Debunking an imaginary country that never was

Alberto N. Jones
December 11, 2008
As I read , Cuba Facts #43 “Socio Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro Cuba“, published by the Cuba Transition Project, Coral Gables, Miami, December 2008, my first instinct was to delete and dump this monumental fairy tale, which is nothing more than a concerted effort to distort, lie and blatantly attempt to rewrite the horrendous and most tragic period of Cuba’s history, aided by an endless source of funding from the United States Government and bogus foundations.

Having lived through such sad experience, it require courage and self discipline, not to explode in anger against these cynical manipulations of charts, table and stats, pretending to substantiate the crude lies leaching from their hired pens and minds.

Rather than asking any of our readers to accept their views or my complete rejection of everything included in their pseudo research, I encourage those interested in facts, history and the truth, to refer to Bohemia, Carteles, Prensa Libre, Avance, El Mundo, Diario de la Marina and others of “Theirs” publications at the time, by simply browsing through those horror pages, that captures better than I could, what Cuba really was.

Secluded in their Biltmore, Miramar, Kholy, Vista Alegre, Uvero or FOCSA environs, these rotten rich, politically powerful and socially segregated individuals, construed in their minds a country that was limited to themselves, never thinking or pretending the millions of abused, illiterate, hungry, sick or poor, were not part of Cuba.

In order to debunk the falsehood incorporated in their report, I could focus on those infamous sugar plantation Bateyes, where hunger sickness and deaths were rampant and pervasive. Naranjo Dulce, Marti, Bartlet, Banes, El Cobre, Realengo 18, Rio Grande, Cruces, Las Martinas are just a few of the many well documented human inferno under the watchful eyes of Cuban sugar barons, US transnational and a succession of corrupt, imposed lackey governments, but that would be tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Guantanamo in the early 50’s which seems to be the golden era in back of their minds, was a city of approximately 100,000 inhabitants. This world renowned city since someone decided to lock-up indefinitely and reportedly torture so-called enemy combatant across the fence of this 45 square miles of illegally occupied Cuban territory by the United States government since 1898, seems to be of no consequence to these researchers, since it was not included in the body of this or previous articles.

For its 100,000 inhabitants, Guantanamo had 5 primary schools with an average 80 student per school, one, two session Intermedia or 6th grade school with approximately 150 students per session, one, 7th & 8th grade Escuela Primaria Superior and one High School or Instituto de Segunda Ensenanza, with approximately 250 students. There was No Library, No Technical, Teachers or Evening Schools. No Zoological gardens or children playground, but yes, the largest and best known Red Light District in Cuba.

Our 7th grade classroom was actually a 4th grade classroom during the morning session, making it impossible for most of us to fit on these tiny seats. Compounding this issue was that there were 28 seats for 60 students, leading to strife and fights for seats and forcing those without a seat to stand from 1:00 PM to 5:15 PM with their backs towards the blackboard, their notebook against the wall and by rotating their necks, students were able to take notes from the blackboard. Torticolis or Twist Neck became endemic among us.

It was a known fact in those years, that 60% or more of the primary school students went to school on an empty stomach. To correct this, in 1936 the School Breakfast Program was created, which consisted of a cup of hot chocolate with a couple of crackers, butter and a slice of cheese on20Fridays.

In 1952 all schoolchildren soon learned the meaning of coup d’etat, as their breakfast disappeared shortly after Gen Batista forceful take over of the government. I understand and empathize with the writers of these “Democratic Cuba“ soap opera, because they knew nothing about these realities, because they were protected in La Salle, Colegio Teresiano, Escolapios, Belen and others high class, selective educational centers, oblivious of their surroundings.

The Casa de Socorro or Emergency of Guantanamo city was the health care first responder for the entire community, for which it had a one room first aid department which most of the time had no disinfectant, bandage, sutures or other basic medical resources, two dental chairs, one X-Ray department and a make believe clinical lab.
This center was complemented by a dilapidated, 80-bed General Pedro A. Perez public hospital, where patients had to bring their bedding, food and purchase their medicine with a prescription that would be handed out by the visiting physician. All employees of the hospital asked for and expected some sort of kick back, since salaries were low and uncertain.

Getting accepted into this hospital required knowing some political hack, rich member of the community or any other well connected individual, w ho was capable of providing the patient family with a letter of commendation. Most beds were for two, totally unrelated patients, with many more sleeping on “colchonetas” or dog-type bedding in walkways, hallways or doorways.

Until 1968, everyone who died in Guantanamo, went to their grave based upon assumptions or guess work, since there was no pathologist to determine the cause of death. Neither was there any physicians specialized in Cardiology, Neurology, Urology or Ear, Nose & throat.

Patients requiring any of these specialties, were forced to travel to Santiago de Cuba 90 Kms away, follow a similar people-to-people procedure to access the hospital setting and once they did, find somewhere to eat, live and survive.

And yet, as appalling as the healthcare stats in Cuba were, these researchers did not find it necessary to be included in this thorough analysis, nor did they mention the murderous campaign that the US unleashed in 1962, encouraging 50% of all healthcare professionals to migrate, creating the country’s worst healthcare crisis ever.

Forty six years later, this macabre and murderous, anti-human project continues through the Cuban Adjustment Act, enticing thousands of Cuban physicians who are performing their humanitarian service in over 60 third world countries across the globe free of charge, to abandon their patients who may have seen a physician for the first time in their lives, betray their Hippocratic oath and migrate to the glitter and glow of Miami.

For those crunching the numbers of these biased reports, others charged with portraying Cuba as dreamland or poised to forgive and propose ex-Batista crooks, torturers and murderer into sainthood, they and their loved ones was never concerned with their health issues, which was readily supported by the Miramar Clinic, Marfan, Sagrado Corazon, Colonia Espanola, Los Angeles, Centro Gallego etc., equipped with state of the art instruments and physicians with the best professional training and expertise.

As disgraceful as the previous description may be, the plight of tens of thousands of landless peasants was far worst. Allowed to work on unprepared, uncultivated lands of transnational or Cuban land barons in semi-slave condition, they were kept perennially in debt, for having to acquire all of their goods and services at the landowners inflated stores prices and forced to sell their produce back to their landowner at meager prices, exorbitant land lease and cooked-up bookkeeping.

Whenever these unfair arrangements were no longer beneficial to the owners, their lands had been cleared and tilled, it was not unusual for them to call in the Rural Guard, label the peasants as illegal occupants, force them off their lots, burn down the huts where they lived and placed on the side of the road.

Why have these knowledgeable individuals not included in their “objective” analysis other vital statistics such as employment/unemployment index, social services, day care service, longevity, infant and maternal morbidity/mortality, hunger and prevalence of preventable diseases?

These fallacies have served them well for the past fifty years, but it is over now. Why are they unwilling to apply these vital statistics to the developing world or areas in Mississippi, New Orleans, Rocky Mountains, Overtown, Cabrina Greens, to our 45 million uninsured and so many undeserved communities, instead of evaluating banalities such of cars, TV sets or refrigerators in Cuba in 1960?

In closing, they may still have a wonderful and honest opportunity to preach what they demand from Cuba and demonstrate to the world, that they are seriously concerned about the wellbeing of mankind, by simply leaving their air-cooled mansions in Miami, travel south to any country of their choosing and implement their humanitarian health, education and social development programs with all the resources available to them and begin eradicating hunger, sickness and diseases that plague and destroy tens of thousands of innocent lives.

Please join this worldwide trend to help those less fortunate; earn for yourselves the recognition, respect and love, that you have tireless tried to deny to those who have done this in silence for decades.