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November 10, 2003
VERGING ON CUBA
Winter seems finally to have arrived this weekend, and the trees have pretty much gone bare. But I was buoyed the other evening by a panel discussion: "Cuba on the Verge" (the name taken from a recent book with that title, edited by Terry McCoy, who organized the event in midtown Manhattan).
What Cuba is verging on was not entirely clear, given the recent crackdown on dissidents by Fidel Castro, which culminated in the execution of three young Cubans hijackers, and the toughened anti-Cuba policy by Bush. It was quite a panel, though, and quite a crowd -- and the panelists, none of whom were politicians or foreign policy experts, thank God, had definite opinions.
The panelists: Novelist Russell Banks ("Cloudsplitter," "Continental Drift"), who spoke with Castro in a recent six-hour interview in Havana; Jon Lee Anderson, foreign correspondent, author ("Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life") and New Yorker staff writer; Achy Obejas, Cuban-American novelist ("Memory Mambo," "Days of Awe" ) and Chicago Tribune cultural writer; Pablo Medina, Cuban-born author ("The Return of Felix Nogara") who teaches at the New School; moderator Norman Pearlstine, editor-in-chief of Time Inc. Novelist William Kennedy ("Legs," "Ironweed"), who also met with Castro, introduced the discussion with a wrapup of Cuban historical developments.
The opinions: Castro believes, correctly, that Cuba is under siege by the United States -- he regards the trade embargo, for instance, as a war blockade -- and his siege mentality feeds not just on old fears like the failed CIA assassination attempts on his life in the '60s but on new fears engendered by the invasion of Iraq.
That Bush would put a military move on Cuba is deemed improbable even by Castro. At the very least, however, Castro has used the U.S. invasion of Iraq as a smokescreen to justify his crackdown on dissidents in the name of security. Meantime, prospective U.S. legislation ending the Cuba travel ban will be vetoed by Bush more likely than not, even though that has been made difficult by being attached to the transportation bill he needs to approve.
Asked why the U.S. embargo has failed after 40 years to accomplish its goal of forcing Castro from power, Banks said the single, most important factor was the creation of a proud, unshakable national mythology equalled by that of only two other nations in post-colonial history: the United States and Israel.
The national mythology developed in Cuba since the Revolution was and still is such a cohering force that despite any and all the disappointments, setbacks, miscalculations and brutalities visited upon them by Castro, by the Soviet Union's ill-fated support and by U.S. antagonism, Cubans believe in themselves as an identifiable people with an ingrained independence of spirit sturdier than any acquired ideology.
For anyone half familiar with Cuba, that's not a revelation perhaps, but it does crystalize an idea worth remembering. Banks pointed out that without the national mythology formed in the 40 years following the American Revolution -- much of it having coalesced around the heroic figure of George Washington before and after his death -- the U.S. might have been forced back under the rule of England or possibly come under the sway of France. The symbolic role of Che Guevera, especially since his martyrdom, has played out in a similar way in Cuba. (Banks did not go into the Israeli parallels, Ben-Gurion as well as the martyred heroes of that nation's mythology, but they seemed self-evident.)
Asked what will happen after Castro dies, Obejas pointed out that regardless of who takes over from him (not expected to happen soon, as he seems to have the energy of a much younger man and appears to be in excellent health), the single, most important factor will be what the U.S. government does. A Cuban government recognized by the United States would be much different from one that is not, whether it's headed by Fidel's designated successor, Raoul Castro, or by someone else. The greatest influence on daily life in Cuba, therefore, will depend on American politics more than its own.
Posted by at November 10, 2003 12:24 PM