Cuba: A Lifetime of Passion

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -Cuba, a small island nation in the Caribbean, has occupied a disproportionately central place in modern history.

That position is due, at least in part, to the Cuban Revolution's fervent nationalism, and later, Marxist-Leninist policies.

Opposed by ten American presidencies over four decades, and opposed by at least two million Cuban exiles in the United States, and unknown others within Cuba, Fidel Castro remains the central divisive figure in the decades-long struggle over what Cuba will become.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -After a generation of opposition to each other and the revolution that changed all of their lives, Cubans in the United States and Cubans in Cuba remain divided.

On both sides of this divide, Cubans have lived lives defined by their deep and ever widening gulf of history and perspective -- generations defined by a lifetime of passion.

-This film is made possible through the generous support of the Better World JL Institute -- inspiring today's youth to become responsible citizens of tomorrow.

It is also made possible by the University of Dayton -- a national, Catholic research university with a diverse community committed to educating the whole person and linking learning and scholarship with leadership and service.

And by Cuba Travel Services, Inc. -- building a bridge between the United States and Cuba since 1999.

-March the 10th, 1952, Cubans learned that General Fulgencio Batista had taken over their government by force in a coup de tat.

The coup shattered Cuba's fragile democracy shortly before a national election.

Most Cubans were stunned and outraged.

Fidel Castro, a young, fiery politician running for Congress in the election, was radicalized like so many others by the events.

He would begin his unlikely, yet successful, nationalist revolution.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -One of those who took action with Castro's armed revolution was Huber Matos, a schoolteacher from Manzanillo.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -Manuel Yepe was a school boy working in his father's travel agency when the revolution broke out.

He, and many like him, immediately supported Castro's movement against dictatorship and corruption.

-This is the place we used to print the newsletter Accin.

It was an underground newsletter.

It was very dangerous, because there's a police station four blocks from here.

That is probably why, still today, 45 years after, when I hear a car break fast, it gets on my nerves.

-So, this is the center of the city of Santa Clara.

The central part of the city, and this is where the last battles were fought in the 30 -- the 31st of December, 1958.

-After three years of warfare under the general command of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary army column headed by Ernesto "Che" Guevara attacked Santa Clara in December, 1958.

Santa Clara was an important crossroads of Cuba and next to the city of Matanzas.

Guevara and his men successfully stopped trains loaded with munitions on their way to reinforce Batista troops fighting the revolutionary army in the mountains.

This victory effectively split Cuba in two and assured a victory by Castro's forces.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -Against his parents' advice, Manuel Yepe learned how to fire a pistol and joined Castro's 26th of July revolutionary movement.

-In Matanzas, I was the second chief and responsible for propaganda.

-Informed of the victory of Che Guevara's forces in Santa Clara, Yepe was put in charge of the logistics of bringing the revolutionary army into the Matanzas province on their way to Havana.

He had just turned 19 years old.

-We have died for this that we have now.

We have died to have a government and a social organization where human rights are really respected, where there's no torture, where prisoners are treated humanly, where we don't have -- we have a society of friendship, of solidarity among people, among neighbors.

-Victoriously coming out of the mountains and into Havana, Comandante Huber Matos was put in charge of military forces in the province of Camaguey in central Cuba.

Shortly after being given his new command, Matos wrote Castro a letter stating that he didn't agree with the direction of the new regime.

Matos was arrested for his views, in some ways, marking the split of Cubans over the course and meaning of the new revolution.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -In the early years of the revolution, Manuel Yepe joined the fledgling Cuban Communist Party.

He was put in charge of diplomatic protocol and became the Cuban ambassador to Romania, all before his 22nd birthday.

-This is a place where the revolution ended.

That is what we thought then.

But it was not really the moment when the revolution ended, but the moment when the revolution started, because we knew that hard times had gone by.

But we were not thinking how hard, how difficult, the new times, the construction of the revolution would take -- how many difficulties were yet to come.

[ All shouting in Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaks Spanish ] -[ Speaks Spanish ] -[ Singing in Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -The revolution during the '60s and the '70s had many idealistic beauty.

We had then also, the fact that the United States, started with the oppressions against Cuba.

They stopped selling oil, stopped buying sugar, and the Soviet Union addressed our country to offer us, to buy our sugar, to sell us oil.

And that, of course, was attractive for us.

I mean, we had a friend.

-Immediately after Fidel Castro's revolution took control of Cuba, Cubans tied to Batista's government, or those disagreeing with the revolutionary regime, left for the United States, mostly to Miami, Florida.

Some of these Cuban exiles formed a military force supported and trained by the CIA under the banner of the 2506 Brigade.

Their mission was to undertake an armed invasion of Cuba and to overthrow Fidel Castro.

The 2506 Brigade invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

The invasion failed with some 1,200 anti-Castro combatants taken prisoner.

-I was a pilot with the 2506 Brigade.

Early in the morning, about 2:00 in the morning, troops start coming apart.

Second battalion came into here, third battalion and fourth battalion came into here.

By 7: 00, all this were free Cuba.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -By that point, the armed counterrevolution was in ruin, creating a cold war between the two Cubas.

The self-described exile nation of Miami opposed to Fidel Castro and the revolution, and the regime in Cuba, supporting Castro and the revolution.

-After the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Castro regime moved rapidly towards the Communist left wing of the revolution, as favored by Argentine commander Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

[ Applause ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Shouting ] [ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Singing in Spanish ] -By May, 1960, Cuba and the Soviet Union re-establish diplomatic relations.

Castro grew enmity from Cuba's powerful American neighbor just 90 miles to the north.

-Castro wanted to be a member of the Soviet club.

And so, to do that, he had to declare himself to be a Marxist-Leninist.

-Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and other young revolutionary ideologues aimed their new revolution directly down the path of Marxist theory, and on a collision course with the United States.

-We started studying the most important revolutionary theories.

We arrived to conclusions in favor of Marxism-Leninism.

-Yes, there were some need for change in Cuba, There was no need for a radical revolution that destroyed Cuban society, that ended private property, that exiled 1.5 million Cubans.

-In June, 1960, Cuba nationalized American petroleum properties after they refused to process Soviet oil.

Cuba seized further American properties after the U.S. cut Cuban sugar import quotas.

The United States retaliated by imposing a trade embargo on Cuba, which exists to this day.

-The embargo was intended to provoke in Cuba misery, hunger, and exchange of government.

-The embargo was first put in place in order to encourage the Castro government to compensate U.S. citizens whose property had been confiscated without compensation by the regime.

That compensation, I note, has not taken place.

In the same way, the embargo has stayed in place as a tool to dissuade or encourage the Cuban government to take different policy.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -This is the result of this policy of embargo -- that it's irrational.

It doesn't help anyone.

It only creates problems for everyone.

-Many Cubans blame the American embargo for all of their problems, taking most of the blame for the failures of the Castro regime away from the Cuban government and placing it on the United States.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -Miami is a victim of that propaganda.

The Cuban people don't realize that they are surviving because their family here are helping them to survive in Cuba.

You're always intoxicated by the propaganda when you're living there.

-The reality of the political situation on both sides of the Florida straits is a political situation in which, really, the absolutes come into play.

In Cuba, if you're not for the revolution, then you are a counterrevolutionary -- an enemy of the revolution.

In Miami, the same kind of forces are at work.

It tends to be seen as a black-and-white issue, as and issue of absolutes.

You're either anti-Castro or you're a communist.

-We're going to make it back millionaire.

We're going to make it back the second-, third-best country in the world.

And I will be and thank this administration in this great powerful nation that we love like brothers.

And when they give us a hand, open, and embrace us for the return of the powerful, clean Cuba.

The beaches will be better, more beautiful when we will come back to a free, honest, democratic Cuba.

-Cubans remaining on the island are equally passionate about their principals, blaming many of their country's ills on the United States, and, sometimes, on the Cuban government itself.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] [ Train whistle blows ] -The CDR.

Those letters mean Comit Defensa Revolucin.

That is, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, and that's exactly what they are.

It's formed in the neighborhoods by the people.

The people gather, constitute their committee for the defense of the revolution, and they have done this -- protect the revolution from counter-revolutionary activity.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -In March, 1960, the French freighter, La Coubre, exploded.

The explosion killed at least 70 sailors and dock workers and injured several hundred others.

While sabotage has never been proven, the Cuban government alleges that the ship was blown up by American agents.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -I love Cuba.

If I could ever come back, I would move here if I could.

It's my favorite country by far of anywhere that I've ever been.

The people have been super nice, and it's just a beautiful place to visit.

-Now, I pretty much come to the decision that the people here are really poor, I guess unhappy, and can't really say how they feel about it, because of the government, because there's some degree of repression here that no one wants to talk about, that some want to hide, and some believe doesn't exist because of some degree of brainwashing and propaganda.

-I felt that it was a little more oppressive than I think it actually is.

I felt that it was -- everyone's completely -- every part of your life was controlled by the government, and I think that's not true at all.

Like, people have a lot of freedom, and they are very a free-spirited people.

They go out, they like to have fun.

They do everything that we do in the states.

They just happen to have a different form of government.

[ Birds chirping ] -What's wrong between relations between U.S. and Cuba?

Well, I think it has a long history.

These last 45 years, or even more, you try to just grab this part of the -- grab this country and make it part of the United States.

It has been a great, big mistake.

-John Quincy Adams wrote that there were laws of political gravitation just like there are laws of physical gravitation.

And that just as a fruit, when it ripens, falls to the ground, so Cuba inevitably, once separated from the Spanish tree, would fall into the hands of the United States.

I think many leaders in the United States have not overcome this syndrome.

-This goal that we have -- a peaceful, democratic Cuba, which is a good neighbor in the hemisphere and which has open markets and which is strongly respectful of human rights, that's a goal that's shared broadly, not just in the United States, but I would argue in Latin America and in Europe, as well.

There is, from time to time, debate about the tools, but the goal I think is shared broadly.

-[ Singing in Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -Some people think that the socialism is just like, let's say, a religion -- well, communism, is a sort of religion or something.

It's not.

It's just the relations between peoples.

No exploitation.

No differences.

No one exploiting the work of others.

That is socialism.

When the Soviet Union and the socialist countries changed their system, we had to introduce things that were not welcome before for our type of society.

One of them is the foreign investment.

Joint ventures are funding socialism in Cuba.

-The Cuban government hires the employees for the foreign investor and fires the employees for the foreign investor.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -The Cuban government retains as significant portion of the dollars and gives workers a miniscule amount of the dollars.

-If you see an individual -- as an individual -- well, probably this person working in a joint venture maybe could be earning $1000 a month, but he's really earning less because the rest is used to finance socialism in Cuba.

So, society earns the money for the people, not individuals.

We have solidarity as a principle of our society, and this society tends to equality among people.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] Only you Can make all this work seem right Only you You are my destiny When you call my name I'll understand The magic that you do Oh, all my dreams come true My one and only you One and only you [ Applause ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -Socialism nowadays in Cuba is an experiment.

Socialism in the world now is an experiment.

It has been an experiment since 1917.

To develop a socialist program -- that's what we have here in Cuba -- we need capital.

This comes through the joint ventures in some way, and, of course - but we've had to pay a price for that, a social price.

-Before the revolution in 1959, the majority of Cubans classified themselves as white.

And perhaps 90% of them would have said that they were practicing Catholics.

Today, the majority of the population would have difficulty identifying themselves as white or Catholic.

Churches and synagogues coexist with the Afro-Cuban religion, Santera, which was once considered an underground cult of the black population.

The revolution has resulted in dramatic, social, religious, cultural, and political transformations within Cuba.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Singing in Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] [ All chanting, singing in Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Singing in Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -The People's Power is the organization in which you elect, the people elect, every two and a half years, their grass-roots representative.

-The official speech is that the party doesn't take part in the elections, but that is absolutely false.

The parties designate and select previously every candidate in every echelon of this power, and there is no possibility of electing somebody else.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -In January of 2003, the Cuban government held an election for the National Assembly.

There were 609 candidates for 609 seats.

That's not a democracy.

-I believe that there is political freedom in Cuba, but first, let's decode what I mean by political freedom in Cuba.

I think that you are politically free when you do what you decide is better for your country.

And I think that what we're doing in Cuba is what's best for our country.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -There is a nostalgia for Cuba, but it is a Cuba, of course, that no longer exists.

Maybe it never did, but it's been recreated in a kind of an artificial way in Miami, and it sustains a certain kind of sensibility.

-WAQI Miami, Ft. Lauderdale.

Radio Mambi, La grande.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] People are always, in Miami, thinking, "What will happen when Castro falls?"

[ Speaking Spanish ] -In the United States, what you call the Cuban issue, even in Congress and all that, it's called a domestic issue of the state of Florida.

But this group have a monopoly of politics in Florida.

They have several radio stations, television stations, and they run the business.

They run the business.

They call it the hate business.

-I take a point of view.

First of all, I think that I should use my space to defend the victims, not those who are in enthroned in power in Cuba.

And it certainly becomes a forum for those expressing their denunciations from Cuba, um, for airing different points of views, but I certainly do take a point of view, and I'm very adamant about it.

-Beginning of the 21st century in the United States, I think we can find a very complicated situation in many ways.

-Many of the original exiles from Cuba aspire one day to return to the country of their birth.

For many in Miami, this frustration of being exiled from their native land has never diminished their love of Cuba and the desire to return home.

-The newer generations, those that came in late '60s, early '70s, in the '80s, and in the '90s, that view the situation differently.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -You already have now a growing community in Miami of people who could be described probably as anti-political.

That is to say, they're in Miami because they didn't get enough to eat in Cuba, and because, quite frankly, they're tired of politics and being exhorted on the radio and to go to meetings.

And they don't want to repeat that in Miami either.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -By the 1990's, and up to present, I think, we find a kind of interesting situation where the Cubans that leave Cuba are leaving, one, for political reasons, and also for economic progress.

One of the goals of the revolution was, of course, a higher standard of living for most Cubans, and I think a lot of those that leave, especially since 1990, become disillusioned with the idea that it's not gonna happen if they stay in Cuba.

And so, they emigrate to Miami in order to find a better life.

-You can be sure that the leaders of these counterrevolutionary political groups in Miami do not, cannot favor, in any way, the rapprochement of Cuba, and Cuba and the United States, because that's where they get -- that's their business.

A hate business is based on this.

They get the money to promote "democracy" in our country.

They get this money to promote.

This money stays in Miami.

It doesn't come to Cuba.

That's a way they get their funding.

-I'm sure the Cuban-American community, like lots of hyphenated communities in the United States, have an influence on policy.

I think they've done it the right way.

They've done it through the system.

-My name is Pedro Roig.

I was born in Santiago de Cuba, and my position is Director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which encompasses TV and Radio Marti.

-In an attempt to affect policy within Cuba, the U.S. government has funded Radio Marti and TV Marti.

American taxpayers fund millions of dollars to operate TV and Radio Marti.

The hope of this U.S. government organization is to broadcast an alternative news source to millions of Cubans.

-We Cubans are used to this.

We're used to this information -- this misinformation constantly.

-Do we have a free press?

We don't have a free press.

The press is controlled by the state.

The press is controlled by the party.

But in the United States, you don't have also a free press.

I mean, in terms of what is free, is it free to be organized or controlled by the mass media, the ones that are owned by the -- and having small space for the alternative media.

So, it's a way in which there is control in the States, There is another control in Cuba.

-And the American Congress, when they decide that the Cuban people deserve the same treatment, meaning the same kind of information, done by the good will and the desire to help an oppressed people, it's exactly doing exactly what that has been done with other oppressed people.

That the information are denied.

We are not promoting anything but truth.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -The passionately charged and polarized political positions of Havana and Miami could prove to be a difficult obstacle in the transition of post-Castro Cuba.

-I think there is a strong sentiment, at least in some parts of the Miami community, for vengeance.

On the Cuban side, I think they understand us, and they understand the problems of a reconciliation or the problems of a coming to terms -- the two sides, the two Cubas coming to terms with each other.

There has to be, and will be a difficult transition, a transition that is defined by a lifetime of passion for the revolution or against the revolution.

[ Lightning crashes ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] -The transition in Cuba will probably be a combination of everything that has happened in former communist countries, or Eastern European countries.

Hopefully it won't be something with violence.

-So, Cuba may resemble for a number of months or years, the Chinese model, with fine-tuning a little bit in the economy, and the military in the party trying to maintain political control.

-There will be absolutely change in Cuba.

There is no possibility of things going in the way they are going now.

-The future of relations between the United States and Cuba have an enormous, hopeful future, but it depends a lot from the United States government.

-And I would like to have that very close relationship with the United States that we think we could have without impositions and with mutual respect.

That's what I would like to see.

-The United States wants for Cuba what we want for all of Latin America, and what I think most Cubans want, as well -- a stable, productive, democratic society.

-A Cuba of the future will be a Cuba that is much more open, a Cuba that will be much more appealing to someone from the outside in that it has political liberties and freedoms.

-You know, lack of freedom is like asphyxia.

You can't breathe when you're not free to make any choice in life, which is the Cuban case.

And I think that freedom is something you need to learn to live with.

And that's a very important task.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] Perfect.

-[ Speaking Spanish ] -[ Speaking Spanish ] [ Indistinct conversation ] -For a DVD or a Blu-Ray disc of this program, or other WTIU-produced programs, go online at www.shopwtiu.org.

-This film is made possible through the generous support of the Better World JL Institute, inspiring today's youth to become responsible citizens of tomorrow.

It is also made possible by the University of Dayton, a national Catholic research university with a diverse community committed to educating the whole person and linking learning and scholarship with leadership and service.

And by Cuba Travel Services Incorporated, building a bridge between the United States and Cuba since 1999.