Why Cuban Americans Are Traveling to Cuba and Further Thoughts

Reuters has reported that Cuban-Americans are flying to Cuba by the plane loads. Citing the Cuban tyranny and a Miami travel agency respectively, it claims that 250 thousand U.S. based Cubans visited Cuba in 2009 and that said number is projected to grow to 300K this year. Diario de Cuba further reports that there were 170,000 Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba in 2008. Thus, Cuban American visitors increased by 47% in 2009.

Reading Reuters, however, one might think that Cuban Americans are perhaps ready to accept and finally live under tyranny; at least the 20% of 1.5 million Cuban Americans who is traveling to Cuba. One might think that justice and liberty are not really important to Cuban Americans; that despite all the noise they make, they are not firm with their values or lack dignity.

Surely that is not what Reuters intends to convey. They are only informing everyone of the travel facts, although its tone is perhaps one of glee, for it adds:

"With Cuban Americans emerging as Cuba's second-largest source of visitors after Canadians...(they) are an important source of dollars for the communist regime as it deals with the global economic downturn."

So, you see, Reuters seems to be suggesting that it's not just those 1 million Canadians (40% of Cuba's tourists) who are guilty of propping the tyranny up. It's the Cuban exiles themselves. Yes, the little scoundrels, the very ones who are supposedly against tyranny and against everyone else traveling.

Well, of course Cubans are financing the tyranny; indeed, they are its slaves. Isn't Reuters aware that the latter, and international partners such as Canada and Spain, employ Cubans for $11-20 per month? A tourist industry worker in Spain, Canada or Europe earns, at a minimum, US$ 2000 monthly, or 100 times what a Cuban is paid. In addition, Cubans are forced to work or go to prison. They are evidently enslaved by the tyranny and its partners, and slaves finance their masters. But some will counter that they are getting health care and education in return. Of course, this makes perfect sense. The tyranny needs the healthiest and most productive slaves possible, that is, except when they rebel. In such a case, they respect their right to suicide. Nor do they seem very interested in those they consider perennially unproductive, like the mental patients at Mazorra who presumably froze to death in early January, 2010.

Reuters, however, was not referring to those Cubans, but to the ones in Miami and the United States. How dare they go to Cuba. How dare they finance the tyranny, and yet criticize others for doing so. Don't these know they are not Cubans any more? Don't they know they are no more Cuban than Canadians or Spaniards? Cuban Americans, of course, are persons with dual US and Cuban citizenship. As Cubans they have always had the right of citizens to their place of birth. It doesn't matter what Reuters, the Castro tyranny or anyone else says or thinks.

Having hopefully clarified this point, one can then ask why are these Cuban Americans traveling to Cuba? Are they indifferent to financing tyranny or not?

Are some traveling there because they just want to see their birth place for the first time in perhaps 51 years (as I once did in 50 years)? If so, are they spending the most or the least possible?

Do some just wish to see their families or bring them goods? If so, are they staying with their families or at the tyranny's hotels?

Are they looking to bring democratic change to Cuba or not?

Or are some, or most, of those traveling to Cuba living in the U.S., but with Castro's blessings, as is the case in other parts of the world? Are they attempting to mix with the other exiles, and by traveling to Cuba, to discredit them?

How many fall into each category?

What about the other 1.2 million, or 80% of Cuban Americans? Are they planning to visit their enemy or not? For what reasons? Not that they need any.

These are some of the facts some news source might try to investigate.

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