There’s a great deal of controversy going on right now over Ozzie Guillen’s little speech about how much the likes and respects Fidel Castro. This has brought out all those who have something to say about athletes, speaking their minds on subjects outside sports. Politico’s Jonathan Allen has declared that athletes should “Just shut up.” Maybe Allen should do the same.
We are a nation that worships celebrity. We have always listened to movie stars opinions, right or wrong. I mean look at that old cowboy actor who became president. Right now we have Pitt, Jolie, Clooney, Penn, etc. all speaking and doing things in the social and political sphere; all on the power of their celebrity. So why shouldn’t Guillen have his say?
Let’s face it, folks, despite the howls of anguish from the Miami Cuban community and major league baseball, Guillen had something very valuable to say. He might not have said it as well as it could have been said, but the, out of control, response just shows that there was more than a little truth in what he was not loquacious enough to say effectively.
Major league baseball’s outrage can be easily dismissed as fear of losing revenue. They know that the Batistero community residing in the Miami area represents the team’s principle fan base. They’re just afraid they’ll lose a couple of bucks at the gate.
The Batisteros themselves are another matter. They were the Cuban, 1% when Castro overthrew Batista. My father was in Cuba when the revolution started. He was, as were all Norte Americano businessmen, closely allied with Batista. But he saw what was wrong and he left.
The fact is, that Castro asked our government for help first. We refused because we were afraid that we would endanger U.S. business interests that were allied with Batista. Our business community in Cuba and the mob, which controlled Havana are what kept us from supporting Castro, who was, after all, the people’s choice. It wasn’t until after we had turned him down that Castro went to the Russians. They were more than happy to help him and that’s when he became a Communist.
What did we get for our corporate greed and stupidity? Sixty years of having a hostile country ninety miles from our coast. Sixty years of a bunch of right wing Batisteros wielding political power in southern Florida, fighting to hold onto their tenuous thread to Cuba and thwarting any attempt to solve the Cuban problem by our government or our people.
Guillen may not have known how to say that, but just opening up the discussion again was important. It’s too bad that the greedy brain dead leaders of what they like to call, the national pastime, are too stupid too understand what free speech means. They are a disgrace to American sport and the Cuban, Batistero community in southern Florida is a serious drawback to any positive accomplishments that could be made in US/Cuban relations.
Our current policies toward Cuba are a joke. The only thing that is keeping us from attaining a realistic arrangement is the opposition of a community of rich former Batista backers who still yearn fruitlessly for their former place in that dictators hierarchy. It’s time to push them to the curb and get on with life in the real world.