Will Little Havana Go Blue?

On the surface, political life in Cuban Miami seems unchanged. Little Havana is still partly a Disney version of a displaced Cuba and partly a genuine community hub, where families who have long since left for suburbia still come for nostalgic weekend lunches. At the Versailles Restaurant, the community newspapers preaching no compromise with Castro are all that are on offer. For almost four decades, the Versailles has been an obligatory stop for Washington politicians courting the Cuban-American community, visits that, as photographs in the restaurant attest, have often involved putting on a white guayabera, the four-pocket dress shirt that often replaces a coat and tie in the Caribbean. This familiar theater of intransigence — a staple of South Florida life at least since the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, when C.I.A.-backed Cuban exiles tried to overthrow the new Communist regime — is ubiquitous. Some Cuban-Americans point hopefully to a softening in the Spanish-language, Cuba-focused radio outlets that now dominate the South Florida market. But for an outsider, what is striking is the degree to which the hard-line stance endures, since it might have been supposed that 50 years of failure to influence events on the island might have led to the conclusion that the hard-line position needed to be reconsidered. Most officeholders in Florida and, for that matter, most national politicians continue to at least pay lip service to the dream of a post-Communist Cuba, even though, early this year, Fidel Castro succeeded in seamlessly handing over power to his brother Raúl — testimony, if any was needed, to the stability of the regime.”*

• Pro-Castro mob attacks spouse of top Cuban blogger – Yoani Sánchez
• Democrats and Republicans deployed their heavy artillery Thursday in a heated congressional hearing to debate a bill seeking to end the travel ban to Cuba.
• Part of a Cuban blogger’s essay that advocates lifting the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba was read aloud at a House Foreign Affairs committee hearing. – Yoani Sánchez
• Obama answers top Cuban blogger – Yoani Sanchez
• The Cuban band Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro can legitimately claim to be inventors of salsa. But it last played in the United States when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, and there was no telling when it might be able to return — until the very slightest hint of a thaw in cultural relations between the United States and Cuba quietly brought the band to New York early this month.
• 70% of Cuba’s Farmland Threatened by Erosion
• Who seriously wants the Cuban trade embargo?
• Report: Cuba’s human rights as abused under Raúl Castro as Fidel
• The Cuban ties that bind, 50 years on – Visiting her father’s homeland under newly relaxed travel restrictions is both invigorating and saddening.
• Poll: Cubans ‘frustrated’ over life in Cuba – A poll conducted in Cuba shows residents unhappy with their government and pessimistic about the economy.
• FindLaw Launches ‘FindLaw en Espanol’ Center for Spanish-Speaking Consumers
• Supporters of tough U.S. sanctions against the Cuban government have given more than $10 million to congressional campaigns over the last seven years
• Fidel Castro’s long goodbye – The ailing former leader of Cuba remains true to his word: ‘I am a revolutionary, and revolutionaries do not retire.’
• Cuban blogger’s husband out to avenge her assault – Yoani Sanchez
• Cuban man executed Tuesday for Houston slaying
• SEPTETO NACIONAL IGNACIO PIÑEIRO DIRECT FROM CUBA: 2 SHOWS – Thursday November 19th at 8pm & 10:30pm (2 Shows) – NYC
• The pitcher who helped Cuba defeat the Baltimore Orioles in the United States a decade ago is in stable condition after his face was crushed with a blunt object while trying to stop a fight. -Norge Luis Vera
• Photographer’s work helped defuse Cuban Missile Crisis – RIP William B. Ecker
• Vatican official seeks more access to Cuban media
• Cubans Warily Test Their New Freedom To Criticize