TWs: Descriptions of violence, poverty, homophobia, book burning, murder, executions, and other horrible stuff that happened during the Cuban revolution (the Castro one. Just clarifying as the country has had a few)
Disclaimer: I can't speak for all Cubans or Cuban families or experiences. I am only sharing my own family's experiences to the best of my abilities.
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Hi. Proud, youngest (but not young, I'm in my mid / late 40s,) child of Cuban refugees here. Saw this on tumbler today and had a story to share...
(Content of the post I saw that triggered my sharing of my family story)
First of all, I'm a democrat. I HATE Trump, hate Marco Rubio, and quite like the Democratic Socialist Party here in the US. I want Cuba to be freed but now how these choads are doing it. I also agree with the post that it's pathetic that America never actually helped the Cuban people overthrow their government (Bay of Pigs anyone?) but the part about Cuba being small embargoed country having better healthcare and education? Mmm.... Depends on who is looking for those services (and if education can really be called education if it is crammed with political propaganda to serve the current government's agenda.)
My parents and their families slowly fled from cuba - mom and dad never met in Cuba and had very different experiences there.
Mom's family had connections with Batista (my uncle worked as a tax collector I believe, or inspector, something like that - for the overthrown Batista government.) Her family was middle class, but had some family already in the United States, and had means to leave legally, so they slowly (only a couple of family members at a time) left the country. When they did, they were stripped of any jewelry and not allowed to take more than a few sets of clothes. They were able to bring almost nothing, as there were no little 'artifacts' from their lives around when I was growing up, not even photos. They definitely felt the revolution was a negative, obviously. The public executions being broadcast on state TV didn't help...
Dad was a farm worker and will admit to having had some benefit when Batista fell and the "socialists" took over (the revolution had promised Socialism to their supporters, but switched to "Communism" after toppling the corrupt Batista government. (Possibly to gain Russian aid come to think of it) Communism quickly became a DICTATORSHIP favoring the wealthy. Dad never did learn how to read as the government promised... He was too busy working)
The benefits he saw (some government subsidies I believe) quickly collapsed. The farm's owner no longer owned the farm - his property now belonged to the government. So the farmers weren't allowed to grow the variety of things they used to be able to. They were now told what to grow, regardless of what the soil was best used for. They were forced to use government issues fertilizer made from fish, which gave the crops a fishy taste. It was illegal for them to eat what they grew. Mind you, they didn't live close to a city or even a village so it's not like they could just buy something from empty shelves with no money after traveling on horseback for half a day.
My father wasn't a land owner (after the revolution, only those in government owned land) he just worked and lived on this farm since birth; his father, mother, and brothers worked on it too, though Dad did take work on nearby ranches to supplement their income during the "dead season" (when the crops were done for the year.) His family had been allowed to rent a bit of land to live on the farm property. The farmer had allowed my dad's family to keep some livestock of their own on their little piece of land but after the revolution, no one owned any livestock - the government did. He couldn't slaughter a pig or chicken without a permit, or he's run the risk of being arrested. (And I'm vegan, so don't come at me) People were starving.
Dad would supplement their food by fishing (he loves to fish anyway. Didn't have a pole, just fishing line and a hook.) Out in the countryside where he lived, people would just leave row boats for each other to use so they could fish further from shore, like a public row boat kind of situation... but it was not so simple after the revolution... Police patrolled the beaches to prevent over fishing and escape attempts by boat. Dad and his friends and siblings got around this by bribing the police with part of their catch.
He lost friends that had worked under the previous government, and by worked I mean they were mail carriers and stuff like that. Dad didn't run elbows with the wealthy unless he was working for them. In fact, one of his friends was gone for a while and dad later learned that revolution supporters had killed his friend in a way probably too graphic for me to write about here. Let's just say it involved rope and a horse and a long distance...
People were getting desperate for food and basic living stuff. His neighbor (who had a boat with a motor, 20 ft long fishing boat I think) was planning an escape... Loaded over 20 ppl on the boat at night. I think someone bribed the police to not be there or something. Dad and his wife (later divorced here in the states) got on the boat at the last minute. Their escape story is... Unbelievable but at the same time too real. Dad didn't even know where the hell America was, he was just hoping they'd land 'en un callo' (small island, a key) where he can use his green thumb and building knowledge to start over. They were picked up by a British vessel doing rescues in those Cuban patrolled waters, then transferred to another much larger (possibly military) British ship, taken to Miami-Dade, and Dad was put to work in the sugar cane fields. After his mandatory work time, he was allowed to be sent to another state to work, one that needed manual laborers. (The immigration system here is quite messed up, especially for refugees. Or at least it was when he came.)
This is a long enough post, but both sides of my family experienced ration lines and very limited food, public executions, loss of property including simple, small things, and fear for their lives. Hospitals ran out of medicine and people died outside them.
And something I *never* hear non-cubans discuss is how the Cuban people who lived there were suddenly barred from going to certain beaches, certain restaurants, certain hospitals, certain stores (all now government owned) - places they had gone to all their lives. They were not allowed in these spaces, because these spaces were now reserved for tourists... Tourists who could buy as much as they wanted, eat as much as they wanted, etc. We literally still refer to those places as 'playas de túristas' 'hospitales de túristas' etc.
To this day, according to the little part of the family I still have in Cuba, Cubans are still not allowed in these 'tourist hospitals' or 'tourists beaches' etc. The Cuban government needs the tourism money and for that they need tourists to see a clean, prosperous island nation.l that they want to visit. I've seen how my family who remained in Cuba still lives. What their neighborhoods are like - through videos. It's far from prosperous, though it's not as bad as those years directly following the revolution, it's still impoverished.
You see, I don't go to visit where my family lived because as the daughter of Cuban exiles, the Cuban government does not acknowledge my American citizenship... So if I ever step foot on the island again, I could technically be arrested and not allowed legal counsel. Legal counsel is not a right in Cuba for anyone. I could be detained for any amount of time for any reason, including speaking out against the government (and I am NOT quiet about my criticisms, as you might be able to tell) Neighbors would often rat each other out, to prove their loyalty to the government and not get targeted themselves as potential dissidents. (huh... Maybe that's why my parents were always so freaked out about speaking out against politicians here when I was a kid... Hm. Anyway) I haven't gone back because it's not safe to. An uncle of mine did anyway and videoed his time there.
So... No. I can't say that from either side of my family's experience that they believed or believe that Cuba improved with the revolution... Many Cubans in the States unfortunately vote Republican because they are terrified of the word 'socialist' because how it was misrepresented to them by Castro's (eventual) regime. (Which wasn't Castro's by the way, there was a group of them that were going to lead... Word is he had them assassinated one by one, or arrested until only he was left.
And don't you start mentioning Che Guevara - a book burning, homophobic, murderer. He was kind of pretty so people use him as a symbol for revolution... 😒 I'm damn sure that he wouldn't be on tshirts if he had been as ugly outside as he was on the inside.))
Anyway, mini novel over. I just really felt the urge to share my family's experience, and the deception that the Cuban government carried out... Deception seems to be one thing any kind of government has in common unfortunately...
