Peace

February 15, 2006 

a photo from Ramon's photostream

Mr. Joe Oglesby 

Editorial Page Editor 

The Miami Herald 

Dear Mr. Oglesby, 

I spent the better part of ten years advocating (in Cuba and Miami) that we Cubans were responsible for our conflicts and Americans were good people that had nothing much to do with our troubles. In 2004, President Bush made it illegal for me to travel to Cuba and made my views irrelevant. The President brought his “intelligence problem” to me. 

In the conduct of the Cold War the U.S. sponsored political groups that it created and those that have failed became institutionalized and then fed back into the system creating a permanently false picture of the world. This is what I believe we face in Miami, a small part of a bigger institutionalized problem. In 1998 I wrote the essay that follows with the hope that it would be published in my native city by the Miami Herald. It was not and I got on with my efforts concentrating on Cuba (my pictures of Pinar del Rio can be seen atwww.virtourist.com). However, others continued to make efforts with those that replaced the previous editor including a U.S. Ambassador to the O.A.S. who took my essay by hand to the then new editor and again it was not published. Sadly, this debate is still not taking place in the country and my small part of it is not important outside of Miami. If the debate is ever to take place it is my view that it must happen here and hence my effort with you. Nothing has changed from what I wrote in 1998 as far as reasoning but the situation has undoubtedly gotten worse and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Waiting for Fidel to die and pandering to the fears and failures of our elderly is not a policy. Proposing that Americans go to war in Cuba (where we are now) would be criminal folly. Even if my work is not used I think it is critical that this debate take place. 

Best regards, 

Ramon Granda 

----- 

June 18, 1998 

Sue Reisinger 

Viewpoint Editor 

The Miami Herald 

Essay – Peace with Cuba 

I want to make peace with Cuba. I am not alone. Our conflicts have been going on for generations. They began long before the Castro brothers were born and will likely continue long after they are dead. This is not good. 

Since the 1840’s Cubans have been involving the United States government in Cuban affairs. 150 years of data indicate that neither Cubans nor Americans are happy with the results. In my view it would be prudent for us to ask ourselves what we want from each other and then arrive at answers we can all live with. Now is a good time to do this. 

I come from a traditional hard-line exile family. I went to Cuba against the expressed wishes of most of my family (in Miami) because I wanted to see if reconciliation could ever be possible and to check if my lifelong assertion of being Cuban meant more than just having a taste for expresso coffee and my own recipe for ‘picadillo’. The answer to both questions is Yes. These are my reasons. 

If we are to demand justice for our cause then justice demands that we start with ourselves. This is painful but necessary. If you doubt me just ask any human you happen to know. 

I come from a political family. My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were Congressmen of the former short-lived Republic of Cuba. My father and grandfather supported Batista as dictator. This was plainly wrong and brought tragic consequences. They did not respect the liberties of others and so they lost their own. 

My maternal grandparents supported the revolution. After its triumph they were appalled by the results. My maternal grandfather became a CIA agent. He was caught and my maternal grandparents became political prisoners of a communist country. 

The man who imprisoned them and hunted my father out of the island was my uncle, Comandante Dermidio Escalona. This uncle was on the defending side at Playa Giron while another uncle, Raul Muxo, was on the invading side as a member of Brigade 2506. What is the case in my family, I have found, is also largely true throughout the whole of our society whether in Cuba or outside. At human scale this is the picture of the current round of our many sided ongoing conflicts which I call ‘the Family Squabble’. The Cold War came and went and just made our unsolved problems worse. 

There are 54,000 dead as a result of our disputes. 12,500 were executed by the Revolution but the largest numbers are Cuban soldiers who died in Africa. The veterans of those campaigns represent to Cuban society what Viet Nam veterans did to U.S. society. The Cuban soldiers who died were mostly black while 90% of Cuban exiles are white. If we ever want to live together we have to get to know each other and talking is a good way. We are one people close to 15 million strong. We have never achieved a healthy civic society. That task is before us and as one people we have ample resources to attend to all of it. Cuba won the Gold Medal in baseball and Miami won the World Series. 

The dirty secret of our politics is not that our governments are oppressive but rather that they are popular. In our politics no murder has gone uncheered, no abuse unsupported and no act of repudiation unattended. Cubans believe in leaders and in limiting the liberties of opponents. Our governments reflect our beliefs. Learning is always an option. I believe we can learn that the way to liberty is to respect the rights of all while putting limits on leaders but that can only happen if enough of us agree and live that way. 

I was born in Miami, the penalty box for the ruling classes of the Americas, but I want to live in Cuba. I went to the island, fell in love with her beauty and knew I was home. I want peace, reconciliation and reconstruction. It is time to make the ultimate sacrifice for liberty and speak to our own relatives. 

Why not write to Ramon?  RLGranda@yahoo.com