The Cuban revolution began 50 years ago ... with its charismatic and bearded leadership descending from the hills, young men in their 20s brandishing guns and seizing the cities, and calling for land reform ...
Castro began his epic quarrel with the United States - through the US abolition of the sugar quota, the arrival of Soviet oil, the CIA invasion at the Bay of Pigs, and the missile crisis of 1962 ... Faced with the implacable hostility of the United States, Fidel decided that he had no alternative except to ally himself with the Soviet Union.
What struck me most was to find an island full of black people. The revolutionary leadership could hardly have been more white ... Fidel's enlistment of the black population was his astutest move, being echoed in the United States (where he stayed in Harlem on a visit to the United Nations) ... The only political movement in Cuba that had enrolled black people ... was the Communist party, and Fidel (long before his move towards the Soviet Union) had turned to the local communists for help in reaching out to the urban population, both poor and black. The white racist element in the Cuban population had tolerated a black president such as Fulgencio Batista, who had kept the black population under control; they were alarmed by a white man like Fidel who appeared to be mobilising the black people against them. (via Richard Gott: It's time to let Cuba in from the cold, and Obama is the perfect man to do it | Comment is free | The Guardian-ellipsis mine).
Richard Gott (the writer of this post) claims that he is a history student ... which makes this post very remarkable.
In the entire post of 1150 words, he mentions the word slave only once - while the entire history of Cuba for the last 200 years has been about slavery. He is surprised by the number of Blacks in Cuba - which was the largest slave colony in the Spanish Empire - after the fall of Haiti.
The Cuban revolution began in Haiti more than 200 years ago - and Fidel Castro has but been one, in a long line of revolutionaries who tried to break free from their enslaved past.
For a history student, can this be ignorance or a more likely attempt at 'whitewash' ...?
US antagonism ...
The hostility of the US has its roots in this struggle - when US refused to recognize Haiti for a 60 years after the overthrow of the colonial Spanish Government which used the Haitians as slaves. US 'bought' Cuba from Spain - and hence this hostility. The US feels that they 'own' Cuba - and, of course, other and large parts of the world.
For more than two centuries now, the US has been actively working with an agenda of 'racial superiority' which has resulted in slavery and then repeated interventions and manipulation in South America. They have used force and power to derail economies and politics of emerging countries. The example of Haiti's failure and Cuba's desperate struggle to survive drove Fidel Castro into the arms of Soviet Russia.
Is that so surprising, Mr.Gott ...?
Why is Richard Gott so surprised ...
It is the 'white wash' of history - and the 'tarring' of protagonists which is a matter of concern. Haiti's (and also Cuba's) crime - they refused to accept the racial agenda of the US. They (including a 'White' like Fidel Castro) wanted to build a 'free society' for people - without colour being a factor. Perhaps all Whites are not like Richard Gott.
And that is, perhaps, why Richard Gott is so surprised.
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