Cuban Exiles

El proximo ano en Havana. Next year in Havana. For 35 years, ever since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba and triggered a mass exodus to the United States, Cuban exiles have greeted each other with that phrase. And that's not just in Miami. It can be heard also in New Jersey, home to the second-largest Cuban American population in this country, with 90,000 exiles living in Hudson County. In these two Cuban strongholds - even as Castro marks today the 41st anniversary of the revolution's first battle - thousands are preparing for a Cuba without Fidel.

Jan Ting has few fans among Cuban exiles fighting to keep 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in Miami. The Temple University law professor thinks the boy is better off with his father in Cuba. Not only that but he also believes that it is time to do away with U.S. immigration privileges for Cubans. After saying that on television and radio and in newspapers, Ting received an anonymous e-mail from the Washington office of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation. It asked: "Is there any reason why anyone should care what your opinion on this case is?"

The Elian Gonzalez drama being played out in south Florida has lessons for all Americans in an era of heightened multiculturalism. Cuban exiles who want Elian kept in Miami in defiance of the U.S. government are showing their true loyalties. Even though some have lived in the United States for 40 years, they still consider themselves Cubans, not Americans. Rick Bragg, a reporter for the New York Times, wrote, "The truth is, said many Cuban-Americans, they do not mind if they are seen as a separate country.

The entire [Elian Gonzales] campaign is being orchestrated by the Cuban exiles, whose reputation in American society and politics is at best that of a quasi-mob. For them, giving up Elian would be tantamount to surrendering the one weapon they have in hand to fight their Cold War relic of a propaganda war against Fidel Castro. The custody dispute has also given them the means to wrest valuable mileage in terms of media exposure and the support of candidates in the U.S. presidential election, including Vice President Al Gore.

AGAGGLE OF gullible women from Seattle flew to Havana recently to meet with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. They found him "charming" and "eloquent. " They were especially flattered that Castro - the head of one of the world's most repressive regimes, listed by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism - took time out of his busy schedule to lavish personal attention on them. "He obviously had read the biographies and knew who each person was," gushed Susan Jeffords, dean of social sciences at the University of Washington.

An ugly international incident that began off the coast of Mexico is ending happily, but not before poisoning relations between Cuban- and Mexican- Americans. On July 31, a small boat carrying eight men, five women and two young children took to sea near Cienfuegos, on Cuba's southern coast, intending to sail to Florida. They were among the thousands of people who over the past two years have braved the dangerous Gulf Stream - and Castro's navy - to escape political repression.

MIAMI - Newly declassified U.S. documents show a CIA operative accidentally fired on friendly pilots during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The B-26 bombers flown by the Cuban exiles were disguised to look like Cuban military planes, but the ruse worked too well, the documents indicated. It was not clear, though, if anyone was hurt. The documents also show U.S. officials authorized limited use of napalm on military targets and to protect the invasion's beachhead area.

Radio and Television Marti - the U.S. government stations broadcasting propaganda to Cuba - are classic political pork barrel. If Congress is indeed serious about deficit reduction rather than propping up special interests, it should stop funding them. A House-Senate conference committee is scheduled to vote soon on appropriations for the two stations. Under pressure to cut the federal budget, lawmakers are considering the elimination of all funding for TV Marti and a drastic reduction in the appropriation for Radio Marti.

When it comes to historical accuracy, Hollywood operates on the theory that dead people rarely retain lawyers. Banastre Tarleton, the real-life Redcoat who was the model for The Patriot's proto-Nazi villain, hasn't called his attorney. Emperor Commodus, given a big thumbs-down by Gladiator, has yet to summon a chariot-chaser from the Forum. And the British, who pulled off one of the greatest coups of World War II with the capture of an Enigma code machine, are past the point of litigation over U-571.

HAVANA - For the first time in a half-century, Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell real estate openly, bequeath property to relatives without restriction, and avoid forfeiting their homes if they abandon the country. The highly anticipated new rules instantly transform Cubans' cramped, dilapidated homes into potential liquid assets in the biggest change adopted by President Raul Castro since he took over from brother Fidel in 2008. Many restrictions remain. Cuban exiles continue to be barred from owning property on the island, though they can presumably help relatives make purchases by sending money.

HAVANA - For the first time in a half-century, Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell real estate openly, bequeath property to relatives without restriction, and avoid forfeiting their homes if they abandon the country. The highly anticipated new rules instantly transform Cubans' cramped, dilapidated homes into potential liquid assets in the biggest change adopted by President Raul Castro since he took over from brother Fidel in 2008. Many restrictions remain. Cuban exiles continue to be barred from owning property on the island, though they can presumably help relatives make purchases by sending money.

MIAMI - Newly declassified U.S. documents show a CIA operative accidentally fired on friendly pilots during the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The B-26 bombers flown by the Cuban exiles were disguised to look like Cuban military planes, but the ruse worked too well, the documents indicated. It was not clear, though, if anyone was hurt. The documents also show U.S. officials authorized limited use of napalm on military targets and to protect the invasion's beachhead area.

Like the sons of other Cuban exiles, Miguel Castañeda Lorente has a compelling story to tell, and an obvious passion for his ancestral island. You sense that connection the moment you step into the handsome storefront dining room of ¡Cuba!, his five-month-old BYOB. Its moodily distressed walls and intimate rooms are hung with vibrant Latin art. The soundtrack bops to a Buena Vista Social Club kind of mood, and on Fridays the music is live. This cozy space could very well be a slice of Old Havana until you look through the bistro's picture window, where there's a vision of Old Philly instead: the postcard-quaint train station atop Chestnut Hill.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a Miami Herald columnist For some of us, Dec. 26 was the emptiest day of the year. After weeks of anticipation, the calendar moving with glacial speed, the big day - Christmas - had finally arrived in a blaze of tinsel, and plastic, and wrapping paper. It was, for a child, the closest thing to paradise. The day after dawned like an afterthought, as if the sun itself had a hangover. You awoke from your happy daze to an insistent question: Now what?

AGAGGLE OF gullible women from Seattle flew to Havana recently to meet with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. They found him "charming" and "eloquent. " They were especially flattered that Castro - the head of one of the world's most repressive regimes, listed by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism - took time out of his busy schedule to lavish personal attention on them. "He obviously had read the biographies and knew who each person was," gushed Susan Jeffords, dean of social sciences at the University of Washington.

Tommy Lasorda and his magic time capsule have one more stop. The hands-down "Ugly American" award-winner has cajoled his overachieving minor leaguers into a gold-medal confrontation with Cuba. I say confrontation instead of game because the 73-year-old parolee from the Dodgers' muddled front office waved a red, white and blue cape in front of a bull with his pretourney bluster about winning one for the Cuban exiles in Miami. Now he's right next to the horns, after beating South Korea, 3-2, early this morning.

U.S. authorities granted legal entry yesterday to six Cubans who were rescued at sea after they fled their country in a stolen plane that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, officials said. Patricia Mancha, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman, said the six were given legal entry after interviews with INS officials and were on their way for mandatory medical checks at a Miami regional health center. The three other people who survived the crash, a couple being treated in a Key West, Fla., hospital for injuries from Tuesday's crash, and their child, who is in the custody of an aunt, had not yet been interviewed by the INS. Those three - Rodolfo Fuentes and Liliana Ponzoa, both 36, and their son, Andy, 6 - were also expected to be allowed to stay in the United States.

When it comes to historical accuracy, Hollywood operates on the theory that dead people rarely retain lawyers. Banastre Tarleton, the real-life Redcoat who was the model for The Patriot's proto-Nazi villain, hasn't called his attorney. Emperor Commodus, given a big thumbs-down by Gladiator, has yet to summon a chariot-chaser from the Forum. And the British, who pulled off one of the greatest coups of World War II with the capture of an Enigma code machine, are past the point of litigation over U-571.

Is the rule of law being "damaged" by efforts of Cuban-Americans in Miami to defy the U.S. Justice Department by keeping 6-year old shipwreck-survivor Elian Gonzalez apart from his father, who wants to take the boy back to Cuba? Several former federal prosecutors from this area polled yesterday say they fail to see any immediate damage. Yet each lawyer expressed concern about the ongoing tug of war being played out in South Florida, and all agreed that patience on the part of government officials may be the wisest course.

The Elian Gonzalez drama being played out in south Florida has lessons for all Americans in an era of heightened multiculturalism. Cuban exiles who want Elian kept in Miami in defiance of the U.S. government are showing their true loyalties. Even though some have lived in the United States for 40 years, they still consider themselves Cubans, not Americans. Rick Bragg, a reporter for the New York Times, wrote, "The truth is, said many Cuban-Americans, they do not mind if they are seen as a separate country.