For few years I lived in Houston, TX.  Houston has a lot of Hispanic immigrants but few Cubans.  I only know of two Cuban restaurants.  One was down the street from me.  Houston has no zoning.  One of the few large cities as such.  So a good friend turned me onto this place.  It was a ranch-style house on a residential street owned by two Cuban immigrants, Maria and Ramon.  The large living room had been turned into Maria’s small restaurant and the two car garage into Ramon’s garage and cab stand.  They were the nicest, most hard-working people you’ve ever known and the house was both their home and business.

I had never really had Cuban food before.  Maria was a fantastic cook!  I fell in love with the wonderfully flavored meats, the fried plantains, black beans and rice.  She was a rather robust women with a big smile and always checking to make sure you liked the food and were happy.  Ramon was very quiet and shy.  They were both honest as the day is long and very religious.

Like I said, Maria and Ramon were very humble, quiet, and shy.  Until you mentioned Fidel Castro.  They would start talking about him and what he did to them and before long they were quite literally seething with anger.   They hated the man with a passion.

Maria told me their story.  Fidel had stolen 14 years of their lives.  Sometime after they were married, he was arrested for sedition or some made-up crime.  Simply for opposing one of Fidel’s policies.  He was in prison for seven years before Maria was able to emigrate to Spain.  It took another seven years for Ramon to be released and then make his way to Spain from where they both immigrated to the USA.  Fourteen years taken from a newly wed couple.  They had no children and though I never asked, I don’t doubt that that was a factor.

I could not help but enjoy watching the scenes from Miami, home to the largest Cuban-American population.  I have since spent quite a bit of time in Miami.  A good friend of mine came over as a child on the Mariel Boat Lift.  I have sailed past Cuba many times on ships.  It takes all day.  Many people don’t realize how large the island of Cuba is. The Cubans in Miami detest Fidel Castro.  Maria and Ramon’s story is probably nothing compared to many of the Miami Cuban’s stories.

Barack Obama has gotten a lot of credit for opening Cuba to Americans.  I have long believed that the decades-long embargo was a mistake.  I believe like Ronald Reagan…if we can’t beat them with guns, we’ll beat them with dollars. But the Cuban-American attitude toward the embargo has always been a bit of a mystery to me.  They all vote heavily Republican (thank you very much) but oppose lifting the embargo in the strongest terms.  That is starting to change some-what with the newer generation who don’t remember Castro.  Yet they are the very ones who have violated it the most.  By sending money to their families back home.  I personally believe that had we lifted the embargo and started visiting and pumping money into Cuba, it would have also fueled a (possibly) peaceful capitalist revolution.  That is exactly what happened with the Soviet Union as Ronald Reagan predicted.

Fidel Castro’s epitaph should be that he murdered thousands, starved many more, and ruled over his people with an iron fist.  Yet we still see young people wearing T-shirts with his main henchman’s picture.  Che was his enforcer.  Maybe Fidel’s death will at least bring about some remembrance of what an evil man he was.  But for now, let’s all just celebrate.  A Castro still rules Cuba but the main culprit is gone. I would guess that there is no rest in Hell for Fidel Castro.  Maria and Ramon can now sleep soundly.  Cuba Librè!

Kevin H. Roberts
November 26, 2016