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February 17, 2003.
Cuban preacher expresses support for peace at government anti-war
protest
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA15 (AP) - A leading Cuban Baptist preacher expressed solidarity with
churches in Iraq and the world in their calls for peace as the island's
communist government rallied several thousand people Saturday for an anti-war
protest.
"To invoke the name of God to launch a war truly is sacrilege,"
declared the Rev. Raul Suarez, among speakers at the government gathering
outside a major Havana hospital. Suarez is a Cuban lawmaker and director of the
non-governmental Martin Luther King Community Center.
"It is our spiritual obligation to lift our voices against the war in
Iraq," Suarez said, reading from the recent pronouncements of church
councils around the world. "We choose, we decide, for peace."
Presiding over the rally was Gen. Raul Castro, Cuba's Defense Minister and
Cuba's No. 2 leader after his older brother President Fidel Castro.
Raul Castro, accompanied by other uniformed commanders from the 1959
revolution, did not address the crowd. Fidel Castro was not present.
The Cuban president on Friday warned against an "unnecessary"
U.S.-led war against Iraq, telling hundreds of foreign economists that such a
conflict could kill many innocent people and harm the world economy.
"How long will this war last?" Castro asked. "How many deaths
will it cause?"
If such a conflict erupts, "the world will be exposed to economic
dangers," the Cuban president said.
"The immense majority of world opinion rejects the new war," said
Castro. "It is an unnecessary war based on pretexts that are neither
credible nor proven."
Christians make up about five percent of Iraq's 22 million people.
Spanish visitor to Cuba find new family in Havana; Cubans rediscover
Spanish roots, too
By Mar Roman, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 16 (AP) - The gray-haired Cuban stranger in glasses opening the door
of the modest ground-floor apartment looked almost exactly like my Spanish
grandfather Matias, except for the loose-fitting tropical dress shirt called a
guayabera.
The man was my grandfather's cousin Manuel Grande. The two last saw each
other more than six decades ago in Spain when they were both just 7 years old
and the Cuban family came to visit.
A Spanish citizen visiting Cuba for the first time, I had never seen this
man with almost the same face as abuelo Matias — even the same gestures.
"Que tremenda sorpresa! — What a tremendous surprise!" my
newly discovered Cuban cousin cried out with tears in his eyes as we hugged. "Tell
me, tell me about Spain."
Sharing seven-year-old Cuban rum and a typical dinner of pork, black beans
and rice, cousin Manuel told of how his father emigrated to the island from
Spain in 1912.
Born and raised in Cuba, cousin Manuel announced he was becoming a Spaniard
under a new law that allows people of all ages to seek Spanish nationality if at
least one parent was born in the motherland.
"Now people want to be Spanish by all means," he said.
Under the new law, many Cubans are eligible for Spanish nationality. Before
the law took effect Jan. 9, only people under age 20 could apply if at least one
parent was born in Spain.
The new law also offers citizenship to those with a Spanish-born grandparent
if the applicants get a visa and live in Spain for a year.
Even 76-year-old President Fidel Castro is eligible for Spanish nationality
under the new law. His father, a Spaniard born in the western region of Galicia,
came to Cuba at the end of the 19th century.
Cousin Manuel's father — my grandfather's uncle, also named Manuel —
came to the island in the last wave of Spanish immigrants after the
Spanish-American War in 1898. About one-third of the 3.5 million Spaniards who
left their homeland between the late 1800s and 1930 went to Cuba.
"Spaniards, like my dad, were attracted to this place for the Spanish
connection," cousin Manuel said, settling back into his rocking chair.
His father arrived in Cuba with virtually nothing, first surviving by
cutting sugar cane, later earning enough to buy several elegant stores in the
Old Havana and Vedado neighborhoods.
Though cousin Manuel traveled to Spain just once as a boy, he talks
constantly about the family's small village in northern Spain as if he lived
there all his life, says his Cuban wife, Lilia.
Cousin Manuel's father lost his riches after the 1959 triumph of the Cuban
revolution led by Castro and died from a heart attack three years later.
The family split up, with many relatives emigrating to the United States in
the 1960s. But cousin Manuel stayed — without regrets — working many
years at the Jose Marti National Library in Havana.
"Here in Cuba you live without problems," he said of Cuba's
socialist system. "We have free education and health care. We don't have to
worry."
Still, he said he always hoped to see his cousin Matias — my
grandfather — at least once more. The two cousins have shared their lives
over the years through letters and photographs as cousin Manuel does not have a
telephone.
"I would like for my cousin in Spain to have the chance to come visit
us," Manuel said. "But for now, your visit here is a proof that he has
had a good life. That gives me peace."
Cousin Manuel shakes with laughter remembering the old Cuban television show
"Chicharito y Sopeira," which poked fun at early immigrants who fled
Spain's economic depression to prove themselves on the island.
Now, Spain is the beacon, with Cubans sifting through old family papers in a
search for birth certificates or anything else proving a direct connection to
Spain.
At his age, Manuel has no illusions of ever setting foot in Spain again.
"If I could travel to Spain, I probably would. But it's unlikely now,"
he mused standing in the line that reaches the shady columns of Havana's Spanish
Embassy.
"I wanted to be a Spaniard for sentimental reasons," he said.
Spanish nationality can mean a better standard of living since Spain offers
pensions to citizens over age 65 living in foreign countries. In Cuba, that can
mean up to U.S. $200 a year from the Spanish government in a country where
salaries average U.S.$10 monthly.
Mostly because of pensions, the number people seeking Spanish nationality
has increased with the new law, said a Spanish consul who spoke on customary
condition of anonymity.
He estimated that in Cuba 80,000 people are eligible for Spanish
nationality, the highest number in Latin America after Argentina.
Thousands of people are also lining up outside Spanish embassies in such
countries as Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Venezuela in hopes
of traveling to Spain and leaving their economic problems behind.
In Havana these days, hundreds of people snake down the sidewalk outside the
Spanish Embassy.
I last saw cousin Manuel as he was about to enter the embassy. He flashed a
generous smile, no longer a mere mirror image of abuelo Matias.
He was my Manuel, my cousin, a man I now like to think of as my Cuban
grandfather. And soon perhaps a Spaniard as well, depending on the workings of
the bureaucracy.
Boston Signs 18-Year-Old Cuban Pitcher
By Howard Ulman, Ap Sports Writer
FORT MYERS, Fla. 16 (AP) - Score one for the Boston Red Sox over the New
York Yankees in the pursuit of Cuban pitchers.
The Red Sox reached an agreement on a minor league contract with 18-year-old
Gary Galvez, the ace of Cuba's junior national team who defected last August.
Less than two months ago, they lost to the Yankees in the more publicized
fight for 32-year-old Jose Contreras, who could be in New York's rotation.
Galvez likely will start the season in Class A.
The Yankees were among three or four teams that made contract offers to
Galvez, according to Louie Eljaua, Boston's director of international scouting.
Boston general manager Theo Epstein wouldn't get drawn into the rivalry
between the teams, fueled by team president Larry Lucchino's characterization of
the Yankees as the "Evil Empire."
When asked if he took greater satisfaction in obtaining Galvez because the
Red Sox beat the Yankees to him, Epstein said Sunday: "I'm not going to
fall for that."
Eljaua figures the competition for talented international players will
continue.
"We won this one, so we'll see the next time," he said. "Any
time you have a high-profile international guy, we're going to be in it and (the
Yankees) are going to be in it."
Galvez, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound right-hander, left Cuba with 23 others aboard
a vessel that was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard near Key Largo, Fla.
He's living in the Dominican Republic now and Eljaua expects it to take at
least two weeks before he receives a visa and reports to camp.
"Nothing was illegal," Eljaua said. "They did it the right
way."
Galvez was supposed to be with the Cuban junior national team at a
tournament in Sherbrooke, Quebec, last summer but was left at home because
officials feared he would defect.
Eljaua said Galvez has a fastball in the low 90s, may start the season at
Class A Augusta and is the top international prospect of about 25 the team will
sign this year. Galvez would be a first-round pick if he was in the draft,
Epstein said.
"We thought we had him scouted very, very well and we have the
resources to compete for the high-profile guys," Epstein said. "We
pick our spots when we really like somebody."
One team outbid the Red Sox for Galvez, Eljaua said, but he didn't know if
that was the Yankees.
He said the Red Sox chances were enhanced by a relationship team officials
developed with Galvez while he was at their Dominican Republic academy for three
or four days.
"The kid ended up liking our program," Eljaua said. "We
treated him like one of ours."
Now he is.
The Yankees "were aware we were interested and we were aware they were
interested," Eljaua said. "We ended up getting him." | 
