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Hao Huang
Professor Gifford
English 114b
23 February 2014
Coping With Fear
Communism on paper seems like the ideal social order, but in reality its just a big
contradiction. If everyone were equal in wealth and class, then who would govern the country
and take responsibility in foreign relations. However, this social order puts everyone to work and
it prevents a social class dominating another class. In Finding Maana, the island, Cuba,
practices this type of government. Its communist leader, Fidel Castro, enforces communism on
the islanders. Sick of living without freedom, many islanders seek for a way to leave the island.
Amongst the revolutionaries was Hector Sanyustiz, although he was a no one, he made a huge
impact on rebelling against Fidel Castros plans to spread communism across the island; no
matter how big or small of a role you have, you can make a huge impact on others.
After overthrowing Fulgencio Batista, Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. Fidel
enforced his ideas of military and political power on the people of Cuba. He turned Cuba into a
one-party state under communist rule. As a socialist state, Fidel controls the press and it impacts
the ideals of the viewers, because he can control what is being played. Another socialist reform
he uses is the suppression of internal dissent, which allows communism to the one and true
government to rule Cuba. One way that Fidel exercise this reform is making teachers teaches
kids as young as 10 years old the ideals of communism. This effect kids because it makes them
judge others because of their different ideals. Does God put food on your table? Noooo, Fidel
does. Does God give you your books and pencils so you can come to school? Nooooo, the
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revolution does (Ojito, 21). Because of this, many children believe that they owed Castro and
that their loyalty should belong to Castro and the revolution. They were also made to memorize
Fidel es mi papa y Cuba es mi mama (Ojito, 21). This just shows how much influence Castro
has over Cubans as the leader and how he can control them. He brainwashed the islanders to
believe that they should praise him and the revolution through fear, which is cause by violence
and locking up non-believers. Although Fidel is a corrupted dictator, he is very influential
because his supporters are lauded by his belief on socialism which overshadows his human rights
abuse and the exile of millions of Cubans.
Throughout the book, Mirta Ojito, the author gives many accounts of people on the island
that lived through the 1980s. One of the characters, Hector Sanyustiz, figured that he was tired of
living under Castros ideals of communism, decided to escape. Hector, a cool and chill guy that
just seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, hatched up a plan with one of his friends to
crash a bus into the Peruvian embassy. There was a rumor in the streets that the driver and
others who were already in the embassy would be traveling to Lima on Wednesday, April 2
(Ojito, 86). This gives Hector and his friend time to scope out the embassy and find the best
possible entrance, so that no would get hurt. However when Hector crash the bus into the
embassy he didnt expect the guards to shoot, nor did he put into account how big the bus was.
So when the bus finally came into halt, Hectors friend was bleeding and he had hit a guard.
Hectors impact on the islander wasnt the fact that he publicly gave people the strength to seek
ways off the island, but it was the fact that he opened a huge hole in the walls of the Peruvian
embassy and let 10,000 people seeking asylum into the embassy. The Peruvian embassy incident
caused so much uproar in Cuba, it let to the boatlifts that allowed many to leave the island. Fidel
scared that there would be a revolution; he had Hector exiled to the States. He also made the
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people of Cuba march around the embassy to prove that people were loyal. Also it shows that the
people in the embassy were traitors.
Fidel Castro grew up in a middle class family. He grew up to become a lawyer and later
got into politics; which he later used to lead the Cuban revolution to over throw Batista. When
the Cuban revolutionaries took Batista out of power, it had a profound effect in other third world
countries. Because Cuba was beginning to push into communism, many people fled the country
scared of the crackdown that would come when communism kicks into full effect. However,
many Cubans had faith and belief in Castro; this was due to the fact that Castro used his power to
influence the Cubans in the revolution. When he came to power he became more Marxist-
Leninism, this helps it serves the working class and not the exploiting classes, and teaches all
working people, the multi-million masses to struggle, work and live for the sake of universal
happiness ( The Red Phoenix). This is kind of ironic because Cuba gave up privation,
corruption and repression in order to become communist. Because the country is so corrupted,
many Cubans still attempt to flee the country.
Although Cuba is not under Castros rule anymore, Cuba still remains under communist
rule. United States and Cuban relations remain hostile. Cuban government helps other raising
communist country revolt against democracy. This caused the U.S. and Cuba to end diplomatic
engagement, and banned travel to and from each others country and they also established a trade
embargo. But however the U.S. says that their arms are always open for the refugees that
escaped Cuba.
Ultimately, it doesnt matter how big a role you play in life, you can impact others just
because you matter; you matter because you decided to step up and made yourself visible. Hector
was nobody, himself somebody when he crushed a bus into the Peruvian embassy. He affected
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many people on the island because he opened a gateway of the island. On the larger scale, Fidel
impacted the islanders because the way he influenced them during the Cuban revolution.
However Fidel also impacted other countries because many countries used the Cubans revolution
as an example to rebel against their leaders. Fidel a strong believer of communism, stayed under
the influence of communist even after Soviet Union lost its power. In life you just have to be part
of something in order to actually matter; you might think its just a small act but you wont know
until everything unfolds. However you also have to keep faith in what you believe in. When you
believe in something that matter to you, you will defend it until the end.


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Work Cited
Finding Maana, Worms like Us (21) A Memoir Of A Cuban Exodus. Mirta Ojito.
Print
Finding Maana, Hector Sanyustiz: A Way Out (68) A Memoir Of A Cuban Exodus.
Mirta Ojito. Print
Outside Reference
Marxist-Leninist Ideology. The Red Phoenix. N.p., n.d. Web 23 Feb. 2014