By Doreen Hemlock
Havana Bureau
Posted January 20 2007
PUERTO RICO LIBRE, Cuba · Drive down a dusty, rutted road through sugar
cane fields, past the yellowed Borinquen movie theatre that has not
shown films in years. Pull in by the ransacked, decaying manor house and
the hulking smokestacks no longer in use.
Welcome to the heart of the sugar-mill village that Cuba's socialist
government named to honor Fidel Castro's dream of an independent Puerto
Rico.
Once named Conchita, after the Cuban wife of its former American mill
owner, this batey, or sugar-mill settlement, in Cuba's western Matanzas
province seems as down on its luck as Puerto Rico's independence movement.
Though Puerto Rico Libre literally translates as Free Rich Port, one
resident who asked to remain unnamed for fear of government reprisals
described the inland village this way: "We're not a port, not rich, and
only a little bit free."
The settlement of roughly 1,200 people has seen better times. But in
2002, the government dismantled the sugar mill, one of 70 shut down
across Cuba to boost efficiency in the sugar industry.
Until then, residents said, at least they had frequent bus
transportation, a clinic with full-time staff and plenty of jobs.
"Before, we were comfortable here, with water and everything," said
Berta Dominguez, 57, holding her grandson in her arms on a recent
afternoon when water service to the village had been out for several days.
With the mill shuttered, many residents earn government stipends to take
classes in a nearby village. Others who seek a decent selection of food
to buy or a gym to practice sports often wait hours for a truck to pass
and take them to neighboring towns.
Some residents have turned to peanut farming to eke out a living. Others
work at a government chicken farm. A few have considered private
cooperatives to farm state land. But earlier attempts generally ended
with meager income after residents paid hefty fees to government and
braved poor roads and other obstacles, said resident Alberto García.
Those straits are not what Fidel Castro had in mind when his government
rechristened the batey to honor his heartfelt goal of freeing the
Caribbean island of Puerto Rico from U.S. control and ending its
commonwealth status, which it has had since 1952.
Castro's administration long has been among the staunchest advocates of
Puerto Rican independence, repeatedly bringing the issue before the
United Nations. And it has financed pro-independence groups, including
the Macheteros, that have used bombings and armed robbery to further
their cause, former CIA analyst Brian Latell said in his book After Fidel.
Castro himself told TV interviewer Barbara Walters in 1977: "So long as
there is one Puerto Rican, just a single one, who wants independence for
his country, so long we will have the moral and political duty to
support him," Latell wrote.
Cuban officials in Puerto Rico Libre take pride in their town's name,
invoking the words of Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodríguez de Tíothat
"Puerto Rico and Cuba are the wings of the same bird."
Both islands shared a common Spanish heritage for four centuries. But
after the Spanish-American War in 1898, Puerto Rico remained part of the
United States, while Cuba became independent.
Yet some younger residents have little notion of their town's historical
or political roots. Sporting tattoos and an earring, sixth-grade
graduate and part-time farmer Osneri Castellanos said he knows Puerto
Rico for its reggaeton music, a tropical hip-hop blend.
"Puerto Rico is where my favorite singers come from: Don Omar and Daddy
Yankee," said Castellanos, 20.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's independence movement also struggles.
In the island's 2004 general elections, the Puerto Rican Independence
Party garnered less than the 3 percent of votes required to keep its
36-year spot on the ballot. The party had to collect more than 100,000
signatures to re-register. Plus, socialist groups backing independence
remain splintered.
Still, independence advocates pursue their dream. Cuba recognizes a
Puerto Rico mission in its embassy district in Havana, separate from the
U.S. mission and run for years by Puerto Rican socialist Edwin Gonzalez.
"We're a nation. No one can take that away from us. Even statehood
supporters want to keep a separate Olympic Committee and Miss Universe
for the island, though that contradicts annexation to the United
States," González, 40, said from his Havana office.
For both the independence movement and mill town, the immediate
challenge remains economic, however. Most Puerto Ricans don't want to
separate from the rich United States, fearful it will bring down their
standard of living. Similarly, many Puerto Rico Libre residents long for
the day they can again find jobs in manufacturing.
"The sugar mill gave this town life," García said. "Now, we're worse off."
Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com.
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