An informed opinion
So I've heard enough people talking out their asses about the corrupting horrors contained within Vamos a Cuba that I decided I needed to see it for myself. I ordered the Spanish language version, and a friend ordered the English. The Vamos a... series includes Spanish language books on Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, while the English edition — A Visit to... — includes twenty-four nations in its itinerary. The books all feature large print, colorful photos, and a simplistic style which befits their intended audience.
Enlisting the aid of an anonymous Cuban-American friend, I read the Spanish version first, later reading the English version. From this exposure, I can tell you one thing: no child is going to think Cuba is anything but an impoverished third world nation. I mean, the main thing Cubans eat is white rice! For fun they have to swim or go to baseball games — no video games, no McDonalds, no TV! The book even says the only cars are old American beaters, and most people take the bus. And as if going to school wasn't bad enough, you have to work every day, too!
And yet somehow this is a ringing endorsement of the Castro regime?
But here, make up your own mind. In a flagrant violation of copyright, here is the full English text of A Visit to Cuba. If I receive a request from the publishers, I will gladly take it down; however, I'm trying to help them out here.
6 Comments:
But the children were pictured smiling and, as we all know, that never happens in Cuba.
The ACLU is going to have a field day with this.
Waaa... can't we get some page scans??
Well, I found at least one inaccurate fact. Somehow this escaped me when I read the book the first time. All children do not do "some work" during the day and older children definitely do not work in factories. This must be a reference to "escuelas al campo", a period of time each year where secondary and high school children are sent to do agricultural work, which are only for 45 days out of the year in grades 10, 11 and 12 (30 days in grades 7, 8 and 9). What do you know, the book actually exaggerates for the worse?
The issues with the book arent only what the book shows, but also what it omits. Talk to any Cuban living in the States that was educated in fidel castro's Cuba and you'll get a better picture of the issue.
Gansibele,
You state that the escuelas de campo are "only for 45 days out of the year in grades 10, 11 and 12 (30 days in grades 7, 8 and 9)." That's 45 days of cutting cane or tabaccoo or whatever the crop of the day is. Coming from a liberal such as yourself, I find it rather disturbing that you arent up in arms, considering that this capitalist imperialist country we live in has child labor laws. I would think youd be opposed to such exploitation of children.
Would you be willing to turn your kids over for 45 days a year to go work, say, picking tomatoes down in homestead? Free of charge, of course.
Although I don't agree with the "removal" of this book, the whole point of the "child labor" (which I know, being Cuban-American, is true and one of a million reasons my parents left the island in the first place) just goes to show how the authors must've been scratching their heads trying to gloss over a very horrible reality -- which also goes to show -- what a perfect opportunity for a parent to sit down with the kid and say "yes, grasshopper, kids are forced to work in Cuba and here's why." (Assuming the parents even give a s**t.)
Val;
I'm just stating, tongue firmly in cheek, a fact. You should be happy that the book exaggerates that fact making it sound like children are forced to work everyday.
You'd also note that these are 13 to 18 year olds. In many states in the US, including Florida, children as young as 14 are permitted to work at their parent's farms.
Save the lectures and the "capitalist imperialist country" ribbing for someone who cares. I'm a liberal but also as much of a capitalist as you are my friend, so all that has no meaning to me whatsoever. Unlike you, I cut that cane and picked those tobacco leaves, hated every day of it, so I know what I speak thereof. And I'd rather have my kid picking tomatoes in Homestead that dying in Iraq, for example.
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