A Refreshing New Breed
By: Obie Usategui
2/6/205

Well, what prompts me to write this narrative today is my pride, as a Cuban American in Marco Rubio. While Marco may not be 100% Cuban, per se, being that he was born in Miami, he is, really, a natural-born American, still, his parents are all-Cuban, who migrated to the US in the 1950’s. As you all well know, Marco was recently named by Donald Trump as the 72nd Secretary of State – one of the most sensitive positions given the magnanimous responsibilities that rest with this office.

Marco’s political career has been, again, remarkable, first, as he was elected to the Florida House of Representative at the tender age of 29 years old. He served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives from 2006-2008. Marco is the first person of Hispanic heritage to serve as Secretary of State. The fact that the “Hispanic” portion is Cuban American, all the better.

Just in the past two weeks since first being in office, Marco was charged with re-negotiating the U.S. agreement on the Panama Canal. In this trip Rubio will also visit El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. I have heard a couple of podcasts from this trip, and he was able to have the Panamanian president commit to have China rescind from controlling the passage of ships through the Canal.

I have no doubt in my mind that Marco Rubio is well on his way to great accomplishments, which, once again, should make us all proud of his Cuban lineage. Wish I could say the same of many others of Cuban ancestry, who, unlike Marco, are run-of-the-mill politicians. Point I am trying to make friends I have always taken pride in my Cuban heritage. I am, as Cuban as I can be. Not to say that there have been times when I have been ashamed of being one.

What I mean is, I must be honest, notwithstanding all the good things for which, as Cubans, we should be proud of, for the same reason, there are quite many others in our past which make me ashamed of being one. For instance, the fact that Cuba produced a Fidel Castro, one of [the] most infamous dictators in recent history, is really a dark chapter in our history – one that I am ashamed of.

Then again, the way at look at this subject is much in the same way that I look at those things within a tightly-knit family circle, you know, the dirty laundry that we always keep as insider information within the family and never allow outsiders to cross boundaries. Our good or bad is ours, and I am always ready to defend it from anyone who attempts against our heritage.

I guess you will agree with me, throughout our 65 years of exile, you may say, we, Cubans Americans have excelled in everything. We have proven to be a positive addition to our local economy, to the culture, and we have quite a few accomplishments which we all should be quite proud of. By the same token, one of our weakest, feeble, scrawniest traits is our trajectory of petty politicians which, I hate to say, have only served to cast a shadow of shame in our resume. I will not name names, as you all know who I am talking about – there are plenty of them.

Again, the point I am trying to make, Marco Rubio, comes as a refreshing new breed of politicians – a version quite opposite to what we are used to. A version that is precisely the opposite to the one that made us go into exile to begin with.

Yes, we can say that Cubans, from the old exile have excelled at most everything they have set their minds to. [The] one thing that I cannot say we are not good at is “Politics,” and that is why we are in exile. By nature, and as a culture, there is a little politician in most every Cuban. That is, simply said, our nature. We talk a lot, to sometimes to say nothing, and that is the essence of what politics is all about.

When it comes to politics, our Cuban wittiness has been mistakenly used to promote what is wrong as was the case with Fidel Castro, as was the case more recently with Alejandro Mayorkas our former Secretary of Homeland Security. In the last sixty-five years, I have lost track of all the Cuban American political figures that have plagued our local political landscape, even our Congress. I venture to say they were, for the most part, all water down versions, extensions of the same extract found in our Cuban politicians of the Old Republic – the very same who made possible and paved the way for having a Fidel Castro.

Once again, kudos to Marco Rubio for making us all proud to be Cubans. I assure you, had we all taken a page from Marco’s book, instead of wasting time with low-end politics, we would have gotten our precious island back a long time ago.