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.
