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Some make peace with
the past . . . and then there is Cuba 4v3u4i
By Marifeli Perez-Stable.
[emailprotected]. Posted on
Thu, Aug. 05, 2004 in The
Miami Herald.
After the Spanish-American War (1898),
the United States occupied Cuba and Puerto
Rico. In 1902, the Cuban republic was born,
albeit under the Platt Amendment where by
Washington could intervene in Cuba to protect
order and property. Until 1952, Puerto Rico
was ruled by U.S. military and civilian
istrations. For more than a decade
before the 1916-1924 U.S. occupation, the
Dominican Republic had been a U.S. protectorate.
Working out their close intimacy with the
United States has been a central element
in Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican national
development. In 1940, Cuba adopted a progressive
constitution that ushered in three democratically
elected governments. In 1952, Puerto Rico
became a self-governing commonwealth. Between
1930 and 1961, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo
ruthlessly ruled the Dominican Republic.
Had there been no coup d'tat on
March 10, 1952, Cuba might well have trodden
a different path. Democratic governments
over the 1940s and the 1950s could have
allowed Cuba and the United States the opportunity
to craft a less imbalanced relation as,
in fact, Mexico and the United States did
during those decades. Instead, Fulgencio
Batista's dictatorship exacerbated what
Cuban intellectual Jorge Maach called
''republican frustrations'' and paved the
way for the revolution of 1959.
Since the 19th century, Puerto Ricans have
been autonomists, that is, they first sought
a looser tether from Madrid and then the
same from Washington. A longing for independence
has never gripped Puerto Rican society.
Puerto Ricans, nevertheless, have had a
strong cultural identity that survived U.S.
efforts to banish Spanish as their language
and ''Americanize'' them.
During the late 1930s, two men -- Luis
Muoz Marn and U.S. Gov.
Rexford Tugwell -- sowed the seeds of the
commonwealth. The Great Depression had taken
a steep toll on Puerto Ricans, and Muoz
Marn opted to improve his people's
living standards over pursuing independence.
Tugwell and Muoz Marn forged
a New Deal-like, state-centered program
of economic modernization and established
a political timetable for Puerto Rican self-government.
Like Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, Trujillo
governed the Dominican Republic like a sultan,
effectively blurring the boundaries between
the public treasury and his own. Nationalism,
order and progress were his tripod. Dominicans,
however, have generally been more aroused
against Haiti than the United States. In
1937, the generalissimo savagely whipped
up these feelings by massacring 18,000 Haitians
who had ''occupied'' territory on the Dominican
side of the border. In 1961, the dictator
was assassinated.
In the nascent 21st century, Puerto Rico
and the Dominican Republic have largely
put their pasts behind. Puerto Rico is still
a commonwealth, though since the late 1960s
pro-statehood forces have gained much ground.
It is, however, highly unlikely that there
would ever be a change in status: Puerto
Ricans don't want independence, and the
United States doesn't really want to welcome
the island into the Union. Puerto Rico is
permanently -- if indeterminately -- bound
to the United States.
By the mid-1990s, it seemed as if the Dominican
Republic had turned the page. Institutional
and electoral reforms had strengthened democracy.
Under Leonel Fernndez's istration
(1996-2000), the country was well governed
and the economy well managed. Though Hiplito
Meja (2000-2004) set the clock back
considerably, a new Fernndez presidency
is in the wings and cause for hope. Moreover,
the Dominican Republic is set to the
U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement.
And then there is Cuba.
During the Cold War, the United States
and Cuba might have normalized relations
without changes in the island's domestic
order. Had Havana embraced a sound program
of economic restructuring in the early 1990s,
the U.S. embargo might have been history
already.
Now a democratic transition -- which is,
first and foremost, in the Cuban people's
interest -- seems to be the surest road
to normalization. Under Castro or a successor
regime that obdurately persists in ruling
like him, Cuba will continue to lag.
Only when Cuba's political leaders embrace
geographic nearness to the United States
as a Cuban national asset will Cuba be able
to catch up and make peace with its past.
But, the sooner we -- the U.S. Cuban diaspora
-- also do what is right by the Cuban people
now, the easier will future normalization
be. We are the indispensable bridge between
Cuba and the United States. It is up to
us whether we walk it for good or ill.
Marifeli Prez-Stable teaches sociology
at Florida International University.
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