From: rravelo@asturias.acs.uci.edu (Ray Ravelo)
Subject: Re: Are we crazy in Spain?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.spain
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 16 Apr 92 22:53:30 GMT

In article <1992Apr16.184710.2263@morrow.stanford.edu> puerta@camis.stanford.edu writes:
>In article <kuqiliINN519@paducah.cs.utexas.edu> cpg@cs.utexas.edu (Carlos M.  
>Puchol) writes:
>
>Instead of feeling ashamed of Spain, you should be proud of belonging to a  
>civilized country. What Spain is trying to do is to offer a reasonable exit to  
>Castro, which would most benefit the Cuban People. What the US is trying to do  
>is to cripple the Cuban economy and foment subversion so as to cause a coup or  
>a revolution that no doubt will pit Cuban against Cuban with the resulting  
>blood bath.
>
>I believe Castro is still in Cuba THANKS TO THE US!. They have made every  
>effort to stop the Spanish initiative because there is a lot to gain by  
>claiming credit for toppling Castro and they want to be the ones to brag about  
>it and reap the economic benefits.

 
 I'm not sure the US is not as "civilized" as Spain is :-), but as to what
 Spain is trying to do, let me just quote a part of the article written
 by the Cuban-American reporter Enrique Fernandez in the July '91
 Conde' Nast TRAVELER magazine:
 
  "Paraiso is only one of several Spanish hotel projects already operating
 or under construction in Cuba. Even during Franco's years, Spain and 
 Cuba had cordial relations (cynics might say that both Fidel and Franco
 were partners in tyranny as well as blood brothers whose families came
 from the same region of Spain). Now that Spain is prosperous, it sees
 Cuba as ripe for tourist-industry exploitation. I think there is even
 more to it than this.

  Cuba was Spain's last colony in the Americas. The year 1898, the date of
 the Spanish-American War, marks the end of the Spanish empire and the
 beginning of Spain's serious economic decline, which hit bottom during
 the grim years of hunger after the Spanish Civil War. Now that Spain is
 back on its feet, celebrating the quincentenary of its empire, and is
 a new member of the European Community, it's ready to reconquer the
 New World. !Mierda! Spaniards must think. The Americans botched up their
 hold on Cuba and lost it. The Soviets didn't do much better and are
 now abandoning the island to its fate. And the Cubans sure as hell
 haven't been very successful at running it. Let's take it back".
 
 I believe the above to be an exageration but Spain is at least trying to
 regain its influence in the Americas and more directly in Cuba with
 its very large Galician, Asturian, Catalans, Canary Islen~os and
 Basque population and their descendants.
 
 I think that Spain should regain its influence in the New World, but
 I disagree on how they're trying to accomplish that goal. Being on
 the side of a communist dictator like Castro will, in the long run,
 do more damage than good. It's definitely not making the large and
 wealthy Cuban exile community too happy with our Madre Patria!
--
Ray I. Ravelo                 "There's a surefire way to double your money;
Office of Academic Computing.  fold it in half and put in your pocket".
UC, Irvine.