A tribute to Francisco Aruca
(What follows is the transcription and translation of Edmundo Garcia’s La Tarde Se Mueve radio show of Monday, March 11, dedicated to the memory of Francisco Gonzalez Aruca.)
A CubaNews translation
Edited by Walter Lippmann
On Sunday, March 10th, with great sorrow, we learned of the death of Francisco Aruca. He was one of my best friends, not only in Miami, but in my life. He was a brother, an inspiration. I owe a great deal of who I am today to the legacy of Francisco González Aruca.
When I arrived in this city of Miami I was quite immature in many ways; by listening to Aruca in the morning or his replays at 5:00 in the afternoon I gained awareness and woke up to reality. Personally he always behaved extraordinarily: without fuss, not imposing his criteria, not conditioning his opinions, but able to reach and plant a seed in everyone’s heart.
The death of Aruca, at 72, when he still had at least 10 more years to fight his battles, has kept me in shock. I have invited some of Aruca’s dearest friends and most respected colleagues to talk on La Tarde se Mueve. For you to learn who Francisco Aruca was, and for those who knew him to know him better and love him even more, La Tarde se Mueve has gathered opinions from Armando García, President of the Marazul company which Aruca founded; from Álvaro Fernández, Aruca friend and editor of the bi-lingual digital magazine Progreso Semanal/Progreso Weekly; from Raúl Alzaga his lifelong friend from Puerto Rico; from painter Vicente Dopico; from filmmaker Saúl Landau, a teacher of generations and personal friend of Aruca’s, and from Eddy Levy, entrepreneur and colleague of La Tarde se Mueve, the show that together with Francisco Aruca we made for a long time and which I feel proud of and value as the great opportunity that life gave me.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Good afternoon to Armando García and Álvaro Fernández.
ARMANDO GARCIA: For me it is very emotional to talk about Aruca whom I knew for almost 40 years. We met in Puerto Rico in 1974 in the home of Raúl Alzaga, a mutual friend. To speak of Aruca is to speak of many things; it’s to speak of the man, the friend, the fighter, the educator, the businessman. Aruca was many things and still is many things.
Because Aruca’s work will be present in this community and in relations between Cuba with the United States; it will be present in many years to come. He sowed a seed that has borne fruit; he managed to see the first glimpses of the fruit, and I am satisfied to know that he left at a time when he felt his aims had been accomplished.
He lived a full life; he was a very versatile man of great intelligence; he was very honest, analytical, brave and with a great sense of humor. Despite the many attacks and threats he suffered in this city of Miami, Aruca stood his ground and remained courageous in his principles and was ready for whatever the consequences.
He was attacked verbally and with bombs. He was attacked in many different ways, but Aruca was always consistent: a man that would not retreat. As I said, to speak of Aruca is to speak of many things and we would need many radio shows; to me he was a loyal friend. I subscribe to many of the things you said at the beginning of the show.
As you said, he was a man who taught me many things without setting any conditions. He was objective and did not condition our relation. As educator and communicator he was a great analyst, a patient professor, very articulate and polite, very knowledgeable about Cuba and Miami, of Latin America and the United States. He was versatile and clear in his analyses and made his audiences think. It was wonderful to see Aruca’s dynamics in the early 90’s and later.
He was greatly respected even by those who disagreed with him. He fought the extremism of both sides and rationality was the winner. He would say in his show: “My aim is a farewell to impunity.” That was the goal of Aruca’s show, and he achieved it: Impunity in this city ended when Aruca held the microphone. I could speak of Aruca for hours.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Armando, you were saying something I would like Alvaro to retake: Aruca’s capacity to teach; his unassuming teaching and his analytical clarity. In my view he was the best commentator, the best analyst and the best interpreter of political subjects in the relationship between Cuba and the United States that I’ve heard here in the US. I don’t know if Alvaro shares my opinion.
ALVARO FERNANDEZ: Yes, I share it. And I’d like to say that for many like Armando and you, and me, Aruca was a friend, but he was more than a friend.
That is why now in his death we must celebrate his life, because it was a very accomplished life.
To put it in his own words, “If I die tomorrow, I know I have lived a full life and I lasted longer than anyone expected,” that’s what he said. And there you have Aruca’s sense of humor. I don’t normally use these words, but Aruca was not only courageous and bright, he was also a joker. He loved to sing and recite; those who saw him sing and recite know that Aruca’s singing and reciting was a delight and one would have a great time with him.
But going back to your question, I repeat, “yes.” Armando told me for the first time in the 90’s that Aruca had foresight; he had the ability to focus and interpret news. On the subject of Cuba-Miami relations those who could hear Aruca in ’91 when he started his show in Miami, can see that almost everything Aruca said then is happening now. He saw it. But at the same time he knew it was going to need work, and he was a tireless worker in that sense.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: I would tease him by telling him that he read 23 newspapers every day. I must say that this show has existed during these latest years thanks to Aruca, because every time there has been a crisis –and there have been several even if listeners haven’t heard- quietly, without fuzz he protected this space like no one else, and although the presentation says our main sponsor is Empresa Marazul, I must emphasize that it has been thanks to Francisco González Aruca that we are still going.
Aruca was the person, the friend that even if he did not agree with you would not let you go under. When I was ill –and I was discussing this with my wife- the show almost disappeared, among other reasons because there were bad intentions, as usual, to hurt it during my absence. It was Aruca who quietly avoided all that.
And he said we were going to keep it “for as long as it takes” and use recordings if necessary, but the show will not disappear; I was in a coma. Those of us who were close to Aruca always saw that: his real sense of collectivity, never setting conditions to people’s opinions.
ALVARO FERNANDEZ: You were talking about the 23 papers he read; In fact, Aruca in his time, would wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. and would read the papers of the US, of the world, of wherever, to prepare for his morning show, and when he got there he was more ready than anyone and had more information than anyone. He read what the New York Times said and then went to see what the Washington Post and even the Miami Herald said. And about work, we cannot forget that for a period of almost two years he had a show in Spanish at 8:00 AM and then would get in his car and drive to make another one-hour show in English.
ARMANDO GARCIA: That’s the point I wanted to bring, precisely: the season when he did the two shows, in English and in Spanish. It was very difficult but he kept them until the last minute. This also tells you about Aruca’s aims. In a very hostile environment he wanted to unite families; he worked to that end here and also there, because there he also had to work for family reunification, and he worked very efficiently. In his English and Spanish shows, his goal was to unite the community here in Miami; and that combination of shows in English and Spanish was very important. If today you look at some of the English comments on Progreso Semanal and Progreso Weekly you realize the impact Aruca had on some Americans, and that was key for the building of the diversity that started developing here. There is still a long way to go, but there is no doubt Aruca played a fundamental role in that period, he opened many eyes. That’s another point: many disagreed with him, but they heard him.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Let me ask you something, Armando, because perhaps you are the only one who could throw light on one of Aruca’s facets. I was acquainted with Aruca the journalist, analyst, friend, etc., but as a businessperson what was Aruca like?
ARMANDO GARCIA: As a businessman he was a genius. First you must understand that he studied economics and applied the principles of economics to the situation of our company. Keep in mind that when Aruca started and founded Marazul, he had a very comfortable and very safe job in Washington, in the Trade Department, and he took the risk with three children, with a very complex dynamics at the time at the end of the 70’s (78,79,80) and took the risk of starting this company Marazul leaving a safe job. One has to admire him for that. It was a key decision, very analytical of course; just as he was analytical in all his political presentations and his community assessments, he was analytical as a businessman; Aruca was a successful businessman.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Álvaro, Aruca is the founder of Progreso Semanal and Progreso Weekly, how did it happen that you became the editor of these media?
ALVARO FERNANDEZ: Well, there was a moment when Aruca was doing a show in Spanish, another show in English, and running the company, so he turned to me and told me he needed help, that he was near his limit. I started running Progreso Semanal and Progreso Weekly with absolute trust between the two of us. Let me tell you that although some people believe Aruca gave the orders, he never told me, “Hey, we must do this.” We talked and more times than usual the one who would tell Aruca: “We must do this,” was m. With all his talking –and Aruca in his good times would give others little chance to talk– he would also listen; he had that important capacity which tells you how intelligent he was.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: I want to offer you –and it takes only a minute or so– some statements by Aruca. Let’s listen to the Aruca we are talking about.
RECORDING of Francisco González Aruca: “Today, Monday, August 13th is Fidel’s 86th birthday; for his show La Tarde se Mueve, Edmundo Gacia has asked a number of people –me included– a brief message of opinion of what Fidel has represented. I also received a similar invitation from Alvaro Fernandez for Progreso Semanal and I decided to use the same brief comment for both media.
The meaning of a man is his work and Fidel started his before he came to power, from Moncada and the mountains. Then he started his leadership of the Revolutionary Government and the Revolution. Many will stress his successes in that leadership, for example giving the Cuban people the right to an education comparable to the levels of developed countries, or the right to public health with a life expectancy also comparable to developed countries.
The list is long and I’m sure others will discuss these and other achievements. In my view his greatest success has been the establishment and respect for Cuba’s national sovereignty, something that had been violated since the birth of the Republic, mainly through US interference.
It was the Revolution led by Fidel that demanded and achieved the most absolute respect for national sovereignty, an achievement that must never be lost and is inseparable from the name of Fidel Castro.”
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Those were his words in the commentary and they were later published as a statement at Progreso Semanal. Armando and Alvaro, I don´t know if you would like to add anything to Aruca´s words.
ARMANDO GARCIA: Aruca fulfilled his goals and had a very accomplished life. He left an imprint in Miami for the present and the future. Aruca is still present and we will miss him.
ALVARO FERNANDEZ: Aruca was in my view, one of the most important –if not the most important– public persons in Miami in the 90’s. Because he opened ways; he opened ways to tolerance in this city; he opened ways to other things whose fruits we are seeing today. And it is true – as Armando says- that we will miss him very much.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: I thank Armando García, President CEO of Marazul and Álvaro Fernández editor of Progreso Semanal and Progreso Weekly. Now let’s talk with Raul Alzaga from Puerto Rico and Vicente Dopico here in Miami. Good afternoon to you both.
RAUL ALZAGA: This summer we would have been celebrating our working together for 40 years and our presence in a number of situations with an impact in our lives –both his and mine- and in the process of political development in which we took part during these 46 years.
We met here in Puerto Rico in the summer of 73 when he was a professor at the Colegio Universitario de Mayagüez . He had studied in the United States and had decided to move to Puerto Rico because it would bring him closer to Latin American and Cuban realities.
He was expelled from the University for taking part in a university strike at the end of ’73, and his contract was not renewed. He had no choice but to return to the US. We worked very closely in the founding of the magazine Areito together with other colleagues, but as we were both here in Puerto Rico our relationship was closer than with the colleagues in the US.
I remember very well our first editorial for Areito around April ’74. He and I sat together to discuss the editorial and gave it a number of features that made it more radical than the first editorial of the magazine at that time was meant to be. We then kept working on the process; the very creation of the Antonio Maceo Brigade is something perhaps many people do not know.
Aruca was instrumental in the creation of that political project; in fact he and I were present with other colleagues from New York at the home of Lourdes Casals, another great sister of ours who departed a few years ago, and there in that activity the decision was made of who would be in the first contingent, and we were present there. In the dialogue, a process that followed the magazine and the Brigada we were also involved.
We must remember that Aruca was sentenced to death by the Cuban Revolutionary Government and his sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison, and then he escaped. I remember that in that trip for the dialogue, although we had already developed activities, earned prestige and acquired knowledge, there’s no doubt he was fearful of travelling given his personal circumstances.
I remember telling him, “Don’t you worry, when the plane lands I’ll be waiting for you at the stairs.” And so it was. When he came down, the first person he looked for was me, he was searching for safety and assurance. We hugged and I think we even cried.
Well, after that there was the process that would lead to the travels and, as you know, would provoke great differences within among the exiles and another brother of ours was murdered: Carlos Muñiz. He was a compañero and brother of Aruca’s who lived in Puerto Rico at the time. Also in those first years there were the campaigns in Washington with the Justice Department, the FBI and congress members.
The fact that he lived in Washington was also very important and significant in terms of facilitating all those contacts and relationships. After that we kept a very close relationship; we were together in Cuba in ’85 when Radio Marti was launched and when the travels were shut down and the Cuban Government would not allow anyone in. Imagine, we were there and I think we were the only two in Cuba that had any link to the travels and political positions.
We didn’t really know when we would return. If my memory serves me well, we then went back together after a few months when the ban was lifted. And we were together when Radio Progreso began around ’92. Then I reported from Puerto Rico, I had 3 or 4 minutes every morning that began with the slogan “Good morning, Miami” and then I read three or four stories. Those were opportunities I had the privilege to share with him. Aruca is one of those brothers one chooses -not a biological brother- and all our experiences and all the risks brought us very close together.
I always thought that I would be the first to go, for political reasons. But he left first. However, he could have gone well before his 72 years because of the same risks that he in the US, and I here, have had to face and survive. The last time I saw him was last year on April 28th at the 33rd anniversary of the murder of Carlos Muñiz, in Washington, at a meeting in the Cuban Interests Section.
We couldn’t share much that day because he arrived late and left quickly, but there was a moment when we relaxed and talked. I remember I was going through an episode of bad health and was having some tests. He said to me, “Oh yes, I too am seeing the doctor on Monday.” Then I told him, “Don’t worry, we are both in the same boat; the years are beginning to leave their mark on us.”
Recently, the last communication we had was on January 31st; and this past week, I don’t know if it was the day he died or a few days before, I thought of him because we had not been in touch since Jan. 31st, and I told myself , “Hell, I should send him an e-mail to see what he is doing…”
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Let’s listen to Vicente Dopico who gave me the news on Sunday 10th and I couldn’t believe it. He died on Wednesday the 6th and I must have talked to him on Monday or Tuesday about Thursday’s show –which clearly could not be made because he had died. Tell me Dopico, how this news affects you, because you were close to Aruca from the very beginning.
VICENTE DOPICO: Very good the introduction with “Los ejes de mi carreta”, because it was a song he liked very much; he made it his, of his show. Aruca was a very brave man; but not with the bravery of a Cuban “bully”. Aruca was a special person; his courage was of a different kind. I can still see him when he escaped from prison in La Cabaña and then sought asylum at the Embassy of Uruguay.
We actually became close friends here in Miami when we started the magazine Areito in ’73-’74. It was then that our real friendship started. When he began Radio Progreso I was one of those who told him, “Aruca, are you sure you want to do this?” You have no idea the risk involved in producing Radio Progreso in those days.
Then came the 1978 dialogue as Raúl Alzaga said. We teased him because he owed the Cuban Revolution, to their Courts, 29 years and 9 months. He was concerned about the trip. Both Aruca and I returned to Cuba for the first time for the 1978 dialogue and so he opened Marazul in New York. At the beginning Marazul was called Cubatravel and it had an office in Washington, another in New York and one in Miami. Then only Cubatravel in New York remained and it became Marazul. Then each of us took its separate way until he came to Miami, I think it was in ’86, to take care of the businesses of Marazul and then in ’91 or late ’90 he came up with the idea of Radio Progreso.
I see Aruca as a pioneer of alternative radio in Miami. I think there might not have been an alternative radio here without Aruca. And you got here at the right moment because he told me, “What I want is someone to come and hold this together somehow.” Because he dreamed of other alternative radios opening; but you cannot have the slightest idea of the problems Aruca had to confront with Radio Progreso at the beginning.
They broke his windows several times, but he went on, because one of the great qualities Aruca had from his Jesuit education, is perseverance. When he undertook a project he pursued it until completion. Apart from his intelligence, he knew what he was doing. He wasn’t improvising and had great maturity –because we had matured and knew there were difficulties here and there were difficulties there in Cuba.
The idea was to bring together both coasts, to build a bridge of coordination, of reason. The problem is that here it is almost impossible to reason with the press in Miami. The press in Miami has been taken over completely by the Cuban right-wing and remains so to this day. We thought it wouldn’t be. Aruca was a pioneer of Spanish radio in the United States. With his great capacity he had a show in English as well. It is a great loss to us. When I told you the news I was heartbroken.
RAUL ALZAGA: To continue on the line of his courage, Pancho or Tito, as we sometimes called him, was extremely honest. He was incorruptible. We both graduated from a Jesuit School, he in Havana, I in Miami and therefore coincided in some of the features we learned in the process of formation.
He was also very pragmatic, not dogmatic; he did not try to impose criteria; he was an open person who tried to find ways to move forward in his projects; he was consistent and had great mobilizing power; he was dynamic, talkative, had a proverb or saying always at hand and, of course, we all have defects… his projects were always the best and the greatest…(laughs)
VICENTE DOPICO: When he had a project in mind, he would examine it first to know everything about it; he was very honest with himself.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: When he reached a conclusion about something, he would chew over the project and when he made up his mind he would go totally overboard. And loyalty was always one of his main features.
Now we are going to talk to another person who knew Aruca very well: the American journalist Saúl Landau in Los Angeles. Welcome and thank you so much for being in this show. How do you remember him? What is the Aruca that remains in your mind like?
SAUL LANDAU: Well, when Álvaro Fernández called and told me of Aruca’s death I felt a wave of sadness. I had met Aruca in the 70’s while he was at the Catholic University doing his Master’s in Economics in Washington and several times we met to discuss how we could form a different type of organization and news show for the Cuban community in exile.
This was in the 70’s. I think at the end of the decade he created the travel agency Marazul to make it possible for Cubans to fly from Miami and visit their families. Marazul is still there as number one of all the travel agencies.
I remember Aruca as a man who was always looking for a chance to initiate positive projects, progressive, for reconciliation, to improve relations with Cuba. He never stopped fighting or looking for possibilities; he was a brave man, generous, capable, well educated, a man of great imagination and affection; his death is a loss for everybody.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Saul, you were close to him and he felt great affection for you. In all the time you worked together, did he ever impose an idea, a criterion? In our case he never did, did he do it in your case?
SAUL LANDAU: Well, in my case 12 years ago Aruca phoned me to ask me to write for his web magazine Progreso Semanal or Progreso Weekly in English, and I gave him my word I would write an essay every week, and I have done that for 12 years now. Every week I write for that magazine edited by Álvaro Fernández, because giving my word to Francisco Aruca was very important to me.
And I said to myself I would never break that promise, and as long as he wanted me to write I would write. You can’t say no to a request from such a noble person. I remember I once called him because the Governor of New Mexico at the time, Bill Richardson, was going to travel to Cuba, and had asked for advice.
I asked Aruca to come with me to speak to Richardson and he travelled from Denver where he was living to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and we spent an hour with the Governor giving him advice for his trip to improve relations with Cuba. Aruca never minded spending money if it was for a just cause.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Thank you Saul. Thank you for sharing with us these images you keep of Francisco Aruca.
SAUL LANDAU: Thanks to you for having this radio show to honor him.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Aruca will always be with us. One more time Saul, thank you for these memories for our audience. Now is the time to listen to the opinions of entrepreneur Eddy Levy who was also a friend of Francisco Aruca.
EDDY LEVY: I just want to say that for me Aruca, our Pancho Aruca, is an example of courage; someone with an immense capacity to communicate his ideas very clearly. His thought expressed in his phrase “A farewell to impunity” could not have been better chosen.
I remember we did several shows together for American TV, on Channel 10 mostly; I also did a few shows for Channel 2 with Peter Bernal. We are talking about the early 90’s, late 80’s; and how things have changed in this community, and how the presence of Aruca was so important in this community, to open the eyes of this community. I remember that at that time we could still go to a radio station and debate an issue with ethics, without fear for what you might say. And that was ending, and it ended because of the fear these people in the right had to face the truth, to face different opinions. It ended when Radio Mambi and the Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana could threaten El Nuevo Herald; it all ended in the early 90’s. The only space left to express different ideas was the one provided by that little man whose name was Francisco Aruca. I also know that many persons in the right respected Francisco Aruca.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Please Eddy, tell me, because I cannot picture it, but most people have affirmed that in the first times people would listen to Aruca with their radios very low, that is was something almost clandestine. And secondly, I would like you to summarize your view of the legacy of Francisco Aruca.
EDDY LEVY: Look, what you are saying is true. I personally know a person, married to a doctor whose mind was changed by Francisco Aruca: a person that could once be considered of extreme right and today is definitely not so. To listen to Aruca’s show at her husband’s clinic, she had to go to one of the furthest rooms and listen to a very low radio.
One of her husband’s patients found out and told her husband who was his doctor that if he did not forbid his wife to listen to the show, he would not go to his clinic anymore. And the doctor, who logically took his wife’s side, told him that in that case he was no longer his patient because he could not forbid that. He took his wife’s side and the side of the truth, because it was a public show and Aruca was not shy about saying what was on his mind. And this is not an isolated anecdote, it was the norm. People hid to listen to Aruca. If you were in a parking log you turned the volume down or closed the window to listen to Aruca.
I remember that in one of the shows we attended together, Aruca and I were told we were controversial, and I said I thought they were the controversial ones, because all we did was simply to have a different opinion. Not an explosive, indecent, or immoral opinion. I told them they were controversial because they wanted to prevent other opinions.
When we created Jewish Solidarity in 1993 –almost 20 years of that– there were Cuban Jews here who said it was a brilliant idea: to take care of the synagogues in Cuba, to share religion; we talked here on Lincoln Road in the Jewish synagogue, and suddenly one of these people who was a friend of mine, called me almost in tears to tell me that La Fundación had called him and said that no way, that if the Jews wanted to keep their businesses open etc., they could not support the project.
This was in 1993 and it was the same in all businesses. If you said something that bothered the right-wingers in South Florida there was a social rejection; and we lived that in our own family, even if the manifestations were against the war or for the environment, they did not care. The aggression was physical, with stones and all. And here no leader would say anything. Aruca’s legacy was – as we said– the end of impunity, because that man with his alternative radio show denounced all the barbarity, and there was a moment when they no longer dared to act; they could not do it with impunity. Aruca could go alone to protest against the abuse and -without his asking for company- three hundred people would join him.
Here in Miami there was a time when we lived rather peacefully, and suddenly these powerful people appeared, in complicity with some authorities, and they started violating people’s rights. This happened for instance when we returned from the dialogue in Cuba; emotionally that was the worst moment I’ve lived here in Miami because all the abuses that were committed. It was in such situations when Aruca all by himself started making such abuses known to other people, to Americans, to Latin Americans and to Cubans who did not take part in such actions. And the legacy of Francisco Aruca; well, the legacy of Francisco Aruca is people like you and your show, and other ordinary people who call a radio station and denounce an abuse, even if there is a call identifier to intimidate them.
EDMUNDO GARCIA: Thank you very much Eddy. Aruca is the person who opened the way to alternative radio; he is the person who left a legacy, a real inspiration for the new generations; the most important analyst I have ever heard; and a man of great honesty and integrity, of great loyalty. I feel a great vacuum without him. It has been a great loss.
