By John Burton
Since President Barack Obama announced his intentions to normalize relations with Cold War standard-bearer Cuba, conversations have been raging in various corners—political and cultural.
And probably the most passionate of those conversations is being heard among Cuban Americans.
Compared to North Jersey, and certainly South Florida, Monmouth County’s Cuban-American community is relatively small, but certainly no less vocal when it comes to issues regarding their nation of origin. And most of those contacted for this story have a jaundiced view of what it would mean for the people of the small island nation located a mere 90-plus miles off the coast of Florida.
“To be honest, I’m very cynical about it,” said Marta Silverberg, a Fair Haven resident who has been living in the U.S. for nearly 45 years. “Knowing the (Cuban) government, and knowing the hold the government has over people, the ones that are going to benefit are the government.
“I don’t think it’s going to trickle down to the people,” she concluded, citing the Raul/Fidel Castro regime’s oppressive hold over the population for more than half a century. “They’ve demonstrated they don’t care about the people.”
President Obama announced on Thursday, Dec. 18, he planned to move unilaterally where he could with his executive authority to do away with the 54-year-old trade embargo and re-establish commercial and diplomatic ties with Cuba.
In 1961, not that long after the revolution that swept out dictator Fulgenico Batista and had Fidel Castro gain control, Dr. Hector Iglesias, who was just 6 at the time, fled with his family, after the wealthy Iglesiases saw their family business seized, Iglesias remembered last week.
“The food was rationed, everything was rationed,” said Iglesias, a pediatrician who has a Tinton Falls medical practice and lives in Eatontown. “There was no freedom of speech, no freedom to congregate, no freedom of anything,” and that, he explained, forced his father to leave, when that was still possible.
“I agree with lifting the embargo because it hasn’t really solved anything and it’s really put pressure on the Cuban people,” Iglesias said. That being said, he continued, “What I fault is Obama didn’t get anything,” criticizing the president for not getting concessions from the Castros by way of releasing political prisoners and improving civil liberties.
“They’re really hungry for freedom,” Iglesias said of the Cuban people, “hungry for freedom of expression, hungry to be able to dress the way they want. They’re hungry for everything.”
–Tina Colella
Of those spoken to for this story, Luis Cortez, is the youngest, coming to America when he was 17—he’s now 33–long after the revolution that caused others to leave their homeland.
Cortez, who lives in Long Branch, owns and operates with his brother, Kristian, Cortez Cigars, with locations in Shrewsbury and Eatontown, where they roll and sell cigars.
He takes a differing view than others. “I think as a first-generation Cuban, it’s a positive thing for the Cuban people,” he said. “I think it’s going to help the economy get better,” improving the quality of life for the population.
“Cubans will finally have access to the world and to the United States and access to the Internet,” he believed.
Cortez visits his large family in his native homeland annually and regularly keeps in touch with them. Since Obama’s announcement “Now they have more hope than ever that things are going to get better,” he said.
There is a generation gap among those Cubans living in the U.S. that is reflected in their views on this issue, Cortez noted, with the older generation, who fled initially after the 1959/1960 revolution, taking a hard line on the regime and any steps to thaw relations. “They have an orthodox opinion about it,” he observed.
“The younger generation, however, people my age that I have talked to, are very receptive to the whole idea,” Cortez added.
Lourdes Ziek-Chivi, who owns and operates Leonardo Jewelers, with locations on Broad Street, Red Bank, and in Elizabeth, is in the former category, objecting to Obama’s plan.
Ziek-Chivi and her family left when she was 4 in 1961 and said, “I’m really not happy about it.”
Cuba may not have been trading with the U.S. but it has had ongoing relationships with Latin America, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. “And it’s still one of the most repressive countries in the world,” she said. “And the Cuban people still need outside help for their families to survive.”
Her father, who had recently passed away, for many years sent money back to relatives so they could get needed medication, Ziek-Chivi said.
“I’m not saying they shouldn’t open relationships,” she offered. “But they (the Obama administration) should have gotten something for it.
“True political reform,” she said.
Elected officials of every political stripe have been weighing in as well. Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who is likely going to seek the GOP presidential nomination, recently fired off his objections in a letter to the president, the Governor’s Office released last week. Christie told the Democratic president he should seek assurances for substantive changes to ensure greater freedom for the island’s population. And more strongly, Christie wanted to see the Cuban government return Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey State Trooper, fled and found asylum in Cuba in the early 1970s.
That, Christie wrote, “…is an affront to every resident of our state, our country, and to the men and women of the New Jersey State Police, who have tirelessly tried to bring this killer back to justice.”
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, the child of Cuban immigrants and with strong ties to the Cuban-American community, offered equally tough words on Obama’s plan. Menendez called it “misguided” in a Dec. 17 statement.
“It is a fallacy that Cuba will reform just because the American President believes that if he extends his hand in peace that the Castro brothers suddenly will unclench their fists,” Menendez said in his statement.
In all the strongly worded rhetoric what is being “forgotten is what Cuba is all about,” Cortez wanted to remind his fellow countrymen and everyone.
“Cuba is about more than the Castro brothers,” Cortez stressed. “Cuba is about the whole culture, about the music, the rum, the beaches, the great coffee, the great cigars.
“And if we can expose that to the world, Cuba wins,” Cortez maintained.
Contact John Burton at JBurton@tworivertimes.com or at 732-219-5788.
