13 May 2008

The Princess Speaks

Princess Mariela, Raúl Castro’s, daughter is all over the news these days. She has become the voice of both the Castro family and Cuba’s gay, lesbian and transgendered community. Back when her uncle was running things she was a lot quieter and spent a lot of time abroad.

Mariela gets to travel the world like a jet–setting celebrity. Had her uncle and father not muscled their way into power in 1959, chances are that Mariela would have still been a jet setter since both her parents were form wealthy families. Now, however, the Cuban people pick up her tab and then some. She travels the world with a Cuban passport and an Italian passport. She has Italian citizenship because of marriage. She reportedly also has French citizenship because her mother Vilma’s mother’s family, the Guillois, are French and François Mitterand’s wife, Danielle, helped the family quietly acquire dual citizenship in France- you know, just in case.

So in an interview this Saturday in Spain’s La Vanguardia, some reporter had the good sense to ask the globe-trotting Mariela if she thought it was right that blogger Yoani Sanchez had not been allowed by her dad to travel to Spain to receive her Ortega y Gasset prize. Got to love it. This is a woman, who because of her family’s role in subjugating and enslaving a country, has never had to follow any of the travel and immigration rules that the rest of the country has had to follow. The Castro are so above the law, that I’m surprised she even managed to give an answer:

"It is not necessary to deprive people of their right to leave," she said in reply to a question. "I think we should grant permission to all those who want to leave. People can leave, but with a great amount of difficulty."

It’s not necessary, but it’s done anyway. It wasn’t necessary for her uncle and her brother to destroy a country but they did it anyway…por gusto.

“People can leave, but with a great amount of difficulty." Yes, Mariela you’re right just ask Elvis Manuel


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