuba with arms to actually do any battle. Esto ya cansa y aburre.
The Estefans have represented all Cuban-Americans in a positive way. We need to worry less about them and worry more about our true enemies. God knows we have too many.
Well, Robert, I still have to see their outcry to eliminate the dry-foot wet-foot. I have to see them taking the offer to come to one of our blogs to support the struggle of the Cubans in Cuba. Every decent Cuban supported that Elian stayed in the States, and I don't know where you are getting that any of us is saying that they are against the cause of the Cuban people, nobody wrote such a thing here. What was written is that they are silent. They don't do anything, they can take an add wanting too in any national newspaper to educate the public and they don't do it. I don't want them or anyone to think like I do, the world would be really boring if it happened. And by the same token I do not tolerate that people tell me how do I have to think or that I have to be silent just because they happened to be born in Cuba, and because someone might like them. Those celebrities, face it, are not doing a thing. They can present the case for the Cuban people from their very advantageous position and they choose to stay silent. Why is that a movie about Reynaldo Arenas is not made by Cubans? Why is that the story of Cubans is not told in film when it should? A simple thing, like supporting the balseros is totally sent to back burner and not even touched with a ten foot pole by the celebrities or the politicians. This blog, and KillCastro, offered space for everybody who wanted to come forward and denounce the dry-foot wet-foot, nobody listened, nadie escuchaba. Just let me know why do we have to put those people in a pedestal? Ask the Estefans or Garcia how many times have they written to the president or to whoever to have them repel the dry-foot wet. Tell the Cuban American politicians the same I have told them, send me your fund-raising literature when you go to the White House and present the case of the balseros to the president. They don't represent me, thanks so much. They actually are conveying a message of indiference by not pressuring the government to eliminate that criminal policy. What really bothers and tires me is the chutzpah some people have to tell us who don't think one hundred percent like you do, that we should do or shouldn't do that. Check what we are writing, nobody has told anyone that you cannot cherish and adore those celebrities, we simply choose not to do it and to express our opinions.
Killcastro has a post on those celebrities who have made a difference. Here is what I posted concerning an encounter with Willy Chirino: Thanks for posting those who have done something and spoken out. I love Willy Chirino and have a good story about him. Years ago my wife and I won some tickets to a latin-jazz festival and had to pick them up at the radio station. We drive up to the parking garage of the station and see this limo pull up and out comes Willy Chirino. i park and lose sight and think, man we missed our opportunity to talk to him. My wife and I go up to the station and their is about 60 people crammed in this tiny station. We notice in the booth their interviewing Willy Chirino. during a break they ask the group where are you from: Mexico,Colombia etc.. and I mention "Yo soy Cubano" he looked and nodded. no big deal, we get the tickets and start to leave. the interview is over and he gets up and walks directly over to us and he held my infant daughter and talked to us for 15 minutes while others were waiting. What a down to earth guy and the whole time he asked about my family and yes he did talk about Cuba and the suffering of the cuban people.
CB, we've had this discussion before so I'll try to be concise. Nobody, not I or anyone else, has insisted that you change your opinion. I just spoke my mind and gave my opinion, something we all like to do here in blog-land. ;)
I don't put anyone on a pedestal just because they are celebrities. I respect people for their actions and for the lives they lead. Can the celebrities in question do more about Cuba? Sure. Can you and I and everyone else do more? Absolutely. Saying no would be an outright lie.
I don't have a record of how many times Gloria, Andy, or Chirino have written or spoken to the President about Cuba. It may be 10 times, it may be zero. What difference does it make?
All I know is that I've seen enough from people like Gloria and Andy to know that they care and have done their part, as little or as much as it might be.
Criticizing their actions, or lack thereof, does absolutely nothing good for the cause, as Ziva expressed.
Robert, Criticizing is my right and duty. What doesn't do anything good for the cause is the silence. What doesn't do anything good for the cause is not taking a newspaper ad and not using their soapboxes to publicize the plight of the Cuban people, the duress and harshness of the dictatorship, the heavy rigueur of the political imprisonment in Cuba, the deaths of the balseros, and their return to the monster on a silver plate, and the silence about the Damas de Blanco. I do my part, and I wish I could do more. They are not doing anything. Sorry, but they aren't. Nor are the politicians. They are silent. Those people have the resources to put up a message in a billboard. They don't do it. They can take a full page in the New York Times, but they don't do it. They can make a movie about the real tragedy of Cuba, they don't do it. They could speak about the horrors of the tyranny at every moment and they don't do it. They could buy a little corner somewhere, hire an artist and create a monument to the balseros, and I still have to see that. They can, they have the resources, they have the opportunity to express themselves directly, and they can reach publics of all walks of life, religions, and cultural background, and they choose to stay silent. They could have given a prize too to the Damas de Blanco, and they aren't doing such a thing. They could have done something for the independent libraries, and they are not doing anything. They could have lend their very public figures as the public faces for the liberation of Cuba, and that's not being done. So, why are they doing? I really don't know, and I have all the right to question such innactivity, when some of us, who don't have the connections or the resources dedicate all of our time to do something for the Cubans in the island without judging them, or saying that they shouldn't be coming to the states. Tell me, is there a program sponsored by any of these celebrities, entrepeneurs or politicians to help a balsero to integrate into their new reality? English classes? Job training? No, there's no program like that. Why? I do now how much a new comer is paid, no matter his experience in the job is. I know how suspiciously you're looked at when you come from Cuba and you do now some English. I know how much one is abused when one arrives with skills and is paid less than the minumum wage by someone that tells you that is doing you a favor. Don't tell me that criticizing somebody for not doing anything doesn't do anygood to the cause, less good to the cause does somebody who has the resources to help and refuses to do it, for whatever reason. I also know, first hand, how people talk about the newcomers, how they treat them, and that sends a very bad message to Cuba. I also know that in Cuba many people are reading this blogs, and opinions like "we have no space in Miami for them", "don't ask for the wet-foot dry-foot to be eliminated, because maybe you're gonna get what you wish", "they are not doing a thing in Cuba", "why the States have to help Cuba that only have booze and beaches", and some other opinions even harsher are circulating in Havana. That doesn't do anything for the cause does it?
Actually commentaries as you quoted above have done a LOT for KaSStro's cause , cause all the motherfucker has to say is .. "See ... what have *I* told you? Are THESE the Cubans you want to come and control YOUR destiny? As any good Cuban will tell you; "Mas vale malo conocido que bueno por conocer" Fortunately for those who DO want a free Cuba KaSStro's late days are of such total despair that those who wish the Cubans IN Cuba revolt WILL get their wish. THEY WILL REVOLT . In fact THEY ARE AS WE SPEAK! Fear has been conquered by HUNGER! Now after THAT happens, the Cubans IN Cuba are going to look at the Cubans IN the USA and recite verse and chapter where we stood in their time of peril. The Cubans IN Cuba will need help and they will get it from every place because there’s so much money to be made in Cuba. The money they will MISTRUST with pathological fear is any money coming from the likes of those who nonchalantly declared "Let THEM take care of themselves"
It is a shame really because there could have been such tremendous unity of effort "Los de aquí y los de allá" as Varela says, but in Cuba a LOT of us have been written off as having chosen the USA as OUR "patria" and since the USA has NOTHING to gain by defending or intervening in Cuba, there's really not a lot of guessing as to what finger the yanks are gonna get when they come down offering the peace pipe.
For being, scared of what a free Cuba would mean, for being scared of what 12 million Cubans may mean, for being way too selfish and way too meek we gave Cuba back to Europe, who in fact are the only ones who have done ANYTHING to keep 12 million people alive.
I tell you we will see an economic war between Cuba and the rest of the southern USA and the Caribbean that is gonna make the world economy tremble. Imagine GM sending 30 thousand jobs to China, how many will they be sending to Cuba? The Cubans IN the Island are gonna pull a god damn economic miracle! The HONG KONG/ Taiwan of Latin America. That my friends is one scary thought for ANYONE with a timbiriche of any kind in Kendal, Curacao or Cancun !
Unfortunately, we do have tons of organizations in exile that do very little. That's why we are blogging! Againg, organizations like the Cuban American National Foundation could pressure more to nullify the dry-foot wet-foot. After all, we have been acussed of having a huge lobby!
The greastest frustration that I find is that there are those in the Cuban-American community who have the economical and political power to do something for Cuba and yet for whatever reason they don't.
We can get pissed that they don't, or we can hope that they're just warming up for some bigger action.
Which ever is the case it's like what Toco said: "what we want is for gloria, emilio, andy and the politicos is to start the fire, not just jump in the fire like they did when elian." And lets face it -no fires have been started by them.
Now, I'm not going to go further in criticizing them, because I still agree with Rob and Val in watching out for your own. HOWEVER, lately I've been having to ask myself time and again as to what have they done with the resources at their disposal to speak out against Castro. And to say that they risk their career if they speak our really blows my mind because that would mean that their million dollar career is worth more than THEIR OWN people suffering on the island. Yet, even this is hypothesis and so we return to the only concrete fact that Toro pointed out: these people with the power aren't the ones starting the fire.
All we can do is to be very proactive, Song. And to watch out for our own is a two way street, it has to come from their way too. Or -if they don't care- they stop being our own. Forty seven years of tyranny is a helluva long warming time!
21 comments:
I can see how the photo would rub some of us the wrong way:
1) Gloria's in the company of the latest moral-relativist director from La-La land, a man who spent 8 hours being "overly impressed" by a certain groucho-marxist hygiene-challenged dick-tater;
2) She's holding the flag of the country which served as the "petri dish" for same aforementioned hygiene-challenged burro-hole and helped spawn the plague that's had Cuba in its grip for 45+ years.
Gloria would play a better, more apropos role as La Niña del Escambray. Why doesn't she suggest that spiel to Steve?
exactly! You would think that after all this time they would of pitched something or better yet pushed for a movie or a role that would bring the suffering of the Cuban people to the forefront. What about a movie concerning Armando Valledares,Eusebio Penalver,Mario Chanes, Ana Rodrigues,and Dr.Biscet. The list goes on and on!!!
She hasn't say anything about dry-foot wet-foot, holds the flag of an enemy country for us Cubans, and smiles with Spielberg, who is a traitor to Jews (Munich anyone?) and Cubans alike.
Do I have to add anything else?
Why on freaking Earth doesn't she portrait one of the Ladies in White, la Niña del Escambray, the life of a regular Cuban woman, the story of Elian's mother, or something like that? The answer is simple: she is one of our silent celebrities. I have offered space in my blog for all of them to come and defend the Cuban people and the Cuban rafters, and I have hit their wall of silence. Her emporium only plays sanitized pseudoCuban prosalsa stuff. No Cuban rock, no Cuban alternative music, and nothing that can raise rabble. No Carlos Varela. No Porno Para Ricardo, no Zeus, no nothing that is the real Cuban thing.... The same apply to Andy Garcia: where are his movies about the Cubans who are fighting the dictatorship or the political prisoners? Why a Spaniard had to portrait the Cuban poet in Antes que Anochezca? Why a Spaniard had to portrait The Mambo Kings? I have too many questions, and no answers. Their actions say a lot.
Actually, the guy with her in the photo looks like Emilio Estefan, her husband. All I wrote in my previous comment applies to him too.
Guys, the movie has to be sellable. If this is their initial foray into the movie business, then they would be hard pressed to make a movie that wont garner a major audience. Noone will finance it, no one will distribute it, etc. Look at the problems Andy Garcia had with getting distributorship for his Cuba movie. No one would touch it.
I also find it hard to criticize, I will say it once again, my own, when Gloria and Emilio and Andy have always been the first, thorughout the years, to be puntos fijos when it comes to Cuban issues.
And remember, the movie and music business, moreson than any other business, is all about PR. Sometimes you gotta swallow a bitter pill to later on get the sweets of success.
Give them time.
I am dying for them to give me the chance to eat crow. I will make it with my own recipe for Thanksgiving turkey, I will call it my Thanksgiving Crow. I will be glad to eat it. I criticize people, but I always give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope they prove me wrong!
Judging by the kind of real estate they own and by the kind of music empire they front, they seem to be well "on their feet" to me.
Andy Garcia was wonderful in "For Love or Country" a movie depicting the life of Arturo Sandoval. Gloria Estefan did appear in this movie. I am big fans of both of them and it really hurt for me to post the link of her and it is Emilio, not Spielberg holding that flag. It just really rubbed me the wrong way! Val, your right it is hard to criticize one of your own.
However, their has been silence for a while concerning many topics related to "Cuba" from the succesful Cuban-American entertainers. Easy for me to say, I do not have their hectic schedule or demands or the success that they enjoy.
Arturo Sandoval was a chivato del Partido. Many people I know were expelled from the National School of Music during his tenure there due to his witchhunting. Then he defects, Andy Garcia doesn't do his homework and portraits this lowly roach as a hero. Great thing. Imagine how insulting that shitty movie was to the Cubans in Cuba who cannot even get a job sweeping the streets thanks to Mr. Sandoval, the COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBER and DIRECTOR OF THE ESCUELA NACIONAL DE MUSICA ALEJANDRO GARCIA CATURLA. Nice, isn't it? This is the very same Sandoval who lied in his American citizenship application and had the citizenship denied two times because he "forgot" to tell that he was a party member and a party official with some decision making capabilities at that music school (I mean, life altering capabilities, one doesn't know if any of the students expelled rafted and die in the Straights of Death)
Many of those rockers he expelled from that school made it to the States. Then the Estefans didn't give them any opportunity, since they don't play salsa or pseudo tropical music. I know a few of them who work construction jobs in Miami or sack groceries in WinnDixie.
Conviniently, they "discovered" Cachao after he was literally starving playing bar and bat mitzvahs for a lot of years while these guys were already VERY rich and calling the shots in the music business.
The sole fact that they were born in Cuba doesn't make them anygood, they are good when they defend their own, and help them to succeed in this country.
Boy when we talk about Garcia and the Estefans we sure have a BIZILLION god damn excuses as to why they are the ball -less pricks they are? Don't we? What? She needs to write a movie about a Latin singer in the 50s, just to "see" how it goes?
Here, Carmen Miranda , it has been done , it sucked … MOVE THE FUCK ON!
In other words if she makes another 14 million MAYBE she will dabble in a political statement? Taking a cue from Mr. Garcia are we? pussyfoot around the issue let’s see how it flies and what kind of flack and cash we get out of it ? . Tackling KaSStro’s monstrous regime is TOO dangerous in Hollywood. Spineless PRICKS all of them!
So we need to count on the Alejandro Sanz, Javier Bardem, Pedro Almodóvar and
Robert Duvall’s of the world to stick their dicks out for us. FUCKING P-E-A-C-H-Y!
Just give us ALL a brake. This is not hiding dirty laundry man this is hiding it and spreading Lysol all over the place to mask the stench. Can not touch one of those Miami Cuban stars boy ... (what did Carmen say? “la niña linda de los Miamenses”) Cause there will ALWAYS be a HUGE excuse as to why they do what they do. Sounds mighty FIDELISTA to me.
And people in Miami criticize Paya?.. Gimme a fucking break! Let us screw some cojones and call them like we see them . Why would these “stars” even bother when they know that their Miami Cuban posee is there to back up every slap in the face they give the Cuban people? Oh , you do NOT know what they do behind close doors? well you know NEITHER DO I NOR THE PEOPLE WHO COUNT, THE PEOPLE IN CUBA! Here’s woman whose ONLY complaint about KaSStro (that I have read) is that his nails are TOO long? This from the daughter of a Batista guardaespalda!
These bastards may maintain their NORTH CUBAN status intact but as far as the REAL Cuba, they are lower than a fucking rattle snakes ass with a hemorrhoidal flare-up.
I am SO TIRED of the excuses. You don’t TEST the waters to see if you will commit to a cause , if you do you are even MORE of a PRICK.
I find this and the excuses totally and utterly reprehensible and if prominent Cubans do NOT protest and Miami Cubans keep covering their backs, what are we asking of the rest of the world to do? Why would Jesse Jackson speak against KaSStro and why DO YOU guys criticize him for it ?
I am tired of all the “IMHO” and all the "With all due respect..." charade. You have TWO (three if you count that Mr. Gloria Estefan pussy) "artists" who are nothing more than a disgrace to the country that saw them be born. SHAME ON THEM and on everyone who defends or rationalizes their hypocrisy
And let the fucking chips fall where they may! I AM TIRED OF THE BULLSHIT!
Guys you are right! Everyone is looking to protect their own interest. No outcry from any one of them concering anything. Killcastro, Charlie Bravo, myself, and others have offered their blogs as a mean to use as tool to denounce the brutal regime and the dry-foot wet-foot policy. Again as I have said before, total silence from the majority of Cuban Americans on many issues. what I do not understand is with all the money floating around within the Cuban-American community no one dares to make a movie about the "real" situation in Cuba. What about those who have been imprisoned for over 20 years? can you imagine as individuals we collectively voice our opinions and denounce the evil system that has enslaved the Cuban people, we can make a difference. silence just helps the enemy!
Whenever a Cuban government sponsored group does one of their usual propaganda moves, like putting up and ad in the New York Times, or having a group of vociferous old haggard looking idiots in one centric corner of NYC with che t-shirts handing propaganda, my American friends ask me, puzzled:
"What are you guys doing about this?"
"Where are your celebrities and your CEO's?"
"Why don't they take another ad? this is America!"
Since none of the above mentioned celebrities, VIP's, CEO's, or visible talking heads do anything, that's why we have a blog.
For once and forever, our celebrities are a bunch of rotten, greedy, airheards, no different from their celebrity neighbors in their bubble rosy world. Our VIP's and CEO's don't care, because the antikagasstrism industry is a niche business, that by all accounts is fading, in hands of a bunch of guys who are only effective when they send fund-raising letters. Do I want to mention the politicians here. I better not, since they are a bunch of slicks. Take for example "Silent Bob" Menendez. Talk about thick solid silence about the dry-foot wet-foot policy, not to mention the others who don't seize the oportunity to do anything about that regulation, just to talk about my pet peevee.
(MORE IN KILLCASTRO)
I know i'm late to this but hear goes anyway...
I'm totally with Val. Since when are the Estefans AGAINST our cause? Just because Gloria and Emilio are holding a Mexican flag doesn't mean they'll be singing for Fidel in Havana anytime soon. We want our (Cuban) celebrities to be like us, think like us, and speak out like us. Fact is, they don't have to be any of that.
I've mentioned this before in previous blog discussions, and I'll bring it up again...Gloria and Andy Garcia have stepped up for the cause before. Have we forgotten their pleas to keep Elian in the U.S.? I saw it live on TV.
We want them to take up arms with us and go to battle. The only problem is, nobody's going down to Cuba with arms to actually do any battle. Esto ya cansa y aburre.
The Estefans have represented all Cuban-Americans in a positive way. We need to worry less about them and worry more about our true enemies. God knows we have too many.
Well, Robert, I still have to see their outcry to eliminate the dry-foot wet-foot. I have to see them taking the offer to come to one of our blogs to support the struggle of the Cubans in Cuba. Every decent Cuban supported that Elian stayed in the States, and I don't know where you are getting that any of us is saying that they are against the cause of the Cuban people, nobody wrote such a thing here. What was written is that they are silent. They don't do anything, they can take an add wanting too in any national newspaper to educate the public and they don't do it. I don't want them or anyone to think like I do, the world would be really boring if it happened. And by the same token I do not tolerate that people tell me how do I have to think or that I have to be silent just because they happened to be born in Cuba, and because someone might like them.
Those celebrities, face it, are not doing a thing. They can present the case for the Cuban people from their very advantageous position and they choose to stay silent. Why is that a movie about Reynaldo Arenas is not made by Cubans? Why is that the story of Cubans is not told in film when it should?
A simple thing, like supporting the balseros is totally sent to back burner and not even touched with a ten foot pole by the celebrities or the politicians.
This blog, and KillCastro, offered space for everybody who wanted to come forward and denounce the dry-foot wet-foot, nobody listened, nadie escuchaba.
Just let me know why do we have to put those people in a pedestal?
Ask the Estefans or Garcia how many times have they written to the president or to whoever to have them repel the dry-foot wet. Tell the Cuban American politicians the same I have told them, send me your fund-raising literature when you go to the White House and present the case of the balseros to the president.
They don't represent me, thanks so much. They actually are conveying a message of indiference by not pressuring the government to eliminate that criminal policy.
What really bothers and tires me is the chutzpah some people have to tell us who don't think one hundred percent like you do, that we should do or shouldn't do that. Check what we are writing, nobody has told anyone that you cannot cherish and adore those celebrities, we simply choose not to do it and to express our opinions.
Killcastro has a post on those celebrities who have made a difference. Here is what I posted
concerning an encounter with Willy Chirino:
Thanks for posting those who have done something and spoken out. I love Willy Chirino and have a good story about him. Years ago my wife and I won some tickets to a latin-jazz festival and had to pick them up at the radio station. We drive up to the parking garage of the station and see this limo pull up and out comes Willy Chirino. i park and lose sight and think, man we missed our opportunity to talk to him. My wife and I go up to the station and their is about 60 people crammed in this tiny station. We notice in the booth their interviewing Willy Chirino. during a break they ask the group where are you from: Mexico,Colombia etc..
and I mention "Yo soy Cubano" he looked and nodded. no big deal, we get the tickets and start to leave. the interview is over and he gets up and walks directly over to us and he held my infant daughter and talked to us for 15 minutes while others were waiting.
What a down to earth guy and the whole time he asked about my family and yes he did talk about Cuba and the suffering of the cuban people.
CB, we've had this discussion before so I'll try to be concise. Nobody, not I or anyone else, has insisted that you change your opinion. I just spoke my mind and gave my opinion, something we all like to do here in blog-land. ;)
I don't put anyone on a pedestal just because they are celebrities. I respect people for their actions and for the lives they lead. Can the celebrities in question do more about Cuba? Sure. Can you and I and everyone else do more? Absolutely. Saying no would be an outright lie.
I don't have a record of how many times Gloria, Andy, or Chirino have written or spoken to the President about Cuba. It may be 10 times, it may be zero. What difference does it make?
All I know is that I've seen enough from people like Gloria and Andy to know that they care and have done their part, as little or as much as it might be.
Criticizing their actions, or lack thereof, does absolutely nothing good for the cause, as Ziva expressed.
Robert,
Criticizing is my right and duty.
What doesn't do anything good for the cause is the silence. What doesn't do anything good for the cause is not taking a newspaper ad and not using their soapboxes to publicize the plight of the Cuban people, the duress and harshness of the dictatorship, the heavy rigueur of the political imprisonment in Cuba, the deaths of the balseros, and their return to the monster on a silver plate, and the silence about the Damas de Blanco. I do my part, and I wish I could do more. They are not doing anything. Sorry, but they aren't. Nor are the politicians. They are silent. Those people have the resources to put up a message in a billboard. They don't do it. They can take a full page in the New York Times, but they don't do it. They can make a movie about the real tragedy of Cuba, they don't do it. They could speak about the horrors of the tyranny at every moment and they don't do it. They could buy a little corner somewhere, hire an artist and create a monument to the balseros, and I still have to see that. They can, they have the resources, they have the opportunity to express themselves directly, and they can reach publics of all walks of life, religions, and cultural background, and they choose to stay silent.
They could have given a prize too to the Damas de Blanco, and they aren't doing such a thing. They could have done something for the independent libraries, and they are not doing anything. They could have lend their very public figures as the public faces for the liberation of Cuba, and that's not being done.
So, why are they doing?
I really don't know, and I have all the right to question such innactivity, when some of us, who don't have the connections or the resources dedicate all of our time to do something for the Cubans in the island without judging them, or saying that they shouldn't be coming to the states.
Tell me, is there a program sponsored by any of these celebrities, entrepeneurs or politicians to help a balsero to integrate into their new reality? English classes? Job training? No, there's no program like that. Why?
I do now how much a new comer is paid, no matter his experience in the job is. I know how suspiciously you're looked at when you come from Cuba and you do now some English. I know how much one is abused when one arrives with skills and is paid less than the minumum wage by someone that tells you that is doing you a favor.
Don't tell me that criticizing somebody for not doing anything doesn't do anygood to the cause, less good to the cause does somebody who has the resources to help and refuses to do it, for whatever reason.
I also know, first hand, how people talk about the newcomers, how they treat them, and that sends a very bad message to Cuba. I also know that in Cuba many people are reading this blogs, and opinions like "we have no space in Miami for them", "don't ask for the wet-foot dry-foot to be eliminated, because maybe you're gonna get what you wish", "they are not doing a thing in Cuba", "why the States have to help Cuba that only have booze and beaches", and some other opinions even harsher are circulating in Havana.
That doesn't do anything for the cause does it?
Actually commentaries as you quoted above have done a LOT for KaSStro's cause , cause all the motherfucker has to say is .. "See ... what have *I* told you? Are THESE the Cubans you want to come and control YOUR destiny? As any good Cuban will tell you; "Mas vale malo conocido que bueno por conocer"
Fortunately for those who DO want a free Cuba KaSStro's late days are of such total despair that those who wish the Cubans IN Cuba revolt WILL get their wish. THEY WILL REVOLT . In fact THEY ARE AS WE SPEAK! Fear has been conquered by HUNGER! Now after THAT happens, the Cubans IN Cuba are going to look at the Cubans IN the USA and recite verse and chapter where we stood in their time of peril. The Cubans IN Cuba will need help and they will get it from every place because there’s so much money to be made in Cuba. The money they will MISTRUST with pathological fear is any money coming from the likes of those who nonchalantly declared "Let THEM take care of themselves"
It is a shame really because there could have been such tremendous unity of effort "Los de aquí y los de allá" as Varela says, but in Cuba a LOT of us have been written off as having chosen the USA as OUR "patria" and since the USA has NOTHING to gain by defending or intervening in Cuba, there's really not a lot of guessing as to what finger the yanks are gonna get when they come down offering the peace pipe.
For being, scared of what a free Cuba would mean, for being scared of what 12 million Cubans may mean, for being way too selfish and way too meek we gave Cuba back to Europe, who in fact are the only ones who have done ANYTHING to keep 12 million people alive.
I tell you we will see an economic war between Cuba and the rest of the southern USA and the Caribbean that is gonna make the world economy tremble.
Imagine GM sending 30 thousand jobs to China, how many will they be sending to Cuba? The Cubans IN the Island are gonna pull a god damn economic miracle! The HONG KONG/ Taiwan of Latin America. That my friends is one scary thought for ANYONE with a timbiriche of any kind in Kendal, Curacao or Cancun !
Unfortunately, we do have tons of organizations in exile that do very little. That's why we are blogging! Againg, organizations like the Cuban American National Foundation could pressure more to nullify the dry-foot wet-foot. After all, we have been acussed of having a huge lobby!
ALRIGHT! I'm hope I'm not too late!
The greastest frustration that I find is that there are those in the Cuban-American community who have the economical and political power to do something for Cuba and yet for whatever reason they don't.
We can get pissed that they don't, or we can hope that they're just warming up for some bigger action.
Which ever is the case it's like what Toco said: "what we want is for gloria, emilio, andy and the politicos is to start the fire, not just jump in the fire like they did when elian." And lets face it -no fires have been started by them.
Now, I'm not going to go further in criticizing them, because I still agree with Rob and Val in watching out for your own. HOWEVER, lately I've been having to ask myself time and again as to what have they done with the resources at their disposal to speak out against Castro. And to say that they risk their career if they speak our really blows my mind because that would mean that their million dollar career is worth more than THEIR OWN people suffering on the island. Yet, even this is hypothesis and so we return to the only concrete fact that Toro pointed out: these people with the power aren't the ones starting the fire.
My question is: what can we DO about it?
All we can do is to be very proactive, Song. And to watch out for our own is a two way street, it has to come from their way too. Or -if they don't care- they stop being our own. Forty seven years of tyranny is a helluva long warming time!
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