What a fine American you are, Ernesto, and such a credit to this country.
Your experience taught you to appreciate the meaning of freedom in a way that many of us native born folks here don't understand because we take it for granted.

I would truly look forward to meeting you some day!! It would be an honor.

Perhaps one day Cuba will be free of communism and you will be able to return in triumph. I simply cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for your family to have fled from there when you were young. Certainly the resentment against Castro for having forced iyour leave taking is most understandable.

A few years ago I actually contemplated a vacation there, drawn by the idea of seeing a place unique in Latin America, and frankly, a chance to view old Habana, Cienfuegos, and some of the other old cities frozen in time, and to enjoy seeing all the old American cars I woul d recognize as a child. It could have been done easily enough, by simply starting from Cancun or Canada. Supposedly the "aduanas cubanos" co operate with the tourists by not stamping their passports either coming to or going from Cuba, so American customs officials wouldn't get in a tizzy about it.

In the end, though, I felt conflicted about lending support in any way by to a dictator I did not like and do not support, and felt I might have been tangentially supporting that regime if I went. So I did not go.

Your chance to visit may come sooner than you think; the old regime may be on its last legs. Fidel and Raul will not live forever. I have no love for it, as the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and Castro's complicity in it disturbs me greatly to this day, as an American. Not to mention the Marielito invasion and the other horrors and injustices that are on his hands.

Have fun in your celebration. Your pals here wish you well. Derfinately a time for a whole lot more than just one mojito to be enjoyed!!!

My late (German-American) father always used to say to us "Buen corazon trae buena ventura"

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

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