PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Remember those Cubans sailing in a Chevy truck?

BENZ-LGB · #6 02-07-2004, 02:26 PM

I know that the subject of the Cubans in the Buick-boat has been the source of a great deal of kidding. I suspect that most of you you probably don't know many Cuban-Americans, so let me give a you a perspective from the other side of the headlines.

As you know, I am an American who was born in Cuba. Although I have spent far more winters in these shores than in Cuba, I always feel as if I live with one foot in Cuba and one foot in America. It sometimes makes for one tough juggling act.

The men who came to America in the converted Buick had already previously sailed from Cuba in a converted, 1951 ("vintage") Chevy truck. The truck made it almost all the way to Florida before it was stopped and seized by the Coast Guard.

Under current law, if the people in the raft make it safely to the US shores, they get to stay. If they are intercepted, even if they are intercepted within a few feet of shore, they are sent back to Cuba.

Those of you who are familiar with Florida know that the span of ocean between Cuba and Florida is one of the most dangerous in the world. Strong winds and currents can send you off course, or worse, sink your vessel. If your vessel sinks, the waters are infested with hungry sharks, only too eager to make a meal out of rafters. And if the currents and the wind and the sharks don't get you, the punishing sun might do the job. The fact that these men were able to jury-rig a raft, first out of a Chevy truck and then out of an old Buick, and twice make it across is a testament to their skills as boatbuilders and mechanics and as sailors.

More importantly, however, their dogged determination to leave Cuba is proof-positive (if proof was ever needed) what a POS Communism is and what horrible circumstances Cubans live under the current regime.

Think about it for a moment. Noone, NOONE at all, is building rafts in Florida (or anywhere else for that matter) and then braving rough seas and shark-infested waters to GO TO Cuba. All the traffic is one way--here. What does that say about the alleged "wonders" of the Communist workers' paradise.

And yet, American politicians like New York's Charles Chuckles Rangel and American celebrities like Steven Spielberg keep going to Cuba where they slavishly sing the praises of Kastro. Spielberg was quoted as saying that the 8 hours that he spent kibbitzing with Kastro were the most important hours of his life. I wonder how he'd feel if a person said that Hitler was a great man because he "invented" the VW, created the autobahn system and made the trains run on time???

Don't these people have eyes to see the suffering that Kastro has imposed on the Cuban people? Of course, when Kastro gives these bastards the "star treatment" it is hard for them to see the horrors that the Cuban people been subjected to for the past 40 years plus.

Some may argue that Batista, the dictator overthrown by Kastro) was a bad man. and that's true, Batista was horrible. But the existence of one horrible dictator does not justify the existence of a newer, worse one.

Other may say that the Cubans jumping on rafts and trying to make it to the US are doing so only out of economic necessity. That is only partially true. But what does that say about the Communist economy? But even during Batista's worse years there weere NO Cubans, NO Cubans at all, jumping on rafts to come to America. As a matter of fact, immigration from Cuba, in the pre-Castro years, was neglible. The only Cubans who came to the US in those days were entertainers like Desi Arnaz and Cesar Romero, plus the occasional baseball players.

The hundreds of thousands of Cubans that have come to America after Kastro's take-over is living proof of the negative impact that Kastro and Communism have had on Cuba and the Cuban people.

So I guess it is OK to have some fun with the story of the Buick-turned-raft. But also please remember how much those men, and the ones who have come before them, as well as the ones who never made it across, have risked and will continue to risk to live in the land of the free.

Also remember, that while many US-born Americans, and a lot of immigrants for that matter, make it a sport out of bashing this country, Cuban-Americans remain among the most loyal, most enthusiastic supporters of this country.

Thanks for reading.

VIVA CUBA LIBRE!