European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Erez years has watched similar convulsions of activity Over but said he is astonished by some of the events Alina today these exile groups Are advocating a n to a life that s gone Quot he said. A when the people in read about this kind of thing it May Welt be helping a Castro. They Don t want to see a return of the old no  he euphoria rippling through Miami s cuban american Hor hoods has been spurred by dreams and Hopes thave been nurtured for 30 years. Nearly every cuban Merican family at least talks about the possibility of Home and after they have rhapsody sized about the Junt Ains and the Rivers and the Palm Trees they talk Cut the quandary going Home would create. These Are lies with grandparents who never Learned English and Dren who never Learned Spanish. Jorge Bello a Union vice president arrived in Miami in 61 by himself at age 17. He would like to go Back and it for democratic labor unions. But he is trapped by the sic exile dilemma. A i would go Back tomorrow a he d Quot but my wife is american. My kids were bom Here. I been Here for 29 years. If i go Back i will be a Eigner. My kids Are going to ask me a hey do they Mcdonald s Down there poppy Quot n the 30 years since Castro took Over More than 000 cubans have poured into Miami forever aging the City s face and culture. And the refugees Are still coming. Every year several mired cubans make the perilous 90-mile crossing Ween Cuba s North Shore and the Florida keys in rafts or tubes and Small boats. No one has any idea How any have died trying. In one extraordinary display of termination earlier this year a cuban youth clenched a inboard through a Long dark night until he was picked by a passing ship. Quot in the 1960s, the very Rich went right away to Palm Ach Quot said the Rev. Bryan o. Walsh who Heads the theolic Community services and ran the a Pedro pan Quot Ogram that brought 20,000 unaccompanied children to Miami in the mid-1960s. Quot in Miami families lived three to a Luse and slept in shifts. You a see a Hole in the Wall Irving cuban Coffee. Six months later it would be a mily room. Two years later they Down the whole iding and it would be a  in a single generation Miami has witnessed a massive play of the classic immigrants tale. Stories abound but people like Armando Codina chairman of the Board the greater Miami chamber of Commerce who arrived an unaccompanied child in Walsh so Pedro pan Ogram and now Heads a development firm the Codina our and pilots a yacht named a what a  yet throughout Miami the cubans resisted suggestions at they were a natural Extension of the melting pot Era a Century ago. In Miami the distinction is always made tween immigrant and exile though most exiles will ver go Back. Being an exile is a state of mind Quot said Anita Cofino lose father Angel Cofino was one of cubans legendary a or Union leaders. Quot the immigrant comes to make a tier life. I had a Good life in Cuba but i lost it. We had in in exile before during Batista s regime. So when we me Here i thought it would Only be for two or three  she has been Here since 1962. Diego Medina s Story is typical. A physician he arrived 1963 and practice Medicine for the next 13 years Hind the impenetrable cultural curtain that shielded tie Havana from the outside world. He did t get a Rida medical License because he thought he was t Ying. Quot i thought Castro would fall at any time Quot he said. 1976, Medina enrolled in the University of Miami s Quot dial school and gained his License. Has he made the Metal leap from exile to immigrant Quot i would go Back Ste Day Quot he said. Some exiles did not even attempt to adapt. When a 42�?T is not conducting Maneu vers in the Everglades is laying tile for a living to support his wife and three Hydren. He was 14 when he arrived in Miami and was mediately swept up in the Clandestine and exotic nations that flourished in the 1960s. He has never Ned to speak English. On july 16,1967, he and several others took a boat to Cuba and crept ashore armed with High bred rifles cyanide bullets and a plot to assassinate o Ata summer Retreat. They were caught two Days b on aug. 6, Castro displayed his prisoners at a news rence As confirmation that the Central intelligence la nay was out to kill him. Vila was jailed until 1979 when he was released along several thousand other cuban prisoners whose m was secured by president Carter. He returned to Miami and joined Alpha 66, the unit he trains with today. In a recent exercise Avila worked closely with a mysterious hooded adviser who spoke with an american accent and whose identity Avila said must be kept secret. If there was a president of the cuban exile Community it would be Mas. He arrived on july 15,1960. He was involved in the Bay of pigs invasion although the launch he was on turned Back during the operation and he never reached the Beach. He worked first As a Milkman on Little Havana routes and later went into the development business. When his firm won a contract with Southern Bell to dig the ditches for underground Telephone cables in rapidly growing Dade county his future As a wealthy Man was secured. In 1981, Mas founded the cuban american National foundation set up a Washington office a political action committee and a lobbying Arm. He courted the powerful of Washington and contributed to political campaigns. He is generally credited As the father of radio Marti the . Government station that broadcasts news and entertainment to Cuba and its offshoot to Marti. To critics however the grand schemes of Mas and others in the Miami exile Community Are dangerously divorced from the realty of Havana the solution to Cuba is inside Cuba said Del Castillo. The artist not Only is this activity unreal St. It is completely immora1 to promote violence against the regime from your Coral Gables House when your life is not in danger Quot Del Castrio works with Christian democrats to improve the lot of political in toners inside Cuba we Are working to try and obtain a change in  he said others Are working on plans for a new Cuba. That is the difference Quot Perez said the exiles who Are so heartened by the changes in Eastern Europe should look again at the conditions that prompted upheaval there. Quot it did not come about through external pressures he said. Quot it came from the inside i can imagine what Cuba is saying to this notion of private Enterprise and a Cap last system. My god we had that in j p. Morgan m 190 the Rev. Walsh an immigrant from Ireland made another observation. Quot some of the world s great literature is about the return of the exile Quot he sad. I m ret so surs you can go Home  hints of liberalization by John m. Mcclintock Baltimore Sun on the same Day that the . Human rights commission began debating a Resolution to Monitor cuban abuses bands of youths surrounded the Havana House of human rights activist Sebastian Arcos and began screaming that he is a traitor. For the next 44 hours Arcos and his associates huddled in the Back of the House As the youths threw stones and painted the Walls with Graffiti. Arcos said he could see several police cars nearby but the officers refused to intervene. Six Days later a similar band assaulted the Home of his brother Gustavo Arcos throwing rocks through the windows and jeering his advocacy of human rights. Quot the irony was that the very same people who did this would come up to me later and give me Small packets of food saying they had been ordered to assault us or face losing their jobs or their schooling Quot Sebastian Arcos said. The Arcos Brothers leaders in the cuban pro human rights committee Are among the few activists who oppose cubans government and have not been jailed. At least 30 dissidents have been arrested since the beginning of the year Western diplomats say. Despite the repression there is growing evidence that Cuba is undergoing major changes that could Lead to liberalization possibly through the Catholic Church and the visit of Pope John Paul ii next year. Quot if the Pope does come it could set off unknown reactions Quot says a 53-year-old Lay expert on the Church. Quot for the first time Castro would be confronted by a charismatic figure who is the Antithesis of his communist revolution. A massive outpouring would show that not All cubans Are completely under the thumb of the regime. Cuba is not Poland but it still is a nominally 42 percent Catholic  even though the Pope has yet to respond definitively to Castro a invitation there Are signs that his presence would inspire a Large turnout. The government lifted its ban on religious processions last september and permitted the entry of 20 foreign priests. When a statue of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre Cuba s Patron Saint was paraded through Havana earlier this year the ceremony Drew 70,000 people. Overflow crowds have attended similar processions in other cuban towns attracting scores of worshippers to otherwise sparsely attended churches. Early in april when the statue came to Maruco 36 despite rumours of changes fide Castro remains firmly in control of Cuba. Miles East of Havana it Drew a crowd of 5.000 people who walked 10 blocks to see the religious Symbol installed in the local Church. In a nearby town the statue Drew 30,000 people witnesses said. The churches conservative cuban Hierarchy has remained aloof from the government but on april 3. Its protestant counterparts were granted a highly publicized interview with Castro who said the communist party should reconsider its a discriminatory Quot ban against christians As party members. Even so the Rev. Raul Saurez Ramos a Baptist minister who Heads the protestant cuban ecumenical Council that met with Castro said his group will continue to press Quot for multiparty pluralism Quot and Access to the state television and radio. Quot we continue to suffer from Job discrimination because of our beliefs but it is becoming less and less a said Suarez. The Council represents 15 denominations with about 250,000 members. The protestant Council and the communist party take a dim View of the Catholic Church saying it served the interests of the ruling classes before the 1959 revolution. During a recent visit to Brazil Castro repeated his criticism that the Church is an elitist organization that scorns the poor and has Long opposed his revolution. Castro regards the human rights Issue As a device of . Policy to unseat or Embarrass him. His most galling reverse occurred March 6, when the . Human rights commission voted to continue monitoring Cuba for abuses. The .-backed measure was co sponsored by Czechoslovakia and Poland with support from Hungary and Bulgaria All former East bloc allies of Cuba. Quot what decency remains in those countries what is left of socialism what is left of the socialist Community what can be left with this repugnant behaviour Quot Castro asked in a recent speech. April 18,1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15