[Marxism] A Cuban view of Barack Obama

[Eli Stephens]

 From Newsday:
  http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppay23i5738992jun23,0,4978655,print.column

A Cuban view of Barack Obama

Les Payne

June 23, 2008

HAVANA

The Cuban at the bar of the old Hotel Nacional didn't know golf, but like all 
Havana he was rooting for Tiger Woods. Woods' winning putt at the U.S. Open 
moved the young comrade to high-five his newfound American friends sipping 
"Hemingways" at the landmark Mafia club.

Back when the PGA was barring nonwhites from the tour, the stately Nacional 
wouldn't book a room to the likes of Josephine Baker and Nat King Cole. A bust 
of the black Cole adorns the lobby, and the museum walls are alive with 
portraits of white celebrity guests such as Frank Sinatra, mobster Meyer Lansky 
and even Barbara Walters, whose father owned the Latin Quarter nightclubs.

Cubans here boast their '59 revolution swept away the Mafia and reversed the 
pernicious race policies of the era of American dominance. In toppling the 
regime of President Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro noisily ushered in the 
Marxist new Cuba under the vengeful, Cold War eye of the United States. Gone is 
the heavy American influence, save for the quaint pre-1960s Chevrolets, 
Studebakers, Buicks and Cadillacs. These gas guzzlers plying the bustling 
streets attest to the resilient Cuban ingenuity. And, ironically, they symbolize 
nearly 50 years of the U.S. embargo against this island nation of 11.2 million 
residents.

Just as the bilingual CNN stations kept Cubans abreast of the U.S. Open, the 
media have fueled a frenzied tracking of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.

"To us it's a matter of life and death," said Arnaldo Coro Antich, commentator 
for Radio Havana. "We follow the elections every four years; the midterms also. 
The people here have formed their opinions about the candidates. I think it is 
very, very easy to have an opinion about John McCain," the journalist said, 
suggesting a dry hole of support. "I do think Obama is a challenge. He's sort of 
a question mark."

Opinions varied among the dozen local journalists at the Havana Press 
Association. Running back decades, Juan Jacomino, of ESTI Prensa, said the high 
hopes Cubans held out for John F. Kennedy were dashed dramatically when the 
president staged the Bay of Pigs invasion. President Bill Clinton also raised 
expectations, he said, but, yielding to pressure from anti-Castro Cubans in 
Miami, did nothing to relieve sanctions. The newspaperman expressed no hope 
U.S.-Cuban relations would be eased by Obama, or any other U.S. president.

The youth on the streets on this shabby yet splendid capital city voice a more 
gleeful optimism. "If Obama is elected," said Humberto Balon, 29, "things will 
change for Cuba. Trade [with the U.S.] will open up; relations will improve." 
Other than intuition about Obama's "historic" run, however, the young, black 
Cuban offered no reason for his "high expectation," which he said all of his 
friends share.

Government movers and the intelligentsia take a more measured view of the U.S. 
campaign. Josephina Vidal of the Cuban Foreign Ministry bristles at current U.S. 
policy that sets as condition for the normalization of relations, that Cuba 
"fundamentally change its political and economic systems. ... That's a non-starter."

Obama, of course, has wiggled on the hook baited by his alleged willingness to 
talk with U.S.-declared pariah states without preconditions. Ambassador Vidal 
speaks kindly of Obama's "historic run," but puts none of her "normalization" 
eggs in his basket. "We have to watch and see." Meanwhile, she cites a double 
standard in the strong U.S. relations with nondemocratic states with poor human 
rights records such as Saudi Arabia, "where women have no rights."

Retired President Castro recently offered a guarded assessment of Obama so as 
not to damage his chances. Accordingly, government officials here shy away from 
voicing overt optimism about the African-American candidate other than to say 
his campaign is "historic." Black Cubans, however, openly embrace the first 
African-American nominee but are concerned that racism will lead white Americans 
to reject Obama in November - or worse.

Obama's candidacy suggests that the "U.S. paradigm of racism has started to 
weaken," said Digna Castaneda, the first black professor appointed, in 1965, to 
the University of Havana. "We have concerns about the possibility of 
assassination," said the historian, "because we have seen examples of this in 
America. The [campaign] will be very tough; some people will spare no effort in 
seeking to assassinate Obama. That is a problem to be solved by the American 
people."

Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.



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