By Amaury Cruz                                                                        Read Spanish Version

Dear Senator Obama:

There are many things Cuban-American progressive Democrats should like to tell you about dealing with Cuba-related issues. The first is that as most other Americans, we thirst for a leader who, to quote you, says what he means and means what he says. You have said things that give us hope for positive changes in U.S.-Cuba relations.

You should listen to the progressive point of view. You are a progressive. Why should you heed reactionaries? We know they will try to ply you with huge campaign donations to advance their retrograde and pernicious views. But you don’t need them to win the presidency, nor should you associate with them and betray your principles.

Cuba issues are convenient constructs of the Republican propaganda machine used to win elections, both local and national. If Cuba and the U.S. had normal relations, the Republican machine would not have at its disposal tens of millions of dollars that have been doled out to organizations, academic institutions, and projects dominated by Republicans and financing Republicans. Harebrained schemes like TV and Radio Marti would not exist; neither would the sinecures they provide. Cuban-Americans would not be debating how best to overthrow a foreign government or assassinate its leader, focusing instead on issues that affect all Latinos in the U.S. and that the Democratic party is better able to address. Local, state and national office seekers would not be able to manipulate a significant block of single-issue voters through cheap stunts like drinking espresso in a Little Havana restaurant once every four years and proclaiming they will be the ones to liberate the island nation.

You will find that almost all the media will be more or less obviously at the service of the Republicans, and that includes the major English- and Spanish language papers in Miami. In some cases, radio talk shows and weeklies called periodiquitos (little papers) will savage you. These media outlets are all controlled by the Cuban-American extreme right thanks to a campaign of intimidation and McCarthyism that has lasted over four decades and has been made possible because of the continued hostility between the two countries. You should not be afraid to confront them with logic and reason. Their power arises simply from people’s ignorance and fears.

You should understand that older Cuban-American hard-line exiles, also called los históricos (the historic ones) and others who have been bombarded by the periodiquitos and talk shows during decades are concerned only about one particular type of change they want in Cuba. They couldn’t care less for the type of fundamental change you represent. Some of your opponents also will be unrepentant racists and will not hesitate to inject racism into the political discourse through innuendo and code words.

None of the históricos and many others who have been brainwashed by the Republicans into thinking that Kennedy, and therefore all Democrats, betrayed Cuban-Americans at the Bay of Pigs, will vote for you no matter how much you try to win them over. If you promise them to invade Cuba the week after your inauguration, they will still not vote for you. They will not believe anything you say. To them, you are already a communist, a fifth columnist who somehow managed to infiltrate the U.S. senate. Sound crazy? Welcome to South Florida.

I don’t know if by blind luck or design your campaign has stumbled on the idea that you must focus your courtship on younger Cuban-American voters, rendering the históricos history. Whichever it is, you are on the right track. Polls show that more recent Cuban-American arrivals and younger people in general increasingly favor normalization of relations with Cuba. These people have not been motivated to vote in the past. You can motivate them.

I like that you have been able to turn around your opponents’ attacks and have not hesitated to strike back quickly and correct the record, with humor and creativity. You have broken the stereotype of the wimpish Democratic politician. I congratulate you. You must keep it up, even in the face of some who will tell you that you need to pander to the Cuban-American right. Sadly, this would include some Democratic representatives in Congress who have behaved shamefully and betrayed the party and the nation. They too have spread the myth of a monolithic Cuban-American voting block and sold out to the right wingers and their fat wallets.

Much like the issues of abortion and gay marriage, Cuba issues are a way to divert attention from important problems facing America. Cuba issues are used to spread fear and misinformation and for our government to suppress fundamental rights of a free people: to travel, to associate with and support one’s family and friends, and to exchange and express ideas. Suppressing such rights and fostering a climate of fear, where the government is seen as the protector of our security, makes us more pliable. It has made a significant segment of the Cuban-American community fanatical and easy to manipulate through false promises and empty gestures, even at the expense of the national interest and self-interest.

Among other things, by redefining the concept of “family,” the Bush administration in essence has cut off forever uncles, aunts, nephews, and nieces from each other. And even fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, can only be visited once every three years, no exceptions of any kind permitted. Equally harmful, remittances to relatives are limited to $300 every three months. What kind of family values are these?

Were it not for the sea or irrationality surrounding our Cuba policies, which has inured people to its absurdities, most would realize these travel and remittances regulations are cruel and demented. Nothing like them applies to any other country in the world.

You have done the right thing by promising to allow free travel and remittances by Cuban-Americans. Your position represents a defense of real family values.

But there is more to doing the right thing when it comes to Cuba, and we believe you have fallen a bit short. You should return to your original position, prior to becoming a presidential candidate, against the embargo. It is a patently failed policy, and only the fanaticism of six Cuban-American members of Congress and specious arguments keep it alive.

You are right in your disposition to meet with Cuban leaders without preconditions relative to Cuba’s political system or policies. To impose preconditions is to perpetuate an arrogant and holier-than-thou attitude that has seriously damaged American diplomatic standing. After all, Cuba or any other country in the world could ask us also to meet preconditions relative to our system of government or policies: renounce torture and prosecute those responsible for waterboarding at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib; end disparities in the prosecution and jailing of blacks and Latinos in our criminal justice system; reform our electoral system so that money is not determinative; and provide universal health care and free higher education to all Americans, to name only a few. As anyone with any sense can see, to demand preconditions can lead to absurdities. You need to explain this to the American people.

You also need to explain that our policy toward Cuba should not be regime change through the pressure cooker theory: that, by making conditions ever more intolerable for the Cuban people, they will rise up in revolt and overthrow the government. I hope you will agree that this theory is immoral and counterproductive. Our policy should be to help the Cuban people and to defend our real national interests, not to destroy a country in order to save it.

You should reject the notion that preventing trade between our nations hurts the Cuban government. The embargo hurts the Cuban people while the Cuban government goes its merry way. You could point to the fact that we trade with China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries that are led by repressive regimes and that engagement was a key element in bringing down the old Soviet empire, not an economic embargo. You could point to the fact the overwhelming majority of Cuban dissidents on the island oppose the embargo, and that the U.N. has been condemning it every year for decades, nearly unanimously.

The embargo, therefore, not only hurts the Cuban people and has been ineffective in bringing about one iota of positive change; it is also a source of aggravation for the U.S. in international fora, particularly for its imperial, extra-national provisions. You could add that our government has not been very successful at imposing our political system on other countries through force or unilateral pressure.

You should emphasize our national interest is best served by normalizing relations to open markets for American farmers and ranchers; allow U.S. companies to compete with Chinese and European companies for Cuba’s increasingly abundant oil and gas reserves; help combat narcotrafficking; help re-unite families after decades of painful separation; and offer a tremendous opportunity for American enterprises to invest in all kinds of businesses and take advantage of Cuba’s highly educated workforce, among other things.

We know you can do it. Please don’t let us down.

Amaury Cruz is a Cuban-American attorney and political activist from Miami.