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Fooled by Communism/Socialism

I am a 3rd generation anti-communist/anti-socialist. My grandparents, Parents and I were all anti-communism/anti-socialism. Yet, my father was fooled by Castro and I was indoctrinated  by the American media popular culture and the school system into believing in socialism. 

My grandfather I’m not sure if his name was Pedro Manuel Anta or Manuel Pedro Anta was very anti-communist. I never met him because he died in Cuba before I was born. He was born in 1890 in Ourense ,Spain. When he was 16 he was fighting the communist in Spain. His family feared that he would get killed by the communist and sent him to Cuba. My father was raised super anti-communist. He knew of the lies and oppression of communism. Yet, he was fooled by Castro. Castro did not say he was communist until he took over Cuba. When a young Fidel Castro was in Columbia in April 1948 he was already known to have been a communist. 

In my preteens and teen years I was growing up in the hippy era. What the hippies and popular culture was protesting and preaching was anti-American sentiment, anti-society, trust no one over 30, free sex and the drug culture. Even though I did not know it then I was brained washed into communist/socialist believes starting in Jr. high school and it was reinforced in college. Just like many other Cuban-American kids we were being indoctrinated into the communist and socialist believes which is why our parents left Cuba. Most of the Cuban American kids that were indoctrinated into communism eventually saw what  communism and socialism was really like and changed and some didn’t. That is why I’m writing this. Our youth is being indoctrinated by the media, schools, music and Hollywood elite into the lies of communism and its cousin socialism. 

My father knew the Castro’s and originally supported them, until he found out that they were communist. Here are a few stories my dad told me. 

As I said earlier even though my father was anti-communist he knew and supported the Castro regime. Castro did not declare himself a communist until after he overthrew Batista. This story happen before Castro overthrew the president, dictator of Cuba Florencio Batista. When my father Julio Cesar Anta was working in a rice mills moving rice bags in Bayamo, Oriente, Cuba he ran into Fidel, Raul and Che Guevarra. They were running from Batista’s men. He hid them in the rice mill. When they came asking if he had seen them he said no. He regretted doing that since he later found out that Fidel was a communist. He felt that hiding the Castro brothers and Che was one of the biggest mistakes of his life. 

This is how my father finds out the Castro is a communist. One day my father bumps into a friend that he had that was illiterate and believed in communism. The guy was wearing a Cuban military officers uniform. My dad asked him how he could be an officer if he was illiterate? He replied that Castro knew he was a true communist and gave him the rank of officer in his military. He also said that Fidel was also having him learn to read. He stated that Fidel was a communist like him. 


My parents originally supported Castro as many Cubans did until this day that they found out that Castro was a communist. As soon as they found out they started their paper work to leave the country. My Dad always wanted to come to America the land of opportunity, but now there was an urgency. He knew that communism would destroy Cuba so now was the time to leave. 

My parents had applied for political asylum to come to the US. They gave my Grandfather on my mothers side Genaro Codina the paperwork to leave the country. My grandfather trashed it. He taught the Castro’s communist dictatorship would not last long. My parents were desperate to leave the once paradise and now communist island of Cuba. They were told that they should send me alone to the USA in the Peter Pan flights. My parents refused. They said that they would not divide the family. Thank God they didn’t! I know of so many families divided by Castro. 

Another story my father told me was when Castro took him to the Sierra Maestra mountains. My dad was driving his jeep in Bayamo when Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara and their men told my dad that they need to take him to Sierra Maestra Mountains to use his jeep. There was no way that he could say no to these band of murderers. Going against them would be considered treason and he could have been put in jail or shot in front of a firing squad.

They took my dad for days to the mountains and my mom had no idea what had happen to him. While in the mountains my father had to taste Fidel Castro’s food just in case one of his men was trying to poison him. Fidel was always paranoid. 

My dad told me that they heard a sound from far that could have been a gun shot. Yet, he didn’t think it was a gun shots. Fidel and Che hid under a table. Raul who was peeing with his penis hanging from his fly pulled out his gun and started looking to see were the possible shots came from. I remember my dad saying in Cuba they say Raul is maricon; well that is a tough maricon (a derogatory word for gays in Spanish). Cubans have always referred to Raul as maricon. They would also refer to Fidel as the horse (a Cuban term for being great) and Raul as the mare. Ironic since homosexuality was a crime in Communist Cuba until recently. In the Mariel Boat lift in 1980 when for a short time Castro was letting anyone leave the country and there was an exodus from Cuba, Castro empty the jails, mental institutes and sent all guys to the U.S.A. Back to my story. Yet, while Raul was prepared to do battle Fidel and Che hid like cowards. Che the mass murderer that ordered firing squads without trials and even shot a 12 year old in the head for telling him not to kill his father in the firing squads was hiding under a table. The sad thing is that the liberal media and Hollywood makes this murdering, racist, coward look like a hero.

I don’t remember much of Cuba but I remember going to a park in Bayamo, Oriente, Cuba that had a movie theatre were I saw the Disney movie “Tanka.” There was a scene in the theatre that I’ll never forget. It was about some men in camouflage being mistreated. I was told that these men were captured from the Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba lead by Cubans in exile trained by the USA. After the US approved the attack President John F. Kennedy did not send the promise air support, ammo and supples promised and the brave Cuban freedom fighters were left to die or were captured. You can read more about the Bay of Pigs in this blog in an article I wrote called “The Cuban 300/JFK Betrayal.”  

We left Cuba to Miami on April 2,1962 through a flight sponsored by the Catholic Church. My last memory of Cuba was very scary. My parents told me that if they asked me if I was communist to say yes, since they had heard of a kid that was asked if he was communist and he said no so they left him in Cuba and wasn’t able to leave with his parents. I was terrified and trembling thinking that they would ask me and I would make a mistake and say I wasn’t communist and never see my parents again. My parents don’t remember telling me this. They think they told me this story to make sure I didn’t repeat anything they said about communism. The communist brain wash kids to snitch out their parents if they do not agree with the government. 

My mom also told me that when leaving Cuba all women were strip searched by male military men to see if they were taking money or jewelry with them. My mom who was pregnant with my sister. She told me that she would have been so embarrassed if that happened to her so she prayed that they would not strip search her. She was the only woman that did not have to strip in front of the male military guards.

We finally arrive in America the land of opportunity and the greatest country in the history of the world. Us Cubans acclimated easier and faster than most hispanics to America since we came for political reasons not economical and we were already Americanized. In Cuba we watch American movies. So how the heck did this boy that was raised to be a proud American yet, was also told of the horrors, oppression and lies of communism/socialism become an agnostic liberal? I know that I drove my parents crazy especially knowing how communism destroys families and how Castro prohibited religion in Cuba. In 1959, Castro imposed restrictions on religious activities such as Christmas, and in 1962 he kept anyone who was part of a religious group from joining the communist party. He followed the communist tradition of Marxist-Leninist atheism. Not until 1990 did the atheist guidelines that were in the Cuban Constitution were removed.

Ironically, in my pre-teen, teen and early 20’s while I was in Jr. High School until the beginning of college I was brain washed by the school system and media. It was the 70’s, the hippy era, anti-government era. I started to argue with my father. I became came liberal, agnostic and socialist. I drove my parents crazy. Imagine having taken me out of Cuba so the government wouldn’t brain wash me, take away my religion and turn me against my family and now in America it had happen. My dad would call me “un communist de mierda” a shitty communist. I think it was around 1979-80 that I started seeing the light and my ideology started changing. We had the gas crisis, hostage in Iran, The USSR was invading more countries to spread the evil of communism, the Meriel boat lift and the weakening of America. I finally started to understand my dad. Slowly but surely I started to understand how I was indoctrinated by the system which is how communism works. 

 

I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. On December 2,1980 I started bootcamp and right away started believing in God again. You can read about how the Marine Corps and later Christianity changed my life in this blog under the section of Spirituality “Julio Anta from Agnostic to Christian.”  

 

Communism and socialism are a lie. In communism they manipulate the people, oppressed them and yes, everyone is equal, yet equal poor. The only people that benefit is the top government officials. It starts by government controlling everything health care, colleges, banks, business and gun control. It divides people, the rich and the poor, blacks and whites, business owners and employees. It divides family and friends. In Cuba they separate the kids from their families by sending them to camps to cut sugar cane. They indoctrinate them into communism.  The communist government encourages children to tell the authorities if their family are not communist or breaking any of the communist laws. They also have neighbor committees to snitch out the neighbors. We Cuba-Americans have a saying when someone snitches another person out “Eres communista” You are communist. 

Communism is modern day slavery. Cubans are slaves to the government. You can not own property, business, live stock, or firearms. All property and businesses belong to the government. Only the military and police can poses firearms. One week after Castro took power he confiscated all firearms from the people. Later, the Castro brothers and Che Guevarra executed and in-prison many of the people that turned in their weapons. In Cuba education, sports training, medicine and health care are free. Yet, there is no medicine, hospitals are dirty, toilets don’t flush and you have to bring your own sheets to the hospital. Cubans can not leave the island without government approval. If caught leaving the island you are put in prison. In prison you are beat and tortured. In the beginning of the revolution political prisoners were shot in a firing squad. Cubans are not allowed in the resorts and tourist areas unless they are working. The Cuban people are enslaved. It offends me when people that visit Cuba tell me how much they love Cuba, what great country it is and how beautiful it is. It might be great for the tourist in the tourist area, the high government officials, but not for the oppressed, enslaved Cuban people. 

Fidel Castro was a multimillionaire. 13 years ago Forbes estimated Fidel Castro’s personal net worth at $900 million. He stole all of the companies that were in Cuba from Americans and Cubans. My grandparents on my mothers side both had farms in Cauto El Paso and a house in the city in Bayamo, Oriente. My aunt my fathers sister Nelly Anta who was a singer in the cabarets in Havana had a beautiful 2 story house with a pool. All of that was stolen from my family and belongs to the government now. We heard that multiple families live in the house that was stolen from my aunt.

Let me give you a little bit of facts of Cuba before the horrors and oppression of communism. Cuba was a modern, prosperous, country similar the the U.S. Cuba before Castro was very Americanized. Cubans were attracted to American culture, watch American TV, read American newspapers and magazines. All the movies I watch as a kid in Cuba were American movies. My families favorite actors were all American. I hear many hispanics in America say that they grew up without any role models on TV or in the movies that were like them. I can’t say that my role models and screen idols were Errol Flynn, Steve Reeves, Johnny Weissmuller, Burt Lancaster. In Cuba for the carnival in Bayamo I dresses up as Tarzan and Superman.  

There was a ferry from Florida to Cuba. Americans and Cubans could freely enter each others country. In the 50’s before communism Cuba had the 5th highest number of TV’s per capita in the world and the worlds 8th highest number of radio stations. Havana was the worlds 4th most expensive city at the time and had more cinemas than New York. Cuba had the highest level of telephone penetration in Latin America. It had one of the highest number of doctors per capita and the 3rd lowest adult mortality rate in the world. At one time the Cuban peso was worth 2 cents more than the American dollar. 

The same story is now happening in Venezuela. Before socialism in the 70’s Venezuela was the richest country if South America. Today it has the worlds highest inflation rate. In 2012 the government banned private guns. In 2017 Venezuela had the worlds highest Organize crime and violence is on the rise in Venezuela. The homicide rate is one of the highest in the world. 

Just as Americans have been brain washed into believing in socialism, South America countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia are waking up and turning against socialism. In Hong Kong they are protesting against the communist oppression and flying Ole Glory.  

Today, millennials are being indoctrinated by the lies of communism and socialism like I was as a teen by the school system, Hollywood and the media in the 70’s. Watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel they gave positive recognition to Che in the same scene that they spoke negative of Stalin. Ironically Che and Stalin both were murderers and had the same ideology of communism. In The Handmaids Tale they they also praised Che. Hollywood made a movie glamorizing the racist, murdering, terrorist Ernesto “Che” Guevara. It’s ironic for American youth and blacks to wear Che’s image on their clothing when Che hated blacks, Americans, gays and rock music.  He was a cold blooded murderer and a coward. 

I once heard a sermon from a pastor comparing communism/socialism to satanism. Now if you do not believe in the bible I understand you will not understand this. Satan is a lier and imitates Christ. Satanism wants to divid the family. communism/socialism is a lie and divides families and people. Communism sounds perfect everyone being equal and a perfect society. Like heaven on earth. Humans being un-perfect can not have this so call perfect equal government on earth. Only when we go to heaven willow all be equal and live in a perfect society. Communism like satanism wants to imitate Gods perfect heaven. Like satan the communist lie and manipulate people into believing that heaven on earth is possible. 

 

Unless you came from a communist or socialist country such as Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua , Germany, Vietnam North Korea, and the former U.S.S.R to name a few you might not understand why we love America and detest communism/socialism. Just like the Israelis say never again to the holocaust. I say never again and will fight communism and tell my stories.