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https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/01/grandmother_tales_and_talking_like_it_s_1898.html
My late grandmother, who was born in 1892 when Cuba was still a Spanish colony and died in Dallas in 1984, used to tell me stories about those days when the island was occupied by the U.S. She was an amazing woman who had my father in 1926, and two more sons later. “Abuela Senda” had a great memory and loved to share it with those of us who grew up in the U.S. My history teacher, as I used to call her.
As you remember from your history class, when the USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor in February 1898, a war broke out between the U.S. and Spain, and Cuba finally won its independence war. In 1902, or four years after the Maine, Cuba became an independent country.
We could be on the verge of 1898 in 2026. Cuba was destroyed after a long period of Spanish rule. The independence wars had left the island without viable sugar cane fields, poverty was rampant, and the infrastructure was a disaster. How does Cuba look today? Exactly the same or worse; just check out certain sections of Havana, or listen to stories of no electricity for days. As my late Cuban parents would say, the island had a lot of problems back then, but people leaving in rafts or lights out for days were not among them.
So we hear that the Trump administration that there is talking going on:
President Donald Trump has had a lot to say about Cuba this weekend, and it sounds like he’s getting pretty serious about confronting the regime there and attempting to liberate the people from the decades of communism that have turned it from one of those most developed nations to a third world country.
‘What kind of deal are you looking for from Cuba,’ a reporter aboard Air Force One asked the president on Sunday evening as he flew back to Washington, D.C., after a weekend in Florida.
‘You’ll find out pretty soon,’ he said. ‘We’re talking to Cuba, and you’ll find out pretty soon.’
Okay, we will find out soon.
As it was in 1898, Cuba cannot stand on its own. The communist regime has done everything possible to destroy a country. Back in 1959, or 60 years after gaining its independence, Cuba was doing quite well:
In summary, comparative income data suggest that Cuba, during the period before Fidel Castro’s regime, was a middle-income country comparable to Argentina, Uruguay, or Venezuela in Latin America, or Italy in Europe. This statement might seem surprising today, but it would not have shocked observers in the 1950s. At that time, Cuba was commonly referred to as a medium-income economy. This was the view of Henry Wallich, a prominent economist who served as a governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve and studied the Cuban economy extensively. In his book titled Monetary Problems of an Export Economy: The Cuban Experience 1914-1947, he noted that Cuba had the highest per capita income among all tropical countries.
That was then and this is now. The communists have destroyed Cuba and separated families. A relationship with the U.S. could deliver the same results that turned the disaster of Cuba in 1898 into that prosperous island that was flooded by European immigrants in pre-Castro Cuba.
Wonder what my grandmother is thinking about all of this?
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