Dear Bernie, meet Celia
Bernie Sanders is taking flak for raising some of the good in Castrist Cuba, however it is Celia Sanchez who deserves the credit for free education. Celia was as powerful as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. Without her, they wouldn't have won their revolution. It was she who knew the Cubans in the countryside who she organized, from when she did the rounds with her doctor father, dean of the Royal Academy of medicine. She would have been a doctor herself, however women weren't allowed to study medicine. She was nevertheless trained by her father, and not only did they take care of the labourers on their family lands but they visited villages to treat the sick who were too poor. When the trio toppled the puppet government, she sacrificed her inheritance and her lands, in this egalitarian effort. Many Cubans consider her a saint. It was she, if memory serves, who also negotiated the stand down from the Cuban Missile Crisis. So if anything good remains in Cuba, it's largely owed to the self-effacing Celia Sanchez. I hope to name my future boat after her. Her nickname was "La Paloma". 🕊
