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Not to mention that it has been about PEACE for the last 49 years--since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
How did this tiny communist island survive, off the coast of Florida, all alone in the world, in a sea of corporate "globalization" and war?
Peace. And music!
Peace isn't just the absence of war. Peace is deeper. It is about our common humanity, and everyone getting food, medical care, education, shelter, and SHARING whatever hardships come along. Nobody is alone. Nobody is excluded.
I think there is something so genuine about the Cuban peoples' care for each other, and their good works in the world--especially their medical clinics, their eye care clinic, their training of medical personnel in other countries, their care for the Chernobyl babies--their devotion to education and their joy in music, that it transcends any tawdry political categorization, and any capitalist vs community ideological conflict, and it is just Cuba. Cuba itself. Every other communist country took on some of the worst characteristics of its people and failed miserably at the initial inspiration of communism: sharing. Cuban communism took on the best characteristics of Cuba's people, most especially their lyricism and their belief in the "good life' for all--not the greedy, selfish "good life" of consumerism, which inherently consigns others to poverty--but the genuine "good life": food, family, community, inner security and well-being, education, music.
I look at the Miami Cubans--the ones who hate the Castro government and want to re-conquer Cuba--and the word that comes from the deep is insecurity. The fancy clothes, the jewelry, the make-up, the flashy cars, the political edifice built on U.S. taxpayer handouts. They do not feel secure in who they are, and they want constant affirmation from physical decorations and expensive objects and unfair political power. They may share with family; they may even be loving family members; but their community sharing is generally with political advantage in mind. They are not aimed at everyone feeling well-being, only themselves and their immediate circle. They are defensive, greedy, manipulative and sometimes full of hatred--sometimes even insane hatred--hatred of "leftists," hatred of "communists," hatred of anyone who disagrees with them. But I certainly don't get the feeling that the Cubans in Cuba hate them (the anti-Castro Miamians). I get the feeling that the Cubans in Cuba mostly PITY them. They rightfully fear them but they don't hate them. And they can't fathom why anybody would prefer all the glitz and ugliness of Miami, with its heavy costs in excluded or exploited human beings, to the exquisite inner security that everybody is taken care of, everybody counts, everybody is important, on their beautiful and relatively untouched island.
Well, enough of fantasizing what other people think and what Cuban music really means, if it could be translated into words. I'm glad to see Cuba once again at the leading cultural edge, where our dreams of a good society get dreamt.
I apologize for discussing a group's characteristics--the anti-Castro Cubans in Miami. I don't think it's a particularly good or fair thing to do. Please understand this as my fantasy about the 50 year old conflict among Cubans, and about my notions of Miami and Cuba, neither of which I have ever seen, other than in photograph or film, and experience only as long-time ikons of our culture with a strong but second-hand history in my mind, going back to my youth, through many political traumas. I will leave this comment as is, for whatever truth it contains. I know that the anti-Castro culture in Miami is changing fast and for the better and I hope that this change will be able to influence the political situation for the better. That is one thing I can say without prejudice and without apology: The anti-Castro politicians out of Miami and Florida have been a terrible rightwing drag on our country and I pray that Flordians will reject and get rid of the Diebold voting machines that keep them in office. I think, actually, that these politicians are very unrepresentative and that there are a whole lot of very good people in Miami and Florida--indeed, the vast majority in Miami and Florida--who would be overjoyed to see them evicted from office.
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