While visiting the beautiful country of Cuba I stumbled across a billboard. This billboard was like none other I had ever seen, yet I was more curious of the content, rather than defensive. In our history books as Americans we are taught that Cuba is a communist state; that a dictatorship that has oppressed the people of Cuba for a little over four decades was ran by a bad man named Fidel Castro.As I stared at the image of Uncle Sam and his drooling mouth I began to recognize that although the people of Cuba had nothing against Americans, the government was aggressively weary. It was not until I read the Monroe Doctrine did I began to understand Cuban/US relations.
I believe that this billboard inspired pride and dedication to the Communist Party of Cuba, by the loyal citizens that reside there. The placement of this billboard was within a mile of the Jose Marti memorial site.
Would it be safe to say that this embargo that has separated us for so many years was put in place because of a tax that Fidel Castro intended to impose on the US land that produced sugar? Would it be safe to say that before Las Vegas there was Havana, Cuba and the leaders no longer wanted to be a playground for mobsters who lived in the US?
I can say that the country has produced many successful and superbly educated doctors that are scattered all over the world. And that the gap between the rich and the poor is nearly sealed.
Or do we take the opposing side and say that missiles were heading for The United States of America by the Soviets with the help of the Cuban Communist Party? Will we normal people ever know the truth? I would say probably not.
I think its time to take this billboard down and put one up of Obama shaking hands with Raul Castro connecting a relationship that for so many years has been deprived. Each country should be treated with the same amount of respect as the other. And to quote Rodney King “Can’t we just all get along”.
In the Latin American Art History class I took last summer, the story we got about one of the reasons why Cubans were wary of the imperialist U.S. was that their economy was dependent on the production of sugar cane & most of their sugar plantations were owned by Americans-- which meant that the most of the profits from the country's only cash crop went back to America instead of staying in Cuba. And I agree with your comment about Cubans not wanting so many American mobsters coming down to Havana to hang out-- but from what I got out of that class, it seemed like Havana was a tourist destination for Americans in general. What made tourism another sad industry for Cuba was that many of the resorts in Havana were also owned by Americans.
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