Young Cubans’ PAC shows generation gap is a myth

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I’m sick of hearing that Generation Ñ doesn’t care about the Cubans on the island, or the embargo or U.S. Cuba policy. Ladra herself had been instructed to write that “changing tide” story at the Miami Herald several times during the last few years she worked at the paper.

But it just isn’t true.

There has always been a strong second generation of Cuban Americans willing to carry on the torch that demands freedom of choice and expression on that prison island that our parents called home.

And there was proof earlier this month at the first gathering organized by the new Young Leaders Group of the U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC, co-founded by Keith Fernandez, the former campaign staffer for Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who looks like a cubanito Huckleberry Finn. Another director of the board Carlos M. Gutierrez, Jr. is former aide to Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart.

“Young Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Americans of Cuban descent are as concerned as their parents and grandparents about the happenings in Cuba. Every time I see a story about the supposed ‘changing community,’ be it youth or composition, my friends and I are bewildered since we know its untrue,” Fernandez told me, reading Ladra’s mind.

“We decided to do something about that fallacious perception. While we may have different touch points – many of us have not experienced a personal sense of loss – we are all committed to human rights and one day seeing a free and democratic Cuba,” said.

Somewhere around 50 people crammed into the bar at Azucar in Coral Gables on a Thursday night to hear from Jorge Luis Garcia Perez “Antuñez“, a political prisoner who did 17 years and 36 days time for daring to defy the Castro regime. He was even impressed and encouraged by the number of young people he saw at the gathering, he said.

Among the attendees in raptured attention: Sen. Rene Garcia (R-Hialeah), School Board Member Carlos Curbelo, Miami Lakes Councilman and mayoral candidate Nelson Hernandez and Republican wannabe kingmaker Ana Carbonell, who has worked on both failed campaigns of former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Fernandez was happy about the turnout that he got because he believes that the group will grow as word gets out about it to others who also think like us.

“I’ve been passionate about Cuba from a young age when both my parents and grandparents taught me to speak out against injustice, no matter where it may resides,” he told Ladra. “The best way to fulfill that calling is advocating for a comprehensive U.S.-Cuba policy that supports dissidents and denies funds to the regime, which is what the U.S. – Cuba Democracy PAC does.”

Also there, whose presence was glaring as the sole Democrat in sight: Giancarlo Sopo, former communications manager for Congressman Joe Garcia, who resigned in the wake of the absentee ballot request investigation that the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is still investigating.

Sopo was not the odd man out, however. He was among friends who consider him on the right side of Cuba issues.

He wouldn’t address questions about the investigation — Ladra wants to know how it could be linked with the same type of computer virus scam perpetrated in the primaries for House seats 103 and 112 — on instructions of his attorney. But he was happy to tell me why he breaks with most in his party when it comes to Cuba policy.

“As a child, I remember my father sitting me down and talking to me about how he lost his dad to the revolution which denied me the opportunity to ever meet my grandfather or share a laugh with him. So to me this cause is not about right and left or red and blue; it’s both personal and about right and wrong,” Sopo told me.

“Regardless of where one may stand on matters of policy, as a community we should take great pride in knowing that we’re all standing on the right side of the moral arc of history,” he said.

That mirrors what the Young Leaders is about. The group of young professionals and students will work to promote democratic values, human rights and the rule of law as the cornerstone of U.S.-Cuba policy, “spreading awareness among young Americans regarding the brutality of the Castro dictatorship and the courageous efforts of Cuba’s young, vibrant and diverse pro-democracy movement.”

Among its priorities are continuing to advocate for the U.S. embargo and providing help to Cuban dissidents on the island, Fernandez said. One of the ways it will work for a free and democratic future in Cuba is through social media and events like the one earlier this month.

In addition to Fernandez and Gutierrez, the founding board of directors is comprised of:

• Anthony Cruz is a junior studying political science at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Gregory Hernandez is a law clerk at the law firm of Alvarez Arrieta & Diaz-Silveira LLP, a member of the Cuban American Bar Association and Belen Alumni Lawyers. 
• Marco Leyte-Vidal is a civil trial attorney and domino night philantrhopist who recently was awerded with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s 40 Under 40 lawyers of Miami-Dade County and Florida Trend’s Legal Elite Up and Comers. 
• Vanessa Lopez was a research associate at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. She was a founding member of UMCAUSA – Students for a Free Cuba at the University of Miami and now is studying law at Emory University Law School.
• Rudy Mayor is a Hialeah native who was featured in a documentary titled “Oscar’s Cuba” on former prisoner Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet. Mayor authored an Op-Ed on Cuba policy for Fox News Latino and previously worked for the Center for a Free Cuba. He is a third-year law student at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.