A few weeks ago Nestor, myself and our youngest son went on a homeschool field trip to the Florida National Everglades Park. On our way back home we stopped at Nestor's mother's gravesite in a Miami Cemetery. We brought along Nestor's brother because he did not have the chance to see mama's grave in many years. He moved here to Florida not too long ago.
We stopped by to see Nestor's Dad's Brother or Nestor's Uncle and his wife who live in Miami. We were greeted as is customary with a table full of Cuban food. The black beans and rice along with yucca and Carne con Papas and more were absolutely delicious. I looked around their home at all the family photos which is another Cuban tradition. Reminders were everywhere about what the priorities are and the legacy they are leaving behind as they age.
Most of Nestor's family came here to America right as Fidel was killing all those of opposition. Nestor was 6 years old and he can still hear so clear in his mind the machine gun fire as they were escorted to the Cuba airport for their flight to Miami. This was the famous 'Flight to Freedom'. When the Cuban people were told that their children were all going to put in state run schools many parents put their children on planes to America while they had to stay behind because they did not want their children to grow up brainwashed with Communist propaganda. Nestor and I have similar histories as both of our parents came from wealthy families who had to flee communism and everything they had worked for generations for was suddenly stolen away from them.
Nestor will never forget how even at the airport Fidel's soldiers were trying to get families torn apart. If you break up the family- you can control the people. Now what does this have to do with Legacy?
As I sat around eating delicious traditional Cuban food in a free country with family photos surrounding us the subject evolved to what is important in life and how their health is coming along in their late 70's. This is a family legacy and a story that needs to be written for future generations to never forget the evil that destroyed the beautiful country of Cuba.
But there is even more importance to not make up a false history of the legacy of Cuba. Cuban Americans are a large group in Miami and the rest of South Florida. As the older generation passes away it is going to be up to the younger generation to keep up the good fight for Cuba's freedom and to never rewrite the history of what really happened in Cuba.
The whole Hollywood thing is honoring a killer, a murderer and a horrible evil man known as Che. They portray him in the movie as some hero of which he was not. He was a killing machine. The very things that Hollywood does, such as freedom of expression, music and movie making were not even allowed in Cuba and Che said that rock music was capitalistic and he banned the rock musicians such as Santana from being played in Cuba. Yet, now we see Santana wearing a Che Tshirt. I love Santana's music. I grew up with his music and still to this day love his music. But from now on I will never buy his music. He is free to say what he wants to say and free to wear what he wants to wear- but I am also free to choose not to support his dissing of the Cuban legacy.
Now this evil man Che is being worn by super models all over the world. His face is on children and teenagers' clothing, being tatooed on young people's bodies and embodied into the hearts and minds of the youth all over the world as a hero of a revolution. All any one has to do is speak to any elder Cuban Americans to discover how evil this man is. Hollywood can honor him all they want to, they can spread their lies all they want to- but we are the ones who need to choose to study history to find out the truth and then act upon that truth.
And here in South Florida it is an insult to be wearing Che all over your body. Just as wearing a KKK Tshirt is not tolerated- a Che Tshirt should not be tolerated. This is insensitive to say the least. What amazes me is that the same freedom that allows you to wear the shirts is the very freedom that Che was fighting against! What an oxymoron. I don't believe in political correctness but if the law about hate crimes does exist then it should be treated the same across all races and nationalities.
Since some of our children are 1/2 Cuban we will make sure that they understand what really happened in Cuba. Above is a photo of a typical street in Miami and you can see the wonderful Spanish influence in architecture. Fidel and Che are not going to be honored in our families and our legacy will include the Flight To Freedom stories. As we said our good-byes on a gorgeous sunny day in Miami and hung up the flowers on mama's chamber in the mausoleum we prayed that the Gasset legacy would live on sealed in the truth.
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Copyright © 2010 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved.*Cuban American Legacies-Honoring The Truth In History*
