The Cubans: The music of Ernesto Lecuona

The Cubans: The music of Ernesto Lecuona .........https://t.co/A04TgmataW

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 12, 2016

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Happy New Year

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We remember Davy Jones (1945-2012)

We remember Davy Jones who was born in Manchester, England, on this day in 1945.  He died in 2012.

Here is Davy Jones and The Monkees.

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2011: We lost a very famous chimp!

As far as I can recall, we have never written a post about a chimp before.  

At the same time, there have not been too many chimps like the one and only "Cheetah":

"A Florida animal sanctuary says Cheetah the chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s has died at age 80.  The Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor announced that Cheetah died Dec. 24 of kidney failure."

Cheetah was Tarzan's only jungle friend until he met Jane and the rest is history.   Tarzan & Jane had a son in the story.   The chimp was always in the middle of every episode.

Some of us are old enough to remember these movies, specially when we were kids and fascinated with stuff like that.

Of course, my dad's generation actually watched these movies at the theatres and enjoyed Cheetah's comic relief. 

Johnny Weissmuller, or Tarzan, died in the 1980's.   He won swimming gold medals in the 1924 Olympics and became Tarzan in the 1930's.  He made movies until the 1950's.

Jane was primarily played by Maureen O'Sullivan who died in the late 1990s.    In retrospect, Jane always looked so nice and feminine.  Wonder if they had a beauty parlor near Tarzan's home in the jungle? 

So long Cheetah and thanks for those laughs.

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December 1957: Pat Boone's "April Love" was # 1

In 1957, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone were the two most popular vocalists.   Elvis was the king of rock and Pat was the king of romantic tunes.    

On this day in 1957, it was Pat's turn to sit in the # 1 spot with "April Love".   He displaced Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" from the top of the charts.

You can get it here!      It was based on a movie of the same name, although the song was more memorable than the film!

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The midnight mass, one of the great traditions

Over the years, our family went to the 5:30 pm mass and went to bed early to wait for Santa Claus. However, we have been attending the midnight mass now that our boys are older.

It is one of the most beautiful Catholic traditions. My favorite part of the mass is the Gospel Reading from Luke 2:1-14:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustusthat all the world should be registered.
This was the first registrationand was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
All went to their own towns to be registered.
Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galileeto Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem,because he was descended from the house and family of David.
He went to be registered with Mary,to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.
While they were there,the time came for her to deliver her child.
And she gave birth to her firstborn sonand wrapped him in bands of cloth,and laid him in a manger,because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields,keeping watch over their flock by night.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them,and the glory of the Lord shone around them,and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them,Do not be afraid; for seeI am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour,who is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign for you:you will find a child wrapped in bands of clothand lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angela multitude of the heavenly host,praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest heaven,and on earth peace among those whom he favours!

Merry Christmas to all. Let's remember to keep Christ in Christmas.

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Remembering a couple of war heroes who died over Christmas

(My new American Thinker post)

We got the news yesterday that two war heroes of the past died over the holidays.

First, we heard about Edwin A. Shuman:

"As Christmas 1970 approached, 43 American prisoners of war in a large holding cell at the North Vietnamese camp known as the Hanoi Hilton sought to hold a brief church service. Their guards stopped them, and so the seeds of rebellion were planted. 
A few days later, Lt. Cmdr. Edwin A. Shuman III, a downed Navy pilot, orchestrated the resistance, knowing he would be the first to face the consequences: a beating in a torture cell. 
"Ned stepped forward and said, 'Are we really committed to having church Sunday? I want to know person by person,' " a fellow prisoner, Leo K. Thorsness, recounted in a memoir. "He went around the cell pointing to each of us individually," Mr. Thorsness continued. "When the 42nd man said yes, it was unanimous. At that instant, Ned knew he would end up in the torture cells."  
The following Sunday, Commander Shuman, who died on Dec. 3 at 82, stepped forward to lead a prayer session and was quickly hustled away by guards. The next four ranking officers did the same, and they, too, were taken away to be beaten. Meanwhile, as Mr. Thorsness told it, "the guards were now hitting P.O.W.s with gun butts and the cell was in chaos."  
And then, he remembered, the sixth-ranking senior officer began, "Gentlemen, the Lord's Prayer."  
"And this time," he added, "we finished it."  
The guards had yielded.  
Everett Alvarez Jr., who was the first American pilot captured in the Vietnam War when his Navy plane was shot down in 1964, said in an interview that the defiance Commander Shuman engineered was emulated by senior officers in other large holding cells.  
"It was contagious," said Mr. Alvarez, who was in another cell during the first prayer service. "By the time it got to the fourth or fifth cell," he said, the guards "gave up." He said the prisoners were also singing patriotic songs.   Commander Shuman remained incarcerated at the Hanoi Hilton for more than two more years. But by then the prisoners' right to collective prayer had been established.  
"From that Sunday on until we came home, we held a church service," Mr. Thorsness, an Air Force pilot and recipient of the Medal of Honor for heroics on a mission in 1967, wrote in his memoir, "Surviving Hell: A POW's Journey" (2008). "We won. They lost. Forty-two men in prison pajamas followed Ned's lead. I know I will never see a better example of pure raw leadership or ever pray with a better sense of the meaning of the words."

The other "war hero" was Rodolfo Hernandez of California:

"Mr. Hernandez was an Army corporal trying to hold a hill in May 1951 when his platoon was overwhelmed by attackers accompanied by heavy mortar, artillery and machine gun fire.   
Corporal Hernandez had already been struck by grenade fragments and was bleeding heavily from a head wound when his commanding officer ordered his platoon to fall back. He continued firing until his rifle malfunctioned, then threw six grenades and charged at the opposing foxholes.  
"I took my rifle and fixed the bayonet," he was quoted as saying in "Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words," by Larry Smith, "and then I yelled, 'Here I come!' "  
He managed to kill six attackers before falling unconscious from grenade, bullet and bayonet wounds. His action allowed his unit to retake the hill.   Corporal Hernandez was so badly wounded that his comrades initially took him for dead. They were placing him in a body bag when someone noticed movement in his hands, said his wife, Denzil. His injuries were so extensive that he had to relearn how to walk, how to speak and how to write with his left hand (his right arm was permanently damaged).  
By the time Corporal Hernandez received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman in the White House Rose Garden on April 12, 1952, he was able to speak a few words."

We say thank you for your service.   Also, we remind the younger readers that Mr Shuman and Mr Hernandez served in unpopular wars. 

Most of the country was back here arguing about Vietnam when Mr Shuman was defying the Hanoi Hilton guards. 

Korea was also very unpopular and most of its heroes largely forgotten, as Clay Blair wrote a few years ago.

Again, thanks for their service and courage.     

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‘Pero muchacho en Cuba no hay blanca Navidad’

Like many of the Cubans who did not grow up in Miami, we used to get our doses of “Cubanismo” by buying Cuban LP’s in the mail.

As I recall, my father subscribed to a Miami-based “Record of the month” club and we got Cuban music that way.

To say the least, it was a moment of upmost emotion when my mom would call my father and say:  “Mi vida hoy llego uno de la Riverside.”   Then they would start talking about the time that they danced to Tito Gomez and that wonderful “orquesta.”

One of my biggest “exilio” memories was our family buying an LP of Christmas songs and hearing Olga Guillot sing “Blanca Navidad” or an adaption of the Bing Crosby classic.     

It was too much for my mom who said:  “Pero muchacho en Cuba no hay blanca Navidad.  Que es eso?” (But son, in Cuba there is no such thing as a white Christmas. What’s that?)

It was quite a day in our home!   Listen here!

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2015 podcast: Christmas books and poetry of the season with Frank Burke

Christmas books and poetry of the season with Frank Burke....

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Pearl Harbor 1941 and World War II with Barry Jacobsen, military historian.

Pearl Harbor 1941 and World War II with Barry Jacobsen, military historian......Listen in now at https://t.co/lSklluDcGE. #BlogTalkRadio

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 7, 2016

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Sorry, lefties, but Pinochet looks better every day

We remember that Augusto Pinochet was born on this day in 1914. He died in 2006. Back in 1988, General Augusto Pinochet had run Chile for 15 years.  He overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973 and took over a country in total chaos.  His free market policies turned Chile around and created an economy that was the envy of the developing world.  Unfortunately, he never had the legitimacy of an election.  So he did something strange.  He asked the people if he should continue, and they had a "plebiscite."  Pinochet lost and left power.  This is the story:

Gen. Augusto Pinochet's bid for eight more years in power ended in defeat today, as a united opposition beat him soundly in a presidential plebiscite of Pinochet's own design.

After a long night in which the opposition continued to announce returns showing a 60-percent vote against Pinochet and the government gave out practically no totals at all, a government spokesman announced early this morning that with three-fourths of the vote officially counted, Pinochet was losing with 53 percent of voters rejecting him. There would be no further vote totals until midday, he said.

Later, Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez, who had run Pinochet's campaign, announced that the regime would recognize the results of the vote, which he characterized as still provisional. Because of the democratic process that had transpired, "the great winner is the country," Fernandez said. Pinochet himself made no statement.

Chile said no, and Pinochet accepted the verdict.  Let me add that it was time for Pinochet to go as much as I admired his economic accomplishments.  As a Chilean told me back in 1988, Pinochet did a good job, but it was time to get our democracy back.

Down in Cuba, the situation is ripe for such a plebiscite.  Cubans have never voted in a free and multi-party election.  Yes, they vote in Cuba, but it's a sham, because the Communist Party is the only on the ballot.

President Biden should call for such a plebiscite with international observers.  It should also say the U.S. will recognize the winner as the legitimate government and end the embargo immediately.

Will the Castro regime accept the challenge?  No, but let's keep the pressure on.

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Still talking about Pinochet after all these years

We remember that Augusto Pinochet was born on this day in 1914. He died in 2006. 

Back in 1988, General Augusto Pinochet had run Chile for 15 years.  He overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973 and took over a country in total chaos.  His free market policies turned Chile around and created an economy that was the envy of the developing world.  Unfortunately, he never had the legitimacy of an election.  So he did something strange.  He asked the people if he should continue, and they had a “plebiscite.”  Pinochet lost and left power.  

This is the story:

Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s bid for eight more years in power ended in defeat today, as a united opposition beat him soundly in a presidential plebiscite of Pinochet’s own design.

After a long night in which the opposition continued to announce returns showing a 60-percent vote against Pinochet and the government gave out practically no totals at all, a government spokesman announced early this morning that with three-fourths of the vote officially counted, Pinochet was losing with 53 percent of voters rejecting him. There would be no further vote totals until midday, he said.

Later, Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez, who had run Pinochet’s campaign, announced that the regime would recognize the results of the vote, which he characterized as still provisional. Because of the democratic process that had transpired, “the great winner is the country,” Fernandez said. Pinochet himself made no statement.

Chileans said no, and Pinochet accepted the verdict.  Let me add that it was time for Pinochet to go as much as I admired his economic accomplishments.  As a Chilean told me back in 1988, Pinochet did a good job, but it was time to get our democracy back.

Down in Cuba, the situation is ripe for such a plebiscite.  Cubans have never voted in a free and multi-party election.  Yes, they vote in Cuba, but it’s a sham, because the Communist Party is the only on the ballot.

President Biden should call for such a plebiscite with international observers.  It should also say the U.S. will recognize the winner as the legitimate government and end the embargo immediately.

Will the Castro regime accept the challenge?  No, but let’s keep the pressure on.

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Thanksgiving is about family

Our first Thanksgiving in the US was 1964.  It was a pleasant experience but my dad had to work at the hotel.  He had a night job and we needed the money.

Over the years, my mother "Cubanized" the meal with "yuca" and black beans.  Our turkey always had a Cuban flavor and everybody loved it.

Most of all, we are happy to get together and say thanks for living in the US.

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We remember Garrick Utley (1939-2014)

We remember Garrick Utley.  He was one of those TV newsmen that many of us grew up watching:

"Clifton Garrick Utley was born Nov. 19, 1939, in Chicago. His parents, Clifton Utley and Frayn Utley, were pioneering broadcast journalists in Chicago, and he began accompanying them to studios at an early age.He graduated in 1961 from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., then served in the Army before joining NBC as John Chancellor’s assistant in the Brussels bureau. (Chancellor later became anchor of the “Nightly News.”)By 1964, the 24-year-old Mr. Utley was reporting from war zones in Vietnam, earning $62.50 a week, he later recalled.After covering major international events, Mr. Utley served as a weekend anchor of “Nightly News” in the 1970s, reported on U.S. presidential elections and prepared a series of in-depth programs on civil rights, foreign affairs and other topics.He won two of broadcast journalism’s most prestigious honors: the Overseas Press Club of America’s Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of the Cold War and the Peabody Award for his contributions to a 1985 NBC special report, “Vietnam: Ten Years Later.”

My memories are of Vietnam but he also reported from Prague 1968.  

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1966: Sandy Koufax retired

 

Sandy Koufax retired on this day in 1966.   His arm was spent at age 30.  

 

I saw him pitch a couple of times on TV, or more specifically when he broke my heart in game 7 of the 1965 World Series against my favorite Twins.

 

For my money, he was the greatest lefty of our generation.   Just ask the hitters who couldn't hit his wicked pitches!

 

From 1961 to 1966, his last season with the LA Dodgers, he won 129 games and led the league in strikeouts 4 times.  He was also the ERA champ 5 seasons in a row.

 

What about the post season?   He pitched the Dodgers to victories in the 1963 and 1965 Series.  

 

It's a shame that arm troubles cut his career short!

Check out the book by Jane Leavy.

 

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We remember Tom Seaver (1944-2020)

We remember Tom Seaver, one of the best pitchers ever.  He was born in 1944 and died in 2020.

The numbers tell you the story:  311 wins, a 2.86 ERA & 3,640 Ks.    His best year was probably 1969 when the Mets won the World Series:  25-7, a 2.21 ERA and the Cy Young.   

By the way, did I tell you that he threw 231 complete games, twenty-seven 3-hitters, ten 2-hitters, five 1-hitters and a no hitter?  Wonder why they used to call him "Tom Terrific"?

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1966: Frank Robinson AL MVP

There are great players and then there is Frank Robinson.  

On this day in 1966, Frank Robinson was the unanimous choice for AL MVP.   He had just led the Orioles to a World Series sweep of the LA Dodgers.    

The Orioles won the AL pennant four times in six years with Robinson in their lineup.   

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We remember Aaron Copeland (1900-1990)

We remember Aaron Copeland, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, on this day in 1900.  

He is known for works like Appalachian Spring and Fanfare for the Common Man, among many others.

Copeland died in 1990.     

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1864: Atlanta and the Civil War

Back in September 1864, Atlanta was evacuated.  On this day, the Union Troops began the destruction of Atlanta.     

It was the beginning of the end of the Civil War or the brutal battles that eventually broke the back of the Confederacy.   It did not really end until April 1865.

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We remember Ninón Sevilla (1921-2015)

She was born Emilia Perez-Castellanos in Havana on November 10, 1921...and died in Mexico City in 2015.......Ninon was one of the first "rumberas" of the movies, specially Mexican movies in the 1940's and 1950's......

Ninón Sevilla 'Arrímate cariñito': http://t.co/od9Y9oN3B5 via @YouTube
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) January 2, 2015

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Truman surprises in 1948

On election day 1948, everybody thought that Mr. Dewey, the GOP nominee, would be the next president of the US.  

However, the country woke up the next morning hearing that Mr Truman had been returned to office.

No one knows for sure but I think that Mr. Dewey got a little bit too confident.  On the other hand, Mr. Truman worked hard for every vote.  And Truman won.

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Halloween costumes with Leslie Eastman & Daisy Viktoria

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Guests:  Leslie Eastman, editor of Temple of Mut and contributor to Legal Insurrection PLUS Daisy Viktoria...............

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Click to listen:

Remember The Ronettes!

The Ronettes were my favorites of the "girl groups" in pop music.

They were Veronica (Ronnie) Bennett, her sister Estelle, and cousin Nedra Talley.

The girls grew up in New York and had huge hits, such as "Be my baby".  They had great harmonies, unusual hair and very good looks!

So let's remember The Ronettes with "Be my baby" and "Walkin' in the rain".

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October 9, 1940: We remember John Lennon

We remember that John Lennon was born on this day in Liverpool in 1940.  

Once in a while, I check out a Beatles' song with John doing the lead vocals.     Let me tell you about two of my favorites:

"Strawberry Fields Forever" gets better with age.   It is a song about his childhood in Liverpool.

 "Dear Prudence", from the "White Album", is about their trip to India in 1968.

They are both great songs and wonderful reminders of John Lennon.

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1967: Che still dead after all these years

By 1965, Che Guevara had faded from public life. His disappearance created all kinds of speculation about Che’s relationship with Fidel and Raúl Castro. After all, some close to Castro in 1959 had been killed in accidents, like Camilo Cienfuegos, or stuck in political prisons, like Huber Matos. Cienfuegos’s plane was never found, and Matos was eventually released in some prisoner exchange.  Matos spent the rest of his life in exile.

Che reappeared in 1966 in Bolivia, where he hoped to bring about a revolution.  How did he get there?  Who paid his bills? Why did he suddenly leave Cuba?  Many believe that Fidel and Raúl wanted him out, and starting a revolution in Bolivia was the exit.  I think it’s fair to say that Che had worn out his welcome with the Castro brothers, specially after they saw how popular he was with the international left.  As we learned, there is only one “popular” person in Cuba, and that’s Fidel.

Fifty-five years ago this week, Che was captured and executed by Bolivian troops operating with the CIA.  It happened very fast.  As we learned in his diary, Che and his men lacked food and medicine and were barely surviving in the jungle.  It’s possible that Che would have died of bad health and no medical care.  He was battling asthma attacks constantly.  Also, they were not getting a lot of help from Cuba, either by design or because the supplies could not reach them.  My guess is that Che was happy to get captured and hoped for some prison time and then a return to Cuba.  He did not get his wish.

Che subsequently became “the image” on all those t-shirts.  He became the ultimate anti-U.S. symbol, the image that every left-wing group goes to when its members have a gripe against the U.S.

Ironically, he was captured because the campaign in Bolivia failed miserably.  It failed for two reasons, as Humberto Fontova explained in Exposing the Real Che.  Read the book for more details, but it went down like this:

1) Bolivia was not Cuba.

2) The natives in Bolivia never bought into the idea that a band led by a guy from Argentina and Cubans was there to save them.  In the end, it was the villagers he was trying to “liberate” who turned him in.  Again, the Bolivian campaign was a total failure.  The locals never read the memo about Cuban health care, I guess.

Che was a murderer and a man who said awful things about blacks, for example.  This is from Guillermina Sutter Schneider:

In his diary, he referred to black people as “those magnificent examples of the African race who have maintained their racial purity thanks to their lack of an affinity with bathing.” He also thought white Europeans were superior to people of African descent, and described Mexicans as “a band of illiterate Indians.”

Today, we would call him a racist and a homophobe!  We’d cancel him from universities.  Twitter would delete his account.

So I still remember my father saying in Spanish that they got him.  Indeed they did, and many champagne bottles popped in the Cuban exile community this week in 1967.

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October 4, 1969: Paul Blair dropped a bunt in 12th to win game 1 of the first ALCS

We forget that the first league championship series did not start until 1969.  Well, Game 1 of the 1969 ALCS was a beauty indeed or Minnesota at Baltimore.   

The Orioles won 109 games and ran away with the AL East.    The Twins won 97 and beat the A's by 9 games.  Both teams spent much of September waiting to play each other in the first ALCS.

The 1969 Orioles were one of the best teams of the 20th century with Frank Robinson (32 HR), Brooks Robinson (23 HR) and Boog Powell (37 HR).    Paul Blair hit 26 HR with 20 stolen bases.  

The 1969 Twins had eventual MVP Harmon Killebrew (49 HR & 140 RBI), Tony Oliva (.309, 24 HR & 101 RBI), Rod Carew (.332 and batting title) and Cesar Tovar who stole 40 bases.

The Orioles started Mike Cuellar (23-11) and the Twins sent Jim Perry (20-6) to the mound.    It was a great game between two of the best pitchers and teams of that era.   

The lead went back and forth and it was 3-3 in the bottom of the 12th.    With two outs, Paul Blair dropped a beautiful bunt scoring Mark Belanger from third.  It was exciting baseball and one of great chapters in Orioles' history.

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Cuba and the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates

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Back in 1960, millions of Americans tuned in for a real "TV first" this week.   They watched a debate by the two major presidential candidates running for president in 1960.

Who won?  Did the debates impact the vote?

Senator Kennedy won by 114,000 votes out of 70 million cast that day.  It was 49.72% vs 49.55%.

The conventional wisdom is that JFK won "the video" and Nixon won "the audio".

Again, your guess is as good as mine.  It's like losing the pennant by one game and arguing about what "one game" made the difference.

What impact did it have?

Senator Kennedy hit the Eisenhower administration very hard about the growing communist menace in Cuba.  His debate comments actually had an impact on many Cubans, like my father, who were following the debates by shortwave radio.   Sadly, President Kennedy dropped the ball at The Bay of Pigs the next spring.  He contradicted with his actions what he promised at the debates.

What else do we remember from the 1960 presidential debates?  Vietnam was not a topic in the Kennedy-Nixon debates but it consumed the nation in the 1960's.

In 1960, we learned an important lesson.  Debates are important and we should continue the tradition.  However, the reality of the presidency often overwhelms campaign promises or 'tough talk" at the debates.  

For more on the election, check this.

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1963: "My favorite Martian" made its US TV debut

Yes, it was a silly but very funny show.

"My favorite Martian" landed on TV on this day in 1963.   It was the story of a Martian who ended up in Los Angeles by mistake.    

Like so much of TV in the 1960's, it was simple, funny and did not set out to change the world.    It was all about entertaining the audience and keeping you glued to the TV for 30 minutes.

Fun show and that's all you need to say about it.

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1963: Stan Musial played his last game

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The amazing Stan Musial played his last game on this day in 1963.   His last base hit was a ground ball to right field that Pete Rose, the Reds rookie second baseman, could not reach.   Years later, Rose passed Musial on his way to breaking Ty Cobb’s all time hits record.    

He won 7 seven titles.  Only Ty  Cobb (11), Honus Wagner and Tony Gwynn (eight each) won more.  He retired with a .331 batting average and 3,630 hits.

Stan the Man died in 2013.

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