Editorial

The Women's Freedom Network Newsletter January/February, 2003;  Volume 10, No. 1 My Trip to Cuba by Dr. Rita J. Simon

Having spent an interesting week in Cuba in the fall of 1998, I thought it would be a worthwhile trip to go back after four and a half years and see what changes have occurred in the interim period. In 1998, I was part of a small delegation of Jews from the Washington Jewish Federation who were allowed to go to Cuba and were allowed by Cuban Officials to meet with and take medical supplies to the Cuban Jewish Communities in Havana and Santiago de Cuba. This time I went to Cuba with an Elder Hostel Group of 30 people, several of whom had lived in Cuba at some earlier period in their lives. I had never been on an Elder Hostel Trip but had heard positive things about the arrangement and activities they organized. I returned home after twelve days on January 14th, 2003.

By the time we left Cuba, I was angry, alienated and saddened by my interactions with most of the people in the group. To put it bluntly with too few exceptions, the group had very positive feelings toward Fidel Castro "He is a great leader," and very negative feelings abut the United States. The United States is a "bad" country led by a "stupid, inarticulate" president. "Castro is the only person who can lead the Cuban people. He is a great hero, a person of courage and integrity." When I pointed out that there are no free elections in Cuba, and no opposition party, I was told, "That doesn't matter. How free is the United States?" I pointed out that there are "block spies" who report on their neighbors if they hear them say things critical of Castro or his regime. Such persons could lose their jobs, or end up in prison. "Well," my fellow travelers pointed out, "that's like neighborhood watch in the United States." These comments bothered me a lot; their high regard and admiration for a dictator and their negative feelings about the United States. I tried to get down to specifics, for example the lack of newspapers or magazines except for the official publications of the Cuban Communist Party. I pointed out that an important sign of a great leader is the willingness to walk away from power. Look, I said, at George Washington. He could have been president for life, or even king, but he walked away after eight years. But Castro, they told me, was indispensable, nobody could rule Cuba except Fidel. I talked about how difficult it was for Cubans to leave the country, wasn't that a sign of repression? "Nah, not important," I was told.

By the end of the trip I had very little left to say to most of my colleagues. We did agree that the U.S. embargo was hurtful to the Cuban people and should be lifted. But when I added that Castro likes having the embargo, he uses it to hit at the U.S. and show what a cruel nation we are, they laughed. To them Fidel Castro is a brilliant, sensitive, caring leader, who only has the best interests of his people at heart. Their worry is, can anyone take his place. Will his brother Raul, the most likely candidate at this time, be able to fill even half his shoes? With a few exceptions, the members of the group were leaving a country for which they felt only admiration and returning to a country about which they expressed only negative sentiments and strong dislike and disdain for its current leader.