• Submitted by: admin
• Havana
• History
• history
• international
• national
• personalities
• Society
• United States
• Personalities
• Politics and Government
• 01 / 11 / 2010

---

Randy Batista is part of the Cuban generation that still remembers the days before Fidel Castro came to power.

Now, more than 50 years after Fidel Castro came down from the mountains to take control of Cuba, Batista and other Gainesville Cuban-Americans say it's time for the United States to put history in its place and open the door to normalized relations with the Communist island nation that is so close - and so closely linked - to Florida.

"There are still the hard-core guys in Miami, but I think for the most part people realize these people have suffered enough.

Let's open this thing up," said Batista, who has been back to Cuba three times since he left at age 10. "The suffering, the lack of food, lines to get coupon books for rice and beans - they have been through years of hardship."

Polls by Florida International University's Cuban Research Institute involving South Florida Cuban-Americans of all ages shows increasing support for the easing of trade and travel restrictions to Cuba.

In 1991, for instance, 73.8 percent of those polled said they strongly favour tightening the economic embargo against Cuba. In 2007, the last year in which the ongoing poll was taken, that number was down to 57.5 percent.

In 1993, 30.6 percent of those polled said they strongly favour allowing medicine sales to Cuba. In 2007, 55.9 favoured it. The polls can be found at http://www.fiu.edu/~ipor/cuba8/.

Cuba was under the rule of Fulgencio Batista when the revolution began fomenting. Under Batista, Havana became a gambling haven, and Batista was said to have profited from the operations of American organized crime that was involved in the gambling.

Meanwhile, much of the Cuban population remained poor, leading to dissatisfaction and unrest.

Castro and the revolutionaries progressively stepped up attacks against the Cuban army. Castro was based in the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range at the eastern part of Cuba.

Various areas eventually came under the control of the guerrillas. Fulgencio Batista fled on Jan. 1, 1959, and Castro arrived in Havana days after.

Randy Batista, who is no relation to the former dictator, grew up on a farm in Oriente, a region that included the Sierra Maestra. He remembers guerrilla supporters coming to his home asking for funds..

Randy Batista and other family members had been visiting his grandparents in the United States leading up to the revolution and returned to Havana in November, when the revolution was in full fury. He had to stay in Havana because bridges in the countryside to his home had been blown up.

Fidel Castro, who turned power over to his brother Raul Castro in 2008 due to his failing health, initially praised the new U.S. leader.

But relations have since soured, with both sides blaming the other for the postponement of meetings in Havana scheduled for December to discuss immigration issues.

Source: /www.gainesville.com/