Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: Opinion

For me, it's not easy being a Cuban-American in the U.S., especially here in California.

Cubans are very rare in The Golden State. Either that or just really spread out.

So if you want to meet a real Cuban quickly and try your luck at dominoes with them, either book a flight to Florida, or go visit the actual country itself, although just trying to get permission to go is an adventure in itself.

Secondly, apparently Cubans aren't easily distinguishable from all the other Hispanic groups.

I can't begin to tell you how many people I've run into who have tried to guess what country my family hails rom and they would, 100 percent of the time (I'm not kidding), guess wrong.

People will name off almost every Spanish-speaking country: Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Spain. They'll even guess Italy sometimes, for crying out loud.

In the end, the island country of Cuba never crosses their mind.

To my great surprise, some of the people I've run into don't even know where Cuba is located. It's really amusing when some people think Cuba is in South America.

And don't get me started about the stereotypes when I finally tell them where my family comes from, such as being infamously known for our Cuban cigars, many Ricky Ricardo and "Scarface" references and, of course, our lovely former dictator, Fidel Castro.

Now, I know people in the U.S. are just joking and I take it in good stride. I can't help but be slightly annoyed sometimes, however, by the images they associate us Cubans with, especially since most of them are negative, with the possible exception of Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo from the wildly popular "I Love Lucy" TV series.

When I think about these stereotypes, I ask myself, "Why isn't more being done to properly educate U.S. citizens about Cuban society, culture and history?"

The knowledge I have about Cuba mostly comes from the many stories my parents and grandparents (all of them are full-blooded Cubans) have told me about their homeland and the various movies and documentaries I've seen about Cuban society and politics during the Castro regime.

In the U.S. history classes I've taken in middle school, high school and college, the only times Cuba was ever mentioned were when my professors would talk about the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

My mind is boggled at the lack of material, depth and insight that was presented to me and my fellow classmates regarding Cuba's historical background before and after Castro came into power in 1959.

Continued...

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