We must stop limiting ourselves from what has to be done

MIAMI – On Sunday evening I returned from Washington, DC, after an encounter with other Cubans who live in this country. We ended up meeting in Hyattsville, Maryland. As I boarded the plane my phone informed me that the temperature in the Washington area that night would drop to the 20s. I was glad to be a half hour from boarding a plane taking me back to Miami and 60-something degree weather, with clear, blue skies that night.

But the weather up north is not the reason for my column today. Although right at this moment I am sticking my tongue out at those who spent time disparaging Miami during their presentations. It’s comparable, in my eyes, to me belittling New York City because of the six SOB cops who sat on Eric Garner and choked him to death. The fact is you find bad people everywhere. And I agree that my Miami has its share, but it is still a great and beautiful, growing city with the problems being faced by most urban areas in America.

So let me start from there. And let me give you a few, brief impressions of the Maryland encounter. Let me start by saying that there were way too few of us present. There are approximately a million and a half Cubans who live in the U.S., give or take a few hundred thousand, and there were less than 100 of us there on that day.

Several thoughts came to mind: (1) We are limiting ourselves by limiting who can attend these meeting; and/or, (2) People did not feel a need or an urgency to attend. Both are a problem.

They are thoughts I’ll leave with no further comment. It is something all of us should ponder, I believe…

Let me tell you what impressed me most from that day. There were three persons present on Saturday that made the encounter worthwhile. And the oldest of the three was in his 40s – and not even a Cuban.

I will begin by mentioning Cristina Escobar. I will describe her as the new face of Cuban TV news. And she has made Cuba’s Mesa Redonda relevant again. And I will guess that she is in her early 30s. She is attractive and extremely bright. Cristina was there on Saturday.

There was also a young man in the crowd, probably even younger than Cristina, who was traveling in the U.S. and participating in forums and other encounters in universities and institutions in this country, whose name I did not get. But he lives in Cuba. The young man expressed himself with such eloquence and clarity of thought that I was immediately attracted to what he was saying.

They were both shining stars produced by a system many tear to pieces in this country, but still manages to produce persons like these. I often tell people: “That system we love to criticize must be doing something right…”

Finally, there was Gustavo Torres, who was our host on Saturday. He is executive director of Casa Maryland, where we held the meeting. This is an organization whose mission, in their own words, is to “create a more just society by building power and improving the quality of life in low-income immigrant communities.”

Gustavo is Colombian. On that morning he called himself also a Cuban – not because of any blood ties, but because as a Colombian, he told us, Cuba has been important to him and his country. He mentioned, among other things, the current peace negotiations between the FARC and the Colombian government. His was a moving and impressive   speech to open the morning session.

Most importantly, though, I believe, is that all three are young and point us in the direction we should aspire to. All three also demonstrate that it is often difficult for many of us to turn over reins to a younger generation who is immensely prepared, intelligent, and full of energy needed to bring about a new and better future. And this generational change should be especially relevant for many of us here in the U.S. The truth is that over the past few years there is more of this happening in Cuba, than here in this country.

My final words on this, then, is that what we really lacked on Saturday were the hundreds of Cristinas and Gustavos out there that will make what we’re fighting for a reality.

[Above is photo of Cuban journalist Cristina Escobar in picture with Washington, D.C., attorney Jose Pertierra during the Cuban Encounter that took place in Casa de Maryland. Photo is from Facebook.]