Over the past 10 years, I’ve travelled to Cuba three times, driving from Havana across the island to Santiago de Cuba and back on one occasion. Each time I went, I filmed documentaries on a variety of issues including the country’s political prisoners, the young dissident movement and the state of the Catholic Church on the island. During my travels, and my conversations with Cubans around the world, there was one analogy that keeps coming to mind, an analogy that the international community, leaders and every-day citizens alike, need to remember.
Cuba is a human zoo. Fidel Castro was its vicious zookeeper. We, the international community, have enabled this zoo to stay “open” for far too long.
On my first trip to Cuba in 2007, a conversation with a young man in his early 20s on the streets of Santiago de Cuba first made me understand this reality. Although reticent at first, the young man, coincidentally named Fidel, began opening up to me about his life, goals and hopes for the future.
One point was particularly striking. “I don’t tell everyone this,” he said, “but Cuba is one big zoo and we, the Cuban people, are the animals. We get fed, medicine when we are sick and taught to do many tricks, but we see the cage … we see the bars!”
The young man passionately explained that Cubans realize the zookeepers are ready to put them down the minute they start to resist the life that has been chosen for them. The worst part is, he said, “the zoo only stays in business because of you, pointing at me, those who come to visit, those who come to gawk, point and take pity on us animals who only deserve this life, and nothing more.”
While the world reminisces, eulogizes and judges the life of Fidel Castro, I can only hope that those inside the cages, those who have called Cuba’s zoo home in the last 55 years, including the other Fidel, will finally get the attention and freedom they deserve.
Jordan Allott is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a documentary filmmaker, the founder of In Altum Productions and a senior adviser to In Defense of Christians. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
