Do you know who I am? I am a Cuban in exile. I have lived in this country since 1963. I was 8 1/2 years old when I arrived in Miami with my family. I remember why we came. We came to escape the dictatorship that betrayed the Cuban people and took away our rights, our freedom, our work, our land, our money. While that government still exists, pardon me if I don't feel joyous about your visit to my country.
While the media is talking up your greatness, I feel bereft. While you and your family parade around the island that is my childhood home, I am overwhelmed with emotions I don't know if I can describe. There's grief that can't be put into words. There's a wound that still hasn't healed. A wound that your ambition continues to re-open. It's not just the wound of having to leave your family and home, it's the wound of having your family suddenly and devastatingly become something radically different - father becomes bi-polar, mother works for a sweat shop, children become 'latch-key kids', I the 'mini-mom' for my two younger siblings. Nine years old, Mr. President. I was only nine years old.
This appears to be all about you. Your smile feels self-congratulatory. It doesn't matter what your
speeches tout as your humanitarian goals, to me it feels like neatly packaged political correctness. You say all the things some people want to hear. You say nothing to me.
You say nothing to us Cuban exiles who have sought refuge here, who have worked hard to rebuild their lives, who pay taxes, who have hoped for justice, who have been betrayed more than once by an American president, and yet continue to remain loyal to the system of democracy and individual rights of the United States of America. You say nothing to me and all the children who survive the exile today.
I feel ignored. I feel invisible.
Many think of you as one of the best presidents. I think of you as one of the worst. I realize I do not speak for the entire Cuban population. I also realize you're not a bad person. I don't hate you, nor do I engage in political debates with family, friends, or acquaintances over your policies. I'm simply letting whoever reads this know that I hold you accountable for ignoring a section of your constituency that lived through oppression and betrayals; endured poverty, imprisonment, torture, death; and risked everything in hopes of making a real difference in that one small section of the world only to be cast aside by political ambitions and economic greed. I hold you accountable for denying our pain, our truth, our wisdom through the inexpediency of your actions.
The Castro dictatorship may indulge your delusions, even your own personal delusion of grandeur, but I will not. I will continue to take a stand in my own way against the global theatrics of world leaders. When all is said and done, the Cuban people will not be any freer from the shadow of imperialism by this hedonistic venture than they were prior to Castro's regime. I believe that through you Cuba will once again become 'the playground' of rich, the tyrants, moguls, and the short-sighted politicians who view the island as ripe for exploitation. Money in large quantities will flood into the hands of the wheeling-and-dealing speculators and promoters...and the Castro regime.
It's sanctioned piracy - the legacy bestowed for centuries upon the people of the Caribbean. You open the door, Mr. President. And you say nothing.
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