During the 1960s, the anti-establishment, anti-American activists proudly wore Fidel Castro and Che Guevara T-shirts to express their contempt for material success achieved by their Greatest Generation fathers. They showed up at every protest of the time to support the Cuban people’s revolution in 1956-1959 led by these two charismatic leaders to convert Cuba into a communist utopia. They cheered Fidel and Che’s imprisonment, torture, and death of ‘the enemies of the State’, waving Cuban flags in support of the revolution.
That was then, but now that the communist revolution in Cuba has been fully implemented in Cuba, the Fidel and Che T-shirts have disappeared. Last November my daughter visited a rural Cuban community and made the observations extracted from a report she made upon returning to Dallas:
“The reality of their daily life is heartbreaking. In the rural towns, electricity is controlled entirely by the government and is often available for only two to three unpredictable hours a day. Families wake at 3 a.m. to cook and wash clothes before the power disappears again. Water pressure is so low that showers turn into cold sprinkles. Mosquitoes spread viruses that cause severe joint pain. Food is scarce, heavily rationed, and grocery stores don’t exist. Some women have never tasted chocolate cake or taken a single vacation. Doctors earn about $30 a month, everyday workers $10–$20, and hospitals lack the most basic medical tools—one GI doctor told me she hasn’t been able to perform a colonoscopy in years because the equipment is broken”. Valerie Van Pelt – November 14, 2025
The Left’s protesters around our nation and abroad have carried the flags of Palestine, Iran, Mexico, and those from other oppressed populations. The Cuban people are obviously suffering from the oppression and mismanagement of their communist State, however, no Cuba flags have yet to be displayed protesting for the Cuban victims of communism. American and Israeli flags are burned, but Cuban flags rolled up from their glory days of the 1960s somehow remain untouched in the attics of these new alleged defenders of the downtrodden.
No Cuban flags have been burned in America protesting the communist Cuban oppressors. The Left does not want to talk about their victims!
Yet, in New York City last week its streets were filled with protestors waving Iranian flags against the U.S. and Israeli attacks against the Iranian regime that recently murdered over 30,000 of its citizens. The protestors were supported by their new communist Mayor Mamdani who called it “an illegal war of aggression”. Whose flag will the Left’s protestors carry if Mamdani were to cause the lights to go out in New York City in making it America’s new Havana?
Only being lightly reported, or ignored, is the likelihood that the U.S. will replace Russian and Chinese influence in Cuba and Venezuelan oil to keep the lights on in Cuba. If Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent negotiations succeed, the communist dictatorship and Cuban mismanagement of the Castro’s regime will come to an end after 65 years of economic and cultural decline. Cuban citizens will no longer be sold as doctors and mercenaries to foreign entities in return for cash to keep the communist government operational and their rulers living large. The lights will come on again!
If that occurs, the streets of Miami will be filled with American Cubans rejoicing and waving Cuban flags. Will the avenues of New York City be filled with those waving Cuban flag in joy or burning them for displacing the Cuban communist utopia?
“This trip revealed the depth of oppression in Cuba—how a beautiful people have been forced into needless suffering—and it left me heartbroken, humbled, and profoundly changed.” – Valerie Van Pelt – November 14, 2025
TW3
March 19, 2026
John Whitmore Jenkins
