The Shadow

I was born in the United States, in Philadelphia, the cradle of freedom to be precise. I have enjoyed the fruits of liberty my entire life. I have never had to live under a repressive regime. I have never had to live under a dictator of any stripe. Yet there is man, who I have never met, who I have never come within 100 miles of, who has had a profound influence in my life. His name is fidel castro ruz.

I was reflecting on this the last couple of days and I was going to write about it when I saw Ziva's excellent post today at Babalublog. The fact is that fidel has power over people well outside of Cuba. Like a shadow he looms over our lives. He has changed the destiny of literally millions of people. Millions in Cuba live in conditions much worse than they would have if fidel castro ruz had never been born. But by twists of fate some (those that left and their children and grandchildren) have prospered, perhaps more than if they had stayed. But the fact is that nobody gave castro that power to change lives. He took it for himself.

When I was 7 years old I asked my father who he was going to vote for. He told me Gerald Ford. I asked him why and he said because the Republicans are anti-communist. Later when I was about 10, I built a model of a Soviet tank. I showed it to my dad and he frowned. I asked why he didn't like it, after all the Soviets were our allies in World War II. He said because the Soviets were communists. It was events like these that shaped my understanding of the world as a child and led me to investigate this ideology my father hated so intensely. When I turned 18, I registered to vote as a Republican and registered for the draft the same day.

One day while I was in college, I saw a flyer for a presentation about Cuba. I knew this was going to be some sort of propaganda event but I was curious. Sure enough there were about 10 people in the auditorium and they screened a propaganda film that extolled the virtues of the worker's paradise. During the Q&A I posed some very pointed questions and was dismissed as being young and naive. When I explained that an open discussion about politics, like the one we were having, could not be had in Cuba, I was yelled at and spit upon. A woman literally tried to spit on me. She missed. But I understood what my father had been trying to teach me about communism.

So I have fidel to thank for being an American, a capitalist, and a Republican. Perhaps even for my life, I don't know if I would have even ever been born if my parents hadn't been forced to flee Cuba at ages 19 and 17 respectively.

Part of me will always be the child of exiles. Even if democracy is restored to Cuba. It has shaped my life from my earliest days of conscious thought right through today. The shadow will always be there.