Croc said:
How many Cubans do you personally know? Do you personally know any Cubans who "fled" the island?
I know several dozen from living in Miami for 8 years. Cubans did not leave Cuba for fear of persecution.
I don't have any personal anecdotal evidence to share. However, there are plenty of Cuban exiles whose experiences would counter the views expressed by your friends . Like the following:
The thing that hurt most as a child, Ojito says, wasn't the privation that denied her chocolate, or even, in the fifth grade, "being denied God" when Castro outlawed Catholicism. It was, instead, the anguish of her father, whose longing for freedom in the United States was palpable.
He wasn't the only one.
"I go into great detail about what life was like in Cuba in the '60s and '70s," Ojito says of Finding Mañana. "I actually think that is the real contribution of the book. I don't know of another book that looks at daily life in Cuba at a time when it was truly an island, totally isolated."
The '60s and '70s, she says, made up "the worst years of repression in Cuba. Castro was young, a leftist, anti-American. Life in Cuba was very different. He not only wanted your obedience, but also your soul. Unless you fit that mold, and my family didn't, you had few choices."
A rising tide
Ojito says the period illustrates why communism always results in tyranny. In Cuba, there was nearly full employment, yet food and other essentials were forever in short supply.
"Communism doesn't work unless you eliminate capitalism completely," Ojito says. "The way to do that is by eliminating freedom. Capitalism is the freedom, or at least the illusion of the freedom, to do anything you want."
Cubans of all political persuasions knew the economy was in poor shape, but it wasn't until 1979, when, after two decades of isolation, exiles were allowed to visit, that it became apparent just how bad it really was there.
"We saw for the first time the experiences of our relatives in the United States," she said. "They came laden with presents. They had jobs, cars, they lived in the suburbs. We wanted to know why we couldn't also go to America."
Those who were open-minded, Ojito says, who tended to disagree with the regime, saw Cuba's economic woes as a failure of socialism.
"Those who liked Castro, and there were many, put it down to bad luck, or blamed the U.S.," she says. "The U.S. was blamed for everything, including hurricanes."
Many cubans who left were actually in prison for crimes like murder
Sure, a couple of thousand criminals in the Mariel Boat Lift. But , let's not leave out those with mental illnesses who were forced to leave that "compassionate socialist paradise".
Most of the cubans I talked to though eagerly refute any notion of persecution and relay how wonderful life is in Cuba.
Which begs the question, if Cuba is so wonderful, why haven't they gone back?Why is it that we never hear of people drowning when trying to reach Cuba from the horrible USA?
People in Cuba love Fidel and if you badmouth Fidel they will likely threaten or beat you.
How wonderful!
