An absolutely marvelous story about the Antonio Maceo Brigade, a group of Cuban Americans who left Cuba as youth but who returned to Cuba to visit and to build bridges between our two nations. Friends Nelson Valdes, Jose Pertierra, Manuel Gomez, Guillermo Grenier are quoted. “Los Cincuenta y Cinco Hermanos. The 55 brothers and sisters. Better known as the Antonio Maceo Brigade, named for a revered general in the Cuban war for independence against the Spanish. Decades before President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro announced the restoration of diplomatic relations, the brigade was the standard bearer of an equal relationship between the two countries. Its youth risked everything to become a post-revolution bridge between Cuba and its exiles, shattering the persistent myth that all exiles were of the same mind, bent on the destruction of the Castro regime . . . [Jose] Pertierra was in Havana on Dec. 17 when Obama and Castro gave their simultaneous announcements that negotiations to resume diplomatic relations would begin. “Ordinary people would stop me in the streets to hug and cry with joy, he says. I have been coming to Cuba for many, many years now. I have never seen such joy and hope for the future as I have been witnessing here in Cuba for the past two weeks. So they watch now, looking for signs that the countries are truly negotiating as equals.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:40:07 +0000
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