Cuba

Eight years ago we were married on City Island - A Slice of New York City Paradise. A year earlier I asked Yirong to marry me at the local NYC beach during the annual July Fourth Fireworks celebrations and extravaganza.

There is no way to predict wether the Cuban protesters will eventually prevail against repression, but their courage is commendable.

I served as the first GM-15/10 Director Office of Cuba Broadcasting for TV Marti under President George HW Bush. I have never ever seen anything like these protests by the Cuban people that are being carried out all over the Caribbean island.

As we approach the anniversary of her death, it is most important to recall Celia's life of music and her patriotic integrity. 

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname "La Guarachera de Cuba"

The evolution of the idiosyncratic Choteo, inextricably linked to Cuban national identity and is illustrated through its rich cross-cultural presence in cinema, literature, theater, and, most significantly, journalism, television, and popular music.

Made popular by the late Cuban comedian GUILLERMO ÁLVAREZ GUEDES, as well as others and authored with La generación del ño, by the award-winning writer Gustavo Pérez Firmat.

My family emigrated to the USA when I was a little boy. The youngest son of professional parents who lost everything and fled for safety in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

When I was recruited to work for US President George HW Bush's GOP administration at USIA, I was the only non-Republican that I know of (I have no political affiliation) and the youngest GM-15/10 to serve in Washington DC.