Fidel Castro may be on the brink of extinction, but he apparently has enough wind in his sails to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. And love him or loathe him, the man and his plan have been things to reckon with.
American voters complain that the small state of Iowa holds so much sway in presidential elections. How about the tiny island nation of Cuba? One could make a case that the presidential election in 2000 hinged on Florida, and the vote in Florida hinged on Cuban expatriates who would vote for Jeffrey Dahmer before any candidate who wanted to appease Castro.
Over the past 50 years, Cuba has had quite an influence. It came close to thrusting the world into nuclear war (the Cuban Missile Crisis), has been the scene of the most strident moral debate of the Bush administration (the prisoners at Guantanamo), has supplied the United States with uncounted criminals (the Mariel boatlift) and gave the world dozens of international icons, including Che Guevara, Elian Gonzalez, Luis Tiant and Desi Arnaz.
And for 50 years, Cuba and its lone-wolf leader have been a lightning rod for regional politics.
Ernesto Cardenal, the celebrated Nicaraguan poet, visited Cuba and went home to crow about the availability of health care, the literacy rate and the Cuban ban against neon signs. Writer Reynaldo Arenas, freed from a Cuban prison, went to New York City to decry the savage treatment of dissidents there, the torture of homosexuals and the paranoia engendered by the Cuban secret police and neighborhood vigilantes.
In 1958, a young firebrand in fatigues named Fidel (the Faithful One) stood before his people and promised a society filled with "hombres nuevos" (new men.) Today, Cuba must import tobacco and other goods that it once supplied to the world. Still, the Cuban people have proven to be resilient and hardy while the Cuban government has become a decaying monument to a failed ideology.
The "Cuban experiment" has been tragic — yet, in the midst of suffering, the people continue to dance, sing and fall in love — despite spending the past 50 years under the yoke of a misguided Marxist dictator.