The Embassy
Particularly I you should not remember the year, of training course, but I know that transpired. When I was a teenager I was an admirer of Cuban Olympic athletes such as Mireya Luis (who was a amazing volleyball player), Magaly Carvajal, and Alberto Juantorena. And that was not all. My bed room was turned into a “museum for Cuban sports activities”. On the wall there had been a great deal of shots about Cuba’s idols — from Mireya Luis Hernandez to Roberto Urrutia ( an athlete who has fled his nation ). There ended up also ample textbooks in my bookcase. It was a fairly bizarre expertise.
Lifestyle is full of surprises. In individuals decades, nevertheless, I acquired much more about Cuba than I could have at any time realized in a College, finding a globe that was so diverse from my own.
Unquestionably my beloved working day was when I went to the Cuban Embassy, in Lima, and diplomats gave me publications and newspapers from Havana — Cuba Internacional, Granma, Bohemia, and so on. Obviously I was really satisfied since I could read through about my idols. Through that time, I did not know absolutely nothing about politics.
My moms and dads did not give me permission to go to the Embassy of the Cuban ( but I went to the Embassy anyway ). Not astonishingly. Why? In the latter fifty percent of the 20th century, Cuba had full ties with anti-democratic teams in Latin American, Africa and Asia. Apart from that, considering the fact that 1959 Cuba has been ruled by two brothers — Fidel and Raúl Castro Ruz. Beneath Castro’s management, the island is a single of the world’s most brutal dictatorships. On the other hand, in the 1970s and 1980s, the Cuban regime experienced despatched hundreds of guides and newspapers to the Third Planet and other nations.
The “honeymoon” — with the Island — arrived to an end in the 1990s. This ten years was a time when persons in the Third Earth and Eastern Europe demanded civil legal rights, this kind of as when in 1991 the USSR broke aside into 15 new unbiased states.
All the Dictator’s Athletes
Cuba is famed for its common songs and wonderful surroundings, but Cuba is also famous for its terrific Olympic champs. At the 1976 Montreal Olympic Online games, the Cuban workforce — which was strongly backed by the Soviet federal government – won 13 medals, which include five per cent of all gold created by the Communist nations. For the 1st time the island had six Olympic champs. One of them was Alberto Juantorena, ideal regarded as the “horse”, who had educated by a Polish coach — about 80 per cent of coaches in Cuba were being from the German Democratic Republic ( GDR ), USSR other previous Communist states.
Prior to Juantorena’s Canada excursion, he competed in quite a few worldwide tournaments in the Globe Soviet and other nations. At the 1975 Pan American Game titles in Mexico Metropolis, he gained a silver medal. Months later on, Alberto Juantorena produced history when received two golds in Montreal’76. Curiously Juantorena’s primary rival, Mike Boit, a world-course runner from Kenya, could not compete because Africa boycotted the Olympics in Canada. In the mid-70s athletics journals had been contacting him “one of the ideal runners of the world” because of his international medals.
From Slavery to Freedom
But not all Cuban stories have been delighted kinds. For numerous factors, the island is not an Olympic paradise. The points talk for them selves. In the latter fifty percent of the 20th century, quite a few athletes had been applied as a political propaganda instrument by the Cuban dictatorship. Aside from that, among 1992 and 2008, quite a few athletes married to foreigners to consider the nationality of their husbands, for example Magdelin Martinez ( track & discipline / Italy ), Liliane Allen ( athletics / Mexico ), Magaly Carvajal ( volleyball / Spain ), Libania Grenot Martinez ( keep track of & field / Italy ). At the exact time, quite a few athletes had defected in Europe and the Americas.
In 1993, I was genuinely stunned when I browse that thirty-nine athletes defected — just one of the biggest problems in the island — through the Central American and Caribbean Online games in Puerto Rico. In modern a long time, there ended up quite a few defections — far more than North Korea or Iran.
Cuban Defectors ( 2006 – 2009 )
Athlete…………………………………………………………….Defection
1. Aguelmis Rojas ( monitor & discipline )……………………..2009, Uruguay
2. Eder Roldan ( soccer )………………………………….2008, Usa
3. Jose Manuel Miranda ( soccer )…………………….2008, Usa
4. Erlys Garcia Baro ( soccer )……………………………2008, United states of america
5. Yenier Bermudez ( soccer )……………………………2008, United states of america
6. Yordany Alvarez ( soccer )……………………………..2008, United states
7. Leonni Prieto ( soccer )…………………………………2008, United states
8. Yendri Diaz ( soccer )…………………………………….2008,United states
9. Yurisel Laborde ( judo )……………………………….2008, Usa
10. Guillermo Roberto Cabrera ( volleyball )……..2008, Usa
11. Pedro Faife ( soccer )…………………………………..2008, Usa
12. Reynier Alcantara ( soccer )…………………………2008, United states
13. Frank Casañas ( track & field )……………………2008, Spain
14. Luiz Felipe Meliz ( track & discipline )…………………..2007, Spain
15. Yuliane Rodriguez ( basketball )…………………2007, Chile
16. Osvaldo Alonso ( soccer )…………………………..2007, Usa
17. Lester A lot more ( soccer )………………………………..2007, Usa
18. Rafael D’Acosta ( handball )………………………2007, Brazil
19. Michael Fernández Garcia ( biking )………….2007, Brazil
20. Alexei Rodriguez ( baseball )……………………..2007, Dominican R.
21. Raydel Poey ( volleyball )……………………………2007, Bulgaria
22. Yasser Purtuondo ( volleyball )……………………2007, Bulgaria
23. Alexander Martinez ( track & discipline )……………….2006, Switzerland
24. Yunier Alvarez ( badminton )……………………….2006, Dominican R.
25. Kenny Rodriguez ( baseball )…………………….2006, Ecuador
26. Yan Barthelemy ( boxing )…………………………..2006, Venezuela
27. Odlanier Solis Forte ( boxing )……………………2006, Venezuela
28. Yuriorkis Gamboa ( boxing )………………………2006, Venezuela
29. Carlos Castillo ( handball )………………………2006, Dominican Republic
30. Julio Acosta ( handball )………………………..2006, Dominican Republic
31. Damaris Nay ( handball )……………………..2006, Dominican Republic
32. Isaura Medina ( badminton )…………………2006, Dominican Republic