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33. Guantanamo Has a History

By Miguel Pérez

Long before Guantanamo became synonymous with al-Qaida prisoners, American injustice and hunger strikes — yes, even before it became known as a high-security prison for suspected terrorists — it was a U.S. Naval Base with a long and fascinating history. It still is!

And long after the military prison is gone, the U.S. Naval Base is very likely to remain there, surrounding Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — still the oldest American outpost on foreign soil, and the only one in a communist country.

Those 45 square miles of land and water are so unique and awkward for an American military installation that you would think some occasional historical perspective is necessary.

Yet nowadays, we hear journalists and pundits talking about how Guantanamo "needs to be closed" — without clarifying that they are referring only to the military prison opened there in 2002, not the base established there in 1903. We see no efforts to put Guantanamo in proper historical context, no explanation for why the United States can hold enemy prisoners within the territory of another enemy.

Listening to some pundits, you could easily assume that Guantanamo was inexplicably imposed on Cuba after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that U.S. Sailors and Marines have been there only for the past decade.

In the interest of clarity, you would think that some journalists would take the time or space to explain that Guantanamo has a history, and that it goes all the way back to the Spanish-American War near the end of the 19th century.

You would think that someone would remind us that for the past few decades, Guantanamo has served as an escape valve for Cubans who defy minefields and shark-infested bay waters to reach the base and win their freedom from communism. You would think that at least some pundits would remember recent history, especially the early 1990s, when Guantanamo housed tent-city detention centers for Cuban and Haitian refugees intercepted at sea while trying to reach Florida.

But nah, that would be going much more in-depth than today's telegraphic news media allows. Our news is so abbreviated and condensed, so well packaged into tiny sound bites, blog spaces and even tweets, that we seldom get the full picture. For example, we hear all about how U.S. Marines are guarding the prison, but practically nothing about their other responsibility: Guarding the base's heavily mined perimeters with Cuba.

Most Americans know much more about the no-man's-land between North and South Korea than the one surrounding the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo. Most don't know that Guantanamo is surrounded by tall watchtowers, barbed-wire fences and minefields, or that instead of keeping prisoners in, those barriers were put there to keep the Cubans and Americans apart.

Some history: The Guantanamo Bay area, near the southeastern tip of Cuba, has been occupied by American forces since U.S. Marines landed there to fight the Spanish-American War in 1898. After winning the war, the U.S. Congress passed the Platt Amendment, giving the United States the legal right to intervene in Cuba's internal affairs and to establish a base at Guantanamo.

When a Cuban Constituent Assembly was called in 1901, delegates were told that if they wanted the withdrawal of American troops from the rest of the island and political independence — with American supervision — they should accept the Platt Amendment. It was accepted by a one-vote margin, and the amendment became part of the Cuban Constitution.

Cuba was promised ultimate sovereignty over Guantanamo. But in 1903, the United States leased the 45-square-mile bay area from Cuba for 100 years at $2,000 per year. That lease could have expired in 2003. But when Congress abolished the Platt Amendment in 1934, the lease agreement was changed to $4,085 per year — with the stipulation that it would not expire until both countries agree to its termination.

However, since 1961, the year of the unsuccessful U.S.-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban government has not cashed the U.S. checks because it maintains that the 1934 agreement is illegal. In 1964, the Cubans shut off the water pipes to the base, forcing the United States to build its own desalination plant. But there has been no military conflict there.

The communist regime of Fidel and Raul Castro originally maintained that the lease had to expire after 100 years, dating from the 1898 Marine invasion. But 1998 came and went, and then some Cuban officials, continuing to ignore the 1934 agreement, said the United States would be forced to relinquish Guantanamo by 2003.

Of course, there was little chance that the U.S. government would give up Guantanamo as a gift to an antagonistic, communist regime. But before the Bush administration turned Guantanamo into a prison for al-Qaida suspects in 2002, some U.S. military officials had acknowledged that Guantanamo had become outdated and much less strategically significant to U.S. defense.

Although it was once considered an important training center for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, the advent of long-range nuclear missiles and submarines had made Guantanamo nearly obsolete, until it was turned into a military prison for suspected Islamic enemy combatants captured abroad.

Yet for the people eastern Cuba, who live far from Havana's beaches where Cuban rafters escape and sail for the Florida Keys, Guantanamo has been a gateway to freedom. And while crossing the 90-mile Florida Straits on a flimsy raft is a difficult and treacherous task, Cubans say getting into Guantanamo is like playing Russian Roulette with sharks or land mines — take your pick!

If you go by land, you have to do it in the dark of night, avoid being seen from the Cuban watchtowers, and you have to crawl on your hands and knees through coils of barbed wire in the biggest minefield in the Western world. For a distance of about two city blocks, in the no-man's-land between the Cuban and U.S. fences, you have to avoid the mines and stay totally quiet as you feel the wires piercing your skin and shredding your clothes.

I have met many people who have done it.

No one knows how many Cubans have been killed while trying to make this journey, but we know that hundreds have been maimed and arrested by Cuban authorities after failed attempts to reach the base this way.

However, the other option is jumping in the water and swimming several miles along the Cuban coastline through shark-infested Guantanamo Bay.

Cubans say you have to be a terrific swimmer and a huge gambler to accomplish this feat. "We didn't want anything to do with the mines," one successful swimmer told me shortly after he and his buddy were pulled out of the water by U.S. Marines in 1994. "So we decided to take our chances with the sharks."

Marines told me that while Cubans trying to reach the base by land are making an illegal entry and cannot be rescued from the no-man's-land between the two fences, swimmers are covered by international search-and-rescue laws and are routinely fished out of the water.

Nevertheless, whether through sharks or land mines, every year for several decades, hundreds of Cubans managed to reach the base and then a flight to Florida. Under the lease agreement with the Cuban government, Cuba is entitled to claim fugitives who escape to the base. But since the Castro regime has never recognized the agreement as valid, Cuba has never claimed anyone.

The last time I visited Guantanamo, in 1994, thousand of Cubans and Haitians were being detained in tent cities under deplorable conditions. One Cuban camp had 12 latrines for 900 men, women and children. "Libertad! Libertad! Libertad!" they chanted when they saw visiting journalists.


The Clinton administration had overturned the 28-year U.S. policy of granting political asylum to Cubans intercepted at sea, and as a result, some 29,000 Cuban rafters were stopped on their way to Florida and sent to Guantanamo. It was the first time refugees from a communist country were denied an opportunity to apply for political asylum after reaching U.S. authorities. It was disgraceful.

Of course, the Cubans I met there were frustrated and terribly disappointed. Their lives had been put on standby — indefinitely! Their only crime had been risking their lives for freedom, and an American president with an appalling lack of compassion had shattered their American Dream.

By forcing them to live in degrading refugee camps, the Clinton administration wanted the Cubans to cave in and return home. But the Cubans would not budge. Only 1,200 were repatriated, and not all voluntarily. It took the U.S. government almost a year to realize the Cubans preferred living in tent cities, behind barbed wire fences, than returning to live under the Castro dictatorship.

When that chapter of Guantanamo's history finally was closed in 1996, after some refugees had spent 18 months in detention, the United States had spent $250 million (including the cost of detaining Haitians) for unnecessarily holding thousand of people who eventually were allowed to come to the U.S. mainland anyway.

Yet now that President Obama is on a new campaign to convince Congress to transfer the remaining Guantanamo prisoners elsewhere, now that Guantanamo is on everyone's agenda again, can we expect journalists and political pundits to give us at least a little historical perspective?

To Cuban-Americans, including many who regained their freedom there, Guantanamo means much more than a prison for al-Qaida suspects. We find it disturbing to see so much history ignored. And we also find it terribly ironic that many liberal Americans and international human rights activists are much more concerned for the current Guantanamo prisoners than they have been for the thousands of Cubans who have languished in Castro's gulags over the past half-century.

Talk to former Cuban political prisoners. They will tell you that human rights should not be violated in Guantanamo or anywhere else in Cuba. But they will also tell you that compared to Castro's dungeons, where many have been shot by firing squads, tortured or forced to endure decades of degradation and atrocities, the Guantanamo prison for al-Qaida is a luxury hotel. They will tell you how they feel when they see bleeding hearts crying out for Guantanamo terrorism suspects and ignoring the atrocities against peaceful dissidents throughout Cuba.

I have been to Guantanamo twice, and there is still so much more to tell. But you get my point, don't you? Guantanamo has a history, and seeing people ignore it is not only poor journalism but terribly irritating.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM
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Miguel Pérez with Record colleague Mike Kelly at Guantanamo Bay in 1994
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                   CHAPTERS/CAPITULOS

1. Our Pre-Mayflower Thanksgivings
Nuestros Días de Acción de Gracias Pre-Mayflower
               
2. A Tale of Two Cities
                 
3. Our Pre-Hispanic Heritage
              

4. The Black Legend Returns

4. La Leyenda Negra Regresa
                
5. Even on HBO, The Black Legend Lives
                   
6. Our Spanish Heritage
                     
7. Exalted or Offended?
                    
8. We are all 'Americanos'
                  
9. Latinos are Failing
                  
10. Hispanic, Columbus or Indigenous Day?
10. 
™Dia Hispano, De Colon o Indigena?
                   
11. Two Good Places to Rest
11. Dos buenos lugares para descansar
                  
12. Whitman's Prophetic Letter
12. La Carta Profética de Whitman
                  
13. America’s Cradle
13. La Cuna de America
                 
14. Our Quincentennial is Coming!

14. ´Nuestro Quinto Centenario Se Avecina!
                   
15. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 29
                
16. A Time To Welcome the Spirits
                  
17. A Hispanic Christmas
17. Una Navidad Hispana
                  
18. JOSE MARTI:
     His Legacy Lives Here
     Su Legado Vive Aquí 
                
19. Hyphenated and Proud!
                   
20. Politicizing Education

21. Speak Any Spanish Lately?
              
22. Happy Three Kings Day!
22. ​
´Feliz Día de Reyes!
               
23. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 29

24. A Long-Overdue Museum
                 
25. America's First Christmas was celebrated in Spanish
25. La Primera Navidad Americana fue celebrada en español

26. The Grand Canyon
and the Bucket List
 Of Hispanic Heritage
26. El Gran Canyon
y la Lista de Lugares de la Herencia Hispana

                  
27. Now That Fiesta Month Is Here,
Can We Talk About Heritage?

27. Ahora que el mes de fiesta hispana esta aquí,

​™Podemos hablar de nuestra herencia?
                  
28. Our Hispanic Heritage: On Exhibit and Yet Hidden
28. Nuestra Herencia Hispana: En Exhibición y Sin Embargo Oculta

29. Florida's Birthday Should Be a National Holiday

             
30. A Local Celebration that Should be National               

31. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 30               
​

32. The Conveniently 'Forgotten War'
32. La Guerra Convenientemente Olvidada

33. Guantanamo Has a History  June 4, 2013

34. Exposing the Social Media Bigots  June 18, 2013
34. Exponiendo a los Intolerantes
     de los Medios Sociales June 18, 2013

35. Thinking of Cusi On the Fourth of July
35. Pensando en Cusi en el Cuatro de Julio

36. The Discovery of White Hispanics
36.  El Descubrimiento de los Hispanos Blancos

37. Let's Build a Timeline Of Hispanic-American History
37. Vamos a Construir una Cronología
     De la Historia Hispanoamericana

38. In the Name of Heritage
38. En el Nombre de la Herencia

39. Hispanics or Latinos?
39. ™Hispanos o Latinos?

40.  Hollywood's Hidden Hispanic Heritage
40. La Herencia Hispana Oculta en Hollywood

41. Obliviously Living in ‘The Land of Estevan Gomez’
41. Viviendo Inconscientemente
       En la ‘Tierra de Estevan Gómez’

42. Marking America's Birthplace
42. Marcando el Lugar de Nacimiento De Estados Unidos

43. Hispanics in Denial Should Be Infamous
43. Los Hispanos en Rechazo Deben Ser Infames

44. 
Gay Marriage's Hidden American History
      Started in Spanish
 CABEZA DE VACA'S JOURNEY
44. La Historia Oculta del Matrimonio Gay
      En América Comenzó en Español
        EL VIAJE DE CABEZA DE VACA​

45. Super Bowl Coke Commercial
       Draws Out Ugly Americans

45. Comercial de Coke en Super Bowl
     Hace Relucir a los Americanos Feos


46. 
The 'Discovery' of Self-Loathing Hispanics
46. El ‘Descubrimiento' de los
     Hispanos que se Auto Desprecian


THE GREAT HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TOUR 
June 2014 - January 2015


47. My Pilgrimage to San Xavier
47. Mi Peregrinaje a San Xavier

48. The Great Hispanic American History Tour
48. La Gran Gira por la Historia Hispanoamericana

49. On the Trail of Conquistadors
49. En el Camino de los Conquistadores

50. Beyond St. Augustine
50. Más Allá de San Agustín

51. A Hidden Hispanic Role Model
51. Un Modelo Hispano Oculto

52. The Hispanic Flank of the American Revolution
52. El Flanco Hispano de la Revolucion Americana
​

53. New Orleans Has a Spanish ‘Ne Sais Quoi’
53. Nueva Orleans Tiene Un ‘Ne Sais Quoi’ Español

54. Galveston: Still the Isle of Misfortune?

55. Extracting Compacted History
     Unveils Hidden Hispanic Heritage

56. 'Remember The Alamo' Was a Spanish Mission

57. San Antonio: The Showcase Of Our Hispanic Heritage

58. There Was Compassion On the Spanish Mission Trail

59. A Hidden Latina Role Model

60. Time Portals on the Road

61. The First Thanksgiving
     In the (Southwest) United States

62. The World's Biggest Statue
of a Nameless Horseback Rider


63. A River Runs Through Our Hispanic Heritage

64. A Beacon of Hope On a Border Mountaintop

65. A Mexican-American Town
65. Un Pueblo Mexico-Americano

66. The Crossroads of Conquistadors

67. Hiking In Search of Coronado's Trail

68. The Real American Pioneers

69. Keeping My Pledge to San Xavier

70. If They Knew Arizona's History,
     They Wouldn't Be So Xenophobic

71. 'Tucson' is a Spanish Adaptation

72. Under a Utah Lake, Hispanic Heritage Lives

73. A Hilltop View Of Hispanic Heritage

74. Searching for Coronado's Quivira

75. The Spanish Savior of St. Louis

76. 
Jefferson's Spanish Library

WASHINGTON, D.C.
February-June 2015

77. When Galvez Came to Congress
77. Cuando Gálvez Vino al Congreso


78. A Tour of Our Extraordinarily Hispanic U.S. Capitol

79. Searching for Not-S0-Hidden
Hispanic Heritage in Washington, DC


80. Smithsonian Omits Hispanics In U.S. History Exhibit
80. Smithsonian Omite a los Hispanos
     en Exhibición de Historia de EE.UU.
MIAMI - August 2015
​
81. Finding Dad in a Museum
81. Encontre a Mi Padre en un Museo


​CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP - 2018
82. International Friendship Park ​at U.S.-Mexico Border
​- A Jagged Corner of the World


83. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
​
84. Cabrillo National Monument

85. ​It took more than 2 centuries

86. Presidio Park: The Birthplace
of the Spanish Colonization of California


87. Junípero Serra Museum Transcends the Story of a Great Man

88. Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá:
California's First Spanish Mission


89. Old Mission (Padre) Dam: California's First Aqueduct

90. Even at the beach in San Diego, you can't avoid Spanish history

91. Chicano Park: Mexican-American ​painted under highway ramps

92. Balboa Park: Candy for your eyes amid a painful controversy!

93. San Diego: An American Town
Named After the Saint from Alcalá

93. San Diego: Un Pueblo Americano
Lleva el Nombre del Santo de Alcalá


94. San Luis Rey de Francia: The King of the California Missions
94. San Luis Rey de Francia: ​El Rey de las Misiones de California

95. San Antonio de Pala:
A Sub-Mission to Reach
 the Natives of the Interior
95. San Antonio de Pala:
Una Asistencia para Alcanzar los Nativos del Interior

96. San Juan Capistrano:
The Home of the Mission Swallows
 from Argentina
96. San Juan Capistrano:
El Hogar de las Golondrinas Desaparecidas ​de Argentina

97. San Gabriel Arcángel: A Mission that Launched Cities
97. San Gabriel Arcángel: Una Misión Que Lanzó Ciudades

98. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles:
Hispanics had to be imported

98. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles:
Hispanos tuvieron que sen importados


99. La Plaza de Cultura y Artes:
A Walk through Mexican-American History

99. La Plaza de Cultura y Artes:
Un Paseo por la historia 
​mexicoamericana


100. Strolling the Hispanic Walk of Fame
​100. Caminando por el Paseo Hispano de la Fama

101. San Fernando Rey de España Teaches
California's Colonial History

101. ​​San Fernando Rey de España Enseña
la historia colonial de California


​102. Mission San Buenaventura Survived Earthquakes and Pirates
102. Misión San Buenaventura Sobrevivió Terremotos y Piratas

​103. Father Serra Cross: On a hill,
​overlooking ​the land he shepherded

​103. La Cruz del Padre Serra: En una colina,
​con vistas a la tierra que pastoreaba


104. The Birthplace of Santa Barbara
104. El Lugar de Nacimiento de Santa Barbara

105. The Queen of the Spanish Missions
105. La Reina de las Misiones Españolas

106. Mission Santa Ines: Built to relieve other overcrowded missions
106. Misión Santa Inés: Construida para aliviar otras misiones superpobladas

107. Mission La Purísima Concepcion:
​Going back in time ​to Spanish California

107. Mision La Purísima Concepción:
Retrocediendo en ​el tiempo a la California española


XXX. Saluting an exile: ​Father Félix Varela
XXX. The Meaning of 'Sotomayor'
SPECIAL SECTIONS
• Great (pro-Hispanic) Americans
​
• 16th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
• 17th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
• 18th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
​
• Spanish-American expeditions before Jamestown
• NYC ​Hispanic Landmarks
• NYC Hispanic Art
• Do You Know/Sabes?
• Garita Art
​
• Do You Speak Spanglish?
HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TIMELINE
​1513 Ponce de Leon Discovers North America, Names Her 'Florida'

April 22, 1513 ​Alaminos discovers the Gulf Stream

1517 De Cordoba, wounded in Yucatan, stops in Florida

1518 Grijalva Reaches Galveston Island

1519 De Pineda confirms Florida ​is not an island​

1521 Ponce de Leon Returns to Florida, Falls Mortally Wounded

1524-25 Estevan Gomez Explores North America's East Coast

1526 Ayllón lands in S.C., settles in Georgia


1528 Narváez expedition succumbs to storms and natives

1528-36 Cabeza de Vaca treks across North America

1537-42 Cabeza de Vaca Returns to Spain, Writes 'La Relación'

1539 De Niza Searches for Golden Cities of Cibola
​

1539-42 De Soto celebrates first American Christmas

1540 Hernando de Alarcon Reaches California

1540-42 Coronado Explores the Southwest,
Cardenas Discovers ​the Grand Canyon


1542-43  ​Cabrillo explores California coast​

1559 De Luna Builds Santa Maria de Ochuse​


1565 Pedro Menendez de Avilés Establishes San Agustin

1566 Santa Elena Built in South Carolina

1598 ​Juan de Oñate Explores New Mexico

1602 Sebastian Vizcaino ​explores the West Coast

1610 Pedro de Peralta establishes Santa Fe

1610-26 The Birth of San Miguel, oldest church in the U.S.A.

1613 Juan Rodriguez becomes the first Manhattan immigrant

1633 Misión San Luis de Apalachee is born in Tallahassee

​1682 San Antonio de la Ysleta becomes first mission in Texas

1691 Father Eusebio Kino builds Tumacácori and Guevavi

1692 ​Father Kino builds San Xavier del Bac 

1692 Diego de Vargas leads ​'Bloodless Reconquest" of Santa Fe

1695 Castillo de San Marcos ​Completed in St. Augustine

1718 Mission San Antonio de Valero is born
​- long before it became The Alamo
​

1738 Runaway slaves establish Fort Mose,
​the first free African-American community​


​1738 Francisco Menendez Leads Fort Mose

1742 Spanish Soldiers ​Open Fort Matanzas

1752 Spanish Soldiers Build Presidio de Tubac

1763 Spanish Florida Goes to England

1765 Juan Antonio Maria de Rivera ​explores ​Colorado and Utah
​
1769 
Father Serra opens ​San Diego de Alcalá,
California's first ​Spanish mission


1771 Father Serra establishes San Gabriel Arcángel

1772 Good hunting determines site
​of ​Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa


1775 Captain Hugh O’Connor
​builds Presidio San Agustin del Tucson


​1776-83 Hispanics in the American Revolution

1776 The Birth of San Francisco

1781 Spanish troops defeat the British, capture Pensacola

1781 Pobladores of Los Angeles are imported

1791 ​Alessandro Malaspina Alaska Reaches Alaska

1797 Fermín Francisco de Lasuén
Establishes Misión San Fernando Rey de España


1797 The Birth of Villa de Branciforte

Herencia Hispana Oculta de America:
La Lista de Lugares, Ideas, y Evidencia Historica para Reconectár a los Americanos con sus Raíces Hispanas

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America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage:
The Bucket List of Places, Ideas and Historical Evidence to Reconnect Americans with their  Hispanic Roots
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