The last time I was actually in Cuba was for summer vacation, 1958, Just months before the revolution. My memories were vivid, the rebels blew up a supermarket next door to the theater where my aunt and I were watching "Davy Crocket and the River Pirates". No one in Cuba seemed to want to answer my questions as to what was going on,but back in Tampa I was told all about how Batista was a tyrant and a butcher who tortured and secretly murdered suspected opponents to his regime. The semi-official count of "desaparecidos" is about 20,000.

The Communist government does it with warrants and kangaroo courts, but the number is about the same, maybe double that if you count those who have perished in the Florida Straits. I can't say for myself because I haven't been to Cuba since I was 11 years old, I only have had a chance to talk to those who have chosen to leave, an admittedly biased sample. Of course, I suspect no one in Cuba is going to speak too freely to a stranger. My cousin, way further left politically than I am politically, has been there and he says the people are happy with their lot, but they suffer due to the embargo. Personally, I think he's mistaken, seeing what he wants to see, and hearing what he's told. The Tampa Cubans, part of or descended from, the Cuban colony established there at the turn of the century, like myself, were all pro-Castro at the beginning. My family certainly was. But not any more. Only my cousin is holding out.

I do know the inevitable comparison of Batista vs Castro is deliberately misleading. All the Cubans I've met here despise both, and many were ardent Fidelistas in the beginning, but changed their minds. My other cousin, who left Cuba at age 16, is a complete socialist, politically, but he also loathes the Castro regime for what it did to his country, and to him. This isn't about politics as much as it is about fear.

I did hear one interesting take on this from what I would consider a fascist emigré (who still hated Batista's guts!) who's comments were roughly as follows:

"Both right wing and left wing dictatorships are terrible, and can be murderous, but the right wing dictatorship will leave you alone if you are no threat to it. They will let you keep your property, own your business, and send your kids to private school, and they will let you leave the country whenever you want. So if I get to pick, I will go with
the right wing dictatorship every time."

I don't think that requires any further comment from me.