Showing posts with label Cuba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cuba. Show all posts

July 15 - Happy Birthday, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Posted on July 15, 2020

The first Cuban American - and the first Latina! - elected to Congress, in 1989.

The person selected to give a Republican response to the 2011 and 2014 State of the Union addresses - in Spanish.

The first Republican in the House to support same-sex marriage.

Former Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was born in Cuba on this date in 1952, and she came to the U.S. - Floriday, specifically - when she was seven. Her maternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews who had been active in Cuba's Jewish community, although Ros-Lehtinen herself was raised Catholic and is now Episcopalian. 

Ros-Lehtinen and her husband
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the Florida house in 1982, and that's where she met her husband, also a politician. He was a Democrat but switched parties before the two married. One of their two children (now grown) is a transgender LGBT rights activist!










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April 27 - Matanzas Mule Day

Posted on April 27, 2020


Today is not about celebrating the species called Matanzas mules, because there is no species called "Matanzas mules"!

Mules, of course, are the sterile offspring of horses and donkeys. There happened to be at least one mule in the little town of Matanzas, Cuba, on this date in 1898.

But this was the onset of the Spanish-American War. And just off the coast of Matanzas were ships from the United States Navy. They bombarded the town. 



Now, when you hear the word "bombard," you imagine hundreds of shells being lobbed at buildings, piers, and walls, and you assume the tragic loss of many lives. I am happy to report that that didn't happen.

According to the story, no humans died from the U.S. bombardment - the only Cuban that lost its life that day was a single mule.

The story continues that the mule was buried with full military honors, a band playing a dirge, hundreds of mourners - possibly to humiliate the U.S. Navy.

Or...did this happen at all? If the story of a single casualty from a naval action being a mule, and that mule being buried with military pomp, would be humiliating, maybe the humiliating story was just made up?

A story in the New York Times on August 5, 1898, reprinted from The London Globe, tells about the funeral of the Matanzas mule, and someone named Chief Officer Smalls claims to have attended said funeral. There is a long time between April 27 and August 5 - plenty of time, back then, for news to travel, but also plenty of time to rumors to spread and for people to misremember stuff. 

Anyway, whether or not it happened, the Matanzas Mule is now enshrined in poems and songs, including lines in which mourners looked with pity on the poor "bombarded mule."







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November 18 - Happy Birthday, Ana Mendieta

Posted on November 18, 2019


Ana Mendieta, born on this date in 1948, lived a safe, middle-class life in Cuba. Her parents were pretty important people in Cuban society. But then Fidel Castro led a group to overthrow the government - 

- and that threw Mendieta's life into chaos as well.

At age 12, Ana and her 15-year-old sister were sent to Iowa, in the United States, as political refugees (her father was in jail in Cuba for political reasons). They were sent from place to place, including reform school - but the sisters were able to stay together thanks to their parents sending them with power of attorney forms mandating that they not be separated. 

When Mendieta was 18 years old, her mother and younger brother were finally able to join them in the U.S., and 13 years later her father was FINALLY released from jail and was able to join the family! Yikes!

In the meantime, Mendieta had learned English, discovered a love of art, earned a BA and MA in painting AND an MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) in intermedia (multiple art genres and media). She had moved to New York City.

Ana Mendieta was an artist: a painter, a sculptor, a video artist, and a performance artist. She made her art in the U.S., Mexico, Cuba, and Italy. Tragically, she died very young - at age 36 - we don't know whether by accident, suicide, or murder. 

In one of Mendieta's art shows, a series of
photos of her putting on false facial hair
were hung at eye-level for six year olds.
The show was called "Ana Mendieta:
Thinking About Children's Thinking."

This is not a finger painting, but is
rather a two-whole-hands painting.

This is how the artist made it:




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