Cuba Isn't a Communist Theme Park

Voices: Cuba Isn't a Communist Theme Park
BY CARMEN PELAEZ

NEW YORK — There's a homeless gentleman who lives in my neighborhood.
For years we've called each other "my friend." He walks around wearing
several layers of button down shirts and khakis with different blankets
wrapped around his head and shoulders, regardless of the weather.
Sometimes he walks alongside a kid-style bike, and other times he
carries a huge patio umbrella. But he's always lovely, and we always
check in with each other. One day I asked him where he was from. He
replied, "Ethiopia. And you?"

"I'm Cuban," I said.

He threw his hands up in the air, and his eyes brightened. "Ah yes!
Fidel! Very good." And my heart sank. All I could think was "Et tu, my
friend. Et tu?"

Outside of Miami, the moment after "I'm Cuban" is always 90 miles wide.
I never know which myth I'm going be sized up against or how I will fare
by comparison. I'd love, just once, to get a "Cuba … meh" reaction.
Instead I get the same tired tropes …

"You're a Miami Cuban? You're really Conservative, right?"

I'm an NPR-listening, latte-drinking, artisanal food tasting,
pro-immigration reform, capital "D" Democrat who can throw my public
television tote bag into any ring and bring the pain. I'm immediately
suspect of any politician or talking head that capitalizes on the pain
of the Cuban exile community. Marco Rubio gives me hives. I'm also part
of a growing Cuban blue majority. I've experienced the disastrous
effects of Castro's regime both in Cuba and Miami. I was thrilled with
the U.S. policy change toward Cuba. Not because I thought that the U.S.
was responsible for Cuba's problems, but because it's a failed policy
which has given the Castro brothers the cover needed to blame all their
failures on us. The onus is now squarely on the government of Cuba.

There's also this idea that support for these changes can be divided by
generational or party lines, which is simplistic and convenient. It
implies that somehow the older generation was wrong and my generation's
approach to Cuba is a rejection of their beliefs. It makes for catchy
copy, but it's just not true. Trauma is messy and different waves of
exile have different opinions on how to bring about change. Within those
waves there are just as many progressive as there are conservative
approaches. My 93-year-old grand uncle and my 84-year-old grandmother's
best friend's politics regarding Cuba are the same as mine. They walked
away from their entire world so that we could have the freedom to engage
in fierce political debate. Keeping Cuban plurality alive is our way
honoring their sacrifice. Whoever decided to draw these lines clearly
has no Cuban grandmother to contend with.

"I just wanna go see Cuba before we ruin it"

Well, you should have planned your trip in 1958 because 56 years of a
totalitarian dictatorship has a way of wearing on a country. When Fidel
took over, he got everything. The life savings, businesses, homes and
belongings of every Cuban citizen who decided to put their human rights
ahead of material wealth. Where did it all go? With large swaths of
Havana collapsing in on itself, a mortifying international sexual
tourism that operates with impunity and an abysmal human rights record —
what's left to ruin?

The follow-up to this comment is usually the arrogant, "I just want to
go before there's a Starbucks on every corner." What's so bad about
Starbucks? Last I checked, they paid well and provided great benefits
for their employees without infringing on anybody's rights. You know
what else Starbucks has? A working toilet and Wi-Fi, which is more than
I can say for the majority of Cuban homes and institutions. Havana has
been a functioning capital city for 500 years — it'll survive a few
coffee shops. Besides, the Cuban people don't have the time to wait for
you to gawk at their misery before "we ruin it."

"Ooh, the cars, the cigars, the rum"

Take it easy Jay-Z. Put down the cigar, set the daiquiri aside and take
that black beret off your head. You look ridiculous. If I put my
American goggles on, I get the allure. The Godfather II, Hemingway, the
Che Guevara T-shirt … But let's break it down. The mob owned more of NYC
than it ever did Havana. Hemingway wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" in a
pre-Revolutionary Cuba. Che Guevara was pretty, but a sociopath, who
established Cuba's first gay concentration camps. Sure, the old cars
look great, but would you want your only mode of transportation to be
half a century old? And have you ridden in one? They're gas leaks on wheels.

People accuse exiles of nostalgic extremism. But the tourist gaze makes
our sentimentality look amateur. On my trips to Cuba, I've stood in
bread lines, cleaned the rocks out of the government-issued bag of rice
and showered out of a bucket. You want revolutionary credibility? Engage
with the Cuban reality and not the exhausted spoils of a violent
conquest. Cuba is a country in crisis, not a Communist theme park.

The good news is we've got a real chance at a hard reset. You can get
your fill of Cuba and have meaningful exchanges with a people that have
been isolated for way too long if you're willing to hold the government
of Cuba to the same standard you hold your own government. You can
support its people and not its regime-run tourist industry if you do
your research. My hope is that the next time somebody tells you they're
Cuban, you will ask, "Really, what's that like?" And you'll listen to
what another human being has to relate. After all, truth is always
better than fiction.

CARMEN PELAEZ
Carmen Pelaez is a Cuban American Miami-born and Brooklyn-based
filmmaker, writer and performer.

Source: Voices: Cuba Isn't a Communist Theme Park - NBC News.com -
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/voices-cuba-isnt-communist-theme-park-n301751