Havana, yesterday; maybe Glenn Beck can use this pic next yearWhen I awakened yesterday morning and checked Twitter I noticed that nutty dog Miami Congresswoman and anti-Cuba fanatic Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was hollering about Juanes’ “Peace without Borders” Concert in Havana.Juanes is a Colombian pop idol living in Miami and Ros-Lehtinen, who is incredibly friendless with Miami’s big and growing non-Cuban Hispanic population, was frightened that he was comforting her enemy with his music. Between half 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 people showed up in Revolution Square for the event, more than ten times the amount of folks who worried going to Glenn Beck’s Million Moron March on Washington last weekend. Not like the Moron Marchers, Juanes’ 14-artist concert wasn’t about loathing, bigotry or political paranoia. It was about peace and love and music. Ros-Lehtinen and other far right Oldschool Cuban outlaws used to be in a position to dictate Yank policy– always punative– towards Cuba.Those days appear gone as the well late unfreeze in relations between the two states takes on a life of its own outside of executive interference.
Back in Ros-Lehtinen and the Balart Brothers’ Florida– a corrupt and off leftover from Batista’s fascist regime in pre-Revolutionary Cuba– “Juanes had endured death threats, CD-smashing protests and boycotts since claiming his plan for the concert in Havana,” though the classes of folk boycotting him weren’t from his demographic.The Balarts pulled out their hair because “Spanish-language stations covered the event, and many exile groups said support, describing it as a rare chance for Cubans to get a peek of the outside world.” Asked during his Univision interview what he made of it, Obama was positive about Juanes’ music and had no issue with the event. His administration’s go-slow speed of normalizing relations is just starting to talk about sending mail. People are moving faster than he is though , and every month the travel ban becomes less and less materiel. I’m going to guess that as many people weren’t born as were when the U.S. Slapped its purposeless travel embargo on Cuba.