U.S. Senator Marco Rubio: uninformed Cuban, maybe someday Great American

For quite some time I have been meaning to write this article but for some reason or another I have postponed the inevitable but recently in light of the 50th anniversary of Bay of Pigs Invasion, the betrayal that ensued on that day and my general disgust with what is happening today in this great country, the United States, I have decided to move forward and express something that I feel is and has been my duty to convey.

Elias Seife, author

It is with great pride that last November I was able to presence the election of 39-year old Marco Rubio, first generation Cuban-American, to the U.S. Senate. He is articulate, charming, full of confidence, charismatic, has a winning smile and carries a great message of limited and fiscally responsible government. There is even talk of a Presidential run in his future. Cuban exiles and non-Cubans alike have cheered the rise of his political career. He is one of the 100 most powerful people in the United States government and his votes and decisions not only affect this country but also the World. Marco Rubio is a shining example of the "American Dream". The Founders of this American Republic would be proud of him but to my dismay and disappointment since the beginning of 2010 _1,2 when I started listening to him and his heart warming story of "Son-of-political-exiles-makes-it-big-in-the-USA" something began to bother me.

I could not believe what I was hearing. Marco was saying that the reason his parents came to the United States was because in Cuba they never had economic opportunities. That he thanked his parents for having the vision to leave Cuba and go the United States because Cuba was a land for the wealthy and the descendants of the wealthy. In essence, Rubio was and is still telling the American people and the world that Cuba was a country of mostly little people with no way to get ahead in life. In most every speech or interview I have heard Marco Rubio he has repeated the same story: That his father and grandfather came to the United States because they were seeking economic opportunity not because Castro came to power and created a totalitarian dictatorship but because Cuba was a third world country ruled by elite that would keep the masses from advancing socially and economically. An argument that Castro, Communists and leftists have made for decades. A true analysis of history says otherwise. I contend that his father's experience cannot be used to make a general assessment of Cuban history. I am surprised the Senator has not received a call from the Castros asking him why he hasn't thanked them publicly for exiling his parents and his beloved grandfather from their awful feudalistic homeland. Come on Marco, say it.. "Gracias Fidel!"... Well I assure Mr. Rubio that there are many Cuban exiles that have done extremely well economically in exile and would not hesitate for one second in saying that they wish that they would have never left their homeland and wish that those heroic men of the Brigade 2506 had been successful in liberating their homeland.

Let us say that I do not know whether to think that Mr. Rubio is either very ignorant of Cuban history which pains me to think so or that Rubio is deliberately misinterpreting and distorting the history of his descendants and the Cuban people in a perceived effort to win political points with the American people.

Most recently on March 29, 2011 Rubio went on the Sean Hannity Show of FoxNews and said the following:

"Well, I mean, it really comes from my upbringing. A small story I shared over this last week, a small story about my upbringing. My parents -- my dad passed away in September, but my mom, in particular, I've been able to talk to her recently a lot about this country and what it meant when they came here. And asked her what was the most -- the thing that struck you the most? And one thing she told me it was the first time in her life that she had ever met anyone who owned or ran something that they didn't inherit."

"Where she came from in Cuba, almost everybody who owned land or owned a business that was what their parents had and left for them. This is the first time that she actually met people that they told her, no, we started from nothing, but we worked hard and we're able to accomplish this."

"For the first time she actually felt, so did my dad, that they would have a chance to fulfill their dreams and more importantly that their kids would. That's unique about America. That's the product of the difficult decisions that the people who were here before us made." ₃

So according to Senator Rubio, ironically a conservative, he seems to reject the concept of inheritance. That if an individual works hard all his life and attains property that this property be given to his sons or daughters after he or she dies. And that somehow according to Rubio no one in pre-Castro Cuba could escape poverty if they were not wealthy at birth. Again a true analyis of the facts suggest otherwise. There were countless examples of self-made men and women in Cuba B.C. (before Castro). There was an enormous middle class in Cuba. My father worked at a bank and my mother was an elementary school teacher. In 1962 they were both 22-years old when they left Cuba. I assure Senator Rubio that my parents had no intentions of ever leaving Cuba permanently for the United States because of social injustice, economic hardship or lack of opportunities. They came because of political persecution. I think of my mother every day and hear her saying how her greatest wish was to return to a free Cuba. To return to Her Country. Never did I hear her say that is was the country of a wealthy or privileged elite. Of course a strong, numerous and vibrant middle class counters Senator Rubio's assertion that only the wealthy and their descendants had a descent standard of living in Cuba. There are numerous economic studies of Cuba before Castro came to power. The Senator should acquaint himself with them. Studies by Economics Professor Antonio Jorge, and Engineer Manuel Cereijo come to mind.

Recently, on April 17, 2011 it was the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. About 1,500 Cuban exiles invaded the southern shores of Matanzas Cuba. They were convinced by their friends, the U.S. Government, to land in an area of Cuba that was strategically deficient, unpopulated and with no exit plan. The U.S. promised the Brigade that they would be given air-cover and logistical support when they landed. They were betrayed in the most miserable way by the Kennedy administration. Interestingly this was in a way foreseen by the Cuban patriot, intellectual and statesman Juan Antonio Rubio Padilla who explained to his peers that the U.S. Government was not serious in their support of the Invasion or its desire to root out communism so close to its shores. Rubio Padilla indicated that the U.S. government was not truly backing the Invasion because most, if not all, negotiations and political activity between the Brigade's leaders and the U.S. government were with members of the U.S. Intelligence community and not with high-ranking government officials. Being a veteran politician who had experienced first-hand the past one-sided relationship between the U.S. and Cuba he naturally wanted to make sure that the U.S. government was going to honor its commitments to the Invasion force. To make his point Rubio-Padilla noted the obvious: "How can you go to war and take orders from people you don't even know what their real names are?". Rubio-Padilla made the case that it seemed like the U.S. was using the same methodologies that they used in 1954 Guatemala obviating the fact that this was a far different scenario. In Guatemala the CIA was helping an exiled army colonel in neighboring Honduras cross a land border and execute a coup d'etat while in Cuba they were trying to support a nighttime amphibious landing, an operation that to my knowledge had never been attempted in military history. ₄

As it turned out 'The Brigade' was betrayed and was not given the promised air-cover and were left to die while John Kennedy was hoping to convince the World that the United States was not involved with the Invasion in what later became famously known as the concept of "plausible deniability". Rubio Padilla was proven correct.

The exiles fought valiantly until they spent their last bullets. Some were executed, others were suffocated in the "Rig of Death" - Rastra de la Muerte" ₅, while others perished at sea while trying to escape ₆. The rest spent almost two years in prison before the Kennedy administration was able to negotiate their release on December 24, 1962. Beyond that Cubans will never forget the ultimate sacrifice of 4 American airmen from the Alabama National Guard. Namely Riley Shamburger, Thomas Willard Ray, Leo Francis Baker, and Wade Gray.

So getting back to Senator Rubio, I have a question. How many of those Cuban young men that came from all walks of life, many in their 20's with their families, girlfriends and wives safely in the U.S. do you think were risking their lives in battle for a homeland that they thought did not provide economic opportunities for anyone that wanted to work for it?

Senator Rubio is unfortunately misrepresenting his own people's history and/or heritage. I contend that there is a high probability that this is because he believes it serves his interests. This would be a very unappealing human quality. I get a knot in my stomach every time he so calmly and effortlessly discards the truth of life in Cuba before Castro. It bothers me even more that Rubio speaks on this subject with the pretension of command and authoritativeness. I hope that he was just a victim of having been given wrong information. Furthermore I hope the Senator apologizes to the Cuban people and if he decides to talk about Cuban history in the future that he rely on supportable facts and not generalize that his family's story was somehow the norm in pre-Castro Cuba.

As my best friend ₇ always notes: "Since Columbus discovered Cuba in 1492 and until January 1, 1959, the island of Cuba has been continuously a country of immigrants. This statistic is even more exceptional in light of the the fact that Cubans were 90 miles away from one the richest countries on earth." He likes to quote former Prime Minister Tony Blair's rule: "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out." Moreover, the Cuban people created a Nation like other nations that created their culture, their music and traditions. For most people wealth and opportunity cannot replace that. Love of country is part of the human spirit and encompasses more than "economic opportunity" and its why people of all economic and social classes prefer to stay where they come from and associate with their own people.

Finally my only child, my little 4-year old daughter who, as I, was born in this country, will someday understand that she is fortunate not just because she was born in the United States, "the land of opportunity" or because there have been many great Cubans that have given her a proud and rich legacy but because I will have hopefully conveyed to her the value of truth, integrity and loyalty.. If you have these values it doesn't matter where you were born, it can't be taken away from you and its with you until you die.

Most Sincerely,
Elias Seife
April 25th 2011

seife@seifesoftware.com

References:

1. Rubio CPAC address Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmT6RNKWcac
2. Rubio CPAC address Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_G4n0ZYmoA
3. http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/transcript/exclusive-marco-rubio-lays-out-what-needs-be-done-save-america
4. in spanish - A la Opinion Publica - http://www.autentico.org/oa09163.php
5. in spanish - Rastra de la Muerte - http://www.autentico.org/oa09370.php
6. in spansih - http://www.autentico.org/delvalle.php
7. Miguel Uria Rey. Currently residing in Dade County Florida

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