Frank Calzon. Published Thursday, February 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald
``Under Stalin's regime -- photographs lied,'' Princeton University professor Stephen Cohen wrote in the preface to an extraordinary book: The Commissar Vanishes.
The book documents Stalin's censorship of photography, which Cohen says ``was part of a much larger official purpose -- that of the falsification of history itself.'' In today's Cuba, the falsification of history through photographs goes on: Castro's photographs also lie.
Just like Stalin, Castro has ordered his rivals and defectors airbrushed from photographs, eliminating them from the historical record. That is what happened to Carlos Franqui, the editor of Castro's newspaper Revolucion. Disappointed with the growing repression on the island and Castro's
support of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Franqui defected in Europe. Soon the group photographs of the revolutionary leadership had an empty spot that had been once filled by Franqui. Franqui reprinted one of the original as well as the doctored photographs on the cover of his book Family
Portrait with Fidel.
The camera can record history; but it also can falsify reality, as the retouched photographs of Elian Gonzalez reprinted on thousands of billboards, placards and T-shirts in Cuba indicate. Eleven million Cubans on the island have seen the photograph of a somber, saddened Elian. Every newspaper,
magazine, TV and radio station in Cuba repeats only the official version of events.
The Cubans on the island do not know of the extensive coverage given by the American media to the views of Elian's father, or of the extraordinary media attention given to the visit of Elian's grandmothers. Those on the island have not seen the rest of Elian: a 6-year-old playing baseball,
blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, playing with his dog and riding his bike. What Cubans see is a political icon when what they should see is a child. (Some on this side of the Florida Straits do likewise but not because of government dictates.)
In contrast to U.S. media coverage, Cubans are allowed only one point of view, defined by the Maximum Leader who, according to his brother, Gen. Raul Castro, ``es el papá'' -- the father of all Cubans.
Washington continues to refrain from raising certain issues. But why not point out that Havana's official views are given ample coverage in the United States and, without curtailing the flow of information from Cuba, ask Castro to permit similar access to those who present a different opinion
from that of the regime? Perhaps Castro would allow some access, and if he doesn't, the issue ought to be kept on the table during bilateral discussions and at the United Nations.
PREPOSTEROUS CHARGES
The American media are not faultless. The constant coverage of Elian or any other person in the news raises issues of sensitivity, privacy and common sense. Even so, thank God for an unshackled U.S. media. Because of their overwhelming coverage, the preposterous charges just advanced by the
Cuban government -- (in a letter submitted by Elian's father to Attorney General Janet Reno) that the boy had been drugged -- do not have a scintilla of credibility.
Regardless of the case's final disposition, the United States needs to do everything possible to inform the Cuban people about the facts surrounding the controversy, about the rule of law and how a free press and an independent judiciary function in a democratic society.
If the administration had used America's technological superiority to break through Castro's rigid censorship, the people on the island would have received, at last, TV Marti broadcasts, and millions of Cubans would have been able to compare Castro's doctored photographs with other photographs
showing the 6-year-old as he is today in South Florida.
Frank Calzon is the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington, D.C.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |