Carlos De la Cruz

* 1941

Kuba, Emigrant
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    If you will be trading with the United States, you will thrive. If you will refuse, it won´t be so good

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    délka: 01:51
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    “If someone would oppose economic tendencies in the region, he would pay a price for it. In my opinion if Cuba would try to pursue this path further... Well, this Westphalian sovereignty concept is very nice indeed, but you have to be realistic. A country with population of eleven million is no match for a country where 350 million people is living. The other difference is if that country doesn´t create any wealth, compared with the country with GDP of I don´t know how many tens of thousands of dollars, as in the case of the United States. If you will be trading with the United States, you will thrive. If you will refuse, it won´t be so good. That´s the same situation as if you would be born to a wealthy family and you would try to defy their way of living. As long as you wouldn´t find a way to make some money on your own, you would have a bad time. But finding such a way requires time and also a certain system which doesn´t exist in Cuba and never will. How would you get such a thing? It would have to emerge from nothing. I think that there is a very small probability of a state just ninety miles away from the United States doing well in terms of economics with its policy based on conflict with the United States. That´s quite a difficult position. As if you would tie your feet together in hope that you would become the best runner competing with others with their feet untied.”

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    Ambiguity of speeches given by the dictators

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    délka: 00:39
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    “Almost every dictator is able to offer in his speeches plans and solutions which differ to such a degree that they often almost contradict themselves, all that during a single speech. They know how to do that very well indeed. If one would listen to such a speech, he would get almost no idea what the politician was talking about. In other words, one could find exactly what he would like to hear in it. And if someone is already in opposition, he would hear only what he wants to hear as well, as he would like to hear just the bad things. That has been an attribute of all dictators.”

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    Trying to secure the people fleeing from Cuba an unmolested entry to the United States

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    délka: 02:30
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    “After I saw what happened to people who left Cuba via the Mariel port... It all happened under circumstances which handn´t been favourable both for the United States and the Cuban diaspora in Miami, and the people who were coming had to deal with prejudice they didn´t earn at all. The only one who would benefit was the Cuban regime. And I told myself that I would try to change that. So I spoke with Senator Graham... Back then I was at the United Way board so I spoke with the United Way director and I suggested that the organisation could engage in helping Cubans waiting in Guantanamo. I also spoke to the people from Cuban and US radio stations. As back then, I had been a car dealer and also a Budweiser beer distributor so I was maybe one of the largest advertisers as far as radios were concerned. So I went there and asked them not to report on Cubans at Guantanamo as if they would do so the whole thing would get politicized, me being a man who prefers to settle complicated issues in peace and without unnecessary attention. I am not saying that I managed to do that on my own, but together, we succeeded. Back then, David Laurens was an editor-in-chief at the El Miami Herald and he was also a board member at the United Way. He has been a friend of mine and we were working together. And there wasn´t much talk about the people who were waiting in Guantanamo which enabled for them to be transferred to the United States peacefully. It wasn´ t perceived either as a victory nor as a defeat. They were being looked at as this group of people who wanted to come to live here peacefully and they were enabled to do so. We would help them to find housing, to get a driver's license and so on...”

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    Miami, USA, 09.04.2019

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    délka: 01:31:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memoria de la Nación Cubana / Memory of the Cuban Nation
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    Miami, USA, 09.04.2019

    (audio)
    délka: 01:31:27
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Memoria de la Nación Cubana / Memory of the Cuban Nation
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Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.

I don´t like political excesses.

Carlos de la Cruz in 2019
Carlos de la Cruz in 2019
zdroj: Post Bellum
zdroj: Post Bellum
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Carlos de la Cruz was born in 1941 in Havana, Cuba. His family is part of the Cuban elite, owing to several sugarcane plantations and involvement in a wide range of business activities. Since 1950, Carlos studied in New York, returning to Cuba only for holidays and Christmas. After the victory of the Cuban revolution, he had to remain in the United States, studying economy at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, he worked in the banking sector as a business analyst. Later, he moved to Spain with his family and began working with investment funds. Upon returning to the United States, he got a J.D. in law from the University of Miami and returned to the banking sector as a director at several important banking houses. He also bought several large companies, including Coca-Cola, Puerto Rico. During the Clinton administration, he was a part of a US delegation led by Senator Graham that was set up to negotiate the issue of Cuban citizens who ended up at the Guantanamo military base after trying to sail to the United States. He has also been involved in providing education to the Cuban émigrés. In 2001, he got involved in the case of Elián Gonzáles, a Cuban who was found at sea by a US ship as he tried to reach the United States. With his wife, Rosa Rionda de la Cruz, he established a private art gallery in Miami that is open to the general public.

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